Page 98 of The Secrets of Dragonfly Lodge
It was a further twenty minutes to Holkham. They followed the coast road, then turned off down a long, narrow drive with cars parked on either side. Aaron pulled up alongside a horsebox, from which a shaggy grey pony watched with interest as they put on jackets and changed into wellington boots. Then they set off with Baxter on a lead along a sandy boardwalk with pinewoods on either side until they reached the dunes, where a wooden ramp led down to the beach.
At the top they paused, Stef’s hair tossed by a gusty wind. The beach lay spread out before them. Below, a patch of marshy sand crisscrossed by shallow channels, then an expanse of beautiful yellow sand that rolled on towards more dunes, and beyond, in the distance, the sea. Stef gave a whoop of joy at the glory of it, making Aaron laugh. But Baxter was funniest, waddling down the ramp ahead of them, then bounding off across the beach as though he were a pup and not an ungainly twelve-year-old with the figure of a badger.
‘He’ll have a heart attack,’ Aaron groaned as they followed more carefully.
‘No, he won’t,’ Stef replied. ‘Or if he does, he’ll die happy.’ They caught up with him when he ran out of energy and lay down panting in a muddy puddle to wait for them. ‘Daft animal,’ she told him fondly. And laughed as he paddedabout again, sniffing at smells, his ears blowing comically in the breeze.
They waded across channels of rippling water, then strode hand in hand across the firm sand towards the sea. It was freeing, Stef thought, to feel so tiny in this vast landscape, the wind blowing away her anxieties. When they reached the high tideline, they paused, Stef’s hand on Baxter’s collar, to wait for a pair of riders to pass. Their horses galloped through the shallows, kicking up spray and tossing their heads in delight. Stef remembered her conversation with Nancy back in June, how she’d told the old lady wistfully that Holkham Beach was her haven and that she’d always wanted to ride.
‘Can you ride, Aaron?’ But he shook his head. Suddenly, anything seemed possible. ‘If I lived here, that’s what I’d do.’
‘If you lived here. Is that what you’d like?’
‘Not now, it wouldn’t work, but maybe in the future. What about you?’
He considered this. ‘Perhaps. Anyway, we’ll be down this way a lot seeing our folks, won’t we?’ She liked the way he said ‘we’ and turned fully to face him, pushing back her windblown hair.
‘A lot, yes. Maybe I should learn to ride.’
‘Why not? And I’d learn to sail. Maybe that bloke Geoffrey Stuart would teach me.’ He squeezed her hand and smiled, then kissed her and rested his forehead against hers. She reached up and touched his cheek.
‘You know…’ he said, then sighed and tried once more. ‘I didn’t think I wanted anything serious again after Crystal.Opening yourself up, trusting someone, it seemed too hard. And life was busy enough, what with work and Livy and my grandmother.’
‘I understand,’ she said softly. ‘You know that I felt that after Sam.’ She had told him about the sadness of her previous relationship.
‘But I want to try again, Stef. And get it right this time.’ She met his gaze and read the appeal there.
‘Aaron?’ she whispered.
‘And I was also thinking,’ he said, with a wicked grin, ‘that here would be a brilliant place to bring our children.’
‘Ourchildren? Oh, Aaron!’ Such joy rushed through her.
‘So I’m asking you to marry me, Stef. Do you think that you would?’
‘Do I? Yes, yes, Aaron!’ She wound her arms round his neck and their mouths met in a long, lingering kiss. When they sprang apart, she found she was crying and the wind was blowing her tears away. ‘Oh, I’m so happy, Aaron. I didn’t think I could feel so happy.’
He laughed. ‘And so am I!’ And she saw that he was. All the tension had left his face and his eyes were alight. Then he put his arms round her and she laid her face against his shoulder and closed her eyes, and they stood together for a long, tender moment.
Baxter gave a sudden whine. Stef glanced down to see him sitting sphinx-like watching them, his brow furrowed. A stick he’d found lay on the sand before him.
‘Sorry, old boy, but we’re busy,’ Aaron said, laughing. Baxter gave an impatient bark, so Stef collected the stickand tossed it into the shallows. Somewhat regally, he stood waiting until the waves returned it.
Hand in hand, Stef and Aaron walked slowly together along the beach with gentle waves lapping their feet, the dog at their heels and their faces bathed in a golden light.
Epilogue
June 2013
‘Are you sure this is Prince’s College?’ Nancy asked the driver, puzzled. The black cab had drawn up in front of a modern building, where a set of shallow marble steps led up to a vast glass frontage with revolving doors.
‘This is the main entrance, ma’am.’ The driver smiled as Cara paid him a large tip. Ted wrestled open the vehicle door.
Nancy stepped out first and stood gazing around, bewildered, searching for familiar landmarks. The white Georgian terrace opposite the college was not the same as the student hostel she’d known, and the traffic signs, the spacious paved areas and the cycle lanes confused her utterly. And as for the college itself, where on earth was the Victorian gatehouse? Then, to the left, she spotted a road name and everything clicked into place. The old entrance must be round the corner.
Cara offered her an arm as they climbed the steps, and Nancy gladly took it for she felt a little strange. It wasn’t one of those old dizzy turns – which the doctors said had been caused by a virus, now long vanquished – but a sense of being unmoored. The last time she’d visited Prince’s College had been in 1958, when Edmund had been presented with an award. It had been odd being there as Mrs Edmund Buckland rather than as Dr Nancy Foster, and she hadn’t enjoyed being patronized by the new head of department, though she’d certainly been proud of her husband that day.
Inside the atrium, Cara approached a young woman with blue-streaked hair sitting behind a huge semi-circular reception desk. ‘We’re a bit early, but we’ve come for the party for my daughter’s book.’
