9
A COUPLE OF days later turned out to be one of those days where Nora had to force herself to the lake. Not because she didn’t want to swim, but because the pressure of everything that she had to do for the rest of the day made her feel as if she didn’t have time to fit it in. Dawn was breaking when she left the house, and by the time she’d walked through the woods, she was greeted by a spectacular sunrise, its orange and pink hues reflecting on the surface of the lake. The moment that she lowered herself off the dock and into the water, she felt the tension ebb away. Because the water temperature was still low, she made sure her breathing was under control before she pushed off, gliding through the still water, feeling as if she was the only person in the world. One loop of the lake took her about fifteen minutes and in that time, the sun rose, lost its beautiful colours and settled into producing a bright late winter day.
Nora dried off, dressed, and wrapped her dry robe around her. She’d brought her flask, but since there wasn’t time to linger, she planned to sip her tea on the way home. As she was about to clamber over the wall, she heard a splash and turned to see that Archie and Tatty had arrived at the other side of the lake. He raised a hand, and she waved back, waiting while he made his way around to her, all thoughts of the next part of her day forgotten.
‘Morning!’ he called when he got closer.
‘Morning.’
‘You’ve already been in.’ He sounded disappointed. ‘How was it today?’
‘Wonderful. The sunrise was amazing.’
‘It certainly was,’ he agreed. ‘Starts the day off on a good footing.’
‘Would you like some tea?’ It seemed only polite to offer, given that perhaps he had come to see her.
‘Ah, no —’
‘I have an extra cup.’ It was a habit from her days at the sea pool when inevitably someone would be grateful for it.
His face brightened. ‘That would be lovely if you have time. You were about to leave.’
All the things that had seemed so important earlier suddenly didn’t seem pressing at all. ‘I have time,’ she said, smiling. His eyes did something to her insides, and she had to try not to stare at him. ‘Shall we sit on the dock?’
The dog was still in the water, happily paddling back and forth before she hauled herself out on the island and settled down for a doze.
‘Daft dog,’ Archie said affectionately. ‘I hope she won’t mind getting in again when she realises she’s marooned on the island.’
‘You might have to go and fetch her,’ Nora teased him, handing him a battered enamel mug half-filled with tea.
‘Thank you. That won’t be happening, I can assure you.’
Nora felt a thrill that Archie had expected her to be here. He’d come at exactly the same time of day, as if he’d come especially to see her. But then, she’d told him she was swimming every day, so perhaps not that surprising. ‘Do you always walk her in the grounds?’
‘Always. Convenience, I suppose. Tatty is running around after me all day, anyway. I’m not really walking her.’
‘More for yourself?’
He looked at her and Nora lost herself in his eyes again for a moment before he looked away. ‘A good walk seems to help with most things. Same as the swimming, I imagine?’
‘Definitely. Especially today. I have a million things to do and none of them are fun. But at least now I feel like I’m ready to tackle it all. Coming here has made me take a breather before all of that starts, otherwise I’d be halfway up the M6 by now, all stressed out with my shoulders up around my ears.’
‘You work that far away?’
‘I’m a potter. I work out of a pottery in Stoke. I don’t have to go in every day. A lot of the admin can be done remotely, but that’s where my kiln is. Was,’ she added, with a sigh.
‘What’s happened to it?’
‘It’s old and unreliable, so I had to buy a new one and now I have to do a load of test firings before my next batch of work can be fired. The window for making sure it’s firing perfectly is tiny. I need to try and pin it down this week, otherwise I’ll miss my next deadline.’
‘It sounds like a lot more than I envisaged a potter having to cope with. Where do you sell your work?’
‘The stuff I’m worried about is sold mostly to department stores or galleries. Here and overseas.’ She was usually more reserved with information she gave when someone asked something like this, but Archie was a lord and unlikely to be after her money. And as such a new friend – if she could even call him that – it was better to start out with no misconceptions. ‘And I have a production line that produces pottery for the mass-market.’
