Autumn at The Cosy Cottage Café: The Cosy Cottage Café, #2

Chapter One

Dawn Dix-Beaumont dropped the Lego bricks into the large plastic bucket and leaned against the wall. The colour scheme of the playroom had been chosen to create a fun and lively space for their children, but right now, in the early October afternoon sunshine, it was giving her a headache. The yellow walls, the red and blue buckets for toys, the turquoise and purple beanbags, and the green shelves, all seemed to be growing larger as she stood there. Swaying.

Swaying?

She slid down the wall to the floor and pressed her head into her hands. It must be low blood pressure again. She’d suffered with it in both of her previous pregnancies and it had made her feel faint and lethargic. Only it hadn’t come on quite so quickly before. This time, however, even though she was only thirty-three, it seemed that her body was not going to take pregnancy lightly.

Thank goodness it was Friday and Rick would be home for the weekend. Since finding out about the pregnancy, she’d tried to rest whenever she could, but it was difficult with two children and a house to run. As well as a rabbit and a guinea pig to take care of.

Shit!

She needed to clean the hutch out before it was time to pick the children up from school. She loved the animals probably more than Laura and James did. It had been Rick’s father’s idea to get the children pets. He’d said it would encourage them to be responsible and he’d insisted on choosing the rabbit and guinea pig and paying for them. In typical Paul Beaumont fashion, he’d turned up one day with the animals, a hutch, a garden run and all the necessary paraphernalia for looking after the pets.

Dawn had agreed with the concept of pets making the children more responsible, but her initial suspicion that Laura and James would soon tire of the day-to-day care of Wallace and Lulu had been correct, and now it was all down to her. But she didn’t mind. She liked coaxing the rabbit and the guinea pig from their hutch, as it gave her a chance to cuddle them both before letting them loose in their run.

Of course, Laura and James did love Wallace and Lulu, although Laura was more interested in maintaining their social media profile than her younger brother was. She regularly took photographs of them on Dawn’s mobile phone, which Dawn then helped her to post to the Instagram page that Paul had set up. Wallace and Lulu’s Adventures was quite popular and received lots of likes, but Dawn also knew that it was a way for Paul to connect with his grandchildren. He was a busy man – even since his retirement – but the convenience of social media meant that he could check in with his grandchildren from the golf course, or the club at the docks where he kept his boat.

Dawn got up slowly, stood still for a moment to ensure that her head was clear, then went through the hallway to the kitchen. She picked up the shed keys and headed out through the back door and into the garden.

The sun was hot. Forecasters had predicted an Indian summer for England, but Dawn suspected that it would probably last a few days then they’d be plunged into Arctic conditions. The good old British weather never failed to keep people on their toes. Gone were the days where she used to pack her summer wardrobe away by September then her winter woollies by April. There was no point now; it was far more sensible to have a range of clothing to hand throughout the year.

She opened the shed and retrieved her box of hutch cleaning supplies, as well as a bag of straw, then carried them across the garden. Lulu, the two-year-old floppy-eared rabbit hopped to the front of the hutch.

‘Hello, sweeting.’ Dawn knelt down and opened the front of the hutch then held out her hand. Lulu’s nose twitched as Dawn smoothed her soft smoky-grey fur. ‘Do you want to stretch your legs?’

She lifted the rabbit carefully out then let her into the large square pen made of wood and wire netting. Lulu hopped about, clearly enjoying the freedom to nibble on the lush green grass of the lawn.

Dawn peered back into the hutch, but guinea pig Wallace had not made an appearance from the sleeping compartment, which wasn’t like him. Wallace was quite a greedy little thing and usually greeted Dawn with excited wheeking, especially if she had a carrot for him.

She lifted the latch then gently opened the front of the sleeping compartment.

And there, curled up on the straw, was Wallace.

‘Hey little man, don’t you want to go for a run?’

He didn’t move.

