Perfect Match. Amber Aitken

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СКАЧАТЬ bark. He’d also noticed their new neighbour. The silver and brown woman heard the bark and quickly glanced over at Coral Hut, while Miss Honey simpered at Romeo as if he was the bravest dog in the world.

      “Howdy, neighbours!” the woman cried out, waving.

      Coral and Nicks were still mesmerised.

      “Hiya,” they finally managed in reply.

      “Gorgeous day, darlings!” she added as she yanked the FOR RENT sign from the deck post and snapped it in half over her knee.

      “Yes, gorgeous…” they echoed.

      “Give me five minutes – let me get settled,” added the woman, “and then why don’t you mosey on over for a pot of herbal, alrighty?” She flashed them a grin, her white teeth appearing luminous next to her suntan. Her cropped hair was also white, although it was difficult to tell if it was naturally white or bleached that way.

      “Uh yeah… sure…” mumbled the girls together, even though they had no idea what a pot of herbal might be. But they waited the required five minutes – their Cupid Company business entirely forgotten – before ‘moseying’ on over.

      The red beach hut was definitely changed since they had last visited Malcolm and Meredith there. Now the walls were covered in canvas squares of art in very bright colours. There was an easel in one corner and a long, narrow table in the other. The table was cluttered with tubes of paint, jars of brushes, a sketching pad, a couple of oil lamps, a small gas stove with a battered metal teapot and a basket of mismatched canisters and containers. The artworks were all paintings of animals of every kind – from an albatross to a zebra and almost every beast in between.

      “Do you like them?” asked the woman as she stared up at the paintings lovingly.

      The girls were surprised by the question.

      “Oh yes!” replied Coral.

      “We love animals, definitely.”

      “We even have a dog called Romeo. Well, two dogs—”

      But the woman interrupted Coral with another question. “Kumquat or acai?”

      Coral looked confused for a moment. “Er, Romeo is a Jack Russell Terrier actually.”

      The woman giggled at this. “No, silly. I mean would you like kumquat or acai tea. I make my own exotic herbal and fruit teas.”

      The girls shrugged. They’d never tried a kumquat or an acai-thingie so it really made no difference.

      “I’m Zephyr, by the way,” said the woman, who now had her nose buried in one of the canisters from the basket.

      The girls stared silently, and practised mouthing her strange-sounding name – Zefer… Zef-er…

      The woman glanced up. “Zephyr!” she said again. “I chose it myself. It means a light, gentle wind. And that’s exactly what I am: a light, gentle wind floating around the world. Now, what are your names?”

      It took Coral exactly two and a half seconds to fall in love with the notion of an exotic-sounding name of her own. Suddenly the name Coral sounded very dull and uninteresting by comparison. And of course it said nothing about the girl herself. Very quickly her mind went to work considering all the various options...

      “I’m Nicks,” replied Nicks in the meantime. She waited a moment for Coral to introduce herself, but her friend seemed to be staring into the distance with glazed eyes. So Nicks filled in the silence. “And this is my best friend Coral.”

      Coral suddenly lurched upright and grinned. “Call me Amor!”

      Zephyr seemed to like this. “Amor – meaning ‘love’ in many languages. Oh, how simply divine!”

      Coral, or Amor, grinned. Of course she knew what it meant – love was her specialist subject, after all. And as a true champion of love, it really was the perfect name.

      Nicks’s nose wrinkled as she contemplated Amor, the girl who meant ‘love’ in many languages. It wasn’t that she disliked the name, because – just like her best friend – she also loved ‘love’ very much. In fact, it really was top of her list of favourite things in the world. But Coral’s name was Coral, not Amor. And if everyone just went about changing their name when the mood took them, well – the world would be a chaotic place (and Nicks was more of an ordered sort of girl).

      She continued to watch her friend, who was now very busy telling Zephyr all about the Cupid Company and the work they did for love. She also listened as her friend slotted her new name into her chit-chat at every available opportunity. Coral, now-known-as Amor, also seemed to have developed a sudden fancy for words like ‘darling’ and ‘divine’. Nicks breathed deep and narrowed her gaze. Just when they really had so many other things to concentrate on...

      Chapter 5

       On the Case

      Zephyr was just like her name. She really did float around the world. She had already lived in more than thirty different places and still planned to live in quite a few more, if she could. She sold her art to pay for the things she needed. Animals were her favourite subject to paint, and they were her favourite subject to talk about too.

      Romeo and Miss Honey had joined them at the red beach hut and already seemed right at home with Zephyr, who was stroking their fur with her bare toes while sipping kumquat tea and sharing stories of her life. She’d been to the Brazilian rainforests to see the red-eyed tree frog. She’d travelled all the way to the desert for the spotted hyena. She’d even visited the plains of Africa to glimpse the Big Five (and had seen at least one elephant, rhino, lion, buffalo and leopard). Animals really were her thing.

      “So what brings you to Sunday Harbour?” wondered Nicks out loud.

      Zephyr exhaled, making a sound like a light wind. “When you reach my age you find yourself tiring quicker.” She sighed again. “I’ve spent most of my life travelling and seeing the animals, but it’s starting to prove a rather solitary existence. I suppose I do get a bit lonely. Perhaps it’s time to settle down somewhere and make some human friends. But I would miss the animals...”

      “We have an aquarium in Sunday Harbour,” offered Coral hopefully. “It’s a really good one, and Nicks’s stepdad is the manager too.”

      Nicks turned an instant crimson. “Ben is my mum’s boyfriend!” she hissed.

      Coral turned her nose up like she didn’t think that was relevant. After all, Ben and Nicks’s mum were clearly mad about each other. It was definitely love, so of course they’d get married one day. She turned to face their exotic and very interesting animal-loving neighbour.

      “I speak for my best friend Nicks and myself – Amor – when I say that this is a darling seaside town and that it would be divine if you stayed here.”

      Zephyr chuckled and abandoned her mug on the table. “I don’t know that I’m quite ready for that yet, girls. For now this is just a little seaside holiday. But I’d love to paint a portrait of your pups.”

      “That would be gorgeous!” yelled Coral excitedly.

      Nicks turned to her friend with a weary look. СКАЧАТЬ