Chapter 19
Chapter Nineteen
‘T his is going to be so much fun,’ said Michaela as they walked down the stairs, each clutching an overnight bag and a pile of bedding. Leo agreed. He’d been looking forward to this weekend and escaping the city, even though today’s sky of unbroken cloud was flat and grey. Winter was creeping towards them and the temperature had dipped by several degrees in the last couple of weeks.
‘You do know she’s going to put you to work,’ said Jan, with a wink at him and Anna.
‘We don’t mind,’ she said.
‘Speak for yourself.’ Leo laughed before adding, ‘Although I’m not sure how much use I’ll be.’
‘Yes, don’t let him near any power tools,’ teased Anna.
‘Hey. Whose side are you on? I’m very good at cleaning up,’ he protested, playfully poking Anna in the side. ‘I can be your assistant. Hand you the screws and whatnots.’
Anna winced. ‘Whatnots? Oh, Leo, Leo. What are we going to do with you?’ she asked with a mournful sigh, although those lovely expressive eyes glinted with laughter.
‘Well, work or not, it feels like we’re going on holiday, especially when we get to play hooky,’ declared Leo, as he wedged his and Anna’s overnight bags into the back of Jan’s Volkswagen Passat. The roomy boot was already packed to the gunnels with Jan’s tools, bedding, food, beer and several boxes of tiles that were for the kitchen. It resembled an elaborate Jenga puzzle. Take the wrong thing out and everything would come tumbling out.
Jan shook his head, giving Leo a pitying look. ‘Don’t let Michaela hear you say that. She’s delighted to have two extra pairs of hands. You’ll have to work for your dinner.’
‘In England, we say, “Sing for your supper”. That’s your department, Anna.’
Puzzlement creased Jan’s face until Leo explained. ‘Anna’s a brilliant singer. She’s got a gorgeous voice.’ Inside, a little voice of his own reminded him that she had a gorgeous face, a gorgeous soul and a gorgeous body, not that she’d ever believed him when he told her so. Despite her willowy build, there was a softness about her that had drawn him from the first time he saw her. She’d brought out his protective instincts, even though she’d always made it clear she didn’t need looking after.
‘So has Jan. You can sing together this evening,’ said Michaela, with the blithe assurance of someone who had no idea how harmonies worked.
‘I can hold a tune,’ said Anna, blushing. ‘Leo’s exaggerating,’
He wasn’t, but he wouldn’t embarrass her any more, although he found the blush endearing. She’d always downplayed her abilities, perhaps because they hadn’t been valued by her adopted family. He had to stifle the urge to give her a hug and tell her she was brilliant because no one else ever had. She’d overcome a tragedy and had never felt sorry for herself. She made the most of every situation and just got on with things.
With everything loaded, the four of them piled into Jan’s ageing estate car, Michaela in the front with Jan, Leo and Anna in the back.
‘How long will it take us to get there?’ Anna asked as she struggled to plug in her seatbelt. When Leo leaned over to help, his hand brushing hers, her familiar scent teased him and he felt an unexpected longing for how things had once been.
‘About three hours if the traffic is good,’ said Jan. ‘Most people’s chatas are only forty-five minutes or an hour away. Driving this far for a weekend is unusual but it’s because it is where my family originally came from.’
The initial part of the journey through Prague was slow going until they reached the motorway.
‘Sorry, it’s not a very interesting journey at first,’ Jan apologised. ‘But the fastest way is to take the toll road to Brno and then drop down towards the Austrian border. But I promise when we get nearer, it will be better.’
‘So where are we going?’ asked Anna, opening up her phone. ‘I know it’s Southern Moravia but that doesn’t mean much to me.’
Leo nudged her with his elbow. ‘And you do like to know where you’re going.’
‘We’re going to near the Austrian border. The nearest town is Pavlov, but we are right by the Věstonice reservoir, which is a big nature park.’
‘Can you spell that?’ asked Anna, as she brought up the Google maps app.
