Blue Comes Through

Chapter Sixteen

A Bodhi's double is the biggest full English breakfast I've seen. Howard and Hilda would have loved it. There are two of everything, two eggs, bacon, sausage, hash brown as well as mushrooms, baked beans, tomato, black pudding -yuk and toast. I look over at Finn, who is already attacking his with enthusiasm.

I thank Chloe as she places the plate in front of me and look at Wilf, who is sitting beside me, very hopefully. He is looking from me to my plate. I swear his eyebrows are raised and he's looking at me as if to say. "You'll never get through that, baby." I slip him the black pudding which is gone in two bites.

"I'm not going to eat all this." I say to Finn a bit weakly. I'm almost full just looking at it. Finn shrugs as he butters a piece of toast. "It's the best breakfast around. You've got a willing helper beside you, though."

The food tastes delicious and Finn tells me the meat comes from the local farm shop. They also deliver pastries, milk and bread to us. I ask him why he's never provided hot food.

"Too much hassle. They can come here if they want hot food. Besides..." He grins "Are you going to cook it?" That is a valid point. He'd looked over my shoulder the other evening as I attempted to make vegetable risotto. It had contained butternut squash and the whole thing had turned the most disgusting yellow mush. He had asked if I was renaming Will, Oliver. It did look like gruel. I'd tossed the wooden spoon to one side in defeat and he'd laughed and taken his mobile from his pocket and ordered a curry.

The following night he'd made penne arrabiata from scratch, without a jar in sight. It tasted like ambrosia. I'd rolled my eyes, as he'd failed miserably not to gloat.

I do the breakfast semi justice and Wilf is very content as I share with him. Finn and I chat about the Lodge and bookings and the dripping tap in room four. It's heady romantic stuff.

Finn also tells me he's worried about Meg who is spending more and more time at the Lodge. "She's a really bright kid but she gets zero support at home. Her mother's just obsessed with her new bloke and uses Meg as an unpaid babysitter for the two younger kids."

Meg has told me she wants to study medicine and has a place at Bristol if she gets the grades. Apparently, Finn took her to look around universities to make her final choices, because her mother has no interest. She comes to the Lodge to study sometimes and sits in the breakfast room in the evenings with her text books.

Finn is right though. She has been coming to study more often and is staying later. Once Will is in bed, I usually catch up on the admin in the office. I've also been ploughing through the accounts, inputting two years figures, because Finn has done absolutely nothing. I've often had a late night tea with her before she goes home. I've noticed she's looking tired lately, but her exams are looming and I put it down to that.

Finn pinches a piece of my toast and butters it. "Meg's dad died about ten years ago. I think Meg was six or seven. He had leukemia. It was just Meg and her mum until Meg was fourteen and then her mum met this new guy. He's a lot younger I think, a bit of a waster, surfs all the time, no steady job." He grunts as I raise my eyebrows. "They had two babies in quick succession."

I give Wilf my last sausage before Finn can swipe it. He shakes his head.

"I might chat to Cheryl. She usually knows what's going on. Meg wouldn't thank me for interfering and it's none of my business really."

I push my plate away, full to the point of bursting and realise I've gone almost an hour without worrying about Will. I am worried about Meg now though. She deserves every opportunity. I can't relate to a mother who doesn't want the best for their child.

Finn disappears to use the 'facilities' and I pour the last of my tea from the pot and sit back and enjoy the view. The showers have stayed away, but it's still windy and white fluffy clouds are skittering across the blue sky. The sea is that lovely assortment of blues and the white spray is flying high, as the waves crash against the rocks. I can hear their roar through the glass windows overlooking the balcony.