Page 2 of Wild Swimming at Croftwood Lake
Archie had to bite his tongue to stop himself from pointing out to her that he knew quite well what Sebastian or any one of the gardeners looked like. ‘No. It’s a woman I don’t recognise.’
Lady Harrington left the table to peer out of the window herself. ‘What on earth is she wearing?’
Archie smiled to himself because, although his mother was right, there was something endearing about the bobble-hat-wearing woman. Anyone who left the house wearing that hat, a voluminous coat and practical but unattractive boots was someone he already knew he would like. People these days were so hung up on what they looked like when, of course, that didn’t matter at all.
‘Ah,’ he said, suddenly realising that she wasn’t wearing a ridiculously oversized and shapeless coat after all. It was one of those new-fangled coats that people wore if they’d been swimming in the sea. ‘It’s one of those coats for outdoor swimming, Mama.’
‘We’re about as far from the sea as one can get. I hardly think she is wearing it for the practical purpose it was intended.’
‘Perhaps not,’ he said. ‘Although when I took Tatty out earlier, she made a beeline for the old fishing lake and had a swim herself.’ Was that why? Had the woman been in the lake and Tatty wanted to join in the fun? Perhaps he would have noticed if he’d gone closer. Surely though, she would have cried out if a dog had dived in next to her.
His mother sat down again and poured them both a fresh cup of tea, saying out loud exactly what he’d been thinking. ‘You think the woman has taken a dip in the lake?’ She laughed. ‘Do you remember Papa suggesting you and Betsy swim in there?’
‘Yes,’ Archie said, smiling as he remembered him and his sister being terrified that a fish might bite their toes off and flat refusing to get in. ‘To be fair to us, the carp were huge.’
‘They were,’ she agreed. ‘I refused myself on the same grounds.’
‘I remember Papa diving off the dock and swimming over to the island and telling us it was a desert island, thinking that would encourage us. But even that didn’t work, and he ended up swimming back.’
‘He was exasperated by your lack of adventurous spirit, Archie.’
‘I’m adventurous,’ he said defensively, feeling put out that his mother would say this now when he had no way of making amends to his much-missed father’s opinion of him.
His mother laughed. ‘Oh, Archie. If you’re adventurous, I’m the Queen of Sheba!’
After breakfast, Archie headed over to the estate office, with Tatty at his heels. Sebastian was due in for a meeting about the summer festival that would be held in Croftwood Park. Archie had given them the use of some of his land for camping last summer, and it had been such a success that they were hoping to increase the numbers this year. Sebastian was the mastermind behind the festival and had even organised an extremely successful Christmas market here, in the grounds of the Court, becoming the closest thing Archie had to a friend over the past year.
It was a lonely business being Lord of the Manor. For Archie, it all boiled down to the fact that he still lived at home with his mother. Of course, if he’d been lucky enough to meet the girl of his dreams a decade or so ago, everything would be perfect. He’d be living in the manor house with his family and his mother would be happily living in the dower house, which was a charming little house on the edge of the Estate, closest to the village. It had always been assumed that she would stay in the manor house until Archie found a match, but it had never happened. And now, at forty-one, it seemed unlikely. He had little to offer anyone; a money-pit of a house and a mother who would certainly be reluctant to be turfed out of her home of almost sixty years. And even if he was in the market, where was he likely to meet anyone when he hardly ever left the estate? No, Archie had resigned himself to the fact that that boat had sailed.
‘Morning Archie!’ Seb called from the doorway of the old stable where he kept most of his worldly possessions along with everything he’d accumulated over his years running an events management company.
‘Morning! I’ll boil the kettle!’ It always lifted Archie’s spirits when Seb was around. Since the Christmas market closed on Christmas Eve, he’d been around for a week in January to supervise the clean-up of the site but then he and his fiancée, Jess, took a well-earned break while it was the off-season for both of them. Now that the festival planning was underway, Archie hoped to see more of him.
‘You haven’t come across a woman in a swimming robe this morning?’ he asked Seb once they were sitting in the office having a cup of tea.
‘No,’ Seb said, with a puzzled grin. ‘Have you?’
‘Tatty launched herself into the lake this morning. Then a woman in one of those coats wandered across the lawn while we were eating breakfast.’
Seb shot a look of respect at the dog who was dozing by the fire, looking like the least likely dog ever to decide to take a swim. ‘I didn’t know you had a lake.’
‘It’s on the far west side of the estate, used to be a fishing lake. It was my father’s pride and joy. He ran a fishing club for the town. We didn’t keep up with it after he died.’
‘Well, I’m not surprised it’s attracted someone. It’s all the rage at the moment, cold-water swimming. You could turn that lake into something.’
Archie saw Seb’s cogs begin to whir. He’d seen it happen before when they’d first had the idea for the Christmas market.
‘You think so? Let people swim in there?’
‘It’s something to look into, definitely. Why don’t you see if you can track that woman down? She might say it’s a rubbish place to swim and don’t bother wasting your time, in which case you know you’re onto a winner because she’s after keeping it to herself.’
Archie laughed. ‘She’s a brave woman. I wonder if she has any idea how big those carp might be by now?’
‘See? There’s an income stream you didn’t know you had. We ought to get an expert in to assess the water quality. And if there are some whoppers in there, you might be able to sell some of them if you need a cash injection.’
‘I always need a cash injection,’ Archie said, thinking about the phone call to the roofer that he’d been putting off. The roof of the main house was a complex structure of many gables, ornate tiles and chimneys and that made even replacing a few broken tiles an expensive business.
‘Seriously though, the lake could help you out, I’m sure of it. As far as I know, there’s nothing else like that around here.’
