Authors: Miranda Barnes
She had known Matthew Taylor a long time. Most of her life, in fact. They had started school together, and he was just about the only person she still knew from those distant days. She no longer saw much of him, now he had such a rarefied job, but he was the man she had decided to go and see.
‘Kirsty Johnson in person!’ A big grin spread across his face. ‘How are you, kid?’
‘Much better for seeing you, Matthew,’ she responded, laughing.
‘Ah! Flattery. You must want to borrow some money.’
‘Let’s not get into that just yet, Matthew.’
He laughed now. She grinned happily. He still had a nice, cheeky way with him, even if he was a bank manager now.
‘I always knew you would end up in a posh job, Matthew.’
‘I haven’t “ended up” yet. There’s a lot more to come.’
‘Even more to come?’
‘Definitely. Just you wait and see.’
‘I’m pleased for you, Matthew. It’s good to see you doing so well.’
‘Thanks. So what about you, Kirsty?’
‘I thought you’d never ask.’
She told him then what she was thinking, and worrying and hoping. He listened thoughtfully. Somehow he managed to acquire cups of coffee for them both without her knowing how he had done it.
‘So,’ Kirsty concluded, ‘ I thought I would ask your advice.’
He nodded. ‘You really want to do this, don’t you?’
‘More than anything I’ve wanted for a long time.’
‘And I can see you’ve looked into it, and thought it through. Well, the bank should be able to help. There’s probably no need to sell your house, or your mother’s, unless you really want to. I’m sure we’ll be able to offer you a commercial mortgage. It’s a perfectly viable business you’re looking at here. The bank will be eager to support you. And so will I,’ he added graciously.
Kirsty smiled happily and blew out with relief. ‘I was really just thinking of a loan to bridge the gap, while the houses sell,’ she said diffidently.
‘Keep the two things separate, Kirsty. That would be my advice. One isn’t dependent on the other. Go ahead and sell if you want to, but you don’t have to.’
Matthew made a further proposal.
‘In the meantime, if it would help, I would be happy to open negotiations with the vendor’s agent on your behalf. See if we can knock the price they’re asking down a bit. Do you have their details?’
She liked the idea of “we”. She liked the thought that she wasn’t quite alone with all this.
‘Thank you, Matthew. What a help you’ve been.’
‘What are old school chums for, Kirsty?’
He made a performance out of a self-deprecatory shrug that had her laughing hours later when she recalled it.
‘Oh, yes,’ Joyce said breathlessly. ‘Oh yes indeed! What a wonderful idea, Kirsty. Oh, I do hope it comes off for you.’
‘I’m glad you approve,’ Kirsty said happily. ‘It’s early days yet, but I had to tell someone.’
‘Of course you did. And of course I approve. Alan does, as well, don’t you dear?’
‘Approve what?’ Alan said, looking away from the football match on the television. ‘What are you getting me into now, Joyce?’
‘Kirsty’s going to buy a pub in the Lake District.’
Alan’s expression revealed his total astonishment. His eyes swivelled towards Kirsty. ‘Tell me it’s true?’ he demanded. ‘Tell me she’s not making it up?’
‘It’s an inn, actually,’ Kirsty told him happily. ‘Not a pub.’
‘An inn?’
‘Oh, Alan!’ Joyce said despairingly. ‘Don’t you ever listen?’
‘I’m listening now, aren’t I?’ Turning back to Kirsty, he added, ‘An inn? Will it be the sort of place where old friends can come and stay for their holidays?’
‘As often as you like,’ she assured him. ‘I shall insist on it. And if you do a bit of gardening for me, you’ll get free beer as well.’
Alan switched the television off and pulled his chair closer to hers. ‘Tell me more,’ he insisted.
‘Oh, Alan!’ Joyce and Kirsty chorused in unison.
***
She returned to Fells that weekend, eager to have another look at the inn. Soon, she thought, soon I might not need to make this trip so often. Soon I might be here all the time.
It was a happy thought, one that made her smile and chuckle all the way there. It was only when she reached the bottom of the slope leading into the village that her dreams crashed. She saw in a moment that the “For Sale” sign outside the inn had been replaced by an “Under Offer” sign. It was some minutes before she could even bring herself to get out of the car.
Oh, well, she thought with resignation. At least I’ll still be able to come here to stay, whoever owns it.
Bob wasn’t in any better spirits than she was. He sat at one of the outside tables, watching her emerge from the car.
‘Hello, Bob.’
‘Hi.’
‘Been far?’
‘Not today.’
He returned to his newspaper. She shrugged and made her way inside. Maybe his pills weren’t working, she thought sarcastically. Then she chided herself for being so mean.
