Forgotten Love (Derrien Island Trilogy) (5 page)

“I
kind of got that impression when you said you grew up in Wiltshire Heights, but let me assure you as one who has eaten at nearly every establishment on this island that you won’t be disappointed,” said Marcus with a smile.

Marcus also having changed clothes at the
doctor’s office now wore with his white T-shirt a pair of slightly faded blue jeans that moulded beautifully to his strong, lean legs. He came around and helped her down and together they strolled toward the door. As he reached for the handle it suddenly opened and a thick, heavy set woman in her fifties, wearing a blue flowered dress and a matching chequered apron shouted,

“Marcus, I thought you said you would have been back last week to try out my
new souse dish?” said the woman with obvious mock anger. The twitching at the corners of her mouth gave away the fact that she was trying to suppress a smile.

“Lucinda, I was all set to come but I had to work
all of last week, but I hope you saved it for me in the freezer,” replied Marcus with a wink.

Lucinda stared him down a few
seconds longer before they both burst out into laughter and he stepped inside to give her a warm hug.

“Who is t
his lovely girl with you? Are you finally taking my advice to settle down?” she asked.

“Uh, this is Natasha Mitchell,
” he replied side-stepping her insinuation that Natasha was his girlfriend.

“Well come inside girl, I won’t bite you. Any friend of Marcus’ is a friend of mine
,” said Lucinda.

“
Thank you for your welcome”, said Natasha as she entered the restaurant.

The interior of the restaurant was strangely elegant despite the
bland exterior. The walls were made from a deeply Purple Heart wood, finished with a high gloss and were decoratively covered in gold-framed photographs of persons who had their pictures taken with Lucinda. The corners of the room were decorated with potted palms and the light fixtures on the walls looked like curled seashells that glowed in tones of peach white and orange creating a soft sensual mood indoors. Inside was also quite large and from a quick estimate there appeared to be about ten tables draped with white tablecloths and set with fine dining china. The patio that she saw outside was now visible from the inside leading from the main dining room outdoors. The entire wall was open to let in the cool breezes and she could see a stunning view of the countryside below the hill.

Quite frankly, Natasha was absolutely
amazed. Not only was she unaware that this place actually existed but she wished that she had her paints at that moment to just capture everything that she was seeing. Already, at least six other tables were occupied with persons eating and who looked very relaxed and pleased with their meals. It was a light and welcoming atmosphere.

“Lucinda, this is such a beautiful restaurant
,” exclaimed Natasha finally after her eyes has swept the room drinking in every detail.

“Thank you dear, my late husband built it for me
years ago and I never took him up on his idea to transform it into a restaurant.  But when he died four years ago and I realized that all of my children were grown and had moved on I decided that it was not too late to follow my dreams, so I enlisted some help and here you have “Lucinda’s”.

“I think that this is really gre
at, wow and look at that view,” breathed Natasha.

“Let me get you two a seat
, so you can really enjoy it.”

Despite her
heavyset body Lucinda moved fluidly between the tables to seat them near to the view. Marcus graciously allowed Natasha to have the seat facing the view while he took the one that was facing inside, and facing her.  He pulled out her chair for her and then sat down himself.

“Marcus, I am beginning to think that I like you just a little
more now,” said Natasha teasingly.

“Hmm, if it only took bringing you to Lucinda’s to get you to like me just a little then I will
work on some more ideas to get you to like me a lot.”

With that statement, they looked at one another both wondering what on earth was happening to them. Five hours ago, they did not even know each other but here they were now sitting in a restaurant flirting shamelessly with each other.  As their eyes held across the short distance of the table both knew that something was undeniably drawing them together and neither wanted to stop it. This intense, gut-gnawing
attraction was sending literal electric shockwaves throughout their bodies every time they just touched or even looked at each other. Marcus knew that this was a new experience for him even though he had other girlfriends before and it was something he definitely wanted to explore.

“Let’s order something,” they suddenly said in unison
and once again broke out in laughter.

Natasha studied the menu and saw one of her favourite local dishes. It was actually a casserole made from mashed green bananas with spices and cheddar and parmesan cheese, with a
topping of fried shredded salt-fish with tomatoes, onion and a Jamaican ackee, which grew abundantly on the island. She also decided on a tall glass of mango juice. It was eons since she had a juicy mango.

“So are you an eater, or do you pick at your food?” inquired Marcus. He was accustomed to girls who just ordered salad and then only ate half of it. He had always appreciated someone who could show him her real side and part of that was in actually eating.

“I think you are about to find out, exactly how much I love food,” said Natasha smiling and looking a little guilty. “I am definitely an eater and if that fragrance coming out of the kitchen is any indicator to the kind of meals served here then there will be no stopping me today. I am extremely hungry.”

“Yeah I’m hungry too, it is almost two o’clock.  I’m glad though that you eat. I think I have known too many females in the past who wanted the half salad fix.
Personally, I always found eating like that to be more than strange.”

“Me too,” agreed Natasha.

A waitress soon came and took their order and within twenty minutes two large steaming plates of food arrived and they both dug in with gusto. Marcus had ordered his favourite macaroni and cheese pie with herb roasted chicken and cole slaw. Natasha could not believe how delicious the food was and ended up eating every single bite on her plate, making sounds of pleasure all the way through the meal that frankly caused Marcus to nearly bite his tongue or choke on a few occasions. Usually when he came here he would sit at a table near the patio, eat and take out his laptop and begin typing. He always found this area to be so relaxing and peaceful, so he got a strong creative flow for the writing of his novels.

