‘But we aren’t earning a lot either,’ Kaz said mournfully. But then she sighed. ‘Really? Shall we show you the bar anyway?’
More out of curiosity than because she thought it was going to affect anything, Clancy agreed, following on into the B&B through a pair of oak doors, propped open, and across a cramped flagged area to the dining room. There, the walls were painted dark green and there was room for only six tables, all set with gleaming cutlery and white paper napkins. A door gave directly into the kitchen.
‘Right.’ Clancy nodded, thinking the room would look more spacious with lighter walls and less fussy brocade at the windows.
‘And this is the bar.’ Kaz led the way into a really small room. The actual bar itself was quite nice, a polished wooden counter with barley twist spindles supporting a glass rack above and gleaming optics on the wall behind, but it took up a third of the available space. Clancy almost knocked over a bar stool as she pirouetted to observe the profusion of prints of Admiral Horatio Lord Nelson on the walls – who was better-looking in his much-decorated uniform than Clancy had ever supposed – HMS Victory and even Nelson’s column.
Oli straightened one of the picture frames carefully. ‘I believe Horatio Nelson’s dearest aunt lived in Nelson’s Bar.’
Kaz sent him an incredulous look. ‘She didn’t!’
He gave an impish smile. ‘She will when I go to the bank, if I think it will help sell them on the idea of our extension.’
He explained to Clancy which wall they’d need to break through, then they went outside again while he paced out what he saw as the projected building line, allowing not just for a larger bar but a bit on the dining room and kitchen too.
‘How are we ever going to raise that much money?’ Kaz fretted.
Then Genevieve emerged from the B&B and crossed the lawn, smiling. ‘Do you mind if I join the party? I saw you from my room and boy are days off boring when you’re not in your own home.’
‘You come and sit down,’ Kaz cried, her face transforming as if at the flick of a switch. Clancy recognised the professional face being slipped into place and ached for Kaz’s worries.
The conversation turned to unexceptional things for a few minutes, then Clancy made a move to go. ‘I’m going to make hay while the sun shines – or lawn clippings, anyway. Thank you for the lovely lunch. Sorry I couldn’t be more helpful.’ She didn’t want to be specific about their conversation with Genevieve listening.
Oli scuffed his feet. ‘Not sure what to do about my appointment now.’
The emotional water was getting deeper all the time and Clancy didn’t want to find herself out of her depth. ‘Why not go? The person you see might know something worthwhile.’
Oli thanked her and Clancy turned to go.
Genevieve pushed her hair back from her face. ‘Can I walk along with you, Clancy?’
‘Of course,’ Clancy replied. They made their farewells to Kaz and Oli, then turned into Droody Road, headed for Roundhouse Row.
Genevieve heaved a sigh. ‘Seen much of Aaron?’
Clancy guarded her tongue. ‘Now and then.’ She wondered if Genevieve was about to announce that she was going to try and repair the rift. If Aaron became reattached she’d have to be on her guard not to cry on his shoulder again. You couldn’t go holding the hand of someone else’s boyfriend, no matter how rocky and emotional you were feeling.
A couple of cars trundled by, one with Oli at the wheel. He parped his hooter and waved. They waved back.
Genevieve hooked her blonde hair behind her ears. ‘Aaron wasn’t that upset when I ended things, so he probably was surprised but not unhappy. Then he invited me to that pizza and beer thing at his house as if I was just a friend so that’s probably what he wants to be.’
She waited expectantly, so that Clancy felt she had to contribute. ‘It’s between you two, isn’t it?’ she said neutrally.
Genevieve gave a little laugh. ‘I thought you’d tell me to go out into the world and do something that didn’t depend upon a man. I know we’ve had trouble catching up with the feminist movement up here in the sticks.’
‘Of course I wouldn’t! It’s true I don’t think we need men to make us happy but I totally accept that a man can make us very happy indeed. Or very unhappy.’ Then because Clancy was finding the conversation tricky, she told Genevieve about Will’s message about his marriage to Renée, which made Genevieve gaze open-mouthed and breathe, ‘The bastard,’ several times, which made Clancy feel a bit better.