‘Goodness me. I can understand why it’s important to take some time for yourself.’
‘I love it all, but not today. Making friends with a new kiln is a tricky business.’
‘Lots of gods involved, as I understand it,’ he said.
Nora laughed. ‘You’ve been watching that pottery competition on television.’
‘My mother loves the chap on there.’
‘He’s brilliant,’ Nora agreed.
‘I don’t suppose you know anything about chimney pots?’
‘I’ve made a chimney pot or two in my time but it’s been a while, and nothing as ornate as the beautiful chimneys on your house.’ Realising that she had just admitted she’d taken a wander further into the estate, she blushed. ‘I’m sorry, I —’
‘No need to apologise. We’re friends now. In fact, I was hoping to pick your brains a little more about the swimming.’
Nora relaxed. ‘Fire away.’
‘My friend has suggested that cold-water swimming is all the rage these days and that opening the lake might be something to look into.’
The prospect of the lake being commercialised excited Nora because she’d love other people to experience the beauty of the place. But it was her lake. ‘I can see that working,’ she said. ‘I mean, you could easily have twenty or so at the same time without it feeling crowded.’
‘Really? As many as that?’
‘I think you’d need to make it worthwhile. The first step is to have the water tested, just to make sure. And in the meantime, I could ask some friends if they’d like to try it? Get you some early consumer feedback?’ Hilary and the others might like to come.
‘That sounds wonderful,’ said Archie. ‘You know, if Tatty and I hadn’t come across you here, I’d never have thought the lake was useful.’
‘Happy that my trespassing has helped,’ Nora said.
Archie laughed. ‘It’s hardly that now.’
‘And the chimney pot. If you give me the measurements, I’m happy to see what I can do.’
‘I can’t ask you to do that,’ Archie said.
‘It’d be a welcome challenge. The clay will cost next to nothing. It’s the least I can do in exchange for my morning swims.’
‘In that case, I accept. Thank you. I’ll jot down the size and pop down one morning.’
‘Lovely,’ said Nora, pleased that he had a reason to come back. ‘I had better go.’ She stood up and gathered her things.
Archie gulped the rest of his tea, stood up next to her, and handed the cup back. ‘Thank you for the unexpected refreshment.’
‘No problem. Perhaps I’d better make extra for next time I see you.’
They faced each other, not more than a footstep between them. Archie shoved his hands in his pockets and began moving from one foot to the other, as if he had something else to say.
‘I look forward to seeing you soon, Nora,’ he said. It sounded slightly formal, and perhaps not exactly what he was hoping to have said. If he was feeling anything like she was, he was hoping the next time they saw each other would be the following day, but Nora didn’t want to assume anything. Perhaps he just had such good manners that he put people at ease. Found it easy to befriend people. And perhaps she had so few friends here she was clinging to the idea of Archie becoming one of them, when really, if she hadn’t been caught in the lake, their paths would never have crossed.
‘Me too, Archie. Bye.’
Later that day, after throwing endless pots on her wheel for the never-ending test firings, Nora finally reached the quota she’d set herself. Breathing a sigh of relief, she stood, stretched, and went in search of Val.
‘I’ve finished,’ she said, as if she was telling her mum she’d finished her homework.
‘Fab. Come on then, let’s get cracking.’
The kiln technician, Neil, helped them carry the pots into the drying room, exchanging them for pots that had been thrown the week before. They needed to dry out for at least a week before firing, so Nora had been throwing for the past seven days to make sure there was an ample supply for all the tests. They’d decorate them like they did with the mass-market lines and sell them as seconds if any of the firings were successful.
They carried the next dry batch downstairs, then Neil and Nora decided on the settings for the first run.
‘Let’s go with the suggested settings for a bisque firing,’ he said. ‘If it goes well, brilliant, and if not, we’ve got something to work on tomorrow.’
