Page 19 of The Island in Bramble Bay
Among her emails was one from Rob Tanner, the project manager for the holiday lodges. Maggie felt anxious as soon as she saw it. She’d managed to put it out of her mind for the past couple of weeks but the whole thing felt even worse now that she was involved with Charlie. She knew she had to tell him because he was probably more invested in the wellbeing of the island, especially the woodland, than anyone else but she told herself it was better to be armed with concrete facts before she said anything. After all, it may be that they chose the flat, south of the island which would have hardly any impact on the woodland and it could all come to nothing anyway. That would make things a lot easier.
Maggie opened the email and breathed a sigh of relief. It was a document laying out the pros and cons for each site and asking Maggie to add her comments about to the ecological impact of each. Well, she could easily do that for them and if they had only got this far at least it meant that the whole thing was proceeding at a glacial pace.
At around lunchtime, Maggie was still glued to her emails when the volunteers piled in through the office door.
‘Maggie, how’s Charlie?’ Alice was the first to ask. Obviously, she was still carrying a torch for him, which Maggie felt slightly alarmed about now that she and Charlie were together.
‘He’s doing okay, he’s got a lot of stitches in his arm and he’s sore from falling out of the tree, but he’s up and around.’
‘I still can’t believe he didn’t wait for me to help him rig the tree,’ said Josh, shaking his head.
‘I know and what if you hadn’t found him, Maggie. It doesn’t bear thinking about.’ Alice closed her eyes and pressed her hand to her chest in such a dramatic fashion that Maggie had to try not to laugh.
‘Well, yes, it could have been worse, but he really is okay. He’s not going to be back at work for a couple of weeks but I’m sure we can cope without him. You’ve spoken to him, haven’t you Josh? Are you okay to keep the foresting side of things going until Charlie’s back?’
‘Course. Happy to do whatever you need.’
‘Thanks, Josh. As we’re all here shall we just have a quick catch up on what we’re all up to and then we’ll get on.’
After Josh, Eric and Alice had left, Maggie and Megan were alone in the office.
‘Megan, thanks for everything you did the other day for Charlie, you were brilliant.’
‘That’s okay. I’m glad he’s alright. How have you been?’ It was the first time that anyone had expressed any concern for her for such a long time that Maggie was touched and had to blink away a few tears that had sprung from nowhere.
‘Oh, I’m fine,’ she smiled.
‘I know how you feel about Charlie.’ Megan looked at Maggie who had blushed right to her toes, her face full of understanding. ‘I could tell on the boat. Don’t worry, I haven’t said anything to anyone. But if you need anything, even if it’s someone to talk to, just say.’
‘Thanks, Megan, I appreciate that.’ And she really did. Maggie missed having a close friend she could talk to. She had friends from university and school and it was brilliant when they got around to seeing each other but they weren’t there to call on for day-to-day chats and Maggie had missed that. In her previous jobs with the Trust she had always had colleagues that were her peers, and because of the nature of the work, they established close friendships very quickly and could be alienated just as quickly, it had turned out. Here, it had seemed different until now. Maggie hadn’t expected to find a friend amongst the younger volunteers but Megan’s calm involvement in helping to get Charlie to hospital and now asking Maggie ifshewas okay was very touching.
She was happy to keep her relationship with Charlie quiet for now. It would be easier to tell everyone or let them figure it out for themselves once he was back. She could do with the time herself to get used to the idea of being involved with someone she was working with having sworn that would never happen again after Ben.
Over the next two weeks, Maggie tried to visit Charlie every couple of days. The initial euphoria over their new relationship had dissipated somewhat as Charlie became frustrated once he started to feel better. All he wanted was to get back to work and the hard part for Maggie being his boss as well as his girlfriend was that she had to be objective about whether he was well enough to return to work. But she knew that the doctor had said he should wait until the stitches were out, so with medical advice on her side she stuck to her guns.
