One Last Summer

by Connelly, Victoria

  They entered the priory through the kitchen and made their way up the spiral staircase, stopping at a first-floor landing and turning right into a spacious double bedroom with a large stone fireplace and a window which looked out over the courtyard garden.

  ‘I thought you’d like this room.’ Harrie placed the briefcase on the floor. ‘There’s plenty of light.’

  Audrey dropped her suitcase and laptop and took a moment before speaking.

  ‘You’re crazy,’ she said at last.

  ‘What do you mean?’

  ‘I mean hiring an ancient priory for the summer. What on earth made you do it?’

  Harrie shrugged. ‘I thought we deserved an adventure and I didn’t fancy traipsing through a jungle or backpacking in the Himalayas.’

  Audrey nodded in understanding and began to unpack a few of her things. ‘No, Somerset’s much more you, isn’t it?’

  ‘You think?’

  ‘You always were the homely one,’ Audrey said. ‘I mean out of the three of us.’

  ‘I suppose.’

  ‘Lisa’s always jetting off to yogic retreats on distant shores and I . . .’ Audrey paused.

  ‘What?’

  ‘I was going to say that I like nice hot holidays in the Med, but I’ve just realised that I haven’t had a holiday in years. Not really. Mike managed to get me to go on a couple of weekend city breaks, but I’ve told him I’ve been too busy setting up the new business to go away for any longer than that.’

  ‘But you love your holidays,’ Harrie said.

  ‘I know,’ Audrey agreed, ‘which is why I’m here now.’

  They smiled at each other.

  ‘I’m so happy you could make it,’ Harrie told her.

  ‘Me too.’ Audrey stepped forward and hugged Harrie again, her hair tickling her face. ‘And you’re okay?’ she asked a moment later. ‘You look so pale.’

  ‘I do?’ Harrie said. ‘Oh, I just haven’t had a chance to catch the sun yet.’ She could feel the full weight of Audrey’s gaze upon her. Her friend was a shrewd one but, if she suspected anything now, she didn’t say, and Harrie breathed a sigh of relief when Audrey’s attention was caught by the view from the window. The two of them looked down onto the courtyard garden, taking in the paths lined with huge lavender bushes and the neat knot garden in its centre, which was full of herbs.

  ‘It’s so quiet here,’ Audrey observed. ‘This is just what I need at the moment.’

  ‘Me too,’ Harrie said.

  ‘Yoohooooo!’ a voice called from downstairs.

  ‘Spoke too soon,’ Audrey said with a laugh, and the two of them went down to the kitchen.

  Lisa was standing by the kitchen table with a yellow suitcase on one side of her and a pink yoga mat on the other.

  ‘Oh, my god! Look at you two!’ she screamed, her chestnut hair flying out behind her as she launched herself at them. The three of them embraced, laughing and leaping around each other to the chorus of ‘Too long! Too long!’ When they finally broke apart, Lisa took a good look at Harrie.

  ‘Your hair’s shorter.’

  You have no idea, Harrie thought to herself, remembering the horror of losing her hair completely during chemotherapy.

  ‘Yes,’ she said, her hand flying to touch the fair locks which were now chin-length rather than shoulder-length. ‘I fancied a change.’

  ‘You look good,’ Lisa said.

  ‘So do you – as ever!’ Harrie said. ‘I like this – what do you call this look?’ Harrie asked, examining Lisa’s black leggings, the flat ballet pumps and the tiny pink vest top which looked two sizes too tight.

  ‘Yoga chic,’ Audrey supplied.

  ‘Is that right?’ Harrie asked.

  ‘You’re making that up,’ Lisa said. ‘This just happens to be what I’m comfortable in. Like your business-tycoon chic.’

  ‘Ha ha,’ Audrey laughed.

  Lisa and Harrie gave Audrey’s neat conservative skirt and blouse the once-over. She did look as if she might be going into a boardroom meeting, Harrie had to admit.

  ‘As long as you’re comfortable,’ Lisa added.

  ‘Ladies!’ Harrie said. ‘Let’s start as we mean to go on.’

  ‘This is how I mean to go on,’ Lisa said. ‘I miss our banter.’

  ‘Well, let’s keep it civil.’

  Lisa grinned and then looked around the kitchen.

  ‘This place is amazing, Harrie! I couldn’t believe this was really it until I saw your cars. How on earth are you paying for it?’