‘Anna is the go-to navigator,’ said Leo, as he watched her input the journey. ‘Whereas I have absolutely no sense of direction.’
‘It’s true. He’s useless.’ Anna looked up from her phone and then quickly glanced back again.
Leo smiled to himself. An old in-joke. He had no sense of direction, unless it was in the bedroom, where he knew due south.
‘I have my moments,’ he murmured, and was gratified when Anna made a stalwart attempt to move the conversation on, her cheeks reddening. He leaned back in his seat and folded his arms with an ever so slightly smug grin on his face. He really shouldn’t take pleasure in Anna’s discomfort, but sometimes it was gratifying to know she wasn’t immune to him. He knew women liked him but Anna had always held back. It was that cool reserve that had first attracted him.
* * *
Anna stared out of the window at the rolling green countryside, which offered occasional glimpses of orchards and vineyards dotted with traditional white buildings and the now familiar terracotta-tiled roofs. Michaela had told her this was South Moravia and this particular area was known for growing almonds and grapes. She was grateful that they were at last coming off the slip road of the motorway into somewhere called Hustope?e. Acutely aware of Leo beside her, she’d been tracking their journey on her phone as a distraction, although her left foot had developed a constant jitter which was nothing to do with being cooped up in a car.
‘We should take a quick detour to show you the town square and the church, shouldn’t we, Jan?’ said Michaela, suddenly warming to her role of tour guide. ‘St Wenceslas and St Agnes is very modern, built in a circle. I think it’s beautiful. Jan isn’t so keen, it’s too modern for him.’
Jan grunted from the driver’s seat but obligingly turned off the main road down a side street. They emerged in a large, cobbled square with an extraordinarily contemporary church on the right. With its tall tower and the curved walls that swept down into a graceful curve of white stone it made a striking contrast to the rest of the buildings.
‘Now that is beautiful,’ said Jan pointing the stone-and-white rendered building opposite. It was five storeys high, with arched windows, an oriel window, a gable and a square tower with a clock and a turret. It might have been an architectural extravaganza with all those features but, when viewed as a whole, it was a quiet, calm building, elegant in its simplicity.
‘I agree,’ said Anna, looking round the square. ‘Everything is so clean and tidy,’ she marvelled, taking in the litter-free pavements and the hanging baskets on every lamppost.
‘Now the road crosses the reservoir,’ announced Michaela, pointing to the bridge spanning the centre of the body of water. ‘Imagine, before this you would have had to drive all the way around.’
Jan laughed. ‘It wasn’t that far, only ten or so kilometres.’
Once they’d crossed the reservoir, the roads became progressively smaller until they finally turned onto a dirt track, along which the car bumped for a few minutes before the path petered out in what seemed like the middle of nowhere.
‘Here we are,’ said Michaela, jumping out of the car before Jan had even switched off the engine. ‘Our chata on the lake. Come see.’
By the time Leo and Anna had unfolded themselves from the back of the car, she was scrambling up a small grassy bank on their right. At the top she stopped and turned. ‘Come on,’ she called.
Leo paused. ‘Do you want a hand?’ he asked Jan.
The other man shook his head. ‘In a minute. Go take a look. I’ve seen it before.’ His indulgent smile as he watched Michaela disappear gave Anna a small pang of envy. ‘This really is her favourite place. We’re so excited that it’s ours.’ Although his words were quietly spoken, Anna knew they expressed the couple’s deep feelings for the place.
‘Come on, then,’ said Leo, reaching for Anna’s hand to help her up the bank. When they crested the small slope, the land flattened out, leading down to the lake.
‘Oh,’ said Anna.
‘Wow. What a spot.’
The pretty wooden cabin sat a few metres from the water’s edge, the tall apex of its roof against the backdrop of brilliant blue sky reflected in the flat sheen of the water. Apart from the birdsong, the distant splashes of ducks in the reeds and the breeze whispering through the leaves in the trees around them, there wasn’t a sound.