She wasn’t sure what Charlie had been doing while he was off work but every time she’d visited he was on his computer, looking at the screen with a deep frown across his brow and a gradually flourishing beard. Given that computers had been his livelihood not so long ago, Maggie wasn’t surprised that he had turned back to that in the absence of anything else to do. She was just relieved that he wasn’t trying to fell his own trees or something when he should be recovering.
She had been using Charlie’s boat to visit him so he’d been stranded on his island for most of the time. He needed to go to the mainland for a check-up so Maggie had arranged the morning off so that she could take him. She left Bramble Island early so that the harbour would be quiet and headed to Charlie’s island.
She had become relatively skilled at driving in and out of his boathouse over the past two weeks and had begun to enjoy the short journeys across the harbour to visit him. When she arrived that morning, the yacht which was always moored in the boathouse was gone which could only mean one thing: Charlie had taken it out.
16
CHARLIE STOOD ON the deck of his yacht,Idlewild, named after one of his favourite places in Lake Tahoe, with the wind and sea spray whipping against his face feeling freer than he had for a long time. He needed this, needed to feel in charge of something again. At one with the elements instead of stuck inside, waiting for his body to repair itself. Well, today the doctor was going to tell him he was as good as new, the stitches would be taken out and he could get back to normal.
All he had thought about over the last couple of weeks was the email he’d had from Jared. Unfortunately, he hadn’t wanted to spend that kind of time thinking about it but with nothing else to do, it had taken over his thoughts and dominated almost every waking minute. Today, he thought he had finally come to a decision about what to do but he knew that sailing would help him clarify his thoughts and he needed to do that before he saw Maggie. When he’d woken early and seen the beginnings of a glorious day he hadn’t hesitated.
Maggie had been like a spark of light in the gloom that had been part of him since he’d left High 5 behind. He hadn’t realised how insular he’d become until he’d begun noticing that he was looking forward to seeing her every day. His heart would leap when he saw her which was a total surprise to him at first. It still worried him a little that he was throwing himself at the first woman, the first friend, he’d had since he left the States. But it felt right.
The past couple of weeks had been strange because although they both knew how they felt about each other and had tentatively embarked on a relationship, it didn’t feel like that yet. Charlie had been stuck at home not able to see Maggie apart from when she came to visit and they’d both decided, without saying it to each other, that nothing physical was going to happen until he was back to normal. Because of that, she hadn’t stayed over since the first night he’d been home. It was a big step for both of them, not that he knew too much about Maggie’s past, he just got the feeling that something was holding her back as well.
Being in a better place emotionally had meant that Charlie felt ready to address the question of what to do about the High 5 sale and he knew he didn’t have any option other than going back to the States. He’d done plenty of research on the current state of his company and it seemed like the prime time to consider a sale. It was profitable, which was more than could be said for many of other companies in the same sector, and it had solid growth and profit forecasts. Standing in the way of a sale wasn’t fair on all the people who had worked hard to get the company to that point and whatever his feelings about Jared, Charlie felt he owed it to the rest of them to do whatever he could to facilitate the sale. Back in the days when they had struggled to recruit, they had given share capital away as an incentive to their employees so there was a lot at stake for a lot of people.
A gust of wind caught the mainsail and jerked the wheel out of Charlie’s hand, causing him to bang his arm as he tried to catch it.
‘Christ!’ he pulled his sleeve up to check that he’d not damaged the wound which had healed but was still livid and full of stitches that had become uncomfortable. It was okay but it hurt, serving to remind him that he ought to be heading back to meet Maggie. He tacked into the wind and took the boat about, heading back to his island.
It was the first time he’d been out on the yacht in almost a year. Why had he waited so long? He could blame it on working too hard when the weather was favourable and only having time when the weather was no good for working in the woods, which meant it was also challenging sailing weather or he could be honest with himself and admit that he hadn’t felt spirited enough before now. It gave him such a sense of euphoria when he sailed that he almost knew it would have been too much for him until now. He had been concentrating on building himself up from the inside and although he hadn’t felt like sailing, he knew now that he should have gone out before. He knew it would have helped him because now, racing across the waves, he felt invincible.
