‘That would be great,’ I said appreciatively, ‘but can’t I give you a hand? What is it that you’ve got there?’

‘It’s your welcome pack,’ she explained. ‘Lots of lovely local produce and a few essentials so you don’t have to venture to the shops for a couple of days, unless you want to of course.’

‘That’s such a kind thought.’

‘It should have all been ready for your arrival so I wouldn’t have to interrupt you at all,’ she confided, ‘but I had a last-minute influx of customers and couldn’t close up early today. Not that I’m complaining, but I am sorry to intrude before you’ve had a chance to even boil the kettle.’

‘It’s really no bother,’ I told her, because I didn’t mind at all. Sophie’s warm welcome was exactly what I would have expected from a Wynmouth resident. ‘Do you work in the pub with Sam?’

‘Occasionally,’ she told me, ‘but I have my own business too. It’s a café.’

‘A café?’

‘Yes, right next to the beach.’

I wondered if she had taken on the boarded-up building I could remember, which was near where the tractors pulled the boats in and out of the sea. That was right next to the beach but had been long abandoned when I knew it. I had always thought it was spooky but the local kids I sometimes hung out with used to dare each other to break in and graffiti the walls. If that was the place Sophie was referring to, it must have taken a miracle to transform it.

‘Because of the weather, it’s not particularly busy at the moment,’ she continued, ‘so I can’t very well turn folk away when they find me, even if they do come a little outside the regular opening hours.’

‘Of course not,’ I agreed, ‘and as I said, it’s no problem at all.’

While Sophie unpacked, I went off to explore and found the rest of the cottage was every bit as pretty as the sitting room. There was just the one bedroom upstairs with a large welcoming brass-framed bed complete with lavender-scented fresh linen and a bathroom with a roll-top bath which I couldn’t wait to relax into.

The view from the bedroom was of the lane in front but on tiptoe from the bathroom at the back I could just see the curve of the coast and the cliffs where the static vans Mum, Dad and I stayed in were pitched. I wondered if the beach huts were still there too. I would have to take a walk to find out, once the weather had improved.

‘Do you take sugar?’ Sophie called, just as I was remembering my last trip to the huts. ‘I’ve made a pot of tea.’