Dawn reached out and stroked his silky white fur carefully, expecting him to jump awake and to see his little nose and whiskers twitching as he greeted her. She gently touched his small brown paws, which made him look like he was wearing socks, then his matching brown ears. There was no response.

His tiny body was cold and stiff.

‘Oh no!’

She covered her mouth with her hands as tears blurred her vision.

Poor little Wallace, just two years old like his companion Lulu, had died.

And Dawn had no idea how she was going to break the news to her children.

Or how she would break the news to their grandfather and Wallace’s Instagram following.

Dawn opened the door to The Cosy Cottage Café and closed it behind her, making sure that her tote bag was firmly hooked over her arm.

‘Hello, Dawnie!’ From behind the counter, her close friend Allie Jones, smiled warmly at her.

‘Hi.’ Dawn gave a half-hearted wave then hurried over.

‘What’s wrong? Are you still feeling queasy, love? I’m sure I have another bottle of peppermint cordial here somewhere. Let me get you a glass.’

Dawn shook her head. ‘No. No time. I have to pick the children up in an hour and something terrible has happened.’

‘What is it?’ Allie took Dawn’s hand and squeezed it. ‘Not the baby?’

‘No. The baby’s fine. At least I think it is. I mean…’ She took a deep breath as a wave of nausea washed over her. ‘I’m feeling really bad, so I guess that’s a sign that the pregnancy hormones are strong.’

She instinctively cupped her rounded stomach. She was around seventeen weeks along now, and she felt huge. In fact, Dawn was certain that she hadn’t been this size until she was about twenty-five weeks pregnant with her first two. It was getting harder and harder to hide her bump.

‘So why are you… upset?’ Allie peered at her. ‘Looks like you need a drink. Sit down and I’ll get you one.’

‘Oh, OK then. Just a quick one. Something cold would be lovely, thanks.’

Dawn took a seat on the squishy couch in the corner by the front window and placed her bag on the seat next to her. As she sank into the soft leather, she sighed. If only she could just put her feet up and have a nap. Although it was cool inside the café, the afternoon was hot outside, and her t-shirt was clinging to her back following her short walk to the café.

Allie brought her a glass of bright green liquid.

‘Peppermint cordial?’

Allie nodded. ‘Drink it. You look like you need it.’

Dawn nodded and accepted the tall glass. Ice cubes clinked against the side as she raised it to her lips and took a sip.

‘That’s so good, thank you.’

‘You’re welcome. Now are you going to tell me what’s worrying you?’ Allie took a seat on the sofa.

Dawn placed her glass on the coffee table in front of them and watched as a bead of condensation trickled down the side.

‘I don’t know what to do, Allie.’

‘About what? Is it Rick? Are you two doing OK now?’

Dawn met Allie’s bright blue eyes and a lump lodged in her throat. She shook her head.

‘No, it’s not about us.’

Although, if she had the time to talk about it, she would tell Allie that, yes, there were some problems with Rick. Things had improved slightly for a while but over the past week – possibly even longer – for some reason, they seemed to have deteriorated again. But perhaps it was just her. She was, after all, pregnant and exhausted, and it was possible that her imagination was finding issues where in fact there were none.

Perhaps…

‘Not really. Things are fine with Rick. I mean… well… they’re…’ She bit her lip. She didn’t have time to air her marital woes right now. ‘There’s something more pressing to deal with.’ She patted her black tote bag with the white writing #babyonboard. Her sister, Camilla, had bought it for her when she’d been pregnant with Laura and Dawn had kept it ever since, using it as a makeshift handbag when the lining of her old one was too sticky with old sweet wrappers and snotty tissues from the children. Rick had bought her new bags for birthdays and Christmases, but they were always designer labels and far too nice to fill with dummies, nappies, wet wipes and all the bits and bobs she’d acquired over the years as a mum of two.

Allie nodded. ‘And…’ She raised her eyebrows.

Dawn opened the bag and stuck her hand inside. She pulled out a small parcel and