Chapter 10
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If there was a place in the world that I found both stunning and terrifying, it was this one.
Chedder Gorge.
The magnificence of it was downright harrowing.
The rocky walls bordered the valleys in every direction, the harsh gorge sprawling out as far as I could see.
I was in a dreadful state of awe.
I felt gutted at the sight of it—and mesmerised.
Not even the wince from behind me could have snatched me out of this hypnosis.
Ruby’s huffs and aches and whines hadn’t stopped since we left camp hours ago. The hike called for proper boots—which she didn’t bring with her.
Ramona was tolerable enough to stay back at camp, faking her headache, which was miles better than her forcing herself to come along and complaining the whole time.
I wished Ruby stayed back.
I snubbed her theatrics, leaving Louise to fuss over her as she always did, and let the view hold me captive.
“If I could live here,” I said softly, “I would never leave.”
Bee’s smile tugged on my shoulder. She rested her head there, arm looped around mine, and took in the view with me.
“Should that be our retirement plan?” she teased, but her tone was just as soft and soothed as mine. “Build our cottages down there, close to the river, and grow old? The hags that live in the gorge.”
I knew she was teasing.
Law protected the land. So even if we could have afforded to buy land one day and build, it wouldn’t have been here.
That came with a sense of sadness, a weight tugging down on my chest.
I would never be where I belonged.
I belonged with nature.
Surrounded by rocky valleys and harsh limestone, rushing rivers and trickling streams, the thick green of the hills that, from here, looked as rich as moss.
The air was fresher than I remembered.
It had been a good year since my last hike, and that was too long ago. My body had forgotten what it felt like to be home.
It reminded me all over again of a dream I could never reach.
Even if I had Bee, in some council flat or old people’s home, it just…
It wouldn’t be enough.
It wouldn’t be this.
I would never be home.