A Summer to Remember

by Victoria Connelly

  It was sometime after lunch that Ziggy’s big brown eyes and tail thumping on the kitchen floor became too much for her and she grabbed his lead and gave him a little nod. It was all the encouragement he needed and she watched in amusement as he hightailed it out of the kitchen, skidding his way down the hall towards the front door.

  Remembering not to allow Ziggy to pull, Nina kept control, smiling to herself at the progress she had managed to make in such a short space of time. She’d been practising in the house too with commands for ‘sit’, ‘stay’ and ‘down’. He really was a very bright dog; one only had to channel that intelligence in the right direction. Something, Nina reasoned, Olivia had neither the time nor the patience to do.

  Together, they headed along the river, pausing to watch the swallows skimming along the shallows as the water wound its way through the meadows. They walked by a row of weeping willows, whose long green branches trailed in the water as if caressing it.

  It felt good to be out of doors, but Nina couldn’t help missing a bit of company and her thoughts turned inevitably to Justin. She always looked out for him each time she walked Ziggy now, and it seemed strange not to see him on the footpath. She pulled the piece of paper out of her skirt pocket and looked down at it. There was his phone number and the words: Justin – call me!

  ‘Should I?’ she asked Ziggy. ‘Should I call him?’

  Ziggy’s eyes were bright as he looked up at the sound of her voice, but he wasn’t very forthcoming with advice.

  Nina bit her lip. It seemed so forward just to ring him out of the blue, but he’d told her to do exactly that and she had agreed. But what about her vow to steer clear of men? That’s what had been putting her off calling him. She wanted some time out from all that relationship stuff, didn’t she?

  But you like him, don’t you? Vow or no vow – you’ve been thinking about him.

  It was true. It might have been Alex who had kissed her but, although rather wonderful, the kiss had meant nothing to Nina. She liked Alex, of course, but she didn’t think of him as a potential partner. But Justin … there was just something about him that she couldn’t shake from her mind and she knew she wanted to know more about him.

  Nina sighed. Try as she might to focus on being a man-free zone, she couldn’t help thinking about the handsome dog-walker who had been so sweet and patient with her and Ziggy. And those piercing blue eyes and heart-melting smile were pretty hard to banish from her mind, too. Besides, it would just be plain rude not to give him a call, and Nina wasn’t the sort to be rude, was she?

  Clearing her throat, she got her phone out and called the number. The line was crackly when Justin answered it and there was background noise of traffic.

  ‘It’s Nina!’ she hollered when he couldn’t make out who it was.

  ‘Oh, Nina!’ he cried. ‘How are you?’

  ‘I’m good.’

  ‘How’s Ziggy?’

  ‘He’s right here. We’re by the river and just wondering if you and Bess are around.’

  ‘I’m just heading out of Norwich,’ he said. ‘It shouldn’t take me too long to reach you. How about I meet you at the oak tree?’

  ‘Okay then. I’ll see you there,’ Nina said, her heart racing as she hung up. There, she thought, that hadn’t been too hard.

  The oak tree was quite famous in the county. Thought to be at least five hundred years old, its girth was as thick as the back of a double-decker bus and it was still producing a good crop of acorns each year. It had numerous hearts and initials carved into its bark and, on the summer solstice, parties of dancers and musicians would congregate, tying ribbons to the branches and drinking punch until the early hours.

  Nina walked towards it now, marvelling at its size and beauty, stretching out a hand to touch its roughened, reptilian-like bark and gazing up into its emerald leaves, which provided a dappled shade on the ground beneath by the river bank.

  Looking down into the water, Nina had a sudden rush of temptation and, still trying to keep hold of Ziggy, she was slipping her feet out of her shoes before she could think of a reason not to, letting the river wash over her toes as she sat on the bank. The water was cold and chilled her body, but the rhythm of it soothed her.

  Taking advantage of the warm afternoon, she realised she couldn’t remember the last time she’d dipped her toes into the River Yare. They’d been teenage toes for sure. She looked out across the broad stretch of navy river and on towards the fields to where The Folly stood. It looked unusually tall against the horizontal landscape. Briefly, she wondered what Dominic was doing. Probably something brilliant, she thought, sighing in contentment. How lucky she was to be there. After working for Hilary Jackson in the city, being at the mill made her feel as if she’d been transported into a fairytale world. It was truly idyllic.