After the waitress cleared away their plates and they both refused dessert, Lucinda came back out to see them as they prepared to leave. She pressed two paper packages into their hands and gave Marcus a conspirational wink.

“Those are for dessert! You two can enjoy them later. So, how did you enjoy your meal Natasha?”

“Lucinda that was the best food I have eaten in years. I am so glad that Marcus thought to bring me up here today!”

“You are so welcome. I only wish Marcus would visit more often. Since he started working down
at that restaurant in Cedarville he has forgotten me,” she said with a mischievous gleam in her eyes.

“Lu
cinda you know that’s not true, replied Marcus defensively. If it was I would have taken Natasha there instead of here.

“Well, I will speak for myself, whether or not Marcus brings me back up here I am coming back and I am trying something else on this menu, said Natasha with sincere appreciation.

“Marcus, I like this
young lady, she knows how to make an old lady feel good,” laughed Lucinda.

After bi
dding her goodbye Marcus, holding the two paper packages escorted Natasha back to the jeep. By then, it was about three thirty in the afternoon.

“Natasha, I know that I have been monopolizing your time all day but I really want to show you something else before I take you home. Are you up for one more stop?”
asked Marcus.

“Well
, after that lunch at Lucinda’s I have erased your two previous strikes, so your board is free and open. Yes, I would love to see what you have to show me next.”

Marcus unable to contain his excitement smiled broadly and quickly pulled out of the parking lot. Instead of heading back to the town area
following the route they came, he turned toward the more mountainous Northern range.

“Marcus, you seem to know more about Derrien than I
do and you are not even a local,” mused Natasha.

Marcus nodded in acknowledgement to her statement because it was true that although he had only visited the island for many years, he spent a
lot of time as a tourist exploring it from north to south and from east to west.

“Did you have a very sheltered life Natasha?”

“You could say that. It was basically from home to school to church, most of the time and when we did go out we would visit mainly the urban areas or the tourist beaches. I came out this way a few times on school field trips but it was not very often.”

“Derrien is such a beautiful island. If you’d like after you spend a little time resting your leg, I would like to be your tour
-guide for a while and show you some of the sights you may not have seen before. It might be fun having the local pretend to be the tourist and the “tourist” pretend to be the local! What do you say?” asked Marcus.

“I’d love to.
In fact, I’ve been having such a great time with you that I almost forgot that my leg was hurt. It would seem that you have some latent therapeutic powers you are not aware of Mr. Nicholls”, said Natasha coyly.

Marcus was unsure about how to respond to Natasha at that moment because, just hearing her say that she enjoyed being with him sent his blood racing through his body until it felt as if it was literally roaring in his ears. What was happening to him and why wouldn’t he just take her home
? It couldn’t be that he was still feeling guilty about the volleyball.  It was something deeper that he just could not describe but he knew he wanted to see where it led.

As the jeep wound through the terraced hills
, the wind blew into the vehicle and it was so cool and refreshing.

“I always marvel at the fact that these areas of the island always seem t
o have a different climate. It’s always so cool and crisp here,” said Marcus as he watched the wind gently lift Natasha’s hair and blow it across her face in the rearview mirror. Once again she was in the backseat with her leg elevated and she seemed as comfortable as someone who had known him a long time.

“Yes, I love this breeze. It reminds me of the climate in
Georgia. Somehow, I like the coolness of the atmosphere there,” she said.

At that point Marcus pulled over to the side of the road to show her a view that few people in Derrien saw because of
fear of navigating the hilly terrain.

“Have you ever been up
here to Manderley, Natasha?”

Marcus
’ question broke Natasha out of her thoughts and she looked out of the window realizing that she was not quite sure where she was.

“No, I don’t recognize the area. I may have come up here at some point
but no, I don’t even recognize the name,” she said.

“I
think that if you had you would definitely remember. Come let me help you out.”

As they got out of the vehicle, she saw before her a huge expanse of land covered in short grass
and yellow wildflowers gently stirring in the wind. But that was not what caused her breath to be stolen from her for the third time that day. From their vantage point on this land she had an almost 180 degree view of Derrien Island’s countryside, capital city and suburban districts.

“Oh Marcus, where are we?” she breathed as she walked further onto the patch of land.

“This is the district of Manderley and you are on my land,” said Marcus proudly.

“All of this is yours?” Natasha asked incredulously while turning aroun
d quickly.

“Yes. My parents bought it to build a dream home when they retired. They were planning to relocate here to Derrien
Island in their old age.”

“So are they here with you as well?”

Seeing his expression darken a little, Natasha suddenly realized that he said the land was his and she chided herself silently for not being more sensitive.

“No. They
both passed away last year. My father developed pancreatitis and he did not last long and well, my mother did not want to live without him so she passed on a few months later too.”

“I’m sorry”, she said. “I could
n’t imagine what that must feel like for you to lose both of your parents like that.”

“Yeah
, it was a really rough time for me losing both of them so quickly, but they were happily married for about forty years and had a really strong bond with each other. I hope to have a marriage like theirs some day,” he said surprising himself at his bold admission. Before today, he was in the realm of casual dating and now he was talking about having a marriage like his parents’?