Authors: Miranda Barnes
Bob looked relieved. After a long pause, he said, ‘Thank goodness we’ve got that out of the way.’
Kirsty smiled. ‘So now we can get down to business?’
‘If you like. If that’s why you’re here.’
‘What happened, Bob? About the inn?’
‘It’s very simple. I’m a self-employed builder. I do property repair work, in the main. Big jobs, little jobs. It’s all the same to me. Sometimes I take on an old place, and do it up. Then sell it on.’
‘So that’s what you do. I did wonder.’
‘It’s a living,’ he said with a shrug. ‘I’ve been doing it since I left school. Served my time as an apprentice bricklayer. Then went on my own. I can do pretty well anything. Old cottages, stone walls, collapsing roofs. There’s always plenty wants doing. More now than ever, in fact.’
‘How interesting.’
He chuckled. ‘You might not think so on a January morning, or a November afternoon when the frost’s settling early. Some days there’s a lot to be said for a job in a nice, warm office, importing furniture from China or France, while you sip cups of coffee.’
She smiled at that, and thought how easy it was to take some things for granted. She really hadn’t had much to complain about when you looked at it that way.
‘I’d forgotten I told you about my job.’
‘It made me think I ought to keep quiet about mine.’
‘Nonsense. But what about Fells Inn? Where does that come in?’
He shrugged and gathered his thoughts. ‘Well, as you know, I like the place. I like it a lot. I’m always there – more than you even. And Henry has been wanting rid of it for a long time. Also, it wants things doing to it. So...’
‘It seemed like a good opportunity. I began to think: me and Polly. Fresh start. Why not? Better than just hanging on here, trying to do the same old things. And maybe there I could spend more time with her, look after her better, instead of parking her every day at my mother’s.’
Kirsty nodded. She could see that. It made sense.
‘So I sold my house. It took time, but I sold it. That gave me most of the money I needed. The rest I knew I could borrow.’
Kirsty stared at him intently. ‘Why withdraw, then?’ she asked quietly. ‘If you really have, that is.’
Just then the front door slammed shut, startling them both.
‘That girl,’ Bob said, shaking his head and giving Kirsty a what-can-you-do look.
‘I’ve got some!’ Polly called, bursting into the room, waving a brown paper bag.
She delved into the bag and turned to Kirsty. ‘Your favourite,’ she said, handing her a chocolate bar.
‘Oh, Polly!’ Kirsty stared with surprise. ‘How did you know I like these?’
‘Dad said.’
Kirsty looked at Bob, who shrugged and said, ‘I noticed.’
‘Would you like to go to the park now?’ Polly asked Kirsty.
Kirsty looked down at her tea cup.
‘When you’ve finished your tea,’ Polly pressed, ‘would you like to go with me? You could push me on the swings.’
In some confusion, Kirsty glanced at Bob, who was no help at all. He just stared at her, blank-faced.
‘I’m not sure I have the time, Polly.’
For the briefest moment, the smile slipped off the little girl’s face. It was soon back. ‘It doesn’t matter,’ she said, turning away to hide her obvious disappointment.
‘But I’d like to try,’ Kirsty said. ‘Just for a short time?’
‘Oh, good!’ Polly flashed her a grateful smile. ‘And you, Daddy?’ she added.
Bob nodded.
‘We don’t have much choice, do we?’ Kirsty said, looking at him with a smile.
‘None at all.’
***
On the way there they couldn’t resume their interrupted conversation. Polly made quite sure of that by keeping tight hold of Kirsty’s hand and pointing out local landmarks as they walked by. Friends’ homes, Polly’s school, sweet shop, the café that Polly liked all passed in rapid succession.
‘You certainly know your way around,’ Kirsty ventured.
‘I do. I know more than anyone in my class,’ Polly assured her earnestly.
Kirsty wondered if the little girl’s firm base here had had something to do with Bob pulling out of Fells Inn. It hardly seemed fair to think of uprooting her when she was so well settled.
