Creature Comforts

by Trisha Ashley

  ‘I was staying with Dad for a couple of days’ holiday and ran into Cara. She said the job was going and put a word in for me. It was better wages and a good cottage, though he expects a lot for his money and he’s an unpleasant man to deal with.’

  ‘Your dad has been unpleasant to me since I came home. He even threatened me and said I shouldn’t have come back. Mind you, he seems to have it in for all of us at the Lodge.’

  ‘He gets grudges. He was bitter about Debo ratting on him to Baz, just because he made a pass at her. And then she told him Dad was letting the grounds go … though, actually, even I could see that Olly was the only one doing any work. Dad had it easy,’ he admitted. ‘Still, he’s harmless really, you know that – all hot air. He never laid a finger on me when I was growing up and he’s tried to do his best by me.’

  ‘But Debo and Judy said it was common knowledge that when you were little he left you alone at night when he went out to the pub.’

  Simon shrugged. ‘He likes a drink – and he likes the ladies, too. We had neighbours on either side, so I never felt afraid.’

  ‘Things are changing at Sweetwell now,’ I warned. ‘If he doesn’t pull his socks up and do his job, Rufus won’t be as easy-going about it as Baz was. I don’t think Dan’s attitude to him is helping, either.’

  ‘Dad met this Carlyle bloke’s mother when she was down and they’ve stayed in touch,’ he said awkwardly. ‘She’s a pop star – or he said she was. I’d never heard of her.’

  ‘Fliss Gambol. I think her heyday was the sixties and early seventies. And he’s definitely stayed in touch; he’s been boasting to his friends in the pub about going to London and spending weekends with her!’

  This was obviously no surprise to Simon. ‘Does Rufus Carlyle know?’

  ‘He does. And your dad was sniggering to his friends in the pub the other night when Rufus was walking through and he heard Dan mention his mother’s name, so to say he’s not exactly happy with him at the moment would be the understatement of the year.’

  I paused, for Rufus had come into view. He must have been working hard for he’d stripped off his shirt, revealing an impressively muscled torso and broad shoulders. He slashed back a clump of brambles and then, as if he felt me watching, turned briefly and gave me a smile.

  ‘That’s Rufus Carlyle.’

  ‘I’ve seen him about, but I’d know him for a Salcombe anyway, with that colouring,’ Simon said.

  He got up to go. I rose slightly creakily to my feet, too, having stiffened up.

  ‘If I give you my mobile number, can you ring me when Cara’s back?’

  ‘I don’t know,’ he said uncertainly. ‘I reckon Dad’s right and it’s better not to stir it all up again.’

  ‘Then the quickest way to stop me is for everyone to tell me exactly what happened,’ I said, exasperated. ‘I have a feeling you’re keeping something back, too, Simon. Or is it just that you realise what Cara said about my insisting on driving you all up to Sweetwell that night couldn’t be true?’

  ‘No – no, I don’t know any more,’ he protested quickly, but he looked troubled. Then, turning on his heel, he plunged off down the steep path without another word.

  I felt I’d had enough path clearing by then, and Rufus needed to go back to the Hall, so Belle and I hitched a ride with him. On the way, I told him what Simon had said, though I skimmed past the Fliss bits so as not to rub salt in the wound.

  Judy had invited Rufus to dinner that evening and by then Pearl was much perkier than when he saw her in the morning.

  ‘She’s not house-trained, so there have been a few little accidents, but this afternoon she followed Vic and Ginger out for a pee, so she might just get the hang of it from watching the other two,’ Judy observed.

  ‘It would be a bonus if she was at least partly house-trained by the time I take her to Sweetwell,’ Rufus said. ‘Since Myra heard she was coming, she’s been stocking up with industrial amounts of disinfectant and Marigolds, and she says she’s prepared for anything.’

  Dinner was roast beef and Yorkshire pudding, followed by the last of the previous year’s blackberries from the freezer, made into a crumble, served with thick cream.

  Rufus and I felt a bit stuffed after that and took our coffee into the studio, accompanied by Pearl and Babybelle, while Judy and Debo went out to the kennels with Vic and Ginger.

