Twilight Paradise
In our Summer Collector’s Edition we published the hugely popular Love At Sunset, Fay’s charming and surprising story of an elderly couple, Violet and Gordon, who fall in love against their families’ wishes while living in the Bahamas, and then stage their deaths so they can make their escape to an idyllic new life in Scotland. This is the enchanting sequel…
An elderly woman with a wide-brimmed millinery creation that masked her eyes dropped some dollar notes into a Salvation Army Christmas kettle and entered a luxury jewellery store on Nassau’s old downtown Bay Street. She was followed by a dapper elderly man in a panama hat, his nose and cheeks ruddy from sudden exposure to the tropical sun.
Bell-ringers stood at strategic points, collecting money for charity in the kettles. Bay Street was decked out with festive decorations. A heavily laden Christmas tree towered next to the Colonial buildings in historic Rawson Square and bleachers for the upcoming Boxing Day and New Year’s Junkanoo parades were already in place.
To the delight of many locals, temperatures had fallen slightly just in time for the celebratory season, but it was still warm enough for visitors to the Bahamas to sunbathe on the powder-white beaches and wallow in the clear turquoise sea.
An hour later the elderly couple sat in an attorney’s office, a new gold necklace with conch pearl pendant around the woman’s neck.
‘What’s all this nonsense about me being incompetent, Arthur?’ she asked the attorney. ‘Gordon and I don’t want to be in Nassau any longer than we need to.’
‘Violet,’ the attorney leaned towards her on the ornate desk, his shaved mahogany head gleaming as if polished by a shoeshine boy. ‘As I said when I called you in Scotland, the sale of your condo was ready to close, but your son came back from Australia and was threatening to mess it up.’
The attorney’s Bahamian accent still had a trace of British dialect, from the years he had studied law in England. ‘That’s why I asked you to fly out. Jeremy is trying to prove you incompetent, so he can take charge of your estate.’ He sighed. ‘He’s even talked your daughter into going along with him.’
Violet whipped off her hat. Arthur still marvelled at her eyes, as blue as they had been all those years ago when he became her attorney and friend.
‘Sandra agreed? How could she? I know we’ve had our differences, but I never expected…’
‘Don’t worry, lassie,’ Violet’s male companion stroked her arm. He had placed his own hat politely on his lap. ‘We’ll get it all sorted out.’
‘That we will, Gordon.’ Violet smiled fondly at him, calming down. ‘When Jeremy’s father sent him off to Australia, I should have known one day he would return with his foul ways – God forgive me for saying that about my own son.’
‘Your late husband did what was best,’ the attorney intervened. ‘You know Jeremy made a fool of himself around town, with all his carousing and drinking.’
‘Well, I have a new husband now and a new life in Scotland,’ Violet stated.
‘And I don’t want our remaining time on this earth to be disrupted by a son and daughter who think more of themselves than they do of me.’
‘I feel the same way about my son,’ Gordon interjected, fingering the brim of his hat. ‘None of them wanted us to be together, let alone get married.’
‘Unfortunately,’ said the attorney, ‘Violet’s family thinks you married her for her money.’
‘I don’t need Violet’s money,’ Gordon said indignantly. ‘I am quite well provided for.’
He couldn’t help it if Violet liked to foot most of the bills. They loved each other and the question of finances never came into their relationship.
‘Can they do this?’ Violet asked her attorney.
‘They can try, but I’m pulling out all the legal stops to prevent them from doing so.’
The attorney smiled reassuringly at Violet. ‘Leave it with me and I’ll see what I can come up with.’
Violet and Gordon strolled back to their hotel. They had decided to treat themselves to a stay in the British Colonial Hilton in downtown Nassau. It had been a toss up between a harbour view, where they could look out on the cruise ships anchored nearby, or a city view, where they could watch the vibrant Junkanoo street parade that would take place in the early hours of Boxing Day. They planned on being back in Scotland for Hogmanay.
Visitors came from around the world to watch and listen to the sights and sounds of Junkanoo, with its vivid costumes and floats, cowbells, goat-skin drums, whistles and horns.
