Page 10 of The Secrets of Dragonfly Lodge
‘I knew it would be. I wish I could have gone,’ Jackie wailed as she flattened the box and added it to a pile. ‘Saturday wasmy mother-in-law’s birthday and we went out to dinner. Very nice restaurant. The White Hart, do you know it? But if it had been lunch, I said to my husband, we could have gone to the talk, but he refused to change it.’ Stef sensed a woman who wouldn’t stop talking.
‘Nancy’s lived on the reserve for many years, I gather?’
‘I wouldn’t like it myself. Very remote and the cottage is practically falling into the Broad. I’m surprised they let her keep living there, an elderly lady like that.’
‘Who’s “they”?’
‘Oh, I don’t know.’ The woman frowned. ‘The only family I’ve seen is the grandson and his little girl. Nancy comes in for a chat sometimes, but not all that often. There’s another access track to the Broad and she keeps her car in a shelter at the top. She rings us if she’s seen a rare bird or spotted a problem on the reserve. Otherwise she keeps herself to herself.’
Stef thought it sounded a lonely life. ‘Well, I’m a few minutes early. I’ll hang about here if you don’t mind.’
‘Be my guest, but the schoolchildren are on their way and I have to get on. It must have been a busy weekend here because there’s so little left on the shelves.’ She lifted a full box onto a table and raised her spectacles to squint at the label. ‘Now, this is an important one.’ She slit it open eagerly, pulled out a rubber snake and waved it about theatrically, before coiling it into an empty pocket in a Perspex stand of colourful toys. Then she began topping up the other compartments with a lifelike assortment of wildlife, items of bright stationery and branded fridge magnets. ‘Some of these kids have a ridiculous amount of pocket money.Honestly, modern parents. You wouldn’t think we’d had a financial crisis.’
‘Oh, here’s Nancy.’ Stef was glad to interrupt this flow. ‘Good morning.’
‘It is a nice one,’ Nancy said and patted her throat. ‘Oh dear, my voice. Bricks in a mincing machine today.’ She carried a walking stick and looked weary, Stef thought, but at least she had come. She wore practical clothes today, navy slacks and a light blue zip-up fleece, but had taken the trouble to add gold stud earrings, while tortoiseshell combs kept her swept-up hair in place.
‘How are you, Jackie dear?’ she called.
Jackie complained again about the school party and Josh being late.
‘Shall I buy you a coffee,’ Stef put in quickly, ‘before the hordes arrive?’ The jug on the coffee machine was full now, the hotplate gently hissing. It would be awkward sitting here asking Nancy sensitive questions with Jackie listening in and noisy schoolchildren milling about. ‘Maybe we could sit outside.’
Nancy must have had similar thoughts. ‘Would you like to come to mine?’ she said. ‘It’s not far and, who knows, we might see a swallowtail or two on the way.’
‘I’d love to.’ Stef was intrigued by the idea of visiting her cottage, and the butterflies would be a bonus.
‘Jackie,’ Nancy said with a smile, ‘we’ll get out of your hair. I can see that you’re busy.’
‘I just wish Josh would turn up. The kids will be here any moment.’
Just then came the crackle of tyres on gravel. ‘Talk of the devil,’ Nancy murmured as a small red car sped into the car park. It juddered to a halt and the youngish man who’d sold Saturday’s tickets jumped out. He took a bulky rucksack from the boot, shouldered it and strode towards them, his face as dark as a thundercloud.
Stef, dismayed, hung back out of the way.
‘Bloody roadworks,’ he complained to Jackie, then saw Nancy. ‘Oh, hello.’
‘Morning, Josh,’ Nancy said briskly. ‘Bad luck about the traffic. This is Stef, by the way. We met at Saturday’s effort.’
‘Yeah, Stef, I think I remember you.’ His tone was polite rather than friendly. ‘You must excuse me if I get on.’
Josh crossed the floor, dropped his rucksack behind the counter and began to rummage about in a cupboard underneath, rising occasionally to pile pencils, clipboards and printed forms on the top, all the time calling instructions to Jackie.
Obviously a moody type, Stef gauged. The look he’d given her had not been welcoming. It was as if he suspected her of something.
Meanwhile, Nancy stepped over to the coffee machine and poured coffee and milk into a paper cup. When she gave it to him, his grim, suntanned face crinkled into what passed for a smile. ‘Thank you.’ His sharp brown eyes almost looked friendly.
‘Are we ready?’ she said to Stef.
The loudening roar of a bus engine could be heard. The school party had arrived. ‘A narrow escape,’ Nancymurmured, eyes twinkling, as they crossed the garden. The sound of the engine died; then, as she opened the heavy wooden gate to the reserve, the high voices of children started up from the direction of the car park.
The gate swung closed behind them with a soft thud and the voices were replaced by birdsong. The older woman walked at a steady pace despite her stick and Stef followed her along an earthen path between low hedges where sunshine and shadows flickered on the leaves. Soon, the hedges gave way to a sea of swaying golden reeds. It felt as though they had entered another world.
An incredible sense of tranquillity began to steal over Stef’s mind. They paused for a while by a crop of Sweet William flowers to look for butterflies, but without success. ‘Mmm, not warm enough yet,’ Nancy said. She pointed her stick to indicate a passing dragonfly, then they set off again.
The path gave way to wooden duckboards. It was too narrow for them to walk side by side and there was little urge for conversation, though Nancy, in front, occasionally stopped to catch an unusual twittering from the reeds or to point out some far-off bird that Stef then tried desperately to distinguish in the marshy landscape. They passed a path signposted to the Broad, but Nancy took them onwards until they reached a narrow turning barred by a wood-paling gate. A notice nailed to it read ‘Strictly Private’. Nancy opened it and they passed down a footpath overgrown by stunted willows.
‘Not far now.’ She smiled back at Stef. They rounded a corner and there, nestled in woodland, stood an ancientthatched cottage, wide and low and buttressed by outbuildings. Beyond it, through the trees, Stef could see the shimmering waters of the Broad and a wooden jetty where a rowing boat was tied up, gently rocking. It was calm and peaceful but for the birds and the breeze rustling the leaves.