Michaela simply sighed and clasped her hands to her chest, looking up at the house. ‘And it’s all ours.’ Her eyes brimmed with tears and Jan, who’d caught up with them, put an arm around her shoulders to give her a hug.
‘It’s all good.’ She brushed at her eyes. ‘They are happy tears. I’m so glad to be here and to be able to share it with friends.’
The house had two storeys and was much larger than Anna had expected. Hadn’t Michaela said Jan’s uncle’s family had built it themselves? The lower walls were built of rough-hewn stones, the upper walls clad in wood. As she came closer she could see that some things needed a bit of TLC. Despite this, the house was a great design. What caught Anna’s attention most was the upper-floor window nestled in the high inverted V of the roof, with its large balcony and what she could bet was a prime view over the water.
‘It’s gorgeous,’ Anna told Michaela, who beamed with quiet pride, her eyes still glistening with tears.
‘Yes, there is a lot to do but the structure is good. Come inside and see.’
She skipped up the steps, unlocked the door and threw it open with an excited giggle. Anna followed more slowly, taking in her surroundings. Through the trees she could make out a couple of neighbouring structures but at a far enough distance to offer privacy.
The front door opened into a narrow corridor with three doors off to the left and three to the right. At the end of the corridor was a ladder that went up through a large square hatch.
Michaela opened the first door on the left and Anna stepped in. It reminded her of an old people’s home with its row of high-backed armchairs facing the grime-streaked windows. Despite the big windows it felt dark and cramped and not particularly inviting.
‘We spend most of our time outside in the summer,’ explained Michaela as if reading her mind, and walked on to the next room. ‘This is the kitchen,’ she said, pulling a face, and Anna could see why.
The dark area beyond was tiny with a set of very dated marbled Formica-fronted units taking up a small portion of the back wall, two up and two down, sandwiching a tiny metal sink and a rust-spotted stove hooked up to a large gas cylinder. A rack holding several plates clung to the ugly cement block wall. It sagged in the middle, a couple of its spindles missing, like gapped teeth, and looked in danger of imminent collapse onto the square wood-veneered table beneath it. A thin, weak stream of daylight struggled through a tiny, dusty window, on the opposite wall, that looked out on the trees at the side of the house.
‘I know. It’s very ugly. It’s going to be a lot of work to make it beautiful,’ said Michaela with a forlorn sigh. ‘So many weekends.’
Anna studied the sad little kitchen, her eyes zeroing in on the rotting floor and noting the old-fashioned wood panelling on the walls. Despite the dated fittings and decaying fabric, her brain ticked away, already thinking of fixes that she’d seen thanks to her obsession with Instagram home improvements.
‘What would you do?’ asked Michaela.
‘Me?’
‘Yes. If this was yours, what would you do?’
Anna took a considering breath. There was so much potential here.
‘I’d take up the floor.’ With one foot she tapped the boards, which had wide drafty gaps. ‘Put new boards down. Sand and polish them.’
Michaela clasped her hands together. ‘That sounds good.’
‘And I’d remove that wall and knock through to the front room with the view. Make it a kitchen you live in.’
‘Yes!’
‘And I’d put bi-fold doors where the windows are. Scrap the units at the back and replace them with a single run, and then put in an island area with seating in the middle. And I’d do something with that old dresser. You could upcycle it to tie in with whatever colour scheme and units you decide on.’
‘I was going to get rid of it, although it is very useful. We keep all the china in there. But you’re right, I can do something with it. I’m going to keep it. Now come see the bedrooms.’
Michaela pushed open the first door on the right in the corridor to reveal a big empty room with dusty floorboards which creaked as she stepped on them. ‘It’s very cosy when we light the fires.’ She pointed to a large stone chimney breast on the far wall and the open fireplace with a pot-bellied wood burner. ‘Or it will be when we have a bed in here. There used to be bunk beds in here for all the children – it would sleep six – but we took them out.’ She shot Anna an impish grin. ‘For now. One day we will buy a big bed for me and Jan but until then we have air beds.’
