Chapter 38
On a cold, crisp Boxing Day morning, the lake house awoke gradually. Marc was keeping a vague eye on the twins, who were lazing around on the sofa in the living room, squabbling gently over which game to play on their Nintendo Switch.
Shortly after Marc had sorted out his own breakfast, Noah walked into the kitchen. His brother took a seat at Marc’s kitchen table. ‘Thanks for letting Bella and me stay over last night. It was lovely not to have to drive home!’
‘You’re always welcome,’ Marc replied warmly.
They’d talked long into the night, the three brothers, and it felt as though it had done them all good.
He busied himself with making them a coffee.
Joel was still in bed, and Bella had nipped out early to feed the cats at Purrfect Paws, as Mollie Wakefield had gone away for a couple of days.
When he returned to the table, Noah had an uncharacteristically pensive look on his face.
‘Something on your mind?’
Noah started, caught out. ‘Well, since you ask, I wanted to run something past you while Bella was out looking after the mogs. She seemed to think it’d be better coming from me.’
‘Sure,’ Marc replied, smiling at his brother. ‘Although, to be honest, I’m more likely to say yes to Bella than you – you owe me too many favours from childhood!’
‘I did try to tell her that, but she insisted I talk to you first.’ He wrapped a hand around the mug of coffee that Marc gave him. ‘If you’re going to allow people over your threshold, you should probably get that sodding heating sorted out. It’s Arctic in here!’
‘It’s on my list for the New Year.’ Marc had to concede though that his brother was right.
He hadn’t been completely sure whether it was the weight he lost in the wake of Tessa’s death that made him feel the cold so much more or whether it was the antiquated central heating system in the lake house, but in late December there was no doubt that the house was not as warm as it needed to be, especially now the fire had gone out in the living room.
‘I’m sure I could hook you up with a decent engineer, and if I could sweeten the deal, he’d probably be in before the end of January.’
‘I’ll bear that in mind.’
The two brothers sat in silence, sipping their coffee. Marc’s curiosity, however, was piqued. ‘You don’t want to talk about the temperature of my house, though, do you?’
Noah gave another grin. ‘You’ve got me.’
Marc sat back in his chair, which gave a slightly ominous creak. Used to the drier climate of southern France, a lot of his furniture was having trouble adapting to the cooler, wetter conditions of the Somerset countryside. ‘Hit me, then, bro.’
‘Now, feel free to say no if you’d rather not,’ Noah began. ‘But you know how much Bella loves this place, right?’
‘The way she was talking about my living room last night, I wondered if you’d taken her on as a sales executive!’
Noah laughed. ‘I know! If she hadn’t fallen so hopelessly in love with me, she’d probably be making a play for you, just to spend more time in your house!’
‘Yeah, right,’ Marc snorted. ‘Bella doesn’t strike me as the shallow type.’
‘Okay, maybe not, but all the same, she loves this place, and the views across the lake.’
‘Well, she’s welcome to come and hang out any time,’ Marc sipped his coffee. ‘And I’ll even throw in a couple of feral twin boys for her to wrangle.’
‘The thing is…’ Noah shifted in his seat; he seemed for Noah, uncharacteristically nervous. ‘After we spent went to bed last night, she had an idea.’
‘What, she wants to be my lodger?’
‘Not exactly.’
‘Come on, Noah, just spit it out.’
‘Well, it’s like this. Bella’s written this amazing song for her new album.
It’s quite a departure from the stuff she was doing ten years ago, with a whole lot more folk and country influences.
It’s got this Taylor Swift Folklore vibe that her producer reckons will be a good fit for her target audience. ’
‘That’s great.’ Marc was pleased that, after a decade’s hiatus, Bella’s music career was beginning to go places again, and on her terms, too. ‘But what does this have to do with me?’
‘The record company wants her to shoot a video,’ Noah continued. ‘They’ve been looking at locations all around here, including Roseford, but Roseford was a little bit too curated, a bit too “National Trust” for Bella’s image. They want something a bit more, er, rustic.’
Marc rolled his eyes. ‘That’s one way of putting it. This place is definitely not curated!’
‘Well, Bella happened to mention the lake house, and, having looked online at the pictures I put up when the house first came onto the market, the record company want to suss it out, and maybe to use it as a location.’
‘And did Bella not think to run it past me before them?’ Marc put his coffee cup down. ‘I mean, it’s only my house she’s volunteering!’
‘To be fair, this was sometime before you put an offer in on the place,’ Noah replied.
