by Kate Field
Corin didn’t return her smile.
‘It’s not just dirt,’ he said. Mim got out of the car and went to have a look. The posts had been sprayed with bright red paint. The word ‘GO’ was written on the left hand post, while ‘AWAY’ was written on the right hand one; the first A was only just visible as Corin had scrubbed most of it off.
‘Is this aimed at the charity’s guests? This is a step further than the posters,’ Mim said, looking at the gate posts with dismay. She remembered her earlier suspicions that Gordon’s daughter, Yvonne, might have tracked her down; nasty posters were one thing but it seemed unlikely she would go this far. ‘This is criminal damage, isn’t it? Who could feel so strongly?’
‘I don’t know. Was it there when you came back from the Boat last night?’
‘No. I’d have noticed it.’
‘They must have done it in the early hours of this morning.’ Corin looked down at Dickens. ‘Some guard dog you are.’
‘Do you think it’s a rival holiday park?’ Mim asked. ‘Worried that we’ll take away some business?’
‘I doubt it. Our guests wouldn’t have booked a holiday themselves so there’s no loss. Besides, we know many of the park owners. They’re decent people and wouldn’t do this. The nearest park is owned by Henry Burrows and it certainly isn’t his style. He’s rich enough not to worry about five rival caravans.’
‘You should have called me.’
‘I almost did,’ Corin said. He dipped his brush in the soapy water again, so he wasn’t looking at Mim. ‘I wasn’t sure you’d want me to.’
‘Of course I would. I could have shown off my expertise this time. If they gave PhDs for use of a scrubbing brush, I’d have two.’ Corin laughed and Mim felt the lingering awkwardness between them melt away. She glanced at her watch. ‘I wish I could help now but I don’t have time. I’m almost late for work.’
‘Don’t worry, Bobby is on his way with a stronger cleaner. We’ll make sure there’s no trace of this by the time the guests arrive, even without your expertise.’ He smiled. ‘They’ll also have milk, coffee, and tea bags.’
‘Thanks.’
Mim was about to drive away when Corin knocked on her side window. She stopped and wound it down again.
‘You won’t be working on Monday, will you?’ he asked. Mim shook her head. ‘There’s an open sea swim taking place at Beremouth. It’s a regular Easter Monday event. Some people take it seriously, others wear fancy dress. It’s quite a spectacle. Would you like to come?’
It sounded fun, especially as her regular swimming date with Heather and Karen was off because of the Bank Holiday. But would it be weird to go with Corin? This wasn’t anything to do with the charity; this would be the two of them, going out as friends. She hesitated.
‘The standard swim is 4k, but there’s a 2k version if that’s too much,’ he added. That comment was enough to make Mim’s decision.
‘It’s not too much. I can manage that.’ She laughed when Corin grinned. ‘You only said that to persuade me, didn’t you? You knew I wouldn’t resist a challenge.’
‘I wouldn’t stoop to such tricks.’ He stepped back from the car, still smiling. ‘Have a good day.’
It was frustrating being stuck in the shop when As You Like It holidays welcomed their first guests. Mim was reliant on her phone for news about what was happening. Corin sent her a photo of a well-stocked fridge, and Lia sent a picture of herself perched on the veranda steps, waiting to greet the arrivals, but Mim still felt like she was missing out. She was determined not to miss out on the official launch of the charity at the end of April, but when she asked Janet for the Saturday off that weekend, she was met with an abrupt refusal.
‘You can see how busy we are during the holiday season,’ Janet said. It was true, unfortunately; they’d been so busy that Janet had come down from her flat to help out. ‘I can’t manage these crowds single-handed.’
Crowds was an exaggeration – Mim had never seen more than six people in the shop at once.
‘Could whoever works here on Monday to Wednesday cover an extra day?’ Mim asked.
‘Maybe,’ Janet replied. ‘And maybe they’ll get a taste for Saturday working and want to keep it up. Do you want to risk that?’ Mim shook her head. ‘And don’t be claiming a sickie, either. I’ve made a note of that date now, so don’t try to fool me. You need to be worrying more about your own job and less about this charity business. You have to look out for yourself in this world.’