  ‘With my life savings.’

  Lisa laughed. ‘And you don’t want us to chip in?’

  ‘Not necessary.’

  ‘Well, it’s very generous of you,’ Lisa said. ‘I was facing the summer in my horrible flat and there’s a new neighbour who blasts music every weekend. The landlord refuses to do anything about it. I have to sit with earplugs in.’

  ‘And is that place rented or have you bought it?’ Audrey asked.

  ‘It’s rented,’ Lisa said defensively. ‘I’ve told you, I don’t want to buy until I have enough for my dream home.’

  ‘But to throw all that money away on rent – for all these years,’ Audrey went on.

  ‘It’s not throwing it away. I’m experiencing life in many different locations.’

  ‘But you’re not a student anymore, Lisa. Are you at least saving for a deposit?’

  Lisa’s eyes widened. ‘Not all of us want to be tied to one place and one man our entire lives.’

  Audrey’s face reddened. ‘And what’s wrong with that? Mike and I are very happy and we love our home.’

  ‘I’ve told you before that buying isn’t convenient for me at the moment. I need to be able to move around and go where the work is.’

  ‘I know,’ Audrey said. ‘I just worry about you—’

  ‘Well, you don’t need to!’

  ‘Let’s not fight – please,’ Harrie said.

  ‘I’m not the one who’s fighting. It’s Audrey who’s pulling my life apart.’

  Audrey sighed. ‘I’m sorry, Lisa. I didn’t mean to. It’s just that I worry about you.’

  ‘Yeah? Well, you don’t need to. I can take care of myself.’

  ‘I know you can.’

  There was a moment’s silence.

  ‘Are we all okay?’ Harrie dared to ask.

  ‘Come here!’ Lisa said, opening her arms up and flinging herself at Audrey. ‘We’ll hug it out like we used to do.’

  ‘Don’t I get a hug?’ Harrie asked.

  ‘But we weren’t fighting with you,’ Audrey pointed out.

  ‘All the same, I don’t want to be left out,’ she said, and the two of them opened their arms so she could join in.

  Lisa seemed in better spirits after the hug. ‘How is everyone?’ she asked. ‘How’s Mike and Jack?’

  ‘They’re good,’ Audrey said. ‘Both working hard.’

  ‘I love those photos you emailed us of you all by the Thames,’ Harrie said.

  ‘Yes, I can’t believe Jack’s so grown up now,’ Lisa told her.

  Audrey beamed a proud smile.

  ‘Right,’ Harrie said a moment later, ‘come and see your room – you’re going to love it.’

  They walked through the kitchen and went up the spiral staircase to the first floor. Harrie opened the door into the room she’d set aside for Lisa.

  ‘It’s got its own fireplace,’ Lisa observed, dropping her suitcase and yoga mat.

  ‘All the bedrooms have,’ Harrie told her.

  ‘Look at the size of this place!’

  The room was large and airy with wooden floorboards and two red-patterned rugs. The bed was a robust one with a great wooden headboard.

  ‘You’ve got an en suite,’ Harrie said, and Lisa went through the adjoining door.

  ‘Come and see this!’ she cried. ‘Am I really meant to use this?’

  ‘Use what?’ Audrey asked as she and Harrie entered the bathroom.

  ‘This – this thi
ng!’ Lisa said, pointing to the bath.

  ‘The bath?’ Harrie said.

  ‘It is rather huge,’ Audrey observed.

  ‘Huge – it’s brutal!’ Lisa said.

  The three of them looked at the ancient bathtub with its massive taps.

  ‘What’s your room like, Aud?’ Lisa asked, and Harrie detected a hint of suspicion in her old friend’s voice which was all too familiar. In any given situation, Lisa liked to have the best, the prettiest, the most expensive – it was just the way she was.

  ‘I’m not swapping,’ Audrey said.

  ‘Who said anything about swapping? I just want to see it.’

  They left Lisa’s room and crossed the landing and went up two steps to enter Audrey’s.

  ‘It looks like an office in here!’ Lisa observed.

  Sure enough, as Harrie looked around the room, she noted the stack of files and papers, the laptop and the fact that Audrey’s mobile was vibrating and she was obviously itching to answer it.

  ‘Mike would be very disappointed,’ Harrie whispered.

  ‘Don’t say that,’ Audrey said. ‘Please don’t say that.’

