14
NORA HAD NEVER experienced such chivalry, and she was absolutely charmed by it. She could tell that it was Archie at his most natural, rather than a show being put on for her benefit. From the moment they left the car and she felt Archie’s hand on her back, to the way he held her chair out. All of it made Nora wonder why she had ever thought she might not be ready to explore a relationship with this man.
‘Would you like the dessert menu?’ the waiter asked as he cleared their plates.
Archie raised an eyebrow in question and after Nora confirmed with a nod, he said, ‘Yes, thank you.’
‘I don’t have room for pudding,’ Nora admitted, ‘but that pasta was so delicious, I bet they do an amazing tiramisu.’ She wasn’t ready for the evening to end and being too full seemed like a small price to pay to extend it.
‘Our cook, Mrs Milton, makes the best sticky toffee pudding in the world but I don’t think she’s ever turned out a tiramisu.’
‘I’m not sure how trendy it is these days but it was the only pudding you could get in the Italian we used to go to as students. We used to share a portion between us.’
‘Where did you got to university?’
‘I went to art college in Bristol. And then I stayed in that area afterwards.’
‘It must have been a big decision to leave there after such a long time. Brave.’
‘I don’t think I was being brave. On some level it was more like running away, trying to leave the past behind. I wanted a life that was mine, where I didn’t have to consider anyone else. I wanted things on my own terms. Gosh, that makes me sound so selfish.’
‘I’ve never had a relationship for anywhere near as long as yours was, but I imagine that when it ends, it’s important to find yourself again. Get used to being an individual again. That’s not the same as being selfish.’
‘The thing is, I always felt as if I’d kept my identity. I’ve built a career for myself and although Julian would take the credit for helping with that, as soon as I became vaguely successful, he was resentful. Not massively at first, but it built over the years and it took me a while to notice.’
‘What does he do?’
‘He’s a potter too. That was part of the problem. I suppose he didn’t understand why my stuff started selling better than his. He still doesn’t,’ she said with a soft laugh.
‘It sounds like jealousy as much as resentfulness.’
‘Mmm. I think once I realised that, it was probably over.’
‘I’m not sure someone who loves you would ever feel like that. I’d imagine you’d be each other’s champion, wanting the best things for each other. Always.’
‘That’s what I think too, but perhaps that’s idealistic.’
The waiter came back and Archie ordered two tiramisus and coffee to follow. Nora would never normally drink caffeine after lunchtime, but tonight she didn’t think the caffeine would make any difference to whether or not she slept. She knew her mind would be full of tonight. Running over what they’d talked about and thinking about Archie.
‘How about you? Has anyone broken your heart?’
‘Not for a long time. I had a girlfriend a good few years ago, before my father died. We met at university and ambled into living together afterwards. We’d decided to marry, but in the event she didn’t want to be stuck on the estate in the middle of Worcestershire when I had to take over.’
‘You mean when your father died?’
He nodded. ‘The inevitable consequence. It was always going to happen, but I was young and thought there was more time for a life before that responsibility became mine. Clarissa wasn’t ready.’
It didn’t sound as if Archie had been ready either, and Nora was stunned that something as devastating as losing his father was the catalyst for a breakup.
‘What was your plan before your father died?’ she asked, intrigued.
‘We still had a family house in London at that time, so we’d based ourselves there. Most of our friends were there, and I was managing the family’s small property business. Clarissa liked the lifestyle, but once my father died, there were so many debts. We had to sell most of the London property, save for a couple of small flats which weren’t suitable for us to live in, she said. The idea of moving into the Court with my mother appalled her, so that was the end of it.’
‘I’m so sorry. That must have been an awful time.’
‘It was. But it worked out for the best. Better to have discovered her disdain for the idea of living in Croftwood before we married rather than later down the line. Imagine the complication if we’d had a family.’
The tiramisu arrived and they tucked in, rolling their eyes in delight at each other as they took a first taste.
‘How does this stack up against the sticky toffee?’ Nora asked.
Archie tilted his head to the side, carefully considering his answer. ‘It’s absolutely delicious but I think the sticky toffee pudding is too ingrained in me to be beaten.’