By Monday, Mim was exhausted, grumpy, and very glad that she’d agreed to join in with the swim in Beremouth so she could release her tension in the water. It was the best day of the weekend, with a clear blue sky and a gentle breeze, and she wandered across the fields to Corin’s lodge.
‘Hello,’ he said, looking surprised when he opened the door. ‘Didn’t I say I’d pick you up?’
‘I thought I’d save you the bother.’ Mim looked at him. He was dressed in his usual style, adapted for the warmer weather – jeans and a well-worn shirt instead of the previous scruffy jumpers. ‘What fancy dress outfit is this? Lord of the manor?’
‘No. I’d have put on my top hat and tails for that.’ Mim wasn’t sure if he was joking until he laughed. ‘The people in fancy dress usually only dip in and out of the sea. I don’t think I could swim 4k dressed as a teddy bear.’
This time she did think he was joking until they arrived in Beremouth and joined a throng of people heading down towards the promenade. Corin hadn’t been wrong in promising a spectacle. Mim couldn’t see a teddy bear, but she did spot a couple of giant Easter bunnies, a handful of chicks, an army of superheroes, and an assortment of people wearing random outfits including nightdresses, ballgowns, and nurses’ uniforms – and that was just the men.
She found a space and stripped off down to her wetsuit, stuffing her clothes in a bag.
‘Give them here,’ Corin said. ‘A friend has come to watch and will look after the bags and Dickens.’
He seemed to have no shortage of friends here. They climbed down the steps from the promenade to the beach, shuffled through the gathering swimmers to find a good spot, and every few metres someone stopped him to give him a slap on the back, or a hug, or even a head wrestle. They finally came to a stop next to a trio of sleek-haired, long-legged women who were all wearing tiny white bikinis with a fluffy tail attached to the bottom and a headband with bunny ears. Was it a coincidence they’d stopped here, Mim wondered, eyeing them up suspiciously? Apparently not. They threw themselves at Corin with squeals of delight that astonished her. Why was he generating such excitement? She glanced at him from the corner of her eye. He was the same old Corin as far as she could see – chestnut hair sticking out at angles, a wide smile on his face, and a red lipstick mark on his cheek. Although, she had to admit, as her gaze went lower, he did fill out his wetsuit extraordinarily well… She tore her gaze away and started talking to a giant octopus on her other side.
The event was due to start at 11a.m., by which time the beach was packed several rows deep with at least a hundred people. The promenade was equally crowded with spectators. A klaxon sounded and the first rows of swimmers raced across the pebbles into the sea, whooping and squealing as they splashed into the waves.
‘This way,’ Corin shouted, and Mim followed him as he sprinted forwards, dodging the people who were already dashing back to dry land in their wet fancy dress costumes. She waded through the shallows and watched as Corin dived in ahead of her, taking huge, powerful strokes to slice through the water. Mim soon lost him in the crowd of swimmers; she was a strong swimmer but there was no way she could match his pace. It didn’t matter. He’d pointed out the route they would take, swimming right along the coast until they reached a lifeboat, which they would circle and head back left towards another boat. The loop could be completed once for 2km or twice for 4km.
The conditions were perfect for the swim. The sea was calm, and only the occasional gentle wave lifted the swimmers as they made
their way round the circuit. This was a totally different experience to the swims she carried out with Karen and Heather. When Mim looked up, all she could see were slick bodies sliding forwards, united in this activity, at one with each other and with nature. It was the most exhilarating thing she’d ever done.
She completed the 4k and waded out of the sea reluctantly, at the same time as another swimmer. She looked at them to share a smile of satisfaction and was surprised to see it was Corin. His wetsuit glistened in the sun and seemed to cling to him even more snugly now it was wet. He looked as happy as Mim felt.
‘What are you doing here?’ she asked. ‘I thought you’d have finished ages ago.’
‘I wasn’t going to leave you behind.’ He smiled. ‘How was it for you?’
‘Bloody fantastic!’ She grinned. ‘I could have done at least another loop.’