Bob offered no clues to his thinking on the matter. He walked along in silence beside them, leaving the talking to them.
Kirsty herself was in a quandary. She scarcely knew now what to say or do. On the one hand, she was so pleased and relieved to have been able to dismiss her initial suspicion that he had not told her the truth about his family. On the other, she still didn’t know what the situation was with Fells Inn. He still had some explaining to do on that score.
Even so, and above all else, it was lovely to see him again. Now she was here, and he was here, she liked him as much as she ever had. She longed to touch him. She wanted him to take her in his arms again and kiss her. Would that ever be possible? It seemed unlikely.
They reached the park and Kirsty was immediately required to watch Polly scale the climbing frame, shoot down the slide and spin the little roundabout. Then it was the swings.
‘Higher!’ Polly shrieked.
Kirsty pushed harder, and gave Bob a nervous glance. He shrugged and smiled. He wasn’t worried. But she was.
‘Higher!’
‘I think that’s high enough,’ Kirsty panted.
She stepped back and allowed Polly to manage the swing herself, working her legs alternately underneath her and then out in front, keeping her momentum going. A boy Polly evidently knew climbed on to a neighbouring swing. The two of them began to swing together, shrieking with exhilaration. Kirsty left them to it and re-joined Bob on the sidelines.
‘Isn’t she brave?’ Kirsty said.
‘Fearless,’ Bob agreed, giving her a grin. ‘Hard work, was it?’
Kirsty laughed. ‘I’ll say! I can see why you kept out of it.’
They sat and watched for a while. Then Bob excused himself for a couple of minutes. Immediately, Polly abandoned the swing and came to sit with Kirsty.
‘Are you going to stay with us?’ Polly asked.
‘Oh, no. I’ll have to go home soon.’
‘Where do you live?’
Kirsty told her, but could tell it didn’t mean much to her.
‘You don’t live in the Lake District?’
‘No. I would like to, though. Maybe I will one day.’
‘Me and Daddy will, as well. Will we see you there?’
Kirsty laughed. ‘Perhaps. Would you like that?’
Polly nodded and looked very serious. ‘I liked you a lot even before I saw you.’
‘How could you?’ Kirsty protested, laughing again.
‘Because Daddy talked about you so much. Do you like Fells, as well? As much as he does?’
‘I think I do, yes.’
‘That’s good.’ Polly jumped to her feet. ‘I’m going to tell Duncan now.’
‘Tell him what?’
‘About you. He wants to know.’
With that, she was gone, back to rejoin her friend on the swings.
Kirsty shook her head and smiled ruefully. She hoped she had said the right thing. She would hate to upset or disappoint Polly.
‘What was that all about?’ Bob asked.
She looked round at him and smiled. ‘For me?’ she asked, seeing the ice-cream cone he was holding out to her.
‘Only one of them,’ he said, withholding two others. ‘Girl talk?’
‘Girl talk,’ she agreed.
She watched him walk over to Polly and hand her an ice-cream. The cone he must have got for himself he gave to Polly’s friend, Duncan. Kirsty smiled. She liked that. Nice man.
But they still had business to sort out.
‘You were going to tell me why you changed your mind about Fells Inn,’ she pointed out when he returned. ‘If you have, that is?’
He shrugged and sighed. ‘I was all set to go ahead,’ he said slowly. ‘Then you came along.’
‘Me? What difference did I make?’
‘You liked it more. You wanted it more. It seemed even more important to you than to me.’ He shrugged and added, ‘I decided I could do without it more easily than you.’
‘That’s crazy, Bob,’ she said softly.
‘Besides,’ he added, ‘I don’t know what I would have done with it in the long run, once I’d got the place put to rights. I could have sold it on, I suppose. But if I’d kept it I would have needed a business partner to run it, someone to operate it as an inn – and do a better job than Henry.’