The next morning, Saturday, Clancy had to wait for the holidaymakers from number five and number six to drive off and then carry in her pail of cleaning things, throw open the windows and strip the beds. She’d been in Nelson’s Bar a month now and felt in the swing of things, quite enjoying a proper changeover day. It was like a mini spring clean, as if she was clearing metaphorical cobwebs away as well as real ones. This was the first time she’d had to do changeover on two properties in a day but the bookings book told her the time was not far off when she’d have to do three.
Singing under her breath, she completed her tasks, left the little welcome packs of milk, tea, butter and a loaf of bread, went back to the Roundhouse and stuffed the first load of laundry into the washing machine, scoffed a quick sandwich for lunch then knocked on Dilys’s door. ‘Want to go to Hunny?’
‘Do I ever!’ Dilys cried happily. ‘Norma’s here. Lee dropped her off. Can we take her? The doc’s taken her zimmer away and given her crutches instead.’
Before she’d had time to reply, Ernie shot out of his front door and hurried to the hedge. ‘Are we going to Hunny?’ he demanded. As he was already clutching shopping bags, Clancy grinned and said yes. If she was going to have Norma along then there would at least be safety in numbers.
‘I have to be back by four,’ she cautioned. ‘I’m having a TV delivered.’
Ernie wanted to know about the brand and size of the TV mainly, it seemed, so he could tell her that she should have bought something different. As they bickered amiably about it, Dilys vanished into her house, appearing a few minutes later. ‘Here’s Norma!’
Norma leaned on her crutches and looked at Clancy as if she expected something bad of her.
Clancy said, ‘Good afternoon,’ ultra-politely and Norma said, ‘Good afternoon,’ back, then she stick-stepped to Clancy’s car as if against her better judgement.
Once in the back with Dilys, Ernie riding shotgun in the front with Clancy, Norma embarked on a conversation with Dilys about something called ‘buttonorama’, which seemed to be making pictures out of buttons and a small amount of embroidery. Ernie confided audibly to Clancy that she wasn’t to mind about Norma because she sometimes got a stick up her jacksie.
While Clancy struggled not to laugh, Norma muttered something that sounded a lot like ‘old git’ under her breath.
In deference to Norma’s lack of mobility and Clancy’s schedule, it was decided that they’d make the supermarket their only stop today. ‘But let’s have a bit of cake at the coffee shop before we shop,’ Dilys pleaded.
It suited Clancy, who settled down to check messages and email on her phone, leaving the three older folk to chat.
She opened an email from Will with a wriggle of anxiety but discovered it was only the same message she’d received by WhatsApp two weeks before. After a little thought, she clicked reply and returned Congratulations. It made her feel quite in control not to make a pithy comment, although she did wonder whether Will had managed to salvage anything financially from the deposits they’d already paid, so making his impulsive wedding into an economically sound one.
She wouldn’t ask.
She’d just think it.
Then her phone rang, and Alice flashed up on the screen. Clancy answered with a little burst of gladness in her chest. ‘Hey, stranger!’
Alice gurgled with laughter, her voice warm and familiar. ‘I’ve been trying to call but I’m always getting the “not available” message.’
�
��Not much of a signal at Nelson’s Bar,’ Clancy acknowledged. ‘How’s everything with you?’ She got up and moved away from the others. Alice was in a chatty mood, asking about Aunt Brenda and Uncle Gerry, Clancy’s mum and dad, before moving the conversation on.
‘Your emails have been making me think about Nelson’s Bar and Roundhouse Row quite a bit. For the last few years I’ve been absorbing the income stream without much emotional engagement – or not once the hoo-ha over big bro Aaron buying Lee out was over.’ She laughed again. ‘What a pain in the arse he was over that, obsessing over details! Anyway, I thought it might be nice to have a catch-up about what’s going on.’
Clancy frowned, puzzled. ‘I told you in my first email that I was living in the Roundhouse and doing the caretaker’s job because my engagement’s off.’
‘You’re living in the Roundhouse itself?’ Alice asked.
‘Just like the last caretaker did,’ Clancy confirmed. ‘Is there a problem with that?’
‘Not at all,’ Alice replied. ‘So you and Will are definitely over?’
Clancy snorted. ‘He’s married Renée, so my guess is yes.’