She felt flat. It was so disappointing a development that she didn’t feel like doing anything at all. Carol wasn’t on duty either, which made it worse. Even Henry wasn’t around. So she had a solitary time of it until Bob re-appeared as she was finishing her evening meal.
Having already been rebuffed once by him, she didn’t encourage conversation and was surprised when he approached her.
‘Tomorrow,’ he said.
‘Yes, Bob?’ she said crisply.
‘I’m going up Goat Fell.’
She nodded without much interest. ‘Good. Have a nice day.’
She poured another cup of coffee.
‘You don’t fancy coming along, do you?’
It took a moment for the question to sink in.
‘Me?’ she said with surprise.
‘Well... I just wondered.’
She wasn’t in the mood. She didn’t even feel like talking to him. Then it struck her. This was Bob, remember? The famously solitary, enigmatic Bob. It was a great honour to be asked. Besides, hadn’t she long dreamed of reaching the top of Goat Fell?
‘Why not?’ she said, trying to make it as casual as she could. Then, as an afterthought: ‘But I’m not an experienced fell walker. You do know that?’
‘You’ll be fine.’ He smiled. ‘And I’ll be glad of the company. Tomorrow, then?’
‘Tomorrow,’ she agreed, feeling better. ‘An alpine start?’
‘Nine sharp.’
A smile spread across her face as he turned and left. What a bundle of surprises the man could be.
Nine sharp, he’d said. She made sure she was standing at the front door, waiting, with a couple of minutes to spare. She felt he pretended not to be surprised.
‘Nice jacket,’ he said. ‘Is it new?’
‘No, no! I’ve had it a while,’ she told him off-handedly, secretly proud he’d noticed.
He glanced at her still shiny boots and her new backpack but didn’t say anything else.
‘I think I’ve got everything,’ she assured him.
‘Including water?’
She nodded. She knew how important it was to take sufficient liquid with you when you were walking in the hills. She’d read that in a magazine in her GP’s waiting room. So dehydration wasn’t going to catch her out – not on her first walk with the redoubtable Bob.
‘Let’s go, then,’ he suggested.
He set off at an agreeably easy pace and she fell in beside him as they headed over the meadows towards the foot of the slopes.
‘Will the rain hold off?’ she asked.
He glanced up at the white cloud wrapped around the upper slopes of Goat Fell. ‘Maybe,’ he pronounced.
‘There’s confidence for you.’
He chuckled and gave her a warm smile that augured well for the day.
Bob was considerate. When they started climbing, he set a pace that was comfortable for her and he paused frequently to allow her to catch her breath. Her confidence grew. She could cope, she decided. She could keep up.
‘You’re doing well,’ he told her at one point, sounding surprised.
‘Better than I expected,’ she admitted with a chuckle.
He laughed. She was pleased. Making him laugh felt like a useful contribution to the day.
They made good, steady progress. It was warm without being too hot. And Kirsty found the going easier than it had been that time when she was on her own on the mountain. Something to do with sharing the burden, she supposed.
They reached the tarn in an hour and spent a little time there, lingering over a cup of coffee from the flask Bob produced from his rucksack.
‘Beautiful, isn’t it?’ Kirsty murmured.
Bob nodded. ‘And peaceful,’ he added. ‘So peaceful.’
She wondered if that was what it was about for him. Peace. Peacefulness. It seemed important to him. She sensed how relaxed he was now, as if the tranquillity of this place and the effort to get here had dissolved whatever it was that stressed him normally.
‘Unexplored territory for me, from now on,’ Kirsty said, glancing upwards towards the still hidden summit.
‘Lucky you. All that to come,’ Bob said with a chuckle. ‘Come on.’
It was harder after that. The path was much steeper above the tarn, and soon they had left the heather and grass behind and entered a world of bare, jagged rock and scree.
Kirsty was excited, even more so when the way ahead began to fade in and out of view as the cloud shifted and swirled around them. She had never been anywhere like this before. Yet she was not apprehensive. On the contrary, she was thrilled, exhilarated. She felt she was beginning to sense some of what climbers must feel, the powerful attraction that draws them back to the mountains time after time. Goat Fell wasn’t Everest, but for her it was close enough.
Another hour, nearer two, then suddenly they were there. Impressively, the cloud cleared, as if on cue, to reveal a broad stony expanse, the summit plateau. They made for the rough cairn at the centre, where generations of walkers and climbers had built what had begun as a simple pile of stones into a massive monument. Kirsty added a stone of her own. Then they settled down to lunch.
‘This is wonderful, Bob. To be here... Thank you so much for inviting me along. All these months I’ve been wondering what it was like up here.’
‘And I wondered what it was that kept bringing you back to Fells. So it was sheer curiosity?’
