Page 3 of The Island in Bramble Bay
On reflection, the first day had gone well. There were no disasters of her making and none had been waiting for her to discover as far as she could tell. She had a wonderful feeling of anticipation about what lay ahead. This was her chance to make a success of things on her own terms and to prove to herself that she could step up to the challenge that she’d taken on. It was a new start, away from everything and everyone.
She flipped open her laptop and sent emails to her parents and sister to let them know that she’d arrived and settled in. The few weeks she’d had between jobs meant that she’d briefly had to move back in with her mum and dad and they had fallen back into the habit of wanting to know her every move again. She loved them but had been glad to leave and get her independence back.
And should she email Ben? They’d had very little contact with each other since she’d moved out. It had been a relief to be able to leave once she’d finished working at Croftwood Court. The months of living together without being together had been tough on both of them. Now maybe she should let him know where she was. But the reality was that he wouldn’t care where she was and although that hurt, it was more bearable than she’d expected.
She sat next to the fire, hugging her knees and smiled to herself as she poked the log she’d just added and it fell into the embers spraying sparks up the chimney. Her chimney, her cottage, her island, her life. From now on, everything was going to be amazing.
4
CHARLIE MOORED HIS little motorboat at the quay, glancing towards Maggie’s cottage as he tied it off. It was still early but the curtains were open so perhaps she was an early riser like him. He had barely seen her since the first time they’d met in the woods a week ago, but today he needed to speak to her about the coppicing he planned to start.
The office door was unlocked which wasn’t unusual, after all, there was no one other than himself and Maggie on the island. The residents of the Castle never ventured far from its comforts and everyone else, including Clare, came over on the ferry every day. He planned to leave Maggie a note explaining where she could find him working. He went inside to find that the place was almost unrecognisable, it was so tidy and looked more organised than he ever remembered seeing it before.
‘Hello?’ Maggie tentatively called out, appearing from her tiny partitioned office. ‘Oh, hi Charlie,’ she smiled. ‘Early start today?’
‘Morning,’ he said, ignoring her question, ‘I’m going to start coppicing on the west side of the island today. Is that cool?’ His American accent accentuated the question and he inwardly cursed himself for sounding like a teenager, especially when he saw Maggie’s eyebrows rise slightly with barely suppressed amusement.
‘That probably is cool.’ She paused as if to quietly mock him and he instantly loved that about her. It was so long since he’d had a good laugh with anyone and today of all days when he’d been dreading having to ask her permission for the coppicing, it was a welcome sign for Charlie that she had a sense of humour.
‘Shall I come with you and you can explain your plans?’
Brilliant. No sooner had he warmed to her, now she was going to pick apart every tiny thing he wanted to do.
They walked to the west side of the island, Charlie purposely taking long strides that forced Maggie to work hard to keep up with him although he noticed she didn’t seem to be struggling too badly for an office dweller.
‘So, you’re working full-time here but you don’t live on the island?’ she asked.
‘No, I have a place across the harbour. It’s only a few minutes by motorboat.’
‘I saw you docking this morning. It’s a cute boat but I wouldn’t fancy it in choppy water.’
‘The harbour is pretty sheltered so it’s not often the weather gets the better of her.’
They carried on in silence for a couple of minutes, then Maggie said, ‘I don’t know how things work around here yet but did my predecessor check up on things with you, you know like today. What would have happened before?’
Charlie breathed a heavy sigh. ‘It depends which predecessor. Everyone comes in with their own ideas and I just have to go along with it. I’m sure you’ll be no different.’ He hadn’t meant to sound judgemental, but he’d been worn down by constant interference and just wanted to get on with his work.
‘Right,’ said Maggie, negotiating the increasingly dense undergrowth with silent determination, he noticed. At least she’d stopped asking him questions, personal questions. What did it matter to her where he lived? That was why he didn’t live on the island. He needed distance, solitude and peace. The need for that was what had brought him here in the first place and it frightened him to think about what could happen if he let anything undermine it. Even Paul, the first manager he’d had and got on with, really knew nothing of Charlie’s life. Or his past.
‘I’m going to start here,’ Charlie said, standing in the middle of the wood where it was so dense you couldn’t see through the trees to the sea, even though it wasn’t far away. The early morning sun had lost the fight to penetrate this part of the wood, despite the relatively small amount of leaf growth on the trees. ‘I’ll clear most of the smaller stuff that’s rooted, it’s mainly sycamore and hazel, and then I’ll start thinning out the younger trees and go from there.’
They walked around together, Charlie picking trees of various sizes and species and explaining to Maggie his rationale for keeping or thinning or even removing them. She listened carefully, sometimes nodding but never interrupting him and he found himself wanting to explain and share his ideas with her to the point that he ended up forgetting to feel annoyed with her for checking up on him.
‘Thanks, Charlie,’ she said once he’d finished. ‘That’s exactly the kind of woodland management approach I would take as well. Obviously, you completely understand how important it is to take a long-term view.’
Charlie was stunned. That was exactly what he aimed to do and she totally got it. He wanted to allow the woodland to mature and regenerate naturally while managing any elements which would threaten that because of the delicate balance of native and non-native trees they had on Bramble Island.
‘Thanks, I appreciate your support.’ He knew he sounded formal but he wanted her to know that he was capable of a bit more than ‘cool’.
‘Okay, so I’ll head back. Maybe see you later?’
‘Yeah, okay.’ He watched her walk away, again noticing how she was constantly looking around her as she walked as if she was trying to see every inch of the island.
He set off in the opposite direction to fetch his tools and buggy with its trailer which he could fill up with wood and debris for the woodpile or the compost heap. For the first time in months, he felt a sense of relief wash over him, knowing that he could work doing what he loved without being scrutinised. Perhaps Maggie Cassidy actually was different to the others.
Before dusk, Charlie untied his boat and clambered in, setting off towards home. Feeling compelled to look back at the island, he saw Maggie standing on the beach outside her cottage watching him, her hair blowing across her face forcing her to turn briefly so that the wind blew it away instead. She waved at him enthusiastically, then stopped and just stood there. It was as if Charlie hadn’t realised she could see him, as if he was watching her through a one-way mirror, but seeing her face fall as she stopped waving he snapped out of the trance he was in and raised his hand. Her face lit up, making him do the same. It was a long time since he’d felt like this, since he’d allowed himself to consider his emotions but the brief euphoria he felt faded quickly as Maggie disappeared from sight and he tried not to think about what any of it meant.
5
