Chapter 3
Feeling grateful that the most emotional part of my trip to Willowell had been successfully completed and that it had happened in such a beautifully poignant way, I slept soundly, and from the following morning, began to explore the surrounding area and take photographs of all the places that I knew Zack would love to see again.
The next catch-up we’d arranged hadn’t lasted beyond a few minutes because he was in an area with practically non-existent phone signal or internet, but I had just enough time to describe in more detail how releasing Dad’s ashes had gone and later I sent him an email with photo attachments that he would be able to view when he visited somewhere more geared up.
My time in and around Willowell and chatting with Melody, who was so open and welcoming, flew by and, with just a couple of days suddenly left, I realised I had made a new friend, but I still hadn’t booked my flight to Bali.
Now, as well as feeling uncertain that I wanted to make the trip or pay the gargantuan last-minute change of plan parking charges that I hadn’t previously factored in, I really didn’t want to leave the village I’d fallen back in love with, either.
‘I don’t suppose,’ I said to Melody, as we sat on the bistro set that belonged to the cottage in the courtyard one evening while sharing a bottle of wine and a bowl of olives, ‘there’s any chance of extending my stay here, is there?’
We’d already talked about the reason behind my return to Willowell as well as the joys of having a relative who disappeared off the face of the earth on a regular basis, and I knew that situation was harder for her because whenever Kaya came back she always promised to help with the store and cottage but rarely delivered.
As absent as he was, at least Zack never made promises he didn’t then keep.
Melody had reached breaking point with her sister’s lack of support a couple of days prior to our current conversation and told Kaya that she was planning to take on someone from the village to help her for the next few months.
Thankfully, that appeared to be the wake-up call that was required.
Kaya needed to refill her travel fund if she wanted to head off again, and being blessed with the means to work through the summer right on her doorstep, she was now knuckling down and earning her keep.
It wasn’t a total sibling relationship transformation, but enough of one to put the smile back on Melody’s face.
‘I’m afraid not,’ she sighed. ‘The cottage is booked right through the summer season now, which is brilliant on the one hand, but I’m gutted on the other because I would have loved it if you could have stayed in it for longer.’
I wasn’t someone who generally clicked easily with people, but Melody and I had hit it off right from the start and I felt she was someone I would definitely want to keep in touch with when I left.
It was a surprise to acknowledge that I’d recently said goodbye to colleagues I’d worked with for years without so much as a backwards glance and yet here I was, feeling so fond of someone I’d only very recently met.
I supposed that was how life and friendships worked out sometimes.
Perhaps, now I was finally discovering my real self, I’d also find myself drawn to my true tribe.
‘I would have loved that, too,’ I said as I refilled our glasses. ‘I don’t suppose you know of anywhere else local that might be available, do you?’
She gave the question some thought but didn’t come up with an answer.
‘Oh well,’ I said. ‘Bali it is then.’
‘You could sound a bit happier about that.’ Melody laughed. ‘Kaya would trade places with you in a heartbeat!’
‘Now there’s a thought.’ I smiled as I popped an olive into my mouth. ‘I’ll stay here and do Kaya’s job, and she can fly to Bali and keep my brother company. I bet they’d get on like a house on fire!’
‘I’m sure they would, too,’ Melody laughed, ‘but I know my sister’s finances won’t run to it, so let’s not even mention it as a joke, okay? Because otherwise she’ll be nagging me to fund her flight on yet another vague promise of one day paying me back.’
‘Fair enough,’ I said, as I clinked my glass against hers. ‘I won’t say a word.’
The weather had been generally sunny and hot since I’d arrived, but the next day was cloudy and felt cool in comparison and so I decided to set out a bit further from the village on foot.
I walked a route that I was fairly certain would take me past the front of my dream house, a view of it I hadn’t seen before, and as I got closer, I felt excited to discover if it really did look like the solid and symmetrical typical child’s drawing of a house that I’d always imagined.
Unfortunately, I wasn’t destined to find out because there was a curved drive leading down to it and huge oak and beech trees further screening the view, so I didn’t get to catch a glimpse of even so much as a chimney.
I was disappointed about that but happy to admire the towering old trees and I did at least discover the name of the house.