Violet and Gordon opted for a harbour view from the hotel. It reminded them of their escape from Nassau a year ago, when they stayed in a Florida ocean-front hotel en route to Scotland – their first time together without their children’s criticism and attempts to break up their relationship.
That night in the British Colonial hotel, as the couple gazed from their room at the moonlight on the shimmering indigo blue sea, Gordon said proudly, as he had never tired of repeating during the past year, ‘We tricked them, lassie.’
‘We did that,’ Violet smiled. ‘They never imagined we’d move to Scotland.’
‘Not until they found out you’d put your condo up for sale,’ Gordon laughed.
‘Do you think they believed something bad happened to us?’
‘I do, lassie!’ They both chuckled and snuggled up to each other.
Later, they walked hand-in-hand down the wide staircase to the Aqua restaurant, where they avoided a lavish buffet and ate a light dinner before retiring to their room for the night.
Bay Street was buzzing the next morning. It was just like a perfect British summer’s day, the kind of weather that brought the ‘snow birds’, as they were called, down from Canada and North America, as well as from other parts of the world, to spend the winter months in second homes.
Violet and Gordon explored the little alleyways that connected the main downtown thoroughfare with Woodes Rogers Walk and pushed their way through the Straw Market, which bulged with goods. They chose Athena restaurant for lunch and ordered Greek gyros.
They didn’t bump into anyone they had known from all the years they had lived in Nassau; Violet from birth and Gordon from his early banking days. If they had, one of those friends might have asked, ‘Playing tourist today?’
Many Nassau residents shopped in the newer shopping malls of New Providence rather than in old downtown Nassau, where tourists flocked. ‘Time for tea,’ Violet told Gordon and they headed back to the hotel. They shared a leisurely brew on the pool deck, with a bright-blue umbrella shading them from the dazzling sunshine. Violet wistfully watched youngsters, her grandchildren’s age, work off steam in the water.
When they went up to their room for a rest, she told Gordon, ‘If only they weren’t so spoilt.’
‘Who?’ he asked.
‘My grandchildren.’ She pulled back the downy bedspread.
‘Och well, you contributed to that,’ Gordon said.
‘You think so?’
‘I know so,’ he said, stretching out on the vast king-sized bed, the piping air-conditioning evoking a lazy yawn.
As they were dozing off, the phone rang. Violet picked up the receiver. It was the front desk. ‘Some people are here to see you, ma’am.’ To Violet’s surprise, the name given to her by the clerk was her daughter’s.
‘Well, I suppose we have to see what she wants,’ said Violet. They brushed off their clothes and went downstairs to the elegant lobby.
Standing at the bottom of the staircase were Sandra, her two children and Gordon’s son. Sandra looked sheepish, but the children ran towards Violet and hugged her around her waist.
‘Granny, Granny!’ they shouted, with the excitement that only children can portray.
‘They’ve missed you, Mum,’ Sandra said. She hesitated for a moment. ‘And we have, too.’
Several days later when remnants of the Boxing Day Junkanoo were strewn across the downtown streets, Violet and Gordon’s plane landed at Heathrow. Sandra had talked her brother into dropping his incompetency suit and Violet’s condo sale had closed.
The couple headed for their Glasgow flight connection, wrapped warmly against the winter chill. During the years Gordon flew back to the UK on holiday with his young son and first wife, it was always an eye-opening moment on entering the terminal when he breathed in the cold air, mingled with the smell of jet fuel. After the easy-going island life that he led in the Bahamas, it pulled him up short, reminding him that he was re-entering a ‘First World’ country with rules and regulations.
As the Glasgow flight took off, they gazed down at the patchwork of snow-crusted fields below. Sandra would be bringing the children to visit them in the spring and Gordon’s son might introduce his new lady friend to them during the summer. Jeremy had returned to Australia, but not before he had reconciled with his mother and given her and Gordon his blessing. His change of heart showed he must have learned something from the decades spent in exile down under.