  She tilted her head back and took in the enormity of the blue sky, stretching luxuriously before throwing her arms up into the air and laying back on the grass. She closed her eyes and listened to the uninterrupted flow of the water, her ankle-length linen skirt making a satisfactory blanket underneath her. Ziggy watched her for a moment and then decided to join her, flopping on the grass beside her, his tongue lolling out of his mouth as he panted in the heat.

  ‘It’s too hot to do anything else, isn’t it?’ she said, patting his head gently and gazing into the river. Maybe she and Justin could go for a paddle together later – or was that improper at this stage in their relationship, she wondered?

  She thought of her day at the beach with Alex and grimaced. She should never have gone. Dominic had been right to warn her and Faye had been right to reprimand her. But, it was done now and there was nothing she could do but try to make sure it never happened again.

  For a moment, she closed her eyes against the bright sun, her lids dancing with myriad colours and her skin slowly cooling in the shade of the oak tree. It was only when she felt the gentle pressure of Ziggy on the end of his lead that she realised she had fallen asleep and, on opening her eyes, she saw Bess, her glossy black and white coat darting in and out of the tall grasses that lined the footpath. She gave a hearty bark when she spied Nina and ran over to her and Ziggy.

  ‘Hello, Bess!’ Nina cried, pulling her feet out of the water. The dog instantly flopped down on the ground as if all the air had been sucked out of her and her tongue popped out of her mouth so that she became a matching bookend to Ziggy. ‘Where’s your lord and master, then?’

  It didn’t take long before Justin came into view. He was wearing a pair of beige cotton trousers and a white shirt, which looked ridiculously crisp on such a sunny day but immensely attractive, for he had unbuttoned it at the throat and rolled the sleeves up to reveal arms that were tanned and toned.

  ‘Hello,’ he said cheerily as he spotted Nina under the tree with the two dogs. ‘You all look very comfortable. May I join you?’

  ‘Of course,’ Nina said. ‘Pick the least dusty spot and sit down.’

  ‘It was good to hear from you,’ he said, sitting on the warm earth beside her.

  ‘I hope you didn’t mind me ringing you,’ she said anxiously.

  ‘Why should I mind? I was hoping you would ring me.’

  ‘You were?’

  ‘Of course! I did ask you to, didn’t I?’ His blue eyes sparkled in the dappled sunlight and Nina felt herself blushing. ‘In fact, if you hadn’t have rung me, I would have called you.’

  ‘But I didn’t give you my number,’ Nina said.

  ‘But I know where you’re staying,’ he said with a smile. ‘Anyway, why didn’t you give me your number?’

  Nina bit her lip. ‘Well, we’re still getting to know each other,’ she said.

  ‘But we can’t get to know each other very well if I don’t have your phone number and can’t call you,’ he said with a lopsided smile.

  Nina nodded. ‘I know. I’m sorry. It’s just—’ she paused, ‘I guess I’m being a bit careful these days.’

  Justin’s eyebrows rose a fraction. ‘
Trouble before?’

  Nina nodded. ‘But that’s all in the past now.’

  ‘Good,’ he said.

  ‘You know,’ she said, ‘we really don’t know anything about each other. I don’t even know your full name, I don’t know what you do for a living, I’m not even sure—’

  ‘Stop!’ he said lightly, a hand raised in the air. ‘Do we really need to know all that stuff? I mean, tell me it all matters. Tell me that it would really make a difference if I told you that my name was – I don’t know – Milton, for example.’

  ‘But that’s the name of the family I’m working for,’ Nina said.

  ‘I know. But does it matter? If my name is Milton or Jones or Fortesque-Walpole?’

  Nina laughed. ‘I guess not.’

  ‘And I don’t need to know yours. All I need to know is that you like me enough to spend time with me and that Bess likes you, too. That’s always a good sign.’

  ‘Doesn’t she always like everybody?’

  ‘Oh, no,’ Justin said. ‘She wouldn’t have a thing to do with one of my exes. Used to slink away into a corner with her tail between her legs.’

  ‘Oh, dear,’ Nina said.