  ‘I’ve texted Lulu and Cam to say we won’t be at the pub tonight, but I don’t really think they’d have noticed we weren’t there anyway,’ I said, with a grin.

  ‘Probably not. Things seem to be hotting up!’

  ‘I suspect Cam spends some of his nights in the caravan, because he always looks self-conscious when he says he’s going to stay on a bit and help Lulu set the tables for breakfast.’

  ‘Why can’t they just come out and admit they’re an item?’ he asked, puzzled.

  ‘I’m sure Cam would, but Lulu needs some time to get over Guy. He was very controlling and dented her self-confidence. Now his mistress has left him, I only hope he doesn’t come here, expecting her to be pleased to see him, because he’s arrogant enough.’

  ‘How do you feel about your ex and Cara now?’

  ‘I don’t feel anything at all, which is pretty shocking, really, considering how recently I was all set to marry him! I’m just a bit sorry for Simon … but maybe she’s only having a fling with Kieran and will go back to him.’

  ‘If he’ll have her back. And there’s the husband too, isn’t there?’ He grimaced. ‘What messy lives some people lead … my mother among them.’

  ‘You haven’t got any ex-wives or fiancées lurking about, have you?’ I asked him, impulsively.

  ‘No,’ he said shortly. ‘Where women are concerned, I have trust issues.’

  ‘Right …’ I said, then changed the subject. ‘Simon said he felt bad about working for Cripchet after he started having an affair with Cara, so he’s already applied for jobs back with his old employer.’

  ‘Do you think you can cross him off your mission list now?’ Rufus asked.

  ‘Probably. I don’t really think he remembers anything clearly after they left the beer garden that night and though he’s a bit reluctant to talk to me, I think it’s mainly because, deep down, he doesn’t believe what Cara said about my insisting on driving.’

  I paused, then thought I’d better come clean and said, ‘He knew all about his father visiting Fliss in London – in fact, he said he thought he was there again this weekend.’

  ‘I’d guessed as much. I wish she hadn’t got involved with Dan because it’ll make problems if I fire him, which is more tempting by the day.’

  ‘Yes, he could then say you’d fired him because of the affair.’

  ‘I expect I could find lots of witnesses to say how little work he’d done for years, though.’

  ‘Cam texted me earlier to say you’re off to Cornwall at the crack of dawn tomorrow to collect all those easels and things he’s bought,’ I said.

  ‘Yes, didn’t I tell you? We fixed it up yesterday. Jonas minded the gallery for an hour this afternoon so Cam could have a go at driving the big van up and down the drive, but it’s not that huge so he’ll be fine.’

  ‘It’ll be a long trip, even with the two of you taking turns.’

  ‘But he’ll be an expert van driver by the time we get down there. It was a good idea of his to keep his gallery opening times and closing day the same as mine, so we’ll both always be off on a Monday.’

  ‘My hours will be entirely flexible, which I suppose is one advantage of an online business.’ I sort of hoped Rufus would suggest I go with them on the trip, but he didn’t.

  ‘How did the photographs from the gallery opening come out?’ he asked.

  ‘Brilliant! Cam and Lulu sent them across yesterday afternoon and we’re going to take just a few more on Tuesday. And once the pictures are up – the business goes live!’

  ‘That will be an exciting moment.’

  ‘Yes …
though I suppose it will take a while before anyone finds my site.’ I sighed. ‘I’d hoped to have talked to everyone about the accident before then, but I don’t see it ever happening with Cara.’

  ‘Are you still dreaming up new details?’

  ‘Off and on. I’m sure most of them are real memories, though only Cara could confirm that. I do have some bizarre dreams, too, and another recurring dream about swimming up at the Lady Spring with—’ I broke off, remembering exactly who was swimming about in that dream with me!

  ‘Tom says you swim there early most mornings.’

  ‘Yes, usually before breakfast. I got used to the heat in India, so it seems a bit chilly, but I’m getting toughened up again. You should come.’

  ‘I thought you liked to be alone while you’re swimming?’

  ‘Sometimes, but now I know you better, I really don’t mind,’ I assured him, thinking that since he swam with me in my dreams anyway, he might as well do it in reality.