She guided Anna to the next room. ‘This will be your room. I hope you don’t mind sharing. But there is an air bed each and it is a big room.’
Although a substantial size it was still smaller than the room next door and, like the other room, had a fireplace, though smaller, with another wood burner, and wooden clad walls Two small windows looked out onto the woods at the back of the house.
‘And here is the bathroom with Jan’s famous shower.’
The bathroom was basic and consisted of an old tin bath with a shower head mounted above it and around it a plastic curtain covered in pink fish.
‘And the toilet?’ asked Anna.
Michaela wrinkled her nose. ‘Not so good. There is a shed outside. There is no proper plumbing here. The water comes to the house in a pipe from down the road but there is no waste. But I promise you, having hot water in the shower is a luxury. It used to be cold only.’
Anna laughed. ‘This is luxury. I’m used to camping, and my cousins like wild camping, so this is fine.’
‘And now the best bit.’ Michaela moved to the end of the corridor to climb the rickety ladder. ‘Watch your step.’
Anna followed her up, taking each tread gingerly. At the top she stepped gratefully from the ladder into a living room under the sloping eaves. Light poured in from the big triangular windows at the front of the house. How on earth had they got them up here? The walls were clad in honeyed wood from the floor to the very apex of the roof. On the wall at the back of the room was a huge stone hearth, around which large floor cushions were arranged so that guests could take in the view from around the fire.
Michaela crossed to the balcony doors, opened them and stepped out into the early evening sunshine. She rested both hands on the wooden balustrade, her face tilted up to the sun.
‘This,’ she said simply, waving one hand towards the still, shimmering water.
‘Yes,’ said Anna, understanding immediately. It was all about the view and the sense of being at the heart of nature. Trees in an arc of vivid green tumbled down to the water’s edge, some clinging to the sandy banks, their trunks twisted to maintain stability. Directly in front of the chata a grassy field sloped down to the reservoir. An old tree trunk lying on the ground had had one side removed to turn it into a seat with a perfect vantage point. Birds wheeled in the sky, and away in the distance on the far side of the water rose purple-shadowed hills .
‘There are actually three reservoirs here,’ explained Michaela. ‘When they were created they flooded the forests and a village, Mu?ov. You can still see the church, which is on a tiny island all by itself.
‘That’s sad but it is very beautiful.’ Anna thought of the people who’d once lived in the village and wondered out loud what had happened to them.
‘Jan’s grandparents were from Mu?ov. They moved to Brno, and Jan’s uncle came back to build his chata . He never had children and his health is not so good. Jan’s father has his own house further down the reservoir which we have used before. Jan’s uncle doesn’t want to manage the chata anymore, which is why he’s given it to us.’ Michaela clasped her hands over her heart and did a little skip of excitement.
In the meantime, they could hear the sound of the men below who had obviously begun to unload the car.
‘I guess we ought to help,’ said Michaela, with a mischievous smile. As soon as she descended the ladder she began directing Jan.
‘You can show Leo your room,’ said Michaela, with an airy wave of her hand as she took the box of food supplies from Jan and went into the kitchen.
‘This is us,’ said Anna, as Leo dropped the two air mattresses on the floor.
‘Cool,’ he said giving the room a cursory look and immediately crossing to the log burner, kneeling on the floor and opening the iron door.
‘Men and fire,’ said Anna. The wood burner in the apartment was definitely Leo’s domain.
‘Always.’ Leo grinned up at her from where he crouched. Her mouth went dry as she took in his delightfully dishevelled appearance – rolled-up shirt sleeves and untucked shirt.
‘Mmm,’ she said, her vocal cords feeling a little tight. Tonight she’d be sharing this room with him, and all she could think was: where was she going to change?
‘Who’s ready for a drink?’ called Jan from the kitchen.
‘I reckon we deserve one,’ said Leo.
‘Yes,’ said Anna, her voice squeaky.
‘You all right?’ asked Leo.
‘Just the dust,’ she lied. ‘I need a drink.’
And that wasn’t all she needed. A cold dip in the lake might be called for.