With a horrified gasp, Alice demanded full details and it was a while before Clancy ended the call and returned to her seat and went back to checking her messages, seeing one from Tracey saying: I understand Will’s contacted you. I hope you weren’t too upset. It would be lovely to hear from you. Then a sad face emoticon shedding a tear.
Clancy felt quite touched. Was her sense of betrayal becoming blunted? It was mid-June, four whole weeks since she’d packed up her life and sought sanctuary in Nelson’s Bar. It seemed longer. She had a new routine. Knew new people, although not many of them very well yet and one or two – she glanced over at where Norma was holding forth to Ernie and Dilys – weren’t madly friendly.
She was enjoying the pace of her new life. The only deadlines she had to meet were created by guests moving in and out of 4, 5 and 6 Roundhouse Row.
She tried to summon up the awful sensation of let-down she’d felt that afternoon the others had confronted her in the meeting room but it wouldn’t quite fly into focus. Monty had been out of order but Asila and Tracey had been on her side when he’d wanted to ‘leak’ the lie that it had been Clancy on the table.
Now, she thought she could remember Tracey saying, ‘Clance, we’re all worried about you—’ Clancy had the uncomfortable feeling she’d refused to listen.
She thought about the years they’d been together. Then she began a new email to Tracey.
Hi Tracey,
Sorry to be out of contact so much. Circumstances have dictated. Thanks for trying to warn me about Will and Renée’s wedding. She paused to read that phrase again. The first shock was over now. Will did tell me himself. It knocked me for six to start off with but it’s over between us and I’m enjoying my new life. She paused, wondering whether Will would ever have agreed to live somewhere as rural as Nelson’s Bar. They’d once been in a pub debate about Londonites downsizing to the country and he’d said, ‘By the time I’m forty I want to move to some shire or other and raise goats.’ She hadn’t been able to see it, then, and she couldn’t now.
Would he have been happy with no phone signal? No London salon to trim his hair every four weeks?
She returned to the email, picturing big, comfy Tracey reading it in the little flat she shared with another woman on the Finchley Road. Or maybe she was eating brunch in a pavement café somewhere. Clancy went on. Seeing Will’s wedding pic on Instagram reminded me that I left my wedding dress, veil, shoes etc. with you. I’m sorry if they’ve been in your way. Are you still involved with those causes auctions? Please stick the whole lot in one, if so, and let a charity benefit. She added a kiss to her sign-off feeling somehow lighter, and better disposed towards her old life than she had for some time.
After, as she pushed her shopping trolley around the supermarket aisles, she felt her phone buzz and discovered that Tracey had replied, thrilled to hear from her and hoping they could meet up as soon as Clancy returned to London.
Tracey thought she’d be going back.
Clancy realised she wasn’t thinking in those terms. London already felt as if it belonged in her past. Nelson’s Bar felt like a safe haven.
It was like a wind of change had blown over her. And she welcomed it.
Chapter Twelve
The sun’s fingers reached into the Roundhouse loft to prise up Clancy’s eyelids early on Sunday morning.
She clambered out of bed to yawn at the dormer window. Over the village rooftops she could see a shining blue sea. On impulse, she flung off her nightshirt and wriggled into a green swim suit, shorts and T-shirt, grabbed a towel and set off for Zig-zag Beach. To start the day with a swim felt like a lovely seaside thing to do. She might swing by the B&B after and see if Kaz and Oli would provide a sausage sandwich for breakfast.
She strode up to Marshview Road, enjoying the early sunshine, and took the footpath to the clifftops, invigorated by the briny wind whipping her hair. The first view of the sea was glorious, the sun reflected in fragments on every wave. As she headed for Zig-zag Path, two youthful and familiar figures emerged from the top. The lead figure, Harry, caught sight of Clancy, and veered towards her, Rory following in his footsteps.
‘You jumping?’ Harry called, eyeing the towel beneath her arm.
Rory laughed. Both boys were shivering as they jogged on the spot, water glistening off their bodies, but it didn’t stop them wearing big excited grins.
Clancy glanced in the direction of The Leap, an innocuous enough dip in the clifftop from here. ‘I’ve never jumped off anything like that height. I was just going down to the beach.’
‘It’s awesome, like flying.’ Harry shivered. ‘Just take a run and jump in.’
