Page 91 of Wild Swimming at Croftwood Lake
‘And you’re wearing jeans. You can’t get married in jeans.’
‘It’s fine,’ said Archie, putting an arm around his friend. ‘Come on.’
Nora and Hilary were waiting in the foyer, similarly underdressed for a wedding.
‘I imagine this was as much a surprise for you as it was for me,’ Hilary said to Seb.
‘You can say that again. I didn’t think you two were into the whole marriage thing.’
‘It’s just a formality,’ Nora said. We didn’t want a fuss. ‘We thought the solstice swim tonight would be a lovely way to celebrate it, though.’
Seb grinned. ‘The solstice swim is your bloody wedding reception? What is Constance going to say about that?’
‘Constance will find out as soon as we’ve finished here and hopefully she’ll be so relieved we’re married, she won’t care that the reception is in a barbecue hut,’ said Nora.
‘I wish you’d warned us,’ Hilary said. ‘Look at the state of Seb, and I’m wearing my shop flip-flops.’
‘It doesn’t matter,’ said Nora, beaming. ‘It really is just a formality for us. The bare minimum, purely to give the baby everything it deserves.’
‘And because we love each other,’ Archie reminded her.
‘That too,’ she said, kissing him.
‘Harrington and Hartford?’
‘That’s us,’ said Archie to the woman dressed more smartly than any of the wedding party.
Seb and Jack were stationed at the new entrance, directing cars where to park. The small dedicated parking area was full, but there was plenty of room on the grass either side of the estate road, which was fine since the ground was dry and meant a short walk back to the ticket office.
One of Val’s teenage daughters was in the office signing people in, because although it was free to swim tonight, they needed to keep strict records of who was there for safety reasons. The only person to have flouted this was Constance, who had arrived on foot from the Court, accompanied by her new daughter-in-law, bypassing the official entrance.
‘We ought to have a proper party at the Court,’ Constance said as Nora led her to the area they’d set up with benches and chairs on the far side of the dock, away from the route between the changing canopy and the steps into the lake.
‘This is all we want, Constance. A celebration with our friends at the place we met.’
‘There is a certain romance to that,’ Constance admitted. ‘I would have liked a big wedding. I would have liked to have been there,’ she said, pointedly, ‘but I’m grateful you’ve done the right thing.’
As much as Nora wanted to point out that her reasons for agreeing to the marriage weren’t to do with preserving the hereditary title for its own sake, but simply because she wanted to give Archie everything he deserved. Whatever he said, it mattered to him and so, she came to realise, it mattered to her. Being married didn’t have to mean that she was losing anything because it all came down to what the marriage meant to the two of them. And what it meant for both of them was security for their child. So she said nothing. Constance would never understand how important her independence was, and that was okay. But Nora knew now that being independent didn’t mean being alone.
‘Thank you.’
‘And you’ll be Lady Harrington as well, now.’
‘Oh, no. I’ll be sticking with Nora Hartford.’
Constance looked aghast, but perhaps realised that she’d already won the biggest battle. ‘If that’s what you want.’
Before they’d even known it was a celebration, Jess and Seb had gone all out to make the lakeside look spectacular. They’d tied bunting from the trees to the corner of the roof of the Finnish hut and to the roof of the changing canopy. Fire pits were dotted along the lakeside surrounded by logs for people to sit on, and Oliver was setting up a trestle table where people could pick up food to toast on the fire, or cook on the grill in the Finnish hut. Everything from a simple slice of bread to crumpets, teacakes and sausages and burgers. There was something for everyone. Big plastic tubs filled with ice and cans of soft drinks were also dotted around since swimming and alcohol weren’t a mix they wanted to encourage, but nobody minded that at all.
‘Are you coming in?’ Nora asked Constance.
‘Not on your nelly! I’ve brought my knitting,’ she said, patting the bag on her shoulder. ‘I’ll join Penny and Mary over there. We much prefer to watch.’
Nora slipped her dry robe off and headed over to the steps, looking out for Archie but not seeing him anywhere. The water was so warm now that she had abandoned her gloves and socks, and it was possible to dip straight in and start swimming. There were quite a few people in the water. The day had been sunny and hot, so it was the perfect evening to enjoy a swim. Nora swam around to the far side of the island.
‘Hey!’ She turned towards where the voice had come from, the island, which was a sea of greenery as yet untouched since they were still waiting for the bridge to be completed.
Archie was leaning against the trunk of a weeping willow in his swimming trunks, almost hidden from sight by its branches that swept down towards the water. He moved towards the edge and reached out a hand to her. Nora had swum around the island many times, but never gone onto it. She placed her feet down onto the silky mud at the bottom of the lake and found that the water was only thigh deep at the edge. She took Archie’s hand, placed a foot on the island and he helped her out of the water, handing her a towel.
