A Summer to Remember

Clancy’s hair blew in a sudden gust of wind and she smiled faintly, as if enjoying the freshness of the air. ‘Alice took me around the village a couple of times when I was here before but I don’t remember much. Do your parents live somewhere near here?’

‘Frenchmen’s Way. This turning we’re coming up to.’

Neither of them said anything about the shared kiss in his parents’ garden one night, a long time ago, as they passed the opening to Frenchmen’s Way. Long Lane continued to bear right and slope upwards. Clancy strode out beside him. ‘Are your parents going to mind me being with you to pick up the furniture? Or Lee? Perhaps, to follow the alliterative style of Awful Alice,’ she went on ruminatively, ‘they’ll call me Crappy Clancy.’

‘They won’t be there,’ he admitted frankly, at the same time wishing he hadn’t told her about the Awful Alice thing. ‘Dad’s at work and Lee’s taken Mum shopping before my great-aunt comes home. Aunt Norma lives in an annexe at De Silva House.’

‘That’s nice.’ Clancy sounded genuinely touched at this sign of family love. ‘Oh, look! Those flint cottages are so pretty.’

‘That’s Potato Hall Row,’ he answered. ‘Mine’s the furthest one, the one with the workshop attached.’

She nodded absently. ‘How have you and I emailed so regularly if there’s no internet in the village?’

He was thrown by the sudden question and was sure, from the way she watched him out of the corner of her eye, that he was meant to be. ‘I have satellite broadband.’

‘Ah,’ she said, raising her eyebrows. ‘So the thing about no internet was fake news. How about no pub, no shop …?’

‘There is no pub or shop,’ he said defensively, though he wasn’t sure whether she was teasing him or was actually annoyed. ‘There are a few places in the village with satellite broadband, but you can’t get it everywhere because of the conservation area, listed buildings, and even preservation orders on trees that block the signal.’

‘Oh. I see the issue.’ She frowned. ‘As one of the owners of Roundhouse Row, couldn’t you share your internet access with the caretaker?’

‘I could,’ he admitted. ‘Evelyn wasn’t keen on learning to do things online so it didn’t come up. So many people ask to hook up with it that I suppose I’ve become wary of reaching my data limit before the end of the month. People are always asking to “just borrow” my connection. I change my password a lot.

‘Here’s the truck,’ he added unnecessarily as he stopped beside the big silver pickup with De Silva Landscaping on the side. He beeped it open.

‘But,’ Clancy began again. She was interrupted by Genevieve suddenly rounding the side of his house, waving energetically, the breeze making her long blonde hair wave too. Nelson yanked at his lead so Aaron let him bound over to fling himself at her, not sure how he felt about Gen’s unscheduled appearance. It was new and not particularly welcome for her to hang around him so much. Before she’d tried to solve her housing issue by moving their relationship up a level, she’d been a warm, fun, independent girlfriend who’d seemed as content as Aaron to include a relationship in her life but not make it the be-all and end-all.

‘There you are!’ Genevieve fussed Nelson but looked at Aaron as she spoke, as if she was talking to a little boy who’d wandered off. ‘You’re out early. I heard about your aunt and came to see if I could help.’ Then she looked at Clancy with a half-smile of enquiry.

‘The village grapevine hasn’t taken long with the news about Aunt Norma’s ankle,’ he said drily. ‘She’ll be OK. This is Clancy Moss. She’s going to move into the Roundhouse and take Evelyn’s job.’

Genevieve’s smile broadened. ‘Oh, the Clancy who’s Alice’s cousin? Maybe we met when you were here for … anyway, welcome to Nelson’s Bar. Are you moving from very far away?’

Clancy sent Aaron a glance, as if divining that Genevieve had been going to say for Lee’s wedding and noting that she’d thought better of it. ‘From London. We’re just going to pick up the furniture from Aaron’s parents’ house.’ Clancy smiled pleasantly and didn’t remark on Genevieve knowing Alice. Everyone knew everyone in Nelson’s Bar.

Genevieve immediately hurried to join them at the truck. ‘I’ll help you.’ And before Aaron could react, she’d ushered Nelson into the back seat of the cab and taken her customary spot in the front.

‘Thank you,’ said Clancy politely, climbing into the back alongside the dog. Aaron suspected that Clancy took refuge in absolute courtesy when she didn’t want people to read her too accurately.

