Page 21 of Wild Swimming at Croftwood Lake
‘I’d love that. Give me ten minutes to clean up.’
They went to the pub round the corner that did wonderful homemade pies. They chose mushroom and Stilton with chunky chips and mushy peas and had non-alcoholic beers since they were both driving.
‘So you’ve seen the lord again?’
‘I saw him this morning. I shared my flask of tea with him, which is why I was late.’ Nora didn’t mind sharing all the details with Val. They’d worked closely together for years and were friends as much as colleagues.
‘Does he swim?’
‘No, but he probably should. He seems quite anxious, but I think he’s scared of the fish.’
Val laughed. ‘Until you said that I had visions of him wading out of the lake like Colin Firth’s Mr Darcy!’
‘He’s definitely not Mr Darcy,’ Nora said, feeling disloyal as she said it. ‘But he’s lovely. You could get lost in his eyes.’
‘Oh god,’ Val said. ‘You’ve already fallen for him.’
‘Of course I haven’t,’ Nora said breezily, waving a hand at Val. ‘I barely know him and I’m just out of a long-term relationship. All I’m saying is he has nice eyes. Lots of people do, and I don’t fancy all of them.’
‘Just the lord?’ Val teased.
Nora grinned, not minding.
‘You ought to be careful. He might only be after you for your chimney pots.’
‘If I manage to make anything remotely resembling a chimney pot, it’s the least I can do in exchange for all the free swimming I’ve done. Actually, he mentioned he’s looking into opening it to the public.’
‘And your days of having your own private lake will be over,’ said Val.
‘You should come and stay the night sometime and have a swim.’ Nora knew what Val’s response would be. It wasn’t the first time she’d tried to get her in the water.
‘If you were offering me a hot tub or a sauna to jump into afterwards, I’d happily join you, but I can’t do with being cold.’
‘Do you know? That’s something I might suggest to Archie. I don’t know whether he’s thought beyond the swimming, but last year when I went to Dorset, they had a wood-fired sauna on the beach and it was absolute bliss after a swim.’
‘That’s what I’m talking about,’ said Val. ‘Get him to buy a sauna and I’ll come and try it out for you.’
The pies arrived golden and crispy, accompanied by a huge mound of chips that Nora thought she wouldn’t possibly manage, but always did.
‘I’ll see what I can do,’ she said, taking the pastry top off her pie to let the steam out.
The sauna idea was brilliant. But before she mentioned it to Archie, she’d do as she promised and try to get some locals to try the lake. It was important to find out whether it was likely to appeal to other people the same way as it did to her.
10
‘I DON’T KNOW whether I mentioned this, darling, but I had the most enchanting partner at book club last week,’ Constance remarked over breakfast.
‘Really?’ Archie said, hoping that the inevitable wasn’t about to happen.
‘Yes, she’s about your age. Very pretty. Now, what was her name? She’s a friend of Hilary, you know, from the candle shop.’
‘Mmm hmm.’
‘I think she’d be lovely for you, Archie. If you’d like, I can ask Hilary for her number and you could give her a call.’
Archie could think of nothing worse than cold-calling whoever this poor woman was, who had already suffered an evening with his mother and probably knew far too much about him to start things off on an even footing.
‘No need, thank you, Mama.’