He laughed.
‘See how you feel tomorrow before you make rash promises like that. There are some 6k events held over the summer.’
‘I’d better start training then.’
‘Really? Did you enjoy it that much?’
‘I loved it.’ Mim grinned. ‘Who needs money? Doesn’t this go to show that the most fun things in life are free?’
‘I’ve known that since I was sixteen.’
He bent over and rubbed his hands through his hair, shaking the water out. The smile on his face left Mim in no doubt that he wasn’t thinking about swimming. Despite the goose bumps that were rising on her skin, she felt unexpectedly hot.
They collected their bags and Dickens. Mim pulled out a towel, shivering as the adrenalin of the swim faded. Corin was holding a strange garment that seemed to be a coat with a towel lining. Some of the other swimmers along the promenade were already wearing them.
‘Don’t you have one of these?’ he asked.
‘Hmm, let me think, do I have an expensive towel coat?’ Mim smiled and pretended to rummage in her bag. ‘No. Not in here. Obviously, I have dozens of them in a range of colours, but left them all back at the caravan. Silly me.’
‘Here, let’s swap.’ Corin passed her the coat and took her towel. He stripped off the top half of his wet suit so that it dangled from his waist, and started drying himself. He was clearly a regular swimmer, as he had the typical physique of muscular shoulders and arms. Not that she was studying his physique. Not much. She turned away and met Dickens’s sceptical gaze.
‘I’m starving,’ Corin said, when they were both as dry as they could be, and Mim was snugly cocooned inside his coat. ‘How about lunch? My treat, before you become angsty about the cost.’
Angsty? Mim turned to object to that but was confronted by his bare chest and the words died on her tongue.
‘I don’t think we’re dressed for it,’ she said instead. Or dressed at all, in his case. She hoped he was going to put his shirt back on soon. She might have no interest in a relationship but she wasn’t blind. Who knew that all this had been hiding under the woolly jumpers?
‘Never mind that.’ At last he pulled on a T-shirt. ‘I know the perfect place.’
He set off along the promenade, then ducked left up a narrow street. There was a fish and chip takeaway on the corner, with a small queue outside. Mim’s mouth watered at the delicious smell wafting out of the door.
‘The best fish and chips in town,’ Corin said. ‘Will this do?’
She nodded and he left her with Dickens and their bags as he joined the queue. A couple of women near the front gave him an appreciative glance as he passed. Mim studied him curiously. How did she reconcile this half-dressed man queuing at the chippy with the dinner-suited version drinking Champagne and rubbing shoulders with the well-to-do at the Valentine dinner? This man here could pass as part of her world; the other one was miles outside it. She had no idea who the real Corin Howard was at all.
They took their steaming parcels of food back to the sea front and sat on the edge of the promenade, dangling their feet towards the beach. Corin hadn’t exaggerated about the food. Fish and chips had never tasted so good.
‘The caravan trial seems to have gone well this weekend,’ he said, when they had satisfied the initial pangs of hunger. ‘Everything ran like clockwork as far as I can tell. I’ve never seen Lia apply so much effort. I suspect that’s partly down to you.’
‘Hardly at all. You shouldn’t underestimate her. Anyway, we’ll find out the verdict later. I left a feedback form in the caravan.’
Corin waved at someone down on the beach.
‘How come you were treated with such delight when you turned up this morning?’ Mim asked. ‘You’ve lived away for a while, haven’t you? How long were you gone for?’
‘Almost nine years,’ he said, spearing a chip with his plastic fork.
‘Nine years? Wow.’ She hadn’t expected that. ‘That was quite a holiday.’
‘I wasn’t on holiday.’ He looked puzzled. ‘It was my job. I spent a few years working for conservation charities in Peru and Ecuador, and then moved to Africa to work on humanitarian projects. Who said it was a holiday?’
No one had, Mim realised, thinking back. She’d assumed it, because he was rich and had a posh accent and presumably didn’t need to work for a living like normal people. She really must stop making these assumptions. She hated it when people judged her for her background, so how could she justify doing it to him?
