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Chapter 3


Three weeks later.

“Come on Izzie, wake up poppet” Spike gently kissed his daughter’s forehead.

Her eyes flickered open, and immediately she smiled and sat up on his lap.

“Are we at the seaside?”

“Yes baby, look”

Yawning, Izzie took in the strings of coloured light bulbs between the lamp posts, and the brightly coloured shops with the beach balls and buckets and spades outside, quite surprised to see it was getting dark.

“Can we go on the beach?”

Buffy laughed and said,

“Tomorrow darling, now let’s get checked into the hotel and get us all something to eat, it’s getting late”

“It’s strange, it feels like it should be lunchtime!” Billy said, helping his dad and the taxi driver with the cases.

*************

Being too late for dinner in their bed and breakfast hotel, the four went out and had fish and chips, eating them while sitting on a bench overlooking the sea.

“Hmm…yummy, I forgot how much I love this…” Buffy said

“There’s a fun-fair over there, the other side of the pier, can we go?” Billy asked, screwing his white paper wrapper up and throwing it in the bin.

“Tomorrow, son. Perhaps uncle Giles will take you” Spike said

“Have you finished Izzie?”

Izzie nodded and Buffy threw their wrappers away.

“Oh great, Uncle Giles is coming?” Billy said enthusiastically.

Buffy smiled and said,

“Yes, he’s coming after breakfast and he’s going to take you out for the day while daddy and me go look at some things, okay?”

A chill wind blew up and they made their way back to the hotel.

“What time are you picking up the hire car?” Buffy asked

“Anytime after nine the woman said, so I’ll nip and fetch it after breakfast, you can wait for Giles” Buffy nodded.

******************

Buffy was sitting reading a morning newspaper in the lounge of the hotel, while Billy and Izzie looked out of the huge window waiting for their ‘uncle’ Giles.

“Mommy…are we going to live here?” Billy asked suddenly.

Buffy smiled and asked

“What makes you say that?”

Billy shrugged

“I don’t know, I just thought”

“Well, we might. Would you like to?”

“Oh yes!”

“Well, we’ll see”

“Giles! Giles! Uncle Giles!” Izzie said excitedly, and Billy went to the window to see him getting out of the car.

“He’s here mom!”

Outside Giles looked at a piece of paper in his hand, and then at the name of the hotel, ‘The Sandpiper’, and began to walk up the path.

One of the cleaner’s opened the door and the two children ran down to greet him.

He caught Izzie full pelt and scooped her up, swinging her around, and then he cuddled her up. He then bent down on his haunches and shook hands with Billy, then gave him a hug too. He carried Izzie back inside, Billy leading the way.

Buffy heard Giles say,

“And you are getting prettier by the minute young lady…now where’s your mum, come on lets go find…Buffy!”

He put Izzie down and came over and gave Buffy a big hug.

“Giles! Oh, it’s so good to see you!”

“Let me look at you…you look wonderful – Spike’s looking after you okay then – where is he by the way?”

“Gone to pick up the hire car, he won’t be long, he’s been gone half an hour, want some morning coffee?”

“Love some”

Ten minutes later, Spike came in to find them all in the lounge.

Giles stood and shook hands with Spike, they also exchanged a back slapping hug. They sat and Spike helped himself to coffee

“Uncle Giles, what are going to do today?”

He winked at Buffy and said,

“Oh I thought you and Izzie could sit quietly while I do some work”

The two children just looked at him, and then Giles laughed.

“Just teasing you, well, It’s going to be beautiful day, so what say we go buy ourselves a couple of nets, some buckets and spades and go on the beach and play in the rock pools?”

“Oh yes, and then can we go on the funfair?”

“I should think so…but no wanting to be on the ghost train, I’d be too scared!”

The children giggled and Buffy said,

“Here’s the key, our room is number 8, I’ve put there bathing costumes out on the bed with towels, they can run up here draped in towels to change, we’re not that far from the beach”

“Don’t worry about a thing, I’ll look after them for you, won’t I - Just look at her, isn’t she beautiful?” Giles winked and tousled Izzie’s honey coloured curls.

“Well come on then kiddies…let’s go up and get changed!”

“You ready pet?” Spike asked

Buffy nodded and finished her coffee; they kissed the children and left for Denning and Barton, estate agents.


**********

Fifty minutes later, Spike stopped and looked at the map the agent had given him, and then at the signpost at the side of the road.

“Doesn’t say which Netherbourne, that’s the problem”

“Hold on…I’ll ask this farmer…he’ll tell us”

Buffy flagged down the tractor that was coming towards them and took the map off Spike.

“Hi, could you help us please, we’re looking for Netherbourne”

“Which one do you want – there’s three, Upper, Middle and Lower”

“Three – oh dear, we’re trying to find Honeysuckle cottage”

Then you want Upper Netherbourne, do a complete U turn, go along to the end of the lane, then turn right, it looks like a gap in the hedge, but it leads straight to it”

“Thankyou!”

“Welcome!”

Buffy got back into the car, and gave Spike the instructions. Spike drove on.

“Here – do you think he meant turn here?”

“Well there is no other, and he said it looked like a gap in the hedge” Spike turned carefully through the gap, and Buffy said,

“Oh look, there it is!” Spike drove up and pulled up outside. The garden was very overgrown and wild, full of weeds and wild flowers, it was alive with bees buzzing and butterflies.

Spike slid his sunglasses to the top of his head and looked at the grey stone cottage.

“Well, the roof needs re-thatching…it’ll cost thousands”

“Come on, let’s look inside” They could just about make out a gate and carefully made their way down the overgrown path.

Spike took the keys out of his pocket and they went in.

An inglenook fireplace, exposed oak beams and quite a low ceiling in the sitting room part. The kitchen part had been added at the turn of the 20th century, and that also had a fireplace and oak beams.

“It’ll need re-wiring too…” Spike flicked the very old fashioned 1930’s style light switch, but of course, nothing happened.

The stairs were quite narrow and uneven, but upstairs there were four decent sized bedrooms and a bathroom with a free-standing Victorian claw-foot bath.

“That’s one for the antique shop I reckon – they cost a fortune!” Spike said

“Oh no, I think it’s lovely – I don’t want to modernise it too much! – Oh my goodness, have you seen the size of this bed!”

Spike followed her into the largest back bedroom

“My god, they must have built the bed, then built the cottage around it!”

“There’s no way they’d have got this up those stairs!”

Buffy went over and looked more closely at the carving on the huge four-poster bed that dominated the room.

“I wonder how old it is?”

“Probably as old as the house. Anyway, what do you think?”

“I think it’s lovely”

“No, I mean the whole place, not just the bed”

“I really love it”

“Do you?”

“Don’t you?”

“Yeah, I actually do. It’s going to take some renovating though”

“Could we afford it?”

“I don’t see why not, I’ve got that four book deal don’t forget, and it’s quiet enough for me to concentrate, I could use the spare bedroom as a study to work”

“And don’t forget we’ll have the money from the sale of the house in Revello Drive. Shall we put in an offer?”

“Well there’s another three we can look at, don’t you think we should look at them first?”

“Okay, but I don’t want to loose this place now that we’ve found it!”

“I doubt it pet, it’s been on the market for nearly thirty years”

“I wonder why that is?”

“I’ve no idea babe…come on, next one’s ten minutes away”

They locked up and left and got the map out to find the next cottage.





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