The White House - Book 6, The Porth Kerensa Series

Chapter Seventeen

Elise was in the kitchen, washing up her lunch things, when the phone rang, shrill and abrupt in the quiet house. She hurried into the dining room, drying her hands on a tea towel and picked up the receiver. Her enquiring hello turned to a heartfelt greeting when she realised the caller was her friend, Val.

“Hey, Lise, what’s this about you moving down to the sticks at the arse end of the country?” Val laughed and carried on before Elise could speak. “I come back to good old Blighty, intending to spend some time with my dearest oldest friend only to find out you’ve run off down to Cornwall. Aren’t you a bit young to be retiring down to the south west?”

Elise sighed, fondly, and said, “Do you even read your emails, Val?”

“Yeah, I did…after I’d been to your old house and got sent away by the strangers who live there now. They looked at me as if I was a lunatic.”

Elise winced. “So whose sofa did you end up bunking on?”

“I had to beg a couple of nights from Keith, but you know how complicated that situation gets,” Val said in a mock whisper and chuckling. “Anyway, I realised I haven’t been to Cornwall before, so actually you’ve done me a favour moving somewhere completely new. I can be there by tomorrow afternoon and you can show me the sights. I might even get some work out of it.”

Elise chewed her bottom lip, pensively, before saying, “It’s not really the best time to visit Cornwall. It’s the middle of winter, Val. Besides which we’ve only been here a couple of weeks ourselves; why don’t you come down to stay when the weather is warmer?”

“I’m going back to South America at the end of February and I doubt I’ll be back in the UK again for at least a couple of years,” Val said in the wheedling tone that Elise had always found hard to resist. “Come on, Lise; you know what my life is like. It will be ages before we get to catch up if I don’t come and see you this time; years and years, for God’s sake. What kind of best friend are you?”

  “I’m a terrible friend,” Elise replied, contritely. “However do you put up with me?”

Val sighed, theatrically. “You’re right; you are my trial to bear and always have been. I should get a knighthood for all the years I’ve had to cope with having a terrible best friend.”

“Alright, love, no need to pile it on,” Elise said, laughing, heartily, for the first time in ages. “Of course you can come and stay for a little while.”

“Oh, thank you, thank you, thank you,” Val said, gushingly. “I won’t stay long, I promise. Less than a week and then I’ll be out of your hair.”

“When were you thinking of coming down?”

“Keith said I can borrow his car, so I’ll be there tomorrow afternoon if that’s ok with you…and James, of course.”

“James will be delighted to see you,” Elise said, warmly. “Send me a text when you’re not far away and I’ll put the kettle on.”

“Open a bottle of wine, you mean,” Val replied, mockingly. “Or have you gone soft on me? Listen, I have to go; Keith wants to take me out for the day and I should be nice considering he’s lending me his car. See you tomorrow, Lise…and give your liver a warning!”

Elise said goodbye and hung up. It had been a couple of years since she’d last seen Val, for she never stayed anywhere longer than a month or two. The two of them had been best friends since the age of six, when Val and her family had moved into the house next door to Elise. They had been inseparable all through school and sixth form. Nothing had ever come between them…except Val’s dream to go off and see the world.