He took the driver’s seat and Genevieve twisted round as Aaron turned in the road, telling Clancy about her favourite subject: waking up one day to a substantial crack in her kitchen wall and discovering the ground was subsiding around the foundations of her cottage. ‘There must have been water leaking underground for ages, the builder thinks.’

Reaching De Silva House in less than a minute, Aaron reversed up to the double doors in the storage area beneath Aunt Norma’s flat, and they all climbed out of the truck.

Aaron turned to Clancy. ‘You’ll appreciate that Lee long ago disposed of his half of their furniture.’ He hauled one of the doors open with a rumble and a creak to reveal a dim interior of sheets flung over large objects.

They began removing dust sheets – disturbing a lot of dust – and assessed what lay beneath. ‘Two beds, a sofa and chairs, a couple of tables and a cabinet. Might as well take it all.’ Aaron indicated a stack of boxes. ‘These came from the Roundhouse too.’ The boxes contained crockery and kitchen equipment, books and ornaments. Then came Alice’s things. Clothes and shoes. Dusty make-up. An outdated laptop and a jumble of pens and paperwork.

Clancy stared at it all. ‘I hadn’t thought about what happened to Alice’s things. I suppose I ought to take them rather than leave them to inconvenience your parents.’

Genevieve came to peer over her shoulder. ‘Where is Alice these days, anyway? Can’t you send them to her? We were quite friendly when she lived here but now I never hear from her at all.’

‘I have an email address. I don’t actually know where she is,’ said Clancy absently, folding the flaps of the box closed again. ‘She moves around a lot.’

Genevieve sounded fascinated. ‘How mysterious she became! Did she really just sneak out while you were on the phone that day?’

‘If you don’t mind taking the boxes, that would be great,’ Aaron interrupted. He was beginning to wish Genevieve hadn’t tagged along on this expedition. He could do without the village rehashing ‘poor Lee being jilted’, especially now Lee was living locally again.

Clancy rose, dusting off the knees of her jeans. ‘Let’s get everything to the Roundhouse and then I can let you two get on with your Sunday.’

Genevieve smiled and patted Aaron’s bum as she passed, as if to emphasise their closeness. ‘I’ll lay a couple of the dust sheets in the bed of the truck. If I know you it’ll be filled with grass and soil.’

Aaron suppressed a snippy remark about the function of the truck being to transport lawn mowers and plants and merely said, ‘Thanks.’

It didn’t take them too long to load up and Genevieve chattered happily to Clancy as they drove down to the Roundhouse, and all through the process of unloading.

Conversely, Aaron found himself working in silent frustration, especially when Genevieve giggled madly at having to squeeze and wiggle the springy mattress through the door at the top of the second flight of stairs, Clancy apparently having chosen the loft as her bedroom.

At that point Clancy called a halt. ‘Thank you both. I can manage from here. Would you like a cuppa before you head off?’

Genevieve blew her hair out of her face. ‘Love one! And Nelson adores a saucer of coffee if there’s enough going.’ She’d obviously taken to Clancy and when she’d settled beside her on the sofa Genevieve returned to her preoccupation with her housing issues. ‘Not being able to live in my place during the building works is going to be a nightmare. I’ve got a whopping excess of a thousand pounds to pay so I’ve nothing spare for rent.’

Clancy blew her coffee. ‘Your insurance company wouldn’t expect you to live under a hedge. They should meet a reasonable rent.’

Aaron paused. He didn’t remember this point being aired before.

But Genevieve was quick with an answer. ‘There’s nowhere available to rent in the village, but the main thing is that I’ll save loads on the utility bills if I can find someone to stay with, which will mean I can afford the thousand pounds.’

Aaron began drinking again. That was true. Genevieve didn’t have a well-paid job and, accordingly, only modest savings.

But Clancy hadn’t finished exploring the subject. ‘That could work in your favour because if there’s nowhere to rent in Nelson’s Bar, they should let you move into the village B&B instead. A B&B rate being inclusive, the utilities won’t come into it so you’ll save just the same.’ She glanced at Genevieve with a faint smile. ‘I interned with an insurance giant when I was doing my MBA.’

‘Oh,’ said Genevieve, smile fading. ‘I suppose I could see if the insurance company will wear it.’ Cheeks suddenly rosy, she kept her gaze away from Aaron’s.

‘I don’t think they have a choice, but I’m happy to talk to them for you if you encounter resistance. You’ve helped me today.’ Clancy began to smile. But then she looked from Genevieve to Aaron and back and whatever she read in their body language caused doubt to flicker in her eyes.

