Page 35 of Wild Swimming at Croftwood Lake
‘For breakfast?’ Nora pretended to be shocked but she wasn’t averse to cake this early in the day, especially if she’d been swimming.
‘It’s an apple crumble cake so perhaps better than chocolate cake at this hour?’
‘Technically the last thing I ate was cake too,’ Nora said, thinking of the tiramisu, and accepting a sizeable slice of cake on a plate, that she was quite sure was Royal Worcester porcelain, accompanied by a cake fork. She had to suppress a smile. It was so comical, using delicate crockery and silver cake forks at the lake’s edge.
‘You know, I had planned to pump you for information last night. Everything you know about cold-water swimming and whether you think it could work here.’
‘And why didn’t you?’
‘There were better things to talk about,’ he said simply.
‘I don’t know how much help I can be, other than to tell you what I think and what the others have said about it. Whether it’s anything to do with actual regulations, I wouldn’t know.
Nora proceeded to tell him what she understood of the capacity of the lake, how the entry system worked in other places and how it might work here, and what else he might need to think about in terms of his offer to swimmers.
‘Some places have saunas or fire pits to help people warm up afterwards. You might need to think about providing some sort of shelter for people to change in with somewhere to leave their things. In the winter people bring a lot more kit. And you probably need to think about access, parking, that kind of thing.’
‘There’s a lot more to it than I thought.’
‘Did this lake used to be open to the public when it was a fishing lake?’
‘Yes. My father used to run the local angling club from here.’
‘I wonder where they used to park? Patsy and Lois parked on the road and climbed over the wall, then came through the hedge over there,’ she said, pointing.
‘Ah, perhaps that’s the closest access point.’ He set his mug down and stood up, pushing his way through the undergrowth towards the hedge, and peering through it. ‘Yes!’ he said triumphantly, turning to face Nora with a grin on his face. ‘I can see the road through here. There’s an old brick toolshed on the other side of the hedge where a mower was kept just for the area around the lake.’ He came back to sit next to her. ‘I don’t think that hedge is ancient or anything. It looks like self-seeded hazel and sycamore that’s out of control. We could take that out and make an entrance.’
‘That sounds like a plan. And you won’t mind people driving through the estate?’
‘Actually, I’m sure that years ago there was a gate over this side of the estate. Perhaps we could look into reinstating it? I don’t think it would be too much trouble. It would probably come out fairly close to the lane you live on.’
‘That would be better for people coming here from town.’ Of course Nora had driven past the gates to the Court out of curiosity. ‘It will be quicker than coming through the main gate and would mean people weren’t driving past the house.’
‘I think Mama would be happier with that. She does worry about lack of privacy.’
‘I can understand that,’ Nora said, licking her finger to pick up the last crumbs of cake. ‘It’s her home.’
‘There’s a fine line between using it as a resource and having it as a family home, and I understand that. But it’s getting ever more important to generate cash from it. It’s so expensive to run. The quote I’ve had for repairing the roof is eye-watering and that’s just for a patch-up job. I seriously doubt we will ever be in a position to repair it properly.’
Nora reached for Archie’s hand. ‘Do you talk to your mother about any of this?’ She already knew what his answer would be. There was no way he would burden her with these things that he felt were his responsibility, in the same way as they were his father’s.
‘It’s not for her to worry about.’
‘You shouldn’t have to deal with it on your own.’ Nora said, wishing she could offer something more helpful than stating the obvious.
‘But I am on my own. Seb’s fantastic about putting his ideas into action. We might have already lost the house if it weren’t for him bringing the Christmas market to life. But a cash injection in December isn’t going to be enough this time.’
‘Hilary mentioned that you give the use of your land for free to the festival. If you charged for that would it make a difference?’
‘No,’ he said firmly. ‘It’s important that we do what we can to help the town. I can’t charge for use of the land and then ask the same people who are paying me for that to come to my Christmas market, or pay to use my lake. It has to be give and take.’
‘I can understand that,’ Nora said squeezing his hand. She might not agree with him but she needed him to know that she was on his side. That these things were his decision, but that she was willing to help him if she could. ‘If we write a proper business plan for the swimming lake, you could try and get a bank loan,’ she suggested, having financed her production line in exactly that way. ‘It wouldn’t need to be very much and you’d have it paid back in no time. Everyone who came the other day to try it loved it, and they all said they’d come regularly if it opened. We can get up and running before the summer, and literally make hay while the sun shines.’
‘I can’t take out a loan. It isn’t right.’ Archie said.
‘Why?’ Nora asked gently, wanting to understand. ‘Because it’s not something that’s happened in your family before?’
He nodded. ‘And we do have assets. We still have the London flats.’