‘I’ll watch you first,’ she decided, not convinced. She put down her towel and stationed herself at the cliff edge at a point where she could see both run up and leap.
‘Ready?’ shouted Harry. Then, side by side, the lads sprinted across the grass yelling, ‘Yeahhhhhhhh!’
They thundered to the edge of the cliff and launched, their impetus sending them on a graceful arc that ended with a near-vertical plummet, spray flying up, silver and gold, as they crashed into the waves. Clancy held her breath until they bobbed to the surface of the glittering sea, shouting out their exhilaration, and then watched them swim out of sight, their laughter carried up to her on the breeze.
Filled with the compulsion to know the same short but thrilling flight, trembling with excitement and adventure, she took off her shorts and T-shirt and stacked them with her towel while she waited for the lads to reappear.
When they did, rubbing the goose bumps from their arms as they trotted over the grass, Harry roared his approval. ‘She’s going to do it!’ and they took up station out of the flight path but on the cliff edge to watch her safely down.
Heart bouncing around her chest and knees not quite steady, hardly believing what she was about to do, Clancy paced back to where she’d seen the boys begin their run-ups.
Slowly, she turned around to regard the sea and the two expectant faces.
‘One,’ she counted out loud, ‘Two …’ Then, because her heart felt as if it were going to beat itself out of her body added, ‘two and a half …’
‘Just friggin’ jump!’ Harry bellowed.
‘Three!’ Clancy exploded into action, arms pumping, feet flying, ignoring any discomfort to the soles of her feet in her race towards the cliff edge as Harry and Rory shouted, ‘Go-go-go-go!’ The edge approached at a frightening speed and her stomach lifted as if it had already hurled itself out into thin air.
And then she heard another voice. ‘NO! Clancy! No! NO!’
Hazily, she realised Harry and Rory, too, had begun bellowing, ‘Stop! Stop!’
With a heartbeat like a clap of thunder she tried to hurl herself to one side, skidding, bruising, scraping as she concentrated on sliding sideways, not over the edge to cr
ash on the rocks below.
She squeaked to a stinging halt with one foot over the abyss but the rest of her safely on dry land and still high up above the sea.
Then Nelson was pouncing on her like a hot, hairy waggy-tailed missile and she could hear Aaron calling, ‘NO! Nelson! No!’
Clancy covered her mouth against an enthusiastic canine tongue, crowing for breath and getting an unnerving close-up of Nelson’s permanently shut eye.
‘Are you OK?’ Aaron arrived, skidding, gasping for breath, falling on his knees and dragging Nelson off her.
Harry and Rory jogged up too. ‘Sorry, Aaron,’ Harry said guiltily. ‘I didn’t see Nelson running after her.’
‘Holy hell. Do you have to make everybody as bonkers as you are, Harry?’ Aaron crashed down onto his back on the grass beside Clancy, clutching his chest. ‘First I thought Nelson was going to follow you over then I thought you were both goners. Fuck. Thanks for managing to stop.’ He coughed as he tried to suck air into his lungs.
Clancy lifted her arm to examine fiery pink grazes. ‘I didn’t see him either. Would he really have jumped?’
Aaron nodded, dried grass in his hair. ‘Probably. He jumps with me from a rock beside Zig-zag Beach, but it’s only about six feet. I’ve no idea if he’d have survived that drop.’
‘Might not,’ Harry said philosophically. ‘But you can hold Nelson and we’ll jump in with Clancy—’
‘Better idea.’ Aaron rolled to his feet, brushing grass off his backside, still breathing hard. ‘Nobody jumps but I’ll buy you all breakfast at the B&B.’
Clancy groaned as she accepted Aaron’s hand to pull her upright. ‘I’ve kind of lost my mojo for the sea today anyway.’
‘OK.’ Harry and Rory fell in with the idea cheerfully, drying themselves before pulling their clothes back on – severely ripped skinny jeans and ugly T-shirts.
Kaz was able to provide four full English breakfasts and soon they were all tucking into tasty sausages and thick-cut bacon with eggs that were crispy at the edges, just as Clancy liked them. Their host didn’t seem as smiley as usual and Clancy wondered whether it was anything to do with Oli’s reception at the bank. Kaz didn’t mention it though, and Clancy felt she couldn’t ask.
A Summer to Remember Page 11