Genevieve drained her coffee. ‘Thank you. It seems my knotty problem isn’t a knotty problem after all. I should have known to ask the insurance company about alternatives.’

Aaron rose, as awkward for Genevieve’s obvious discomfort as it was possible to feel at the same time as being so relieved his whole spine flexed. He wanted to hug both women: Clancy in jubilation for resolving the Genevieve situation without apparently trying … but Genevieve in consolation because he felt guilty. It was really tough to disappoint someone you were fond of. But now she had no reason to pressure him he hoped Gen would return to her old independence and their relationship could revert to the easy-going thing it used to be.

He became aware of Gen’s eyes on him, as if she were reading his mind, seeing and being hurt by his relief, so he hunted for a neutral subject. ‘Clancy, are you starting work tomorrow? It might be a good idea for us to run through things in more detail.’

Clancy nodded. ‘That would be great.’

They arranged a time for first thing tomorrow, Monday, then Aaron and Genevieve said their goodbyes, Nelson stretching and shaking in preparation for leaving.

Outside, the sky had become inky and big drops of rain had begun to spatter the dust of the lane as Aaron opened the passenger door of the truck. ‘Gen, I’m giving Mum a ride to visit Aunt Norma. Fancy coming along?’

Genevieve was standing still, staring up Droody Road towards the centre of the village. ‘I think I’d better go home and examine my insurance policy,’ she said, all signs of her earlier vivaciousness gone.

As he had so often lately, Aaron experienced an uneasy feeling of guilt, which prompted resentment that he felt it. ‘Want me to ask Mum and Dad if you can store your furniture with them if Clancy’s B&B idea works out?’ He winced, conscious he’d called it Clancy’s idea as if to distance himself from it.

She shook her head, still not looking at him and ignoring the rain pattering on the leaves of nearby trees. ‘If the insurance will pay for the B&B then they’ll pay for my furniture storage.’

‘OK. Hop in. I’ll give you a lift home. It’s going to pour down.’ He clicked his fingers to tell Nelson to jump in the back seat. Big, hairy dogs took a lot of drying.

Genevieve did look at him this time. ‘It’s only half a mile. I’ll walk. Clancy’s pretty, isn’t she?’

He nodded, because he’d have been blind not to notice that. There was something in Genevieve’s expression that he didn’t particularly like. Jealousy? Suspicion? He was reasonably certain that he’d never told her about the episode in the darkness of his parents’ garden but had she picked up some lingering vibe between him and Clancy?

She began to turn away, and suddenly he found himself commenting, probably more bluntly than he should, ‘You don’t seem very happy that Clancy might have solved your accommodation issue.’ He hesitated, trying to find a way to put into non-contentious words something that had been bothering him. ‘You’ve always loved your cottage so much. I know it will be a wrench to leave it, even temporarily.’ So why angle to move in with me and make it sound permanent? was his subtext.

She sighed and answered. ‘Yes. But I suppose the problem has made me face things I hadn’t realised existed. It’s ended up being more about my future than about four walls … hasn’t it?’ Then she began striding away from him, her hair flying, head up as if she were confronting something other than the rain on her face. She didn’t offer him a kiss goodbye.

And Aaron didn’t mind that she hadn’t. He watched her go and knew they’d just acknowledged that the subsidence had been the cause of cracks in more than her cottage walls.

He drove to De Silva House, a solid, red-brick Victorian, the home still echoing in his imagination with childhood games shared with Lee in the tall rooms or the sprawling garden. Five granite steps swept up to the black front door, bay trees like sentries on either side, and each gracious bay window gleamed in the emerging sunshine. His father’s car was absent but Lee’s van was outside, indicating that Lee and their mum had returned from shopping.

Aaron found them in the kitchen. Four-year-old Daisy was helping put the shopping away by darting about to grab whatever caught her eye and getting under the feet of adults. It occurred to him that Daisy’s existence was something he hadn’t mentioned to Clancy. Probably just as well. She didn’t need additional emotional pressure right now.

‘Uncle Aaron!’ Daisy bellowed when she saw him, smile wide and arms out in the certainty of a good welcome.

‘Oof!’ He caught her in mid-air and swung her up. ‘Crazy Daisy!’

‘I want to say hello to Nelson,’ she said, trying to scramble down the instant she was up.

‘Sure thing.’ He set her carefully on her feet. ‘In fact, I think he wants you to take him in the garden and play tug o’ war with his rope toy.’