  Lisa looked from one to the other. ‘What’s going on?’

  ‘Mike’s worried about Aud. She’s working too hard.’

  ‘So what’s new?’

  ‘Exactly,’ Audrey agreed. ‘I’m used to it. It’s my natural setting. I’d probably die of boredom if I didn’t work so hard.’

  ‘But you could die of a heart attack if you do,’ Harrie pointed out.

  ‘Nonsense! I’m in my prime. I thrive on work!’

  ‘But this is your holiday,’ Harrie reminded her.

  ‘I know, and I have every intention of enjoying it. I just need to tidy a few things up first, that’s all.’

  ‘What’s your en suite like?’ Lisa asked, nodding towards a door at the far end of the room.

  ‘I’m not swapping rooms, Lisa.’

  But Lisa had crossed the room already and was in the bathroom.

  ‘Oh, you have a darling little shower!’ she said.

  ‘Do I? I haven’t seen it yet.’

  Lisa gave a little sniff and Harrie cleared her throat.

  ‘How about drinks in the garden?’

  Lisa took one last look around Audrey’s en suite and then came back out into the bedroom.

  ‘Yes, a drink would be great,’ she said.

  ‘Good! I’ll let you both freshen up and meet you outside, okay? There’s a picnic table in the garden through the first arch as you come out of the front door.’

  Harrie made a hasty retreat. Only Lisa could complain about staying in a luxurious medieval priory.

  Half an hour later, the three of them were sitting sipping their wine, the sun setting low in the sky, leaving a luminous pink trail behind it.

  ‘Six years?’ Audrey said. ‘It can’t be.’

  ‘It is,’ Harrie said. ‘At least when all three of us were together. I had that flying visit to London for a conference a couple of years ago, remember?’

  ‘Of course I do!’ Audrey said. ‘It was when you sneaked out in the afternoon and we had tea and cake at Fortnum and Masons.’ She laughed.

  ‘But it’s hard to get us all together, isn’t it?’ Harrie went on. ‘With you in London, me in Wiltshire and Lisa up in Yorkshire.’

  ‘But was it really six years ago?’ Lisa asked.

  ‘It was the year of our fortieth birthdays, remember?’

  ‘How could we forget? That was some holiday,’ Audrey said. ‘I still miss that little beach we found.’

  ‘The one near the restaurant with the waiter that fancied Lisa?’ Harrie said.

  ‘He did not fancy me!’

  ‘Funny how you always got bigger portions,’ Harrie teased.

  Lisa grinned at the memory. ‘That seems like an age ago now and I still haven’t got used to being in my forties,’ she said, shaking her hair back from her face.

  ‘I sometimes feel like I’m in my sixties,’ Audrey said, ‘never mind my forties.’

  ‘You work too hard,’ Harrie told her.

  ‘Yeah, yeah. You’ve said that already.’

  ‘Well, it’s true.’

  ‘But you wouldn’t want to go back, would you?’ Audrey asked.

  ‘What do you mean?’ Harrie said.

  ‘You wouldn’t want to be young again and have to go through all we went through to get to where we are today. I mean, all those awful jobs we’ve had to do.’

  ‘And teacher training!’ Lisa said.

  ‘Exactly!’ Audrey said. ‘Who’d want to go back to that horrible school with the head of English with the whistling nose?’

  Lisa snorted at the memory. ‘Oh, god! I’d forgotten about him! He used to lean over my shoulder to look at my lesson plan when I was in front of the class and I had to will myself not to laugh. I think all the pupils were just waiting for me to crack up.’

  ‘Or waiting for you to thump him,’ Harrie said. ‘I nearly did once. He just got a little bit too close for comfort.’

  Audrey shook her head. ‘No, I wouldn’t want to go back.’

  ‘But there were fun times too! Don’t forget those,’ Harrie said. ‘Being able to stay up all night if we wanted to, hiding bottles of wine under the bed for secret parties.’

  ‘Cheap wine!’ Lisa said with a laugh.

  ‘Of course – that’s a rite of passage. But we’ve got the good stuff now.’ Harrie took a sip from her glass.

  ‘Getting to spend three whole years reading books,’ Audrey said. ‘Now, that’s a joy no longer afforded to us.’

  ‘Well, we’ve got a few weeks here to make up for it,’ Harrie said. ‘I hope you’ve bought a stack of books with you.’