  ‘How about if I send you a message whenever I’m setting out in the mornings and you can come if you feel like it?’ I suggested. ‘Sometimes I go later, or miss it altogether if something comes up.’

  ‘OK – maybe I need toughening up, too,’ he said.

  ‘But you have to drink a whole cupful of the water from the cave first every time – it’s a ritual and it’s good for you.’

  ‘If it’s a purge of some kind, we ought to try pouring a bucketful into my impossible mother,’ he said with a wry smile.

  Chapter 24: Close Encounters

  Dazed by what Harry had said, I was sitting in the car before I came back to reality. It was now starting to get dark and my hands, clenched on the steering wheel, felt sweaty with fear.

  ‘Harry, there’s no way I can do this!’ I whispered, tears rolling down my face.

  While I was swimming early next morning, I finally came to terms with the idea that I might now never manage to get any more information out of Cara, the last and most vital witness, and the only one who could tell me if my unfolding dreams were just that or actual memories. By now I was sure in my heart that they were true glimpses of the past … I wondered how far they might take me. Each time I woke up after one, I thought it might be the last, but if they ended then I would just have to accept that, too.

  There was nothing like floating about in the Lady Pool to soothe, calm and give a sense of perspective.

  I thought about Cam and Rufus, too, driving all the way down to Cornwall, and hoped they were having a good journey.

  I worked all morning and then had lunch with Lulu in her caravan, a palatial trailer that used to be overflow staff accommodation before they renovated some of the attics in the Victorian part of the pub.

  Workmen had just finished erecting a neat wooden fence around the caravan and there was a roomy kennel under the shade of the trees. I thought she’d managed to get everything ready extremely quickly, because although I’d ordered the new fence and a small, purpose-made kennel block for Desperate Dogs, they hadn’t even been delivered yet.

  After lunch we went out in Lulu’s car to buy all the other things that Dusty would need, so that she was prepared for his arrival. I’d made a list and copied it for Rufus, too, for Pearl.

  ‘Bed, bowls, collar, lead, food, brush – this dog’s an expensive luxury,’ Lulu complained as we wheeled an overflowing trolley towards the checkout.

  ‘You didn’t have to buy the most expensive collar on the rack,’ I pointed out. ‘And he could have managed to find his dinner even if he didn’t have a white china pawprint-patterned bowl with “DOG” written on it.’

  ‘He’s had a hard time, I want to spoil him a bit,’ she said.

  ‘I might be doing this all over again with Rufus in a couple of days. Since he’s never had a dog before, he’s going to have no idea what to get, or how much it will all cost.’

  When we’d loaded everything into the car, I said I’d like to buy a new dog-walking raincoat, since my ancient anorak had sprung leaks along the seams.

  ‘I hadn’t thought about all the walkies,’ Lulu confessed. ‘I suppose I’d better get something more waterproof, too.’

  ‘We’ll be able to meet up sometimes and walk the dogs together,’ I suggested.

  ‘That would be fun, and maybe we could take them to the beach one day, if the weather’s nice,’ she agreed.

  We fell in love with the same raincoat, as we’d so often done with clothes in the past. They were made of waterproofed red cotton, with hoods and patterned linings – mine had sailboats and Lulu’s, ducks.

  ‘I’ve already got wellies and my old walking boots,’ she said, ‘so I think that’s everything.’

  Lulu came back to the Lodge to say hello to Dusty and have a cup of coffee. While we were snaffling freshly baked cheese scones from the rack, I had a text from Rufus, saying they were just starting back.

  ‘So they’ll be very late,’ I said. ‘I suppose they’ll stop a couple of times on the way for something to eat and a rest.’

  ‘At least he sent you a message, which is more than Cam sent to me!’ Lulu said.

  ‘I think it was from both of them, to both of us, really.’

  ‘But you do seem to be getting on very well with Rufus,’ she suggested meaningfully.

  ‘Just like you are with Cam?’ I raised one eyebrow.

  She grinned. ‘OK, no prying!’

  ‘There’s nothing to pry into. I really like Rufus as a friend, now I’ve got to know him, but there are a couple of major obstacles to anything deeper, like his mother’s disastrous influence on mine and the fact that I was ultimately responsible for the death of his half-brother, whatever the circumstances.’