‘Yeah! I know where it is, don’t I, Granny? It’s in the utility room. C’mon, Nelson!’ She flew towards the next room, Nelson cantering gamely after.

‘Back garden only,’ Lee called after them. He turned to Aaron. ‘Want a beer?’

Aaron ignored his mother’s slight eye-roll and accepted. Though he’d been much more relaxed and carefree when he was younger, Lee had become a solemn man who took single fatherhood seriously, pragmatic about living with his parents until his place in Northamptonshire was sold. A beer or two with Aaron might be the social highlight of his week, particularly as Yvonne would be busy with Aunt Norma and less available for babysitting.

‘Thanks.’ Aaron took the proffered beer along with a seat at the table. ‘I’ve come to mention the new caretaker at Roundhouse Row. To everybody,’ he added.

Yvonne, busy stacking tins of soup in a cupboard, glanced over her shoulder. ‘I didn’t think you’d advertised.’

‘It became unnecessary.’ His words seemed to ring in his own ears as he added, ‘Clancy Moss has taken the position herself.’

Lee, who’d been making for another chair, halted.

Yvonne dropped a tin of soup with a clang. ‘Why on earth do you want her to do it?’ she demanded.

Aaron’s eyes remained on Lee. ‘I would have avoided it if I could.’

Although he’d paled, Lee remained composed. ‘OK, thanks for telling me.’ He looked at the bottle in his hand and then around the kitchen as if suddenly struggling to remember where he was or what he was doing. ‘I’ll just go and check Daisy’s OK.’

When the back door had closed behind him, Yvonne rounded on Aaron, pink and damp-eyed. ‘This won’t be good for Lee. Can you stop her?’

Aaron sighed. ‘No. She has as much say in it as I do.’ He deliberated over how much to reveal. ‘She’s not here to make trouble, Mum. From what she told me, she’s had a hard time of it and hasn’t got many places to go. Lee seemed to take it OK. Let’s not make a big deal out of it, in case he gets anxious.’

Yvonne gazed at him, eyes dark with worry. ‘We certainly don’t want that.’

Chapter Four

On Monday morning Clancy awoke in an unfamiliar bed in the only-slightly familiar room and the memory of why she was there crashed in on her.

Will.

Renée.

Will with Renée. The images of them together flashed before her eyes.

Stop it! she told herself sternly. She was in a new bed in her new room. She had a new life in a tiny jewel of a village high up above the sea. A wedge of sunlight sliced through the dormer window onto the floor, as if tempting her to get up and warm her feet on the wooden boards. Once that was accomplished, getting on with the day became easier.

First job when she got downstairs: sit down and write a shopping list.

Bedclothes

Towels

Curtains (downstairs and loft)

A rap at the front door made her drop her pen and jump up to answer, expecting it to be Aaron, though it was fifteen minutes earlier than they’d arranged. But when she threw the door open it was to find a woman standing there, her curls dancing in the breeze. ‘Hello, Clancy. I thought it best if we cleared the air.’

Clancy stepped back, feeling her cheeks heating up. ‘Oh! Mrs De Silva. Yvonne. Come in.’ The De Silvas must truly still be harbouring ill-feeling towards Alice and her family if air-clearing had to be done.

Yvonne looked strained and pinched. She stepped inside, her gaze roaming around the big echoing space of the ground floor in which the few pieces of furniture now in Clancy’s care were almost lost. She wasted no time getting down to business. ‘Are you absolutely sure about living here?’ Her hair was untidy. Not the tousled look her son carried off so well, but more the bedhead style of someone who hadn’t been able to wait to come and air her concerns.

Clancy had been about to offer her a cup of tea, but Yvonne’s words made her suspect it wasn’t going to be a long visit. ‘Nearly sure,’ she answered, honestly.

‘I see.’ Yvonne gazed at Clancy, her dark eyes tired. ‘I won’t beat about the bush. I’m worried. When Alice left so cruelly Lee was so hurt … I was terrified at the way he crashed, emotionally. I thought he’d end up in either the psychiatric ward or the morgue. It destroys you to see your child that way and know someone else is responsible.’

‘Of course,’ Clancy said softly.

Yvonne sighed and seated herself at the kitchen table. ‘Fergus says I have to remember you aren’t Alice.’ She ran a hand through her hair. ‘But humans want someone to blame when things go wrong.’

Clancy tried to laugh, but, as much for Alice as herself, it tried to turn into a sob in her throat. ‘I’d heard villages were friendly places.’

