Page 55 of Wild Swimming at Croftwood Lake
‘He’s booked Melody Farmer,’ Hilary said. ‘He put it on WhatsApp this afternoon.’
‘No way!’ Patsy said. ‘I love Melody Farmer. We’ll have no trouble selling tickets with her as the headliner.’
‘I’ve been talking to Daisy Bailey’s agent,’ said Lois. ‘Fingers crossed she’s willing to do a Q and A and a book signing. And she has a new book out a couple of weeks before the festival so I’m hoping we can have that as one of the date-with-a-book choices.’
‘You actually do the club at the festival?’ Nora asked.
‘We try,’ Lois said. ‘It was a minor miracle that it worked, but it did. As much as Rosemary might drive me mad, she’s brilliant at that kind of planning.’
Nora could see Constance and Penny putting their coats on and stood up. ‘Thanks for the date, Steph, I really enjoyed it.’
‘You’re not going already?’ Hilary said.
‘She’s Constance and Penny’s taxi tonight,’ Steph said.
‘Oh, right,’ Hilary said, with a knowing smile.
‘Shut up,’ Nora said good-naturedly. She loved that she was beginning to feel comfortable with these people.
Hilary grinned. ‘See you at the lake.’
‘Are you actually going in this week?’ Nora teased.
‘If she doesn’t, I’m pushing her in,’ said Patsy, making everyone laugh.
21
THE WEDDING IN Dorset came around more quickly than Nora had expected. Now that all the women in the friendship group were meeting at the lake on a Thursday, it would be hard to avoid talking about it. And as far as Jess knew, it was only Nora and Archie making the trip to Dorset with them.
After dressing and grabbing her things, Nora headed to the lake. In the past week, the temperatures had started to rise, so she knew that the water would be perhaps as much as a couple of degrees warmer for her friends since the last time they swam.
Jess was already there, and had lit the fire pit and set the chairs out around it.
‘Morning!’ Nora called as she clambered over the wall.
‘Hey, Nora. Beautiful day for a swim.’
‘The best kind of day,’ Nora agreed. ‘Are you all set for the trip?’ she asked Jess.
‘Pretty much. I’ve got my dress sorted. That’s the main thing. There’s not much else to sort. I’ll go shopping with Mum tomorrow and get some food for the do back at their house and that’s about it.’
Nora knew Jess would be thrilled if she knew everyone was going to be there and that Seb had actually arranged a party at her parent’s local pub, but she wasn’t about to spoil the surprise. ‘We’re so looking forward to it. Archie’s chuffed to bits to be Seb’s best man.’
‘At least he doesn’t need to bother with a speech,’ said Jess, grinning.
‘True!’ In fact, Archie had been working hard on a speech, having been tipped off by Seb that Jess’s dad was making one. He didn’t want to let Seb down by being unprepared.
It was a blue-skied spring morning. Although Archie’s gardeners had cleared a lot of the growth around the lake, grasses and reeds had come to life on the banks and it was looking much more picturesque.
Now that the hedge had been removed, they could see the others coming over the wall along with a couple of other women Nora didn’t recognise.
‘Who’s that?’ Jess asked, frowning, presumably not recognising them either.
‘Hey guys, this is Lou and Sam. We found them lurking in the lay-by,’ said Patsy.
The women laughed. ‘My husband Ben works for the council. He met Nora last week and said we could come along?’
‘I’m Nora. I’m so glad you came.’