  ‘Oh, I don’t think he blames you for that. And it’s not his fault his mother is Fliss Gambol, is it? It sounds like he had a horrible childhood.’

  ‘It does, and I’m sure he’s never had much in the way of mothering because he loves it when Judy urges him to eat more, or get his hair cut. He might go right off her when she gives him a dog-hair scarf, though.’

  ‘I always think the things she knits from dog hair are going to smell of dog, but actually they don’t and they look really nice,’ Lulu said.

  ‘She has to put a lot of work into the hair before it’s ready to knit – washing, carding and spinning.’

  Lulu sipped her coffee and her face took on a pensive expression. ‘Izzy, I’m afraid of falling in love with Cam,’ she confessed, ‘because if it all went pear-shaped, I’m sure it would destroy our friendship.’

  ‘Don’t you think it might be a bit late to worry about that?’ I said drily. ‘Anyway, it won’t go wrong. You’ll still be best friends – only with perks.’

  ‘I don’t understand how I can possibly have fallen in love with Cam after all these years. It was just that on the way back from the Dordogne, I suddenly saw him totally differently.’

  ‘Yes, I gathered that! And luckily, it was mutual.’

  ‘I was looking forward to the three of us being back together in Halfhidden, like we used to be, but if Cam and I get together, things won’t be the same, will they?’

  ‘Things are changing anyway, whether you want them to or not, but I’m sure the three of us will always be best friends.’

  ‘Perhaps we should make that four, since Rufus seems to have quickly become one of us,’ Lulu said. ‘It’s as if we’ve always known him.’

  ‘I’m sure if Fliss had told Baz about him, he’d have brought him up here at Sweetwell with Harry, so we would always have known him! It’s a very odd thought … and things would have turned out very differently.’

  ‘Well, unfortunately, you can’t turn back time,’ Lulu said, ‘or I’d twist the dial to right before I met Guy and start again!’

  I went into my studio when she’d gone. I could hear Chris and Debo out in the kennels, working with the aggressive Doberman, and the volleys of frantic barking suddenly ceased in the late afternoon, just as I was stepping back to examine my latest creation
with narrowed eyes and a mouthful of bead-headed dressmaker’s pins. I don’t know if it was Chris’s magic working, or simply that the dog’s voice had run out, or a combination of the two. Whichever it was, the silence fell like a blessing on my successful afternoon’s work.

  I didn’t text Rufus next morning to see if he wanted to join me at the pool, since I was sure after his long journey he wouldn’t be awake yet, though I did have a message from Cam when I got back from my swim, saying he and Lulu were still up for taking the last of the catalogue photos this morning and Lulu was coming over right after breakfast.

  They were both there when I arrived at the gallery. Cam looked tired, with blue shadows under his eyes, but said it had been a really successful trip.

  ‘It was a small private art school selling up, so I bought a job lot of useful odds and ends. Rufus needs to unload the stuff he’d bought on the way back first and then he’ll drop my things off later in the day.’

  ‘What did Rufus get?’ I asked.

  ‘A small, battered blue dinghy, of all things. He said they make a really good alternative flowerbed, filled with soil and planted up.’

  ‘I suppose that would look unusual and pretty,’ Lulu said. ‘I must tell Mum, because it might just be what we need to brighten up the front of the hotel by the sign.’

  ‘It would certainly be eye-catching,’ I agreed.

  ‘He bought a load of big pieces of driftwood too, and three or four old stone mushrooms – I’m not sure what they were originally used for.’

  ‘That’s a mixed bag,’ I said, and then, coffee finished, we did the photo shoot right there, because I’d decided to call my first offering The Gallery Collection.

  When we’d finished, they both went back to the Lodge with me, so they could collect Dusty and take him to his new home. The gallery was open by then, but we left Jonas in charge of the till, the biscuit tin and a large mug of tea.

  Dusty, despite being afraid of most men, seemed to like Cam. This was just as well, because I suspected Dusty wouldn’t be spending a lot of time in his new kennel, but instead dog Lulu’s footsteps, much as Cam did when he got the chance.