Page 64 of Wild Swimming at Croftwood Lake
‘I’m going to sound sappy,’ she sniffed.
‘I’ve got no problem with sappy,’ he said gently. ‘Tell me.’
‘It just means so much to me that you admire what I do. That you understand what all of this means to me and recognise what I’ve achieved. It hasn’t been like that before.’
‘You mean with Julian?’ Archie exhaled. ‘I may be speaking out of turn, but it astounds me that someone, especially in the same profession as you, can fail so spectacularly in supporting the person he loved.’
‘Being with you has given me a new appreciation for what love really looks like.’
‘Nora…’
‘Really, Archie. My relationship with Julian was born of friendship and mutual interest. I know that now. And thank god I realised before I ended up spending the rest of my life with someone who didn’t make me feel anything like as wonderful as you do.’
‘I’m sorry. I am going to cover you with clay now,’ said Archie, taking her cheeks in his hands and kissing her so thoroughly that she almost started crying again. ‘I love you so much.’
‘I love you too.’
He clasped his hands around hers and kissed them, getting clay on his own face too.
By the end of the afternoon, Nora had fed her urge to perfect the pots for her new collection, and Archie had thrown six wonky but functional pots of his own.
‘Come on, help me get all this in the drying room,’ she said.
‘You think these are worth drying?’ he said, pointing to his board of pots.
‘Of course. They’re not perfect, but you enjoyed making them, right?’
He grinned. ‘Loved it.’
‘In which case, they are perfect.’
They washed their hands and Archie took a paper towel to Nora’s face to get the clay off, then she did the same for him and they went to find Val before they headed home.
‘I knew you two would get up to no good!’ she said, picking a bit of dried clay out of Nora’s hair.
‘Shut up,’ Nora said. ‘That happens all the time.’ She looked at Archie and grinned.
‘I’ve got some more Christmas samples to run by you,’ said Val.
‘Oh fantastic! Let’s see.’
Nora signed off on two new bauble designs and a couple of mugs.
‘These are great,’ said Archie. ‘Could we buy some from you to sell at the Christmas market?’
‘Of course,’ said Nora. ‘We can do mate’s rates, can’t we Val?’
Val raised an eyebrow and nodded. ‘Would you be interested in a special design? A collaboration between Croftwood Court and Hart Pottery?’
‘That’s a brilliant idea!’ said Nora. ‘We could do some candlesticks based on the chimneys. I wonder if we could produce enough mugs to use them for the mulled wine and hot chocolate and give people the option to keep the mug?’
‘Hold your horses,’ said Val. ‘That might be difficult. The production schedule is almost full. We can manage some baubles, but a load of mugs might be tricky to fit in.’
‘We can bear it in mind for next year,’ Nora said. ‘The baubles would be a good start. We’ll send over some design ideas and we can get some mock-ups done.’
‘Wow. Easy as that,’ said Archie.
‘It’s all about who you know,’ said Val. ‘And Nora has never been afraid to say yes. That’s what makes Hart Pottery so successful. She champions ideas from everyone in the company and it keeps us innovative and morale is through the roof.’