  Audrey sighed. ‘When I look back, I can’t help thinking of all those long years trying to get things right – professionally and personally.’

  ‘I’m still trying,’ Lisa said.

  Harrie looked at her. ‘You haven’t given up, have you?’

  ‘About being an actress?’ Lisa said.

  ‘Yes.’

  ‘I’ll never give that dream up. I had an audition last week.’

  ‘What for?’

  ‘A commercial,’ Lisa said.

  ‘Really?’ Harrie said.

  ‘What was it selling?’ Audrey asked.

  Lisa suddenly became interested in the rim of her wine glass. ‘I don’t remember.’

  ‘Nonsense!’ Audrey said. ‘Come on – out with it.’

  Lisa grimaced. ‘It was for – it was for those pads for women. For little leakages.’

  Audrey guffawed and Harrie couldn’t help giggling.

  ‘The market is getting a lot younger!’ Lisa said. ‘They were obviously looking for someone glamorous.’

  ‘But you didn’t get the job?’

  ‘No, I didn’t.’

  ‘Never mind. Something else will come along.’ Harrie leaned forward and squeezed her hand.

  Lisa sighed. ‘I wonder when. It’s years since my soap opera. Nobody recognises me anymore.’

  Harrie gave her a sympathetic smile. She remembered when Lisa had first heard she’d be leaving the prime-time soap. Harrie had immediately called Audrey and the two of them had spent time with their friend when she’d needed them the most. There’d been a lot of tears and a lot of wine, she recalled.

  ‘Even my agent has trouble remembering who I am,’ Lisa went on now. ‘All I’m getting thrown my way are rubbishy commercials.’

  ‘But that’s keeping you in the public eye, isn’t it?’ Audrey asked.

  ‘Did you see the latest one?’

  ‘The one for that multi-purpose mop?’ Harrie asked. ‘You looked gorgeous, Lisa!’

  ‘Thanks, but dancing around a kitchen with a mop isn’t exactly where my aspirations lie.’

  ‘Poor Lisa,’ Harrie said, thinking about the brief time their friend had been on prime-time television and had graced the pages of the TV guides for a few months. It had ended badly.
The producers had mercilessly killed her character off in a gruesome building-site accident and Lisa had had to go back into teaching. She’d never got over her disappointment.

  ‘I hate teaching,’ Lisa announced.

  ‘Do you?’ Harrie asked in surprise.

  ‘I mean, not teaching teaching. I love that whole sharing of knowledge bit, but some of the schools I go to – they’re a bit trying. It’s not teaching at all at places like that. It’s more crowd control.’

  Harrie knew that, for the last few years, Lisa had been working as a supply teacher because the freedom allowed her to audition whenever she needed to. The downside was that she had struggled in the more challenging schools.

  ‘I’m telling you, drama is not the best subject for a supply teacher. You get thrown into sports halls which are far too big and echoey, and the kids just run riot. It’s a nightmare.’

  ‘Poor Lisa,’ Harrie said again. ‘I don’t envy you. I feel so lucky to have found my school.’

  Lisa laughed. ‘A girls’ school in a nice market town. I can only imagine what that must be like.’

  ‘Well, why don’t you do something else?’ Audrey said. ‘I did.’

  Lisa took a sip of her wine. ‘Like what?’

  ‘I don’t know – something with your yoga. You’ve been on enough retreats, you’re a good teacher and—’

  ‘Pardon?’ Lisa said, cupping her ear.

  Audrey grinned. ‘You heard me.’

  ‘Did you just pay me a compliment and say I was a good teacher?’

  ‘I don’t know, I can’t remember,’ Audrey said, her grin still in place.

  ‘She did. I witnessed it!’ Harrie laughed.

  ‘But you should do something. If you’re not happy. Life’s too short.’

  Harrie nodded. ‘Yes.’

  Lisa groaned. ‘I sometimes wonder if I’ve messed up. If I’ve just been wasting my time with this acting lark.’

  ‘Don’t say that,’ Harrie told her. ‘You’re a wonderful actress. You just need a lucky break.’

  Lisa smiled at her. ‘You’re so sweet, Harrie. You’ve always been so supportive, but I often think I’m just fooling myself. I mean, what if I’ve missed my life? What if I took a wrong turn somewhere – made a wrong decision – and somebody else is leading the life that was meant for me with the perfect job and the perfect man?’

  Her friends looked back at her blankly.