‘That’s where you’re wrong.’ Ellie points at the lighthouse with her brush. ‘Does the lighthouse make you feel secure? Reassured, maybe? Or does it make you think of sea storms and danger? Is it romantic, or solid? The way the lighthouse and the cliff make you feel is what you need to express in your painting.’
Sophie glances over at Ellie’s painting. The lighthouse is a blend of mauves and whites, and in the greyed sky of a hazy morning, the cliff’s sharp edges disappear into a soft mist. A place of promise and dreams.
‘How did you learn all this?’
‘I was at art school in Norwich during the war. I studied under Dame Edith Spink.’
‘Dame Edith Spink? Seriously? She’s an icon! There’s a fantastic painting of hers in the Imperial War Museum in London of a WAAF who saved a pilot. My dad showed it to me once. He said it was his favourite painting. I have a postcard of it on my refrigerator.’
Ellie smiles. ‘Corporal Deirdre Cross. She wanted me to join the WAAF.’
‘You knew her?’
‘I worked for Dame Edith for a short while, before … Well, the war changed everything. I joined the Auxiliary Fire Service, met Thomas, moved here, and that was that for my art until Florie came along.’
Sophie looks over at Florie and Becca who are playing with the dogs on a patch of yellowing grass nearby. ‘How long have you been together?’
‘Forty-four years this summer. I only knew Thomas for fourteen.’
Florie bangs a tin pot lid with a metal spoon. ‘Lunchtime! I’m that hungry I could eat a pig fish.’
Ellie’s thin face breaks into a grin. ‘I don’t know what I would have done without her. Money was always tight after Thomas died. She bought the old store from the Boyd family for a song with money she’d saved when she was teaching. She convinced some of the fishermen to do whale tours and iceberg tours. She put Tippy’s Tickle on the tourist map. She got me teaching art classes and selling art. She started her kennels. Florie’s a force of nature.’
‘She certainly is.’
‘We seem to manage, somehow. I own Kittiwake outright, which is a great help. The bank threatened to repossess it for years. Emmy helped when he could, bless him. He made good money fishing out of Fogo before he got into boat-building, and he gave me what he could. Thank goodness those days are over. It was very hard after Thomas died. I can’t imagine ever wanting to live anywhere else now, though.’
‘It’s lovely here, Aunt Ellie.’ Sophie runs her tongue over her lips. How can she broach the subject of selling Kittiwake to the consortium? She’s got to start somewhere.
‘Kittiwake is a beautiful house, but the winters must be freezing up there on the cliff.’
‘Oh, you can’t imagine, Sophie! The wind whips across the ocean down from the Arctic. I don’t think I was warm for fifty years. But since Sam put in the radiators we’re snug as bugs in a rug. No, I’m not going anywhere. I’ll be in that house till the day I die.’
***
Florie flakes out on the Hudson’s Bay blanket, throwing her legs wide, and pats her stomach. ‘That was some good, Ellie. I do loves your salmon loaf.’
Ellie jiggles Florie’s denim-clad leg with a bare foot. ‘Well, you did eat half of it, honey.’
Sophie closes her eyes and lifts her face to the sun. A gust of fresh air wafts across her skin, spiked with the salty tang of the ocean below. Opening her eyes, she tucks her hands around her knees and looks over at Becca. She’s playing a tug of war with Bear with the stuffed dinosaur as Florie’s dachshund, Hildegarde, runs and yaps around her feet.
Sophie chews her lip. I’m still unforgiven, aren’t I, Becca? How can I fix it? How can I make it better between us?
The mobile phone buzzes in her jeans pocket. She pulls it out and looks at the caller’s name. No surprise there. ‘Hi, Richard. Just a second.’
She looks over at Ellie. ‘Sorry. Work call. I’ll just be a minute.’
‘That’s fine, dear. We’re not going anywhere.’
She strolls past Becca towards a line of mangled spruce trees. ‘What is it, Richard? No, not yet. Yes, I know. Friday. I know. Yes, I’ve had a walk around the cliff. My aunt’s house is definitely the perfect location for the hotel. There’s a nearby cottage, too, with access to a sandy beach. Yes, Bufflehead Cottage. Yes, I thought so too. The one I sent you a picture of. No, I don’t think that one will be a problem. He needs money. I have to work on my aunt, though. Yes. Yes. Friday. I’ll have everything you need for the meeting, Richard. Don’t worry.’
Switching off the call, Sophie pockets the phone and jogs across the grass towards Becca. She grabs the dinosaur from Bear and tosses it to the girl. The great black dog leaps into the air, barking as the dinosaur soars overhead. The toy falls at Becca’s feet, and the dachshund dashes in and scoops it up. The dogs spin across the grass in an explosion of joy.
‘Becca?’
Becca stares at Sophie. Turning, she heads back to join the others.
Chapter 56
Tippy’s Tickle – 1 April 1949
‘At the confederation celebrations in St John’s today, Joseph R. Smallwood was called upon to form an interim government—’
‘That’s right, my son,’ Ephraim says as he chews on a piece of boiled cabbage. ‘You go on there.’
‘Sssh, Dad. I wants to hear McSwain.’
‘Cryin’ shame,’ Agnes says as she pours tinned milk into her tea. ‘I’m a Newfoundlander no matter what that Smallwood says.’
‘You looks like you’re goin’ to a funeral, woman, in all your black.’ Ephraim opens another bottle of beer. ‘Tis the best thing that’s happened to us here on The Rock since the Americans built their bases here in the war.’
Thomas rolls his eyes. ‘Ssh, will you both. You’re as nattery as noddies after cod heads.’
Ellie leans back from her