‘It was all worth it, don’t you think, lassie?’ the elderly man asked the elderly woman beside him.
‘Yes, dear, it was,’ the elderly woman replied.
An elderly woman with a wide-brimmed millinery creation that masked her eyes dropped some dollar notes into a Salvation Army Christmas kettle and entered a luxury jewellery store on Nassau’s old downtown Bay Street. She was followed by a dapper elderly man in a panama hat, his nose and cheeks ruddy from sudden exposure to the tropical sun.
Bell-ringers stood at strategic points, collecting money for charity in the kettles. Bay Street was decked out with festive decorations. A heavily laden Christmas tree towered next to the Colonial buildings in historic Rawson Square and bleachers for the upcoming Boxing Day and New Year’s Junkanoo parades were already in place.
To the delight of many locals, temperatures had fallen slightly just in time for the celebratory season, but it was still warm enough for visitors to the Bahamas to sunbathe on the powder-white beaches and wallow in the clear turquoise sea.
An hour later the elderly couple sat in an attorney’s office, a new gold necklace with conch pearl pendant around the woman’s neck.
‘What’s all this nonsense about me being incompetent, Arthur?’ she asked the attorney. ‘Gordon and I don’t want to be in Nassau any longer than we need to.’
‘Violet,’ the attorney leaned towards her on the ornate desk, his shaved mahogany head gleaming as if polished by a shoeshine boy. ‘As I said when I called you in Scotland, the sale of your condo was ready to close, but your son came back from Australia and was threatening to mess it up.’
The attorney’s Bahamian accent still had a trace of British dialect, from the years he had studied law in England. ‘That’s why I asked you to fly out. Jeremy is trying to prove you incompetent, so he can take charge of your estate.’ He sighed. ‘He’s even talked your daughter into going along with him.’
Violet whipped off her hat. Arthur still marvelled at her eyes, as blue as they had been all those years ago when he became her attorney and friend.
‘Sandra agreed? How could she? I know we’ve had our differences, but I never expected…’
‘Don’t worry, lassie,’ Violet’s male companion stroked her arm. He had placed his own hat politely on his lap. ‘We’ll get it all sorted out.’
‘That we will, Gordon.’ Violet smiled fondly at him, calming down. ‘When Jeremy’s father sent him off to Australia, I should have known one day he would return with his foul ways – God forgive me for saying that about my own son.’
‘Your late husband did what was best,’ the attorney intervened. ‘You know Jeremy made a fool of himself around town, with all his carousing and drinking.’
‘Well, I have a new husband now and a new life in Scotland,’ Violet stated.
‘And I don’t want our remaining time on this earth to be disrupted by a son and daughter who think more of themselves than they do of me.’
‘I feel the same way about my son,’ Gordon interjected, fingering the brim of his hat. ‘None of them wanted us to be together, let alone get married.’
‘Unfortunately,’ said the attorney, ‘Violet’s family thinks you married her for her money.’
‘I don’t need Violet’s money,’ Gordon said indignantly. ‘I am quite well provided for.’
He couldn’t help it if Violet liked to foot most of the bills. They loved each other and the question of finances never came into their relationship.
‘Can they do this?’ Violet asked her attorney.
‘They can try, but I’m pulling out all the legal stops to prevent them from doing so.’
The attorney smiled reassuringly at Violet. ‘Leave it with me and I’ll see what I can come up with.’
Violet and Gordon strolled back to their hotel. They had decided to treat themselves to a stay in the British Colonial Hilton in downtown Nassau. It had been a toss up between a harbour view, where they could look out on the cruise ships anchored nearby, or a city view, where they could watch the vibrant Junkanoo street parade that would take place in the early hours of Boxing Day. They planned on being back in Scotland for Hogmanay.
Visitors came from around the world to watch and listen to the sights and sounds of Junkanoo, with its vivid costumes and floats, cowbells, goat-skin drums, whistles and horns.