‘But to be away for nine years?’ Mim said. ‘I don’t know how you could bear to be away from your family for so long.’
‘Really?’ He smiled. ‘You have met them, haven’t you? The talkative, interfering bunch that live in the big house?’
‘That’s not fair. I know you must have done amazing things in Africa, but if I had a family like yours – a loving, supportive family – I can’t imagine anything would be powerful enough to make me leave them.’
Corin balled up his empty food wrapper and stared out to sea.
‘Perhaps you can have too much of a good thing,’ he said at last. ‘I’ve had it hanging over me for my whole life that I’m Bill and Bea’s son – the number one – the son and heir. I studied the subject I loved but when I finished my PhD, I was expected to start work in the family business. I was twenty-six and my whole future was mapped out, from taking over the business from Dad to passing it to my own child one day. I wasn’t ready.’ He rubbed Dickens’s head. ‘On an impulse, I took three months out to volunteer on a sustainable farming project in the Amazon rainforest. It changed everything. I could make a difference. I didn’t come home after the three months because out there I could achieve something on my own merits, and not have it handed to me on a plate.’
Mim put down her chip wrapper and picked up the cup of tea that Corin had also bought. It was lukewarm now but she still gulped it down. She didn’t know how to react to what he’d told her. He hadn’t opened up like this before, and it touched her that he’d chosen to do it now. It was a step forward in their friendship and that meant a lot. But she could never understand his frustration. Family would always have come first for her, whatever her own wishes.
‘You’re lucky,’ she said eventually. ‘Most people would be glad to have a solid future handed to them on a plate. You wouldn’t find someone with my background complaining about it.’
‘Even if that future isn’t the one you want?’ he asked softly.
‘Only the obscenely rich think they’re entitled to get what they want. The rest of us make do with whatever we’re given.’
‘Do you disapprove of me so much?’ There was no trace of Corin’s smile now. The breeze teased the hair round his face as it dried and he frowned as he looked at Mim. ‘None of us choose our background. I can’t help my family’s wealth, or the size of the house they live in, or that they choose exotic holidays and expensive clothes. None of that is me. All I ever wanted was a roof over my head and a job I loved. A quiet, contented life. I thought you might understand.’
‘Surely Bea and Bill wouldn’t have forced you to work in the bus
iness if you didn’t want to?’ Mim replied. ‘They’re good people. They love you.’
‘I know.’ He smiled, but it wasn’t the dazzling smile that Mim was used to. ‘And I love them. That’s the problem. A loving family brings responsibilities as well as rewards.’ He tugged Dickens’s lead to bring the dog back to him. ‘We reached a compromise. I’d follow my path until I was forty and then come back to join the business. The plan had to change last year when Dad was ill. But you’re right. It was my choice to come back early. No one forced me.’ He stood up, and the look he gave Mim seemed laced with regret. ‘Enough of this. You’re the last person I should ever complain to. I’m not doing much to dispel your image of the spoilt rich, am I? Just … don’t be too quick to judge, okay?’
Chapter Fifteen
The caravans were ready. The weather forecast was predicting a gorgeous weekend with clear blue skies and temperatures in the low twenties. Lia and Ros had exploited all of their social contacts and organised a launch party for As You Like It holidays to take place on the last Saturday of April. Mim was gutted to be missing it, but when she went to bed on Wednesday night, with two days to go, she was satisfied that she’d done everything she could to make the event a success. The beds were made up with crisp white linen, every piece of crockery, cutlery, and glassware shone, and the bathrooms gleamed. Based on the feedback from the trial at Easter, she’d added some finishing touches, and now a shelf of paperback books graced each living room, together with a box of board games and jigsaws and a folder of tourist information leaflets and local information. It all looked perfect and she couldn’t have been prouder of what they had achieved.
She fell into an exhausted sleep easily enough, but tossed and turned as her mind went through the details again, looking for anything they might have missed. She sat up to make a note on the pad of paper beside her bed and as she did, a light flickered across her bedroom window. She watched but it didn’t happen again. She waited, straining to hear any noise and then it came – the quiet rumble of a voice. There was someone outside.