Nora laughed. ‘Fair enough. I’d like to try that sticky toffee sometime.’
Archie’s eyes sparkled. ‘I’d like that too.’
After some back and forth about splitting the bill or not, Archie paid and they strolled back to the car. It was chillier than Nora had expected, and she wrapped her shawl tightly around her shoulders before she took Archie’s arm.
‘I’ve so enjoyed tonight,’ she said, briefly squeezing his arm in the crook of her elbow.
‘Enough to do it again?’
‘Definitely.’
When Archie pulled into the drive at Nora’s cottage, he turned the engine off and climbed out of the car, reaching Nora’s door just as she’d opened it. He offered his hand, helping her out.
‘Thank you for a lovely evening.’ She leant towards him and kissed his cheek.
‘Nora. You’re wonderful company.’ For a moment she thought he was going to kiss her. Properly. But he kissed her cheek which was almost as good. ‘Might I see you at the lake in the morning?’
‘Of course. Do you think you would join me for a swim?’
He gave her a shy smile. ‘Perhaps not. But I can bring the tea.’
Nora went to the door and unlocked it, then paused to watch Archie back down the drive, flashing his lights in a last farewell before he turned out onto the lane. She put the kettle on, and went upstairs to put her pyjamas on. Although it was late, she lit a fire because she wasn’t ready to turn in. She curled up in front of the television with a cup of tea and mindlessly watched a couple of episodes of Virgin River while her mind worked overtime.
The shy man she’d met at the lake had turned her head tonight. It was as if the fact that she’d accepted the date, accepted him, had built his confidence. He’d been relaxed, funny, absolutely charming, and she felt as if she’d known him for years rather than only a couple of weeks. And although the fact that he’d spruced himself up was in his favour, that wasn’t what made Nora feel differently about him. She was falling for his soul.
The following morning at the lake, Archie ambled along with Tatty just as Nora was climbing out of the water. It was excellent timing and he busied himself with making the tea while Nora dried and dressed herself.
‘You’re outclassing me in the tea stakes,’ Nora teased him as he fished the teabags out of two china mugs.
‘Only because I had to ask Mrs Milton for a flask and she insisted I bring hot water and do it properly. But the upside of that is that she also insisted I bring cake.’
‘For breakfast?’ Nora pretended to be shocked but she wasn’t averse to cake this early in the day, especially if she’d been swimming.
‘It’s an apple crumble cake so perhaps better than chocolate cake at this hour?’
‘Technically the last thing I ate was cake too,’ Nora said, thinking of the tiramisu, and accepting a sizeable slice of cake on a plate, that she was quite sure was Royal Worcester porcelain, accompanied by a cake fork. She had to suppress a smile. It was so comical, using delicate crockery and silver cake forks at the lake’s edge.
‘You know, I had planned to pump you for information last night. Everything you know about cold-water swimming and whether you think it could work here.’
‘And why didn’t you?’
‘There were better things to talk about,’ he said simply.
‘I don’t know how much help I can be, other than to tell you what I think and what the others have said about it. Whether it’s anything to do with actual regulations, I wouldn’t know.
Nora proceeded to tell him what she understood of the capacity of the lake, how the entry system worked in other places and how it might work here, and what else he might need to think about in terms of his offer to swimmers.
‘Some places have saunas or fire pits to help people warm up afterwards. You might need to think about providing some sort of shelter for people to change in with somewhere to leave their things. In the winter people bring a lot more kit. And you probably need to think about access, parking, that kind of thing.’
‘There’s a lot more to it than I thought.’
‘Did this lake used to be open to the public when it was a fishing lake?’
‘Yes. My father used to run the local angling club from here.’
‘I wonder where they used to park? Patsy and Lois parked on the road and climbed over the wall, then came through the hedge over there,’ she said, pointing.
‘Ah, perhaps that’s the closest access point.’ He set his mug down and stood up, pushing his way through the undergrowth towards the hedge, and peering through it. ‘Yes!’ he said triumphantly, turning to face Nora with a grin on his face. ‘I can see the road through here. There’s an old brick toolshed on the other side of the hedge where a mower was kept just for the area around the lake.’ He came back to sit next to her. ‘I don’t think that hedge is ancient or anything. It looks like self-seeded hazel and sycamore that’s out of control. We could take that out and make an entrance.’
