Page 11 of The Island in Bramble Bay
‘No, Josh came to say. What have you been up to?’
‘I had a meeting with the area manager. It was in the Castle, it’s amazing in there.’
‘Oh my god! You have not been in the Castle! It’s like some kind of fortress where no one comes in or out. Seriously, Maggie, I live here and I’ve literally never seen anyone.’
Maggie smiled. ‘I know, but it has its own dock so they go in that way and the gardens are pretty big so maybe they don’t bother looking at the rest of the island.’
‘That’s just weird. It would be, like, beckoning you, wouldn’t it?’
‘Yes, it would,’ Maggie agreed, ‘but not everyone’s into nature like we are.’
‘Hmm, weird, like I said.’
‘Okay, so I’ll head over to Charlie and Josh and look at the tree. Back in an hour or so.’
It was so nice to have the volunteers on the island. They were such an enormous help and it was great to see them settling in. Megan had really come out of herself and Maggie had a suspicion that she and Josh had started something. Thrown together just in the same way that she and Ben had once been.
10
IT HAD BEEN an easy decision for Charlie to choose Josh as his sidekick. Josh was passionate about trees and hoped to be a forest or woodland manager in the future. Having the opportunity to work with someone like Charlie was invaluable for him; experience was everything because it was such a competitive field.
Charlie had quickly noticed that Josh was on the same wavelength as him when it came to decisions about coppicing. The other three were well-qualified but not as keen on trees and didn’t have a feel for what the woodland needed like he did. Not having to explain every tiny detail also suited Charlie who preferred to work in peace and quiet, and Josh seemed happy to go along with that.
‘Did you see Maggie?’ asked Charlie, as Josh returned from his visit to the office.
‘Nope, Megan was on her own there. I’ve left a message with her.’
‘And how was Megan?’ teased Charlie gently.
‘Good.’ Josh grinned and then laughed. ‘Actually, I really like her.’ By Josh’s own admission, it had started as a bit of fun. With just the four of them on the island, sharing the chalet, something was bound to happen.
‘Good for you, man.’
‘You and Maggie ever… y’know?’
‘Maggie? No, no…’
‘I just thought, you two, same age, tiny island.’
‘Yeah, I can see how you’d think that.’ More than anything, it amused Charlie that the volunteers saw him and Maggie as so much older than them.
‘I think you’d make a great couple.’
‘Thought you were dealing with that sycamore over there?’ said Charlie, pretending to be stern but then breaking into a smile as Josh turned away.
‘Yeah, you don’t want to talk about it, I get it.’
It was great to kid around with a guy again. Charlie hadn’t realised how much he’d missed that part of working with other people. Not that there had been much kidding around at High 5 in the end, at least not for him. That had been part of the problem. A little more kidding around might have led to a little less of a nervous breakdown.
How had he gone from starting up his own company with his best friend to being the guy who broke down in the most important meeting of his life? Even now, he didn’t know the answer and that was what frightened him so much about the thought of going back there.
Ever since he’d had the email from Jared, he’d been wondering what to do. What it would be like to go back. It’d be awful having to face everyone again because basically, no one had seen him since the day he’d been led out of the building by Tom and driven home.
After spending two days in bed sleeping almost solidly, he’d gone to Lake Tahoe and bought the first place he’d seen. No one had known where to find him, and he’d just walked endlessly in the woods, sailed on the lake and eventually met Clay who taught him about working a woodland. It had given him a focus and helped him to reset himself. Even once he’d started to feel better, he couldn’t face the thought of going back and had written to Jared saying that he would be taking indefinite leave. At the time, he really hadn’t cared whether the company would be okay without him — of course it would be, but the feeling of the success or failure of the company being down to him personally, was hard to shake.
A year after he’d left High 5, he’d decided to take a vacation to his tiny English island in Poole Harbour. He’d not visited since all the work had been done to extend the old house because that had happened just before he’d left the Valley and was something he hadn’t cared too much about at the time. He’d sailed around Poole Harbour in his yacht and one day had docked on Bramble Island. The woodland there had been managed but not with a firm enough hand and Charlie could see exactly what could be done. He sought out Paul in the Trust office and offered himself as a volunteer, initially for three months and he’d just stayed.
Charlie loved his island. The house was a modern, minimalist space which gave him everything he needed. He’d decided on the renovations with his architect and had left the finer details to his partner, Jessica. To begin with, it had been hard to be in the house knowing that her touch was everywhere but that feeling had waned over time and now Charlie really felt like it was his.
