Page 43 of Wild Swimming at Croftwood Lake
‘You ought to suggest it, Constance. The romance is We All Live Here by Jojo Moyes, although I don’t think it’s strictly a romance, more of a book about family and friendship.’
‘That sounds lovely,’ Constance said, gracefully tipping her soup bowl towards her to scoop the dregs with her spoon. Nora wondered whether it would be bad if she wiped her last bit of bread roll around the bowl to get her own dregs and decided against it. It was her first visit after all, and she didn’t want to shock anyone.
After the main meal of ham hock with green vegetables and delicious herby roasted potatoes, followed by an apple pie with a pastry top that flaked to perfection, Constance excused herself.
‘I shall pop to the library with Ursula,’ she said. ‘It was wonderful to see you Nora.’
‘Thank you for having me,’ Nora said. She was sorry that she wouldn’t have chance to talk to Constance again to reassure her. But she’d see her at book club the following week and it might be better to tackle that conversation in a neutral setting.
‘Come on then, show me what happened last night,’ she said, intrigued to see more of the house.
Archie led the way back to the hallway and up the staircase to the galleried landing, off which were several doors. He opened the farthest one which led onto a corridor. Another door led into a huge bedroom with a relatively modest double-bed against one wall, a chest of drawers opposite, and not much else. Apart from the pile of wood and plaster in the middle of the floor and the cavernous hole in the ceiling.
‘Oh my god!’ Nora said. ‘Whose room is this?’
‘It’s a guest room, which is why we hadn’t noticed the leak. Last time, with the leak above Mama’s bedroom we spotted it straight away. This is a new leak.’
‘Oh, Archie.’
‘I should have had the repairs done as soon as Simon had come back to me with the quote but I hadn’t quite got the cash together. Obviously now, this is going to add quite a bit to that bill.’
They stood together, gazing at the hole in the ceiling. And it wasn’t as if it was a plain old ceiling either. It was a grid of decorative plasterwork.
‘Come with me,’ she said, taking his hand before she realised she didn’t know the way back to the room where she’d seen the vase. ‘Can we go back to where the china was?’
He smiled, looking puzzled. ‘Of course.’
‘May I?’ Nora said, reaching to slide open the glass door of the cabinet.
Archie nodded.
Nora pulled out a jug and vase which were sitting at the front of the cabinet, laying them carefully on the floor, then gently picked up the Donaldson vase.’
‘Archie. This vase is worth thousands. I’m certain. It’s in here, doing nothing, not even on show to be appreciated by anyone. Surely, you could sell it to get the roof mended.’
‘It’s not as simple as that.’ He took the vase and placed it back in the cabinet then replaced the jug and vase and slid the glass door across.
‘But why?’
‘Shall we take a walk in the gardens?’
‘Okay,’ she said, feeling exasperated.
Once they were outside, Nora having borrowed a pair of Archie’s woolly socks and some random wellies, he took her hand and they walked through part of the gardens that she hadn’t seen before, tucked away at the side of the house, before the expansive lawns gave way to the farmland.
‘None of the things in that house are mine, Nora. I am just the latest custodian of the house and everything in it and I have to do my best to preserve that for the next generation.’
It was all very well having an ethos like that which had been handed down through the generations of his family, but it made no practical sense in the twenty-first century when he was struggling to keep the house from rotting away. She tried to be gentle, knowing this was a topic they were going to struggle to find common ground on.
‘All of this used to matter in a way that doesn’t make sense these days,’ she began. ‘Things have moved on and trying to keep everything the way it’s always been isn’t the way to preserve any of it. If the house falls into disrepair, what kind of legacy is that? Surely it’s better to sell a vase no one will miss. Isn’t that the bigger picture?’
Archie didn’t break his stride, but he dropped Nora’s hand and shoved his hands in his pockets. He said nothing, but the set of his jaw was defiant. Nora was shocked. He was behaving like a sulky child and she realised she was seeing a different side to him. Perhaps the more privileged side of him that was used to getting exactly what he wanted with no challenge. Yes, he had the weight of the responsibility on his shoulders and sometimes, Nora could see it almost physically weighing him down. But maybe when he’d told her that all of this was his problem to solve, he meant it. And perhaps supporting him meant giving meaningless platitudes that everything would be alright, rather than him welcoming practical advice.
‘I’m sorry,’ she said, wanting to breach the divide between them. ‘I obviously don’t understand but I don’t want it to come between us. If you’d rather I stayed out of this kind of stuff, that’s fine. I just see how tough it is for you and thought it was a solution.’
Archie stopped walking and faced her. His expression softened. ‘It’s hard to explain and I’m sorry that I’m not better at it.’
Nora put her hands on his forearms, tempting his hands from his pockets and into hers. ‘It’s fine. Honestly,’ she said. ‘It’s been lovely coming here, but it’s made me realise exactly who you are. When we’re down at the lake, you’re just Archie. And here, you’re his Lordship.’