  ‘I should have ended things there and then, but it took me eight whole months to realise that she was seeing one of my colleagues behind my back.’

  Nina blinked in surprise. ‘That’s awful.’

  ‘And Bess knew about it all the time, didn’t you, girl?’

  ‘You don’t really believe that, do you?’ Nina asked.

  Justin smiled and stroked his dog’s sun-warmed head. ‘No,’ he said with a smile, ‘but I pay more attention to who she trusts these days.’

  ‘Animals are a good judge of character, aren’t they?’ Nina said.

  ‘I think so,’ Justin said with a little nod. ‘Have you any of your own?’

  Nina shook her head. ‘My parents said that animals shouldn’t be kept in a house and that they made mess everywhere,’ she said with a shrug. ‘I bugged them for years for a rabbit or a guinea pig or a hamster, but they wouldn’t be persuaded.’

  ‘That’s too bad,’ he said. ‘We were never without them growing up. Cats, dogs, rabbits – there was always some animal in the house causing chaos.’

  Nina laughed. ‘I remember one evening when I was babysitting for the Miltons and their pet rat escaped. He was an enormous thing and had somehow got trapped behind a radiator.’

  Justin laughed, too. ‘What on earth did you do?’

  ‘The boys were frantic with worry and so was I. I don’t particularly like rats but Hank was very endearing in his own ratty way and I didn’t want to see him get hurt. Alex was going through a real Norwich City football club phase and was wearing his yellow and green scarf and it suddenly dawned on me that we could use it to rescue Hank, so we lowered it behind the radiator, making a little hammock underneath him, and then hauled him out.’

  ‘That was very innovative of you!’ Justin said with a grin.

  ‘Us babysitters have to be resourceful, you know,’ she said, smiling at the memory.

  They sat quietly for a moment, watching a pair of swifts chasing each other across the barley field, their high-pitched calls piercing the air.

  ‘So, how’s the novel-writing business going?’ Justin asked at last.

  ‘Dudley doesn’t work at the weekends. I think Olivia insists that he takes proper time off. Either that or she just likes to get him out of the house for a few hours.’

  ‘But it’s all going well?’

  ‘Oh, yes,’ Nina said.

  ‘And what’s he going to do with it when it’s all finished?’

  Nina looked thoughtful. ‘I don’t really know,’ she said. ‘He’s never talked about it.’

  ‘You think he’ll try to find a publisher?’

  ‘I don’t see why not,’ she said. ‘Why write otherwise? I can’t imagine he’s doing it just to pass the time.’

  Justin shook his head. ‘Imagine – Dudley Milton, a novelist!’

  ‘I know!’ Nina said. ‘I couldn’t believe it when I first saw the novel, but it’s really very good. I hope it is published.’

  Justin took a deep breath. ‘Nina,’ he said, ‘I would love to take you out sometime. I really think we should stop meeting on dusty footpaths and have a sit down somewhere with chairs, don’t you?’

  ‘Oh, I don’t know,’ she said with a smile, ‘I rather like dusty old footpaths.’

  ‘I’d suggest dinner, but I’ve just had a mammoth lunch and I’ve got to head back to London this evening.’

  ‘Oh,’ she said. ‘For work?’

  ‘Afraid so.’

  Nina didn’t ask what he did and he didn’t volunteer. It didn’t seem to matter on such a sunny Sunday. Who wanted to talk about work when the skylarks were singing and a warm breeze was caressing your face?

  ‘Well, why don’t you come back to the mill for a cup of tea? There’s some ginger cake left too. We could eat in the garden – there are real chairs there.’

  ‘Oh, no,’ Justin said quickly. ‘I’d hate to intrude.’

  ‘You wouldn’t be,’ Nina assured him, taking a quick look at her watch. ‘Everybody’s out and they won’t be back for hours yet. Dominic’s in town at his gallery, Dudley’s at his club and Olivia’s having lunch with Billy and then going on to do some shopping before heading to a music recital.’

  He looked a little unsure. ‘Well, I’m not—’

  ‘Go on! You’ll love the mill! It’s got one of those gorgeous country kitchens with a big bright Aga in the middle of it and a slate floor and … ginger cake!’

