The great sweep of Start Bay away to the east from the cove
The lighthouse at Start Point is now operated automatically and the old keepers’ quarters are used as holiday cottages.
Second Time Around
Kingsbridge sits at the head of an estuary that meets the sea at Salcombe.
Mathilda Rainbird, the elderly, highly intelligent if unusual unmarried daughter of a marine biologist, lives in her odd three storied house in a cove on the South Devon coast. She owns a cottage, also in the cove, which she lets to Isobel Stangate in return for a modest rental and help around the house. Isobel, having left her husband to have a mad fling with a lover only to regret it all almost at once, remains estranged from both her husband and her beloved daughter.
Mathilda, suffering from terminal cancer, decides to take matters into her own hands. She has no close relatives and instructs James Barrington (now working in a Plymouth practice) to make out a new will leaving the cove to three cousins, none of whom knows her nor each other. Satisfied with having made these arrangements she takes out her launch one night . . .
The three beneficiaries are: Tessa Rainbird, an orphan in her early twenties; Will Rainbird, a retired widowed diplomat who has been living in Switzerland; Beatrice Holmes, recently retired school matron. Will and Tessa both fall in love with the cove and wish to keep it. Beatrice is less sure that this is possible. Life is complicated by Tessa becoming engaged to Sebastian, the brother of one of her school friends, and then falling in love with Giles Webster.
AN EXTRACT
Market day. The town was busy although there were far fewer visitors about now that the school holidays were over and September was more than halfway through. Tourists jostled to examine the contents of the stalls set up on the quay whilst others made for the cafe with its tables placed beneath bright umbrellas. It was quite warm enough to sit outside and enjoy a cup of coffee in the sunshine.
Isobel Stangate shifted her weight from one foot to the other and held her collecting tin a little higher. She had positioned herself outside Boots the chemist in a cunning attempt to intercept shoppers as they crossed the road from the car park opposite - and she had not been unsuccessful. She glanced at her watch and fixed her eye meaningly upon a young man who stood on the pavement, waiting to cross. He looked quickly away from her purposeful gaze and, in an attempt to avoid her altogether, sheered off hastily across the road, nearly falling beneath the wheels of a passing car. The driver shouted imprecations and Isobel grinned maliciously as the young man fled, his ears burning with embarrassment.
Years of being dragooned into helping on flag days had given Isobel a cynical outlook. She knew that ladies of a certain age who dressed in navy blue would always put something into the tin. They had stood too often themselves, smiling hopefully and shaking collecting boxes encouragingly, to ignore a fellow sufferer. Young mothers generally allowed their offspring to put a few pennies into the slot and smiled tolerantly as the sticker was placed somewhere upon the child^ person. Expensively dressed visitors stared at her brazenly, either passing by without a qualm - or an offering - or pausing to tell her that they wished someone would start up a charity on their behalf. The locals would sigh and say, 'What is it this time?' as they felt in a pocket or scrabbled for a purse, whilst the lonely ones seized the opportunity for a chat. There were those who would ostentatiously peer at the charity's name on the box and then shake their heads, frowning a little, as if to say, 'Oh, no. I couldn't contribute to that'
Isobel, who was a soft touch and could be relied upon to respond to a cry for help from a busy organiser or committee member, knew them all. She smiled down at a tiny elderly lady, wrinkled and wizened as a nut, who had stopped at her elbow and was peering at the tin whilst struggling to extricate her purse.
'Always someone 'ere,' she said complainingly. 'Ev'ry week. Must think us old age pensioners be made o' money. 'Tis us what should 'ave a collection.'
'Couldn't agree with you more,' agreed Isobel cheerfully. 'You get it organised and I'll come and hold a tin.'
The old woman put ten pence into the box whilst Isobel stuck the paper disc to her ancient jacket.
'Don't forget to take it off when you wash your cardigan,' she said, 'otherwise the glue will make it go all gungy.'
'"Devon against Drugs".' The old woman snorted, squinting down at her newly adorned chest. 'Ow do they afford 'em in the first place? That's what I want to know! I can't 'ardly afford a packet o' tea. 'Ow come these kids can afford drugs?1
'By banging you on the head and stealing your pension,' said Isobel promptly. She smiled at the woman who unexpectedly grinned back at her.
'If you're still 'ere when I come back I'll bring you out a cuppa,' she said.
Isobel laughed. 'I'll hold you to that,' she promised. She watched her pass through the swing door into the chemist and suddenly felt depressed. The poor old thing probably couldn't afford that ten pence. She held the heavy tin invitingly towards a smartly dressed couple who, having parked their brand-new BMW in the car park, had been having coffee at the cafe on the quay. The woman pretended not to see but her companion smiled patronisingly.
'There's too much giving done in this country,' he told Isobel. 'Make people stand on their own two feet, that's what I say. Charity begins at home.'
HARDBACK BOOKS
The hardback edition of this book is out of print. The same apples to large print editions. Look at the Amazon Market Place to see what is available in the second hand market.
AUDIO BOOKS
There are new and secondhand copies available through the Amazon Market Place.
PAPERBACK BOOKS
These can be obtained from either Amazon or Book Depository.
E BOOKS
This book has yet to be published as an E Book.
YOUR BUYING OPTIONS
Those Who Serve | Thea’s Parrot | The Courtyard | The Dipper | Hattie’s Mill | Starting Over | Second Time Around | Looking Forward Holding On | Winning Through | A Week in Winter | Forgotten Laughter | The Children’s Hour | The Birdcage | The Golden Cup
Echoes of the Dance | Memories of the Storm | The Way We Were | The Prodigal Wife | The Summer House | The Christmas Angel
Echoes of the Dance | Memories of the Storm | The Way We Were | The Prodigal Wife | The Summer House | The Christmas Angel