‘That sounds like a plan. And you won’t mind people driving through the estate?’
‘Actually, I’m sure that years ago there was a gate over this side of the estate. Perhaps we could look into reinstating it? I don’t think it would be too much trouble. It would probably come out fairly close to the lane you live on.’
‘That would be better for people coming here from town.’ Of course Nora had driven past the gates to the Court out of curiosity. ‘It will be quicker than coming through the main gate and would mean people weren’t driving past the house.’
‘I think Mama would be happier with that. She does worry about lack of privacy.’
‘I can understand that,’ Nora said, licking her finger to pick up the last crumbs of cake. ‘It’s her home.’
‘There’s a fine line between using it as a resource and having it as a family home, and I understand that. But it’s getting ever more important to generate cash from it. It’s so expensive to run. The quote I’ve had for repairing the roof is eye-watering and that’s just for a patch-up job. I seriously doubt we will ever be in a position to repair it properly.’
Nora reached for Archie’s hand. ‘Do you talk to your mother about any of this?’ She already knew what his answer would be. There was no way he would burden her with these things that he felt were his responsibility, in the same way as they were his father’s.
‘It’s not for her to worry about.’
‘You shouldn’t have to deal with it on your own.’ Nora said, wishing she could offer something more helpful than stating the obvious.
‘But I am on my own. Seb’s fantastic about putting his ideas into action. We might have already lost the house if it weren’t for him bringing the Christmas market to life. But a cash injection in December isn’t going to be enough this time.’
‘Hilary mentioned that you give the use of your land for free to the festival. If you charged for that would it make a difference?’
‘No,’ he said firmly. ‘It’s important that we do what we can to help the town. I can’t charge for use of the land and then ask the same people who are paying me for that to come to my Christmas market, or pay to use my lake. It has to be give and take.’
‘I can understand that,’ Nora said squeezing his hand. She might not agree with him but she needed him to know that she was on his side. That these things were his decision, but that she was willing to help him if she could. ‘If we write a proper business plan for the swimming lake, you could try and get a bank loan,’ she suggested, having financed her production line in exactly that way. ‘It wouldn’t need to be very much and you’d have it paid back in no time. Everyone who came the other day to try it loved it, and they all said they’d come regularly if it opened. We can get up and running before the summer, and literally make hay while the sun shines.’
‘I can’t take out a loan. It isn’t right.’ Archie said.
‘Why?’ Nora asked gently, wanting to understand. ‘Because it’s not something that’s happened in your family before?’
He nodded. ‘And we do have assets. We still have the London flats.’
‘Could you sell those?’ It felt cold-hearted to suggest it, but better that than him losing the Court. ‘Surely that would pay for the roof and the development of the lake and more.’
‘They’re the last of our assets. The one flat gives Mama an income and the other we keep for the family to use. My sister, Betsy, lives there at the moment.’
It seemed to Nora that Archie was fighting to keep everything as it was for his mother and sister and they, probably unwittingly, were taking advantage of him.
‘Could your sister pay rent? Then that would be an income for your mother and you could then sell at least one flat.’
Archie shook his head. ‘I can’t ask her to do that when I live here rent free. It wouldn’t be fair.’
‘Archie, it’s hardly free. You’re paying your way by being the one who’s holding all of this together. For them. And that might be okay in the good times but these are tough times for you. You need to be honest with your family and ask them to help you. I’m sure they would if they knew what the alternative was.’
‘That’s just it. The alternative is unthinkable. That we might lose the estate on my watch is unthinkable. It’s my solution to find. I just haven’t thought of it yet.’
When he looked at Nora, the desperation and sadness on his face made her heart ache for him. ‘I’ll help you. At the very least, let me help you get the swimming lake up and running. Let’s have a meeting with Seb and we’ll make a plan. We should aim to be open by the first week in June.’
Archie frowned. ‘I don’t think we can. If the planners are involved it’ll take some time.’
‘Best that we get started now then.’