Extract from
The Gift of Cockleberry Bay where we see Rosa meeting Hot’s puppies
for the first time
‘Ciao-ciao!’
The chiselled Italian called Raffaele air-kissed both Josh and Rosa
three times before telling them: ‘I must get on, sorry.’ He
pointed to his chef’s whites. ‘We are very busy with lunchtime
bookings today. His Lordship is upstairs with Her Ladyship, the
Duchess.’ He waved his arms around animatedly, his accent becoming
more pronounced. ‘I tell you – he is obsessed
with those little cuties. Per
favore
– go on up.’ And then Raff hurried back into the pub kitchen.
Josh
and Rosa raced each other up the stairs to the swish private quarters
above the pub where Jacob and Raff stayed when away from their
beautiful home in Polhampton Sands. Tiptoeing now, Rosa opened the
sitting-room door and peeped in.
‘Oh,
my goodness!’ she cried quietly, without even greeting Jacob. She
gave a little gasp. ‘Just look at them!’
‘Don’t
mind me, love. I’ve only been up all night playing nanny to this
lot.’ The smart publican camply flicked his hand at Rosa, then
reached for Josh’s hand and shook it firmly.
Rosa
crouched down to take a better peek in the Duchess’s comfy
blanket-laden dog crate. ‘Aw, they are miniature Hots,’ she
whispered. ‘They are so cute! Just two?’
‘Yes,
two little boys, thank goodness. One bitch in this household is quite
enough.’ As Josh shook with laughter, Jacob continued, ‘I’m
surprised she could fit any in that tiny little belly of hers –
thanks to your dirty dog taking advantage of her when she was so
young.’
Josh
then thought back to when Jacob and Raff had introduced the Duchess
as Lady
Dolce Vita Petunia Duchess Barkley. ‘Have
you thought of any names yet?’ he enquired, bracing himself,
wondering what the couple had come up with this time.
‘Well,
I dare say we should really let the future owners decide on their
pups’ names,’ Jacob said reluctantly, adding, ‘And with a
pending last name of Rogers, I perish to think what Titty Titch will
come out with for hers.’
‘Has
she met them yet?’
‘No,
I wanted you as the other grandparents to see them first. When are
Titch and Ritchie getting married, anyway?’
‘They
haven’t set a date yet, but she was hoping Christmas-time this
year, I think.’ Rosa gently stroked the exhausted Duchess.
‘Exciting
– I love a wedding. And where exactly is the absent father today?’
Jacob asked, looking around for Hot. ‘Trust that naughty dog not to
be at the birth, or here now. A typical man.’
‘What
are you like?’ Rosa smirked. ‘He’s with Mary, much to Merlin’s
disgust.’ Merlin lived at Seaspray Cottage with Rosa’s mother
Mary; he was a huge, rather scary black cat with yellow fog-lamp eyes
and too much attitude. ‘Who’s having the other puppy, anyway?’
Rosa asked, and looked directly at Josh, who immediately put his palm
up and out flat.
‘No,
no and no.
Hot would hate not being the centre of attention and we’ve got
enough to do with the shop and the café, without taking into
consideration puppy training and raising a potential brood
ourselves.’
‘You’re
a miserable one today, aren’t you?’ Jacob tutted. ‘I have to
say that Raff and I are quite smitten with the smaller cherub, and
with three already, what difference is a fourth really?’
At
that moment, as if on cue, the couple’s pugs Ugly and Pongo came
running in and started play-fighting by the side of the crate.
Whining softly, the Duchess watched them with interest and a degree
of scorn.
‘That’s
what I’ve been saying to Rosa. The bigger the family, the better.’
Josh winked at his wife. ‘And not through want of trying.’
‘Ew.’
Their host grimaced. ‘It was bad enough being at the business end
of a puppy birth, let alone hearing about you two at it like rabbits,
or should I say dachshunds, in the circumstances.’
