Free The Boat House by Stephen Gallagher

Angelica said that such a gesture would certainly catch the local people off-guard; a new policeman had been appointed to the area about two years before, and everybody still referred to him as 'that newcomer'.
    "You don't think it's such a good idea?" Alina said.
    "Well," Angelica said, "I wouldn't want to discourage you. But I wouldn't say it was necessary, either."
    The oven timer buzzed, and Adele moved over to attend to it; Alina dug around inside her layers and brought out what looked like a colour postcard. "Well, what do you think of this?" she said, and slid it across for Angelica to see. "Is that a good idea, or is that not how they do things, either?"
    Angelica took the card and looked at it. The picture side featured some green and white palace, all columns and arched windows and with a couple of tourist buses parked off to the side. She turned it over, and read the situation wanted ad that Alina had drafted on the back.
    "I didn't make it up," Alina said. "I copied it out, mostly. I know they show cards like this in one of the stores, I saw it on the way over here."
    Angelica briefly held the card up so that her sister could see it. She didn't have to say anything more. Adele looked back over her shoulder, read it through, and then gave a brief shrug as if to say no objection.
    Angelica laid the card down, and looked at their visitor.
    She said, "Where are you living right now?"
    "On the headland to the north, the place I think they call the Step. I've a temporary room in a house there."
    "Anywhere near Pete McCarthy's place?"
    "Not too far from him," Alina said.
    "I'm not trying to pry, I'm only wondering how far you'd have to travel," Angelica explained. "You see, we usually take on a couple of girls locally for when the season picks up. I don't think we've anything fixed yet. Have you ever done restaurant work?"
    "You mean like a cook, or like a waitress?"
    "Waiting on, mostly, although you can get all sorts thrown at you. Of course, it's not the kind of thing that everyone would want to get involved in…"
    "Try me for a week," Alina said. "Two weeks, I'll take no money. You'll see how fast I can learn."
    "You want to be careful what you say," Angelica warned her. "You don't know how much we can throw."
    Alina stayed for about twenty minutes longer. They talked mostly about Three Oaks Bay, its people, its peculiarities. Angelica reckoned that she was a reasonable judge of people - one could hardly be a nurse for twenty years without picking up one hell of a lot of insight - and it hadn't taken her long to decided that Alina Peterson was either dead straight or very plausible. Given that she'd nothing in particular to gain, the chances seemed to favour the first of these options. She was bright and she was presentable, which meant that she already scored on two counts over the help that they'd hired last year. Her clothes were neat enough but her shoes were a giveaway, so old and worn under their polish that they almost telegraphed her need; there was a story to be told here, Angelica thought, and Angelica was a sucker for an interesting story.
    But Alina hardly talked about herself at all, not at this first meeting. They talked about hours to be worked, they quickly fixed a rate. She said that she was waiting for some of her belongings to be sent on, but she'd supply all her tax and National Insurance details as soon as they came. She said that she could start whenever they needed her; tomorrow, if they wanted.
    When they'd covered more or less everything and it was time for her to go, Angelica walked with her to the main doors. The empty restaurant lay in linen-and-silver silence behind them as she undid the bolts and opened up to the daylight.
    Alina said, "What time should I be here?"
    "Say eleven. It doesn't much matter what you wear during the day, but we'll find you something for the evenings."
    "You mean a uniform?"
    "No, just something plain."
    As they moved out onto the entrance steps, they saw a