‘And it had gone quiet until last week, when the record company got in touch again. Bella was a bit nervous about broaching it with you straight off the bat, so I said I’d see how the land lies about the reps from the record company coming to do a recce.
They’d pay you for the inconvenience, obviously. ’
‘I don’t know,’ Marc said dubiously. ‘We’ve only just got settled in. I’m not sure I want a bunch of strangers tramping all over my house, judging everything and getting in my way.’
‘I get that,’ Noah replied. ‘And it’s entirely up to you.
If you want, I can find out a few more details, like how long they’re likely to be here for, which rooms they’d like to use, that sort of thing.
Everything’ll be negotiable, and if you don’t want them here, then there are plenty of other locations they could consider, I’m sure. ’
‘That’s good to know.’
‘But they’ll pay you a decent whack for use of the place,’ Noah added.
‘I’ve had companies approaching me before, when I ran the Fulham office, asking for houses they might use for location shoots.
A lot of my clients liked the idea of media companies using their spaces while they were on the market – it helped to drive potential customers their way, and the fees came in handy to help ease the pain of stamp duty. ’
‘But I’ve already paid that,’ Marc pointed out.
‘I know, but wouldn’t some extra cash come in handy? It might even help you to replace the heating!’ Noah, even in a thick blue jumper, was shivering like a greyhound on a track.
Marc shook his head. His brother knew better than to turn the full beam of his searchlight sales patter on him, but he had to give him credit for his logic. The house did need a new heating system, and probably some new windows, too.
‘Did Bella have some ideas about which parts of the house she’d like to use?’
‘Well, the picture window in your living room was a firm favourite. The views across the lake are stunning.’ Noah stood up and ambled towards the living room. ‘Call me an old romantic, but even I got misty-eyed at the prospect of Bella lip-syncing her latest in front of that amazing panorama.’
Marc followed his brother into the living room, mostly because he was surprised that the sensible, pragmatic, business-oriented Noah had entertained such flights of fancy.
But then, Noah’s approach to life had softened ever since he’d met and fallen in love with Bella.
The ruthless estate agent, who had been intent on making a killing on every property, had conceded that his life needed more than just money.
While Noah still worked hard, it was becoming clearer to Marc that his brother was beginning to learn to live a little.
And, he conceded to himself, that was largely down to Bella. Perhaps the idea of loaning out the beautiful view from his living room window for a day or two to help her launch her new single wasn’t such a bad one after all.
‘It really is a stunning view,’ he said, as he joined Noah at the window. ‘Although, isn’t it the wrong time of year to be shooting a music video in this part of the world? Surely, the view would be much prettier in the summer.’
Noah laughed. ‘It’s quite an angsty song.’
‘Oh, mate,’ Marc teased, ‘don’t tell me she’s writing break-up songs already? If she is, you really need to try harder!’
‘Twat.’ Noah threw him a withering glance.
‘Bella reassures me she doesn’t have to be sad to write sad songs.
But winter suits the aesthetic, apparently.
’ He shrugged. ‘All I know is, her producer loves the track and thinks it could be a real hit, as big as “Heartbreaker”, her debut single was, back in the day. They want to create the whole package – a narrative for the video, in a perfect location, that TikTok will clip and rework, and – most importantly – share, to generate as much income as possible. The song’s absolutely gorgeous, and with the right visuals… ’
‘All right, all right.’ Marc held up a hand to quell his brother’s sales pitch before it really got going.
‘I’ll think about it. Get her to find out how much hiring the place out is worth, and we can talk.
’ He shook his head. ‘You know I adore Bella, and if this is going to help her to succeed, then I’m sure you can persuade me. ’
‘Cheers, bro, you’re a legend.’ Noah clapped a hand on Marc’s shoulder. ‘But if it feels as though it’s going to be too intrusive, you can still say no.’
‘I know. And I’ll need to make sure the boys are okay with it, too.’
‘Absolutely.’ Noah rocked on the balls of his feet, clearly impatient to go and share the good news with Bella. ‘I’ll call you later, once I’ve got some more details. I said I’d pick her up from Purrfect Paws in about twenty minutes.’
As Marc walked his brother out, he felt a combination of emotions.
On one hand, he was excited to be able to help Bella.
On the other, did he really want the intrusion of a film crew in his house?
He smiled, imagining what Tessa would say if she were still here.
She’d probably tell him to stop worrying so much and just go for it.
She would’ve loved meeting Bella and learning more about her music career.
And the house was, in its own way, scruffily picturesque.
Even in its current state it would make a great backdrop for a music video.
Suddenly feeling a lot more optimistic about Noah’s proposition, Marc decided he might just say yes.