‘You and me both,’ Kirsty said. ‘I would need a business partner, as well. I could run the place, but I would need someone to upgrade the building and then look after it. I couldn’t do that myself.’ She stopped, thinking hard, and stared at him. ‘Are you thinking what I’m thinking?’ she asked hesitantly.
‘I am now,’ he admitted. ‘I wasn’t, but...’
‘The two of us, together?’
He nodded and a big smile spread across his face. ‘Wouldn’t that be fun?’ he said.
She smiled back. Indeed it would!
‘That brings me to another question,’ she said gently. ‘Why didn’t you tell me what was on your mind? When we were talking, and I told you about my hopes and dreams, why did you say nothing?’
‘Ah! That’s a more difficult question.’ He gave an awkward little shrug and smiled. ‘How was the ice-cream?’
‘Very nice, thank you.’ She shook her head at him. ‘Just answer the question, Bob.’
Then she waited, and watched him struggle. She said nothing more. But she could wait. She could do that. An awful lot rested on what he might or might not be about to say.
‘It’s difficult,’ he repeated.
‘You just disappeared,’ she insisted. ‘Ran out on me, without a word. After our day on Goat Fell, as well, and all our talk about the inn.’
She said nothing about the kiss she had given him, and the way he had held her so tightly and laughed so happily.
‘Things change. I’d grown too fond of you,’ he said eventually, ‘over the months you’d been visiting Fells. And I knew nothing would come of it.’
‘Why ever not?’
He shrugged.
‘Whatever gave you that idea?’ she pressed gently.
‘It would be bound to end in tears.’
‘Why?’
When he looked at her and said no more, she stood up and moved to sit closer to him. ‘Tell me, Bob.’
He sighed. ‘You wouldn’t stay,’ he said. ‘You’d want a better man than me.’
‘And where do you think I would find one? Don’t you think I’ve looked?’
‘I’m serious,’ he said, giving her a reluctant smile. ‘I mean it.’
‘So do I,’ she said gently.
‘Then there’s Polly.’
‘Who is absolutely lovely. But what’s she got to do with it?’
‘I couldn’t be without her.’
She was puzzled. ‘Why would you have to be?’
He shrugged again. ‘She’s not yours,’ he said.
‘So? Why would that be a problem?’
‘It might.’
‘It wouldn’t,’ she said flatly.
‘Some people don’t like children.’
‘I’ve always wanted a child,’ she responded. ‘I like children. What else?’
He looked at her again and shook his head, able to think of nothing else.
‘Bob, you are silly!’
He touched her face gently. Then he smiled and reached out to take hold of her. She buried her face in his chest, breathing in the scent of him. Then she looked up, closed her eyes and he kissed her.
‘Do you really think…?’ he began, a little later.
‘I do,’ she said softly. ‘Whatever you thought might be a problem, I’m telling you now it isn’t.’
He laughed and said, ‘Kirsty! I love you.’
‘I know,’ she said simply. ‘I can feel it. I have for such a long time.’
The sat holding on to each other for a little while, sorting out a few things but not having to put everything into words yet. Just the big things.
‘Will you marry me, Kirsty? Eventually?’
‘Of course.’ She looked at him seriously and said, ‘There’s nothing I would like more.’
He drew her close again.
‘I saw you,’ a little voice giggled from somewhere nearby. ‘Kissing!’
Then they were parted by a small body intent on snuggling between them. Kirsty laughed and made way. ‘Come in out of the cold, Polly.’
‘Are you going to be my new mummy?’ Polly asked.
Kirsty took deep breath. ‘Yes,’ she said, looking with shining eyes at Bob. ‘I am.’
‘Good.’ Polly wriggled round. ‘And are we still going to live in the Lake District, Daddy?’
‘Oh, yes,’ he assured her. ‘You needn’t worry about that.’
They looked at each other anew, and with mounting joy Kirsty began to realise what the future held for the three of them, working together, being together. She could think of nothing better. Things do change, she thought. They already had.