  Justin smiled. ‘Okay, you’ve sold it to me.’

  ‘Good,’ Nina said, and the two of them stood up and brushed themselves down. The dogs were up in an instant, too, and the four of them walked amiably together towards the mill.

  Olivia had told Nina that she could have friends over, but she still felt a little odd inviting this particular new friend to the mill. There was something about Justin that made her feel intensely comfortable though, as if they had known each other for much longer than just a few days. Perhaps it was the connection that they’d made with their dogs. After all, who couldn’t like a man who had a dog? Nina felt that it would be virtually impossible that such a man could harbour any nasty secrets. Still, she couldn’t help wanting to know a little more about him.

  ‘Where is it you live?’ she asked him as they crossed the bridge.

  ‘West Carleton,’ he said. ‘I’m staying with friends, but I’d like to get a place of my own out this way. I’ve got a little flat I rent in London, too, for when I’m working there, but I try to get out to Norfolk whenever I can.’

  ‘You were brought up here?’

  He nodded.

  ‘And you have family here?’

  ‘All my family’s in Norfolk,’ he said.

  They’d reached the blue front door and Nina fished the key out of her pocket.

  ‘You can let Bess off her lead if you like. I’ll just make us some tea and we can have it out in the garden.’

  Nina trotted off to the kitchen with Ziggy by her side. She gave him a dog chew and he settled happily in his basket as Nina made the tea and cut two generous slices of ginger cake, which she placed on pretty china plates covered in bright yellow sunflowers.

  ‘Nearly ready,’ she called down the hallway and, when there was no answer, she went in search of Justin. He wasn’t in the living room so she tried the dining room and was just entering as he was closing one of the drawers of a mahogany sideboard.

  ‘Everything all right?’ Nina asked.

  ‘Yes,’ he said, turning around and looking a little flustered. ‘Just admiring the furniture. Beautiful wood, isn’t it?’

  ‘I suppose it is,’ Nina said, looking at it properly for the first time. ‘They have some lovely antique pieces.’

  He nodded.

  ‘Ready for tea and cake?’

  ‘Always,’ he said with a smile and they left the r
oom together, followed by Bess.

  The ornate white metal table and chairs in the garden were in partial shade by late afternoon, but it was still pleasantly warm by the rose borders and Justin seemed very taken with it.

  ‘It’s a beautiful house, isn’t it?’ he said. ‘I always forget how lovely it is.’

  Nina looked across the table at him, his blue eyes dreamy as he took in his surroundings.

  ‘I still can’t believe I’m here,’ Nina said. ‘I keep thinking I’m going to wake up in my horrible little flat and have to go to work at that horrible little office. This all feels like a dream.’

  ‘And you’re here for how long?’ he asked her.

  She sighed. ‘I don’t like to remember, but it was agreed that I’d stay just for the length of the summer.’

  ‘Then let’s hope that this one is a particularly long summer,’ he said and they smiled at one another.

  ‘Yes,’ Nina said. ‘I really do hope it is.’

  ‘They’re very lucky to have you – the Miltons,’ he said.

  ‘No, I’m the lucky one.’

  He shook his head. ‘They’re not the easiest family to get along with. I mean, that’s what I’ve heard.’

  ‘What exactly have you heard?’ Nina said, frowning in curiosity.

  ‘Oh, just that Dudley has a bit of a temper and Olivia can be – what’s the right word – scatty!’

  ‘She’s a total sweetheart,’ Nina said, ‘and Dudley’s an angel once you’ve got him sorted out. And as long as you know what he needs before he knows himself!’

  Justin grinned. ‘And how about Alex and Dominic?’

  Nina took a sip of her tea before answering with a half lie. ‘I don’t see them too often. Dominic’s busy with his paintings and Alex comes and goes.’

  ‘But they must have tried to—’ he paused.

  ‘What?’ Nina asked.

  Justin shook his head. ‘I mean, a pretty girl like you turning up – it must have ruffled some feathers.’

  ‘I don’t know what you mean!’ Nina said with a blush.

  ‘I think you know exactly what I mean,’ Justin said, his eyes glinting in a knowing sort of way. ‘They always were competitive, those two. I hope they’re not making your life difficult.’