‘Envy, more like it. I wanted to do what you were doing but I didn’t have the nerve on my own.’
He laughed. ‘You can’t beat it,’ he said. ‘Up here, on top of the world. There’s nothing finer.’
They were in agreement about that, she thought happily. For a while they sat in silent contentment, gazing at the panoramic view that seemed to take in a vast part of the world.
Then Kirsty’s thoughts turned to other matters. She wondered whether to tell Bob what had been on her mind when she arrived in Fells the previous day. She wasn’t sure, but it seemed a good time to broach the subject.
‘Today has made up for the disappointment I experienced when I arrived yesterday,’ she said.
He glanced curiously at her.
‘The “Under Offer” sign at the inn,’ she added by way of explanation.
‘Oh, that.’
‘Yes, that. I’d become so used to seeing the “For Sale” sign. You see, I’d been making plans to make my own offer for the inn. So I was very disappointed to see someone had beaten me to it.’
That stopped him. ‘Really?’ he said, turning to stare at her.
‘Really.’ She nodded and went on to tell him of her hopes, and how they had been thwarted.
‘You must really like the old place?’
‘Oh, I do. I’d been in love with the memory of it since I was a little girl, and now I’ve rediscovered it. Besides, I need a new direction in my life. I’ve been drifting along for such a long time now, going nowhere, doing nothing. And I’m sick of it. I was getting to the point where I no longer liked myself. The idea of taking over the inn, the challenge of it, changed all that.’ She shrugged. ‘Now I’ll have to find something else.’
‘Well,’ Bob said judiciously, ‘it’s not over yet.’
‘There’s no fat lady singing here, Bob. Of course it’s over. Someone has come in ahead of me. After all this time, as well.’
‘It’s only under offer. The deal isn’t done yet. The offer might fall through.’
She nodded.
‘Anyway,’ he added, ‘even if everything does go ahead, the old place won’t change much. It will still be at the foot of Goat Fell, whatever happens.’
‘I guess.’ She shrugged and gave him a wan smile. ‘It won’t be the same, though, will it? Not for me.’
‘Perhaps not.’
The air began to stir around them. Kirsty glanced round and saw Bob looking at fresh cloud on a neighbouring peak.
‘Come on,’ he said, beginning to stuff things back into his rucksack. ‘A change is on the way. Time for us to get moving.’
They made good time on the way down, managing to keep ahead of the rain that was drifting in from the sea. All that effort to get up here, Kirsty thought with a wry smile, and we’re just racing down now.
Bob showed her how to do things on the way down, how to half-turn and slide on loose scree, like she used to do on ice slides in the school playground. How to move quickly with confidence and not to worry about the possibility, the probability even, of falling.
‘If you worry about it, you will fall,’ he told her. ‘Just get on with it. And if you are going to fall, relax and pick yourself up again afterwards. It won’t be the end of the world.’
‘It’s all right you saying that,’ she said with a laugh. ‘You’re not the one who’s likely to fall, are you?’
‘I’ve done plenty of it,’ he assured her. ‘It’s nothing to be scared about. You’ll likely just get mucky hands and a wet bottom.’
She laughed again. She couldn’t help thinking it wasn’t the sort of advice she would ever have got from Craig.
‘It’s like driving,’ Bob added. ‘When you go out in your car, you don’t worry all the time that you might crash, do you? If you did, you wouldn’t be able to drive at all. You’d never get started.
‘And in the mountains you don’t worry you might fall. You’d never leave the valley if you did. It’s the same thing.’
‘Yes, Bob!’ she said with a grin. ‘I’ll bear that in mind.’
She wasn’t convinced but she could see his point. So she got on with it, as he suggested. If she fell, she decided, she would just have to deal with it when it happened.
And that was what she did. She did fall, of course. Once or twice she slipped on loose stones. But it was no big deal, she discovered. She just picked herself up again and got on with it. Exactly as Bob was doing, she realised with a wry smile as she saw him dusting himself off after a slip. He wasn’t infallible.
Trying to move with more confidence didn’t prevent leg muscles she hadn’t known she possessed complaining, though, and by the time they reached the valley floor again she felt like a seasoned mountaineer. Weary, aching, muddy – and satisfied and happy.
‘It’s a hot shower for me now,’ she announced as they approached Fells Inn. ‘But in a couple of hours I’m sure I’ll be hungry again. Perhaps we could meet up for a meal together?’
Bob seemed to spend a few moments thinking it over. Then he nodded. ‘Sounds good to me,’ he agreed. ‘Seven OK with you?’
She smiled through her fatigue and promised herself a glass of white wine to celebrate her achievements today : reaching the summit of Goat Fell and making Bob laugh. Quite a day.