Embarrassment crept across Yvonne’s face. ‘I’m sorry. You must think I’m a horror. But Lee … I thought he’d made such progress when he came back here to live a few months ago. Then Aaron told us about you turning up, and the look on Lee’s face—’ She had to stop to swallow.

Her own throat aching, Clancy nodded. She’d liked Yvonne before and understood she was only paying this visit because, in her eyes, one of her children was being threatened. For an instant she was tempted to cave in. Say, ‘OK, I’ll find somewhere else. I’ve certainly done it before. I could go out to Namibia where my parents are working on a new school. Or find out where Alice is and see if I can join her …’

But, then, into her mind flashed more of the memories she’d managed to shove away, earlier. That awful afternoon in the conference room. Asila, Monty, Tracey … and Will, looking absolutely wretched, as if, she remembered thinking, she’d been the one to cheat. Monty saying, ‘I appreciate you didn’t like the way we wanted to handle things but we were only thinking of IsVid.’

‘But it’s not fair to let people think it was me—!’

‘It’s not personal,’ Monty had snapped. ‘All our livelihoods are tied up in IsVid.’

But it had felt personal. Her friends … Asila, so petite that it always looked as if her glorious black hair would pull her over, eyes filled with tears. Jon ‘Monty’ Montagu regarding Clancy angrily through his glasses. Tracey, big, cushiony Tracey, troubled but resolute, though it had been in her arms Clancy had wept in pain and humiliation when Will’s infidelity had come to light in such an excruciatingly public way.

Clancy remembered gasping as if plunged into ice water. She, the victim, was being sacrificed for the business.

She’d had little choice but to go – though not before she’d told them a couple of financial truths about what her leaving meant, ending coldly, ‘You don’t think I’m going to just give you my share of the business, do you? A fifth of everything you’re guarding so blindly is mine.’ That had taken them aback, especially Will, judging from his stark expression. She hadn’t been able to withhold a parting shot. ‘Next time you cheat on someone, Will, you need to think where it leaves everyone financially.’ Then she’d stared Monty down. ‘No pat answer for that one?’ But she’d known lots of things were more important than money. Lots. She’d lost Will, her best friends and her work.

And she was not about to be the loser again.

‘I can only tell you what I told Aaron,’ she said to Yvonne, making her voice sympathetic. ‘I need somewhere to be and something to do. I’m sorry Lee was hurt – and I know how he feels – but I didn’t hurt him.’ Clancy manufactured a smile. ‘At least I’ll be doing a great job for your other son’s investment. I’m going to caretake the hell out of Roundhouse Row.’

Yvonne sighed, murmuring enigmatically, ‘You strike me as that kind. Thank you for being frank, at least.’ She rose, and so did Clancy – just as the door-knocker clattered again. Clancy opened up to reveal Aaron on the doorstep.

His brows clanged down when his gaze lit on Yvonne. ‘Mum? I didn’t expect to find you here.’

His mother lifted her chin. ‘I wanted to speak to Clancy.’

‘Really?’ His eyes flicked Clancy’s way and he said to her, ‘Be with you in a minute.’ He began to close the door with himself and his mother on the outside.

‘Just come in when you’re ready,’ Clancy muttered, returning to the kitchen table and her list. She’d added gardening gloves by the time Aaron stepped indoors.

He was still frowning. ‘I had no idea Mum planned to call on you. I hope she didn’t—’ he hesitated ‘—make you uncomfortable.’

She wrote down coffee pod machine and sat back. ‘I hope we came to an understanding.’

‘Right.’ He looked as if he wasn’t sure he wanted to know what that meant and took the chair beside hers. ‘Shall we get straight down to business? You’ve read Evelyn’s notes, you said?’

‘And the information sheet she puts out for guests. I now know that the village was named to celebrate Nelson’s victory at Waterloo, his being born just along the coast at Burnham Thorpe, this headland being a bar, or spit, of land.’

A smile tugged at the corner of his mouth. ‘“Nelson’s Spit” wouldn’t have sounded as picturesque, would it? There’s also a story that he was conceived here, but how anybody thinks they know that I have no idea.’ He glanced at his watch and moved the subject on to Clancy’s duties and the joys of ‘changeover days’ when one set of guests would leave by 10 a.m. and the next move in after 3 p.m.

After they’d discussed Evelyn’s notes, Aaron sat back. ‘You’ve met Dilys, I hear. Shall we see whether Ernie’s in? He’s feeling left out.’ He hesitated. ‘I ought to warn you that he’s becoming rather … blunt.’