‘Fernside,’ I said aloud, as I read the sign set on the side of the road next to a pair of open and ornate wrought iron gates.
The name felt highly appropriate given that much of the back garden was shaded and from my favourite vantage point along the river I had seen huge ferns in both pots close to the back of the house and planted in the sweeping borders right down to the riverbank.
Still feeling slightly sad not to have had my curiosity settled, I hoisted my rucksack higher on my back and carried on walking. When my tummy started to growl a few paces on, I decided to head back to the cottage along a different lane which I felt confident would be a helpful shortcut.
Melody had saved me a slice of the quiche she had made and sold in the store and I thought it would be just the thing for my lunch with a locally grown apple.
I was still doing my utmost to ignore the fact that I really should start packing, when I spotted something that put the upsetting prospect right out of my head.
‘Hey, Kaya,’ I panted, as I breathlessly rushed into the store a few minutes later.
She looked at me and raised her eyebrows in that way of hers that made me feel about two inches tall.
‘Have you been for a run?’ she asked.
Her tone suggested that she thought that was highly unlikely even though she’d asked the question.
‘Almost,’ I said, as I slipped off the rucksack and squeezed the stitch in my side that the speedwalk back to the village had induced. ‘Tell me, what do you know about the woods up the road?’
‘Which woods?’
‘The ones in that direction,’ I vaguely pointed, ‘with a for sale board hammered to the gate next to them. There’s no number or agent listed on the board. In fact, I think it looks hand painted and I’m not entirely certain that it’s genuine.’
‘I don’t know anything.’ Kaya shrugged, using a tone that suggested I should have known she wouldn’t.
‘I wasn’t even aware there are any woods up that way, let alone that they’re for sale.
I didn’t move here when my sister did, so I don’t know the area like she does.
I’m only ever really passing through. And now chained to this place, of course. ’
‘Perhaps Melody might know something then?’ I suggested, hoping she’d fetch her sister in lieu of her lack of knowledge.
‘I daresay,’ Kaya huffed. ‘She knows everything else, doesn’t she?’
‘Did I hear my name?’ Melody asked as she stepped into the store from the stockroom and gave her sister a look.
I hoped Kaya didn’t talk to customers like that. Melody might soon end up regretting giving her a front of house role if she did.
‘Yes.’ I nodded, still trying to catch my breath. ‘You did. You don’t happen to know anything about the woods that are up for sale, do you?’
‘The ones that way,’ chimed in Kaya as she added my vague arm wave in the general direction for good measure, which in turn set the many bangles she wore jangling.
I narrowed my eyes at her but didn’t comment.
‘If you mean the patch of woodland a mile or so out of the village in that direction,’ Melody pointed more accurately, ‘then yes, I do. They belong to Constance Clarke.’
‘Constance Clarke,’ I repeated.
‘Word on the street is that she doesn’t really want to sell them, but folk are saying there’s work that needs doing on the house, expensive work, and Constance hasn’t got any money to do it.’
She stopped then and turned bright red.
‘Melody!’ Kaya unkindly pounced with relish.
‘I know,’ Melody winced, sounding flustered. ‘I shouldn’t have said that because it might not even be true. I don’t do gossiping. I wasn’t gossiping.’
Given that she ran the local store, which historically was as much a focal point for gathering news of neighbours as the village well and watering pump had once been, she was bound to occasionally slip up and repeat what she’d heard, wasn’t she?
‘Of course you weren’t gossiping,’ I reassured her. ‘You were just filling me in, weren’t you? So, it is a genuine for sale sign then?’
‘Yes.’ Melody nodded.
‘And where would I find this Constance Clarke?’ I asked.
‘You’re in the market for buying some woods, are you?’ Kaya asked, sounding amused again.
Melody and I both ignored her question. Melody because she doubtless didn’t want to come off as being as nosy as her sister, given what she’d just said about gossiping, and me because I didn’t know the answer, even though the prospect did hold huge appeal.
‘At Fernside,’ Melody told me, and I felt my heart kick again even though I’d stopped walking a while ago. ‘Constance lives in a house called Fernside.’
I thanked her for the info, quickly made my excuses and headed to the cottage to have the lunch I then felt like I needed more than ever, along with a very long think.