Cressida McLaughlin - The Cornish Cream Tea Bus - Part Two – The Éclair Affair

Published by HarperCollins Publishers Ltd

The News Building

1 London Bridge Street

London SE1 9GF

www.harpercollins.co.uk

First published in Great Britain in ebook format in 2019 by HarperCollins Publishers

Copyright © Cressida McLaughlin 2019

Cover design © HarperColl‌insPublishers Ltd 2019.

Cover illustration © May Van Millingen

Cressida McLaughlin asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work.

A catalogue copy of this book is available from the British Library.

This novel is entirely a work of fiction. The names, characters and incidents portrayed in it are the work of the author’s imagination. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events or localities is entirely coincidental.

All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, down-loaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins.

Ebook Edition © June 2019 ISBN: 9780008332150

Version: 2019-06-03

Table of Contents

Cover

Title Page

Copyright Copyright Table of Contents Cover Title Page Copyright Part 2: The Éclair Affair Chapter One Chapter Two Chapter Three Chapter Four Chapter Five Chapter Six Chapter Seven Chapter Eight Keep Reading … Also by Cressida McLaughlin About the Author About the Publisher Published by HarperCollins Publishers Ltd The News Building 1 London Bridge Street London SE1 9GF www.harpercollins.co.uk First published in Great Britain in ebook format in 2019 by HarperCollins Publishers Copyright © Cressida McLaughlin 2019 Cover design © HarperColl‌insPublishers Ltd 2019. Cover illustration © May Van Millingen Cressida McLaughlin asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work. A catalogue copy of this book is available from the British Library. This novel is entirely a work of fiction. The names, characters and incidents portrayed in it are the work of the author’s imagination. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events or localities is entirely coincidental. All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, down-loaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins. Ebook Edition © June 2019 ISBN: 9780008332150 Version: 2019-06-03

Part 2: The Éclair Affair Part 2 The Éclair Affair

Chapter One

Chapter Two

Chapter Three

Chapter Four

Chapter Five

Chapter Six

Chapter Seven

Chapter Eight

Keep Reading …

Also by Cressida McLaughlin

About the Author

About the Publisher

Charlie Quilter squinted into the sun that was coming in through the windscreen of the vintage double-decker Routemaster like a searchlight, and ran her palms down her skirt. It was early on a Saturday morning, but already the light was filling the bay of Porthgolow, making the water glitter encouragingly. And right now, in the midst of a meeting that she had called, but which was beginning to feel like a very bad idea, Charlie needed encouragement.

‘Do you want this place to survive, or don’t you?’ said Hugh, the owner of The Seven Stars pub, more impassioned than Charlie had ever seen him.

‘It’s not falling into the bleddy sea, is it?’ Myrtle shot back. Myrtle Gordon, long-standing Porthgolow resident, had taken against Charlie and her bus the moment she arrived in the village, so she wasn’t surprised to learn that her new suggestion wasn’t getting a seal of approval either.

‘No, of course not,’ Juliet said in a calm, even tone. ‘But what Charlie – we’re – suggesting, is simply a way to bring a few more businesses to Porthgolow. A small festival to brighten up the beach. The bus has been well-received, mostly, and this seems like an obvious next step.’

‘Obvious for you, mebbe. You young things, coming here and taking over. Emmets, the lot o’you.’ Myrtle picked up a mini toffee tart and popped it in her mouth, then turned purposefully towards the window.

Charlie had heard the term several times over the last couple of months. It meant interlopers – non-Cornish people who’d moved to the county. She couldn’t deny that she was one, even if Porthgolow was only her temporary home, and the term wasn’t exactly friendly. She was wondering how to follow Myrtle’s outburst when Daniel Harper caught her eye and her entire vocabulary deserted her.

After the successful launch of The Cornish Cream Tea Bus the week before, Charlie’s active mind had conjured up the next step of her plan to revitalize the quaint Cornish village that seemed forlorn and unloved, despite all its potential. A festival. Every Saturday. Down on the sand.

Her bus had been embraced by a lot of the locals, and with a few more food trucks, a wider selection of culinary delights and some intense online marketing, she knew she could bring people flocking to the village. But she couldn’t do that without agreement from the residents. She had already discovered that they weren’t all easy to please, and although she had gone ahead with The Cornish Cream Tea Bus regardless of what anyone else thought, for something that would potentially have a huge impact on the village, she wanted to tread carefully.

Juliette, her best friend and Porthgolow resident, had added her to the village businesses’ WhatsApp group, and she had invited them all to join her this morning, providing hot drinks and some of her bakes as a sweetener. The mood didn’t feel very sweet at the moment.

The Instagram photo she had posted, of the bus’s interior with her treats laid out and the caption: Planning something exciting on the #CornishCreamTeaBus this morning now seemed wildly over-optimistic. It was doubtful whether they’d manage to agree on anything at all.