Neil sounded hopeful, but they all knew that there were so many variables involved; the thickness of the pots; how many pieces they loaded; whether there was any moisture left in the clay when it went in. And it was hard to control all of those variables at once. But that was what they were trying to do.
‘Can you fix me up with some terracotta clay?’ Nora asked Val while they were grabbing a coffee in the kitchen.
‘What are you dabbling in?’ Val said. They only used porcelain clay in the pottery, both for the production line and for Nora’s bespoke pieces.
‘I want to make a chimney pot.’
‘Oh, times are so desperate that you need to throw your own chimney now?’
Nora laughed. ‘You know Lord Harrington? Archie? He asked me if I could. It’s ridiculous really. All of his have those beautiful twisted, ornate pots and I’m not sure I’m up to that standard, but I fancy having a go.’
‘Funnily enough, we haven’t got any on hand, but I’ll get some added to the next delivery. Look at it as a reward for getting the new kiln sorted out.’
‘Anything that isn’t throwing boring test pots is a reward.’
‘Are you staying tonight?’
Nora sometimes stayed in a local hotel if she had a late finish and an early start, but it wasn’t as far to go home and back as it had been before she moved. And she wanted a swim in the morning.
‘I won’t. There are enough pots for the tests now, so I don’t need to be here first thing. And who knows, the kiln might fire perfectly tonight and I won’t need to worry.’
‘We can but hope. Do you want to get dinner before you go?’ Val asked.
‘I’d love that. Give me ten minutes to clean up.’
They went to the pub round the corner that did wonderful homemade pies. They chose mushroom and Stilton with chunky chips and mushy peas and had non-alcoholic beers since they were both driving.
‘So you’ve seen the lord again?’
‘I saw him this morning. I shared my flask of tea with him, which is why I was late.’ Nora didn’t mind sharing all the details with Val. They’d worked closely together for years and were friends as much as colleagues.
‘Does he swim?’
‘No, but he probably should. He seems quite anxious, but I think he’s scared of the fish.’
Val laughed. ‘Until you said that I had visions of him wading out of the lake like Colin Firth’s Mr Darcy!’
‘He’s definitely not Mr Darcy,’ Nora said, feeling disloyal as she said it. ‘But he’s lovely. You could get lost in his eyes.’
‘Oh god,’ Val said. ‘You’ve already fallen for him.’
‘Of course I haven’t,’ Nora said breezily, waving a hand at Val. ‘I barely know him and I’m just out of a long-term relationship. All I’m saying is he has nice eyes. Lots of people do, and I don’t fancy all of them.’
‘Just the lord?’ Val teased.
Nora grinned, not minding.
‘You ought to be careful. He might only be after you for your chimney pots.’
‘If I manage to make anything remotely resembling a chimney pot, it’s the least I can do in exchange for all the free swimming I’ve done. Actually, he mentioned he’s looking into opening it to the public.’
‘And your days of having your own private lake will be over,’ said Val.
‘You should come and stay the night sometime and have a swim.’ Nora knew what Val’s response would be. It wasn’t the first time she’d tried to get her in the water.
‘If you were offering me a hot tub or a sauna to jump into afterwards, I’d happily join you, but I can’t do with being cold.’
‘Do you know? That’s something I might suggest to Archie. I don’t know whether he’s thought beyond the swimming, but last year when I went to Dorset, they had a wood-fired sauna on the beach and it was absolute bliss after a swim.’
‘That’s what I’m talking about,’ said Val. ‘Get him to buy a sauna and I’ll come and try it out for you.’
The pies arrived golden and crispy, accompanied by a huge mound of chips that Nora thought she wouldn’t possibly manage, but always did.
‘I’ll see what I can do,’ she said, taking the pastry top off her pie to let the steam out.
The sauna idea was brilliant. But before she mentioned it to Archie, she’d do as she promised and try to get some locals to try the lake. It was important to find out whether it was likely to appeal to other people the same way as it did to her.