Violet and Gordon opted for a harbour view from the hotel. It reminded them of their escape from Nassau a year ago, when they stayed in a Florida ocean-front hotel en route to Scotland – their first time together without their children’s criticism and attempts to break up their relationship.
That night in the British Colonial hotel, as the couple gazed from their room at the moonlight on the shimmering indigo blue sea, Gordon said proudly, as he had never tired of repeating during the past year, ‘We tricked them, lassie.’
‘We did that,’ Violet smiled. ‘They never imagined we’d move to Scotland.’
‘Not until they found out you’d put your condo up for sale,’ Gordon laughed.
‘Do you think they believed something bad happened to us?’
‘I do, lassie!’ They both chuckled and snuggled up to each other.
Later, they walked hand-in-hand down the wide staircase to the Aqua restaurant, where they avoided a lavish buffet and ate a light dinner before retiring to their room for the night.
Bay Street was buzzing the next morning. It was just like a perfect British summer’s day, the kind of weather that brought the ‘snow birds’, as they were called, down from Canada and North America, as well as from other parts of the world, to spend the winter months in second homes.
Violet and Gordon explored the little alleyways that connected the main downtown thoroughfare with Woodes Rogers Walk and pushed their way through the Straw Market, which bulged with goods. They chose Athena restaurant for lunch and ordered Greek gyros.
They didn’t bump into anyone they had known from all the years they had lived in Nassau; Violet from birth and Gordon from his early banking days. If they had, one of those friends might have asked, ‘Playing tourist today?’
Many Nassau residents shopped in the newer shopping malls of New Providence rather than in old downtown Nassau, where tourists flocked. ‘Time for tea,’ Violet told Gordon and they headed back to the hotel. They shared a leisurely brew on the pool deck, with a bright-blue umbrella shading them from the dazzling sunshine. Violet wistfully watched youngsters, her grandchildren’s age, work off steam in the water.
When they went up to their room for a rest, she told Gordon, ‘If only they weren’t so spoilt.’
‘Who?’ he asked.
‘My grandchildren.’ She pulled back the downy bedspread.
‘Och well, you contributed to that,’ Gordon said.
‘You think so?’
‘I know so,’ he said, stretching out on the vast king-sized bed, the piping air-conditioning evoking a lazy yawn.
As they were dozing off, the phone rang. Violet picked up the receiver. It was the front desk. ‘Some people are here to see you, ma’am.’ To Violet’s surprise, the name given to her by the clerk was her daughter’s.
‘Well, I suppose we have to see what she wants,’ said Violet. They brushed off their clothes and went downstairs to the elegant lobby.
Standing at the bottom of the staircase were Sandra, her two children and Gordon’s son. Sandra looked sheepish, but the children ran towards Violet and hugged her around her waist.
‘Granny, Granny!’ they shouted, with the excitement that only children can portray.
‘They’ve missed you, Mum,’ Sandra said. She hesitated for a moment. ‘And we have, too.’
Several days later when remnants of the Boxing Day Junkanoo were strewn across the downtown streets, Violet and Gordon’s plane landed at Heathrow. Sandra had talked her brother into dropping his incompetency suit and Violet’s condo sale had closed.
The couple headed for their Glasgow flight connection, wrapped warmly against the winter chill. During the years Gordon flew back to the UK on holiday with his young son and first wife, it was always an eye-opening moment on entering the terminal when he breathed in the cold air, mingled with the smell of jet fuel. After the easy-going island life that he led in the Bahamas, it pulled him up short, reminding him that he was re-entering a ‘First World’ country with rules and regulations.
As the Glasgow flight took off, they gazed down at the patchwork of snow-crusted fields below. Sandra would be bringing the children to visit them in the spring and Gordon’s son might introduce his new lady friend to them during the summer. Jeremy had returned to Australia, but not before he had reconciled with his mother and given her and Gordon his blessing. His change of heart showed he must have learned something from the decades spent in exile down under.
‘It was all worth it, don’t you think, lassie?’ the elderly man asked the elderly woman beside him.
‘Yes, dear, it was,’ the elderly woman replied.