A Summer to Remember. Sue Moorcroft
someone came out and sat down at one of the two tables, a hot drink in one hand and a plate in the other. Clancy paused as she recognised Genevieve’s flowing blonde hair.
A middle-aged woman followed, depositing condiments on the table then pausing to chat as Clancy started forward again. Both women looked up at her approach and she found herself slipping into her business persona, giving Genevieve a warm hello and then extending her hand to the other woman. ‘Hi, I’m Clancy. I’ve moved into the Roundhouse and I’ll be looking after the cottages.’
The woman beamed. She had a round face with a chin to spare and her small dark eyes almost disappeared when she smiled. ‘I’m Kaz. Me and my husband Oli run the B&B. Welcome to Nelson’s Bar.’ Her smile broadened. ‘We have a tiny bar indoors and that’s called Nelson’s Bar too. An old girlfriend of Horatio Nelson lived here, legend has it.’
It seemed there was no end to Nelson’s connections with the village. They chatted for several minutes and then Clancy became conscious of a rumbling tummy and indicated the salad before Genevieve. ‘That looks good. I didn’t realise you did lunches.’
Kaz beamed anew. ‘We do whatever people want if it means business for us. Gen’s got a ham salad there but I can also offer you cheese or tuna, or any of those things in a sandwich. If people give me a bit of notice I can usually offer jacket potatoes or omelettes too.’
After ordering a ham salad and a cup of tea, which sent Kaz bustling indoors, Clancy hovered beside Genevieve. ‘May I join you?’
Immediately, Genevieve nodded. ‘Sit down. It’ll be nice to chat.’
Relieved, Clancy took the seat opposite. ‘Sorry if I was a know-all about your insurance situation. I’m one of those annoying people who see a puzzle and try and solve it.’
Genevieve shrugged, pulling her hair back into a ponytail as she prepared to eat. Her blondeness looked natural, fitting well with her milky skin and blue eyes. ‘I rang the insurance company and you were exactly right. I was just making arrangements with Kaz to move in here for a couple of months. You’ve provided her with a guaranteed guest, which is good for business, and me with a summer of being looked after.’
Clancy didn’t think she sounded super-thrilled, but smiled and began a polite getting-to-know-you conversation. Genevieve, she discovered, was a nursery nurse in a kids’ club in Hunstanton where holidaymakers could leave children for a couple of hours’ play. ‘Monday and Tuesday are my days off this week so I’m using them to get organised for the builders to move into my poor little cottage.’ Tears shone in her eyes for a moment. Then, as Kaz appeared with Clancy’s lunch, ‘In fact, I think I deserve a glass of wine. Fancy joining me?’
As Kaz had paused hopefully Clancy immediately fell in with the suggestion. ‘Wonderful idea.’ They ordered large glasses, red for Clancy and rosé for Genevieve.
The salad proved to be a rainbow confection of leaves, tomatoes and peppers with cheese and thick-cut ham.
‘So, what’s brought you to Nelson’s Bar?’ Genevieve asked, as Clancy began her meal. ‘Did you decide you needed to be more on the spot to look after your cousin’s interests when Evelyn left?’
‘Not at all,’ said Clancy hastily, not wanting that version of events to get back to Aaron. ‘I really, really needed a change. In fact,’ she added honestly, ‘I needed somewhere to live and a job.’
Kaz popped out with two glasses of wine, both glowing with colour in the afternoon sun. Clancy gave her time to bustle off before she carried on. ‘Up until about ten weeks ago I thought I was getting married. To Will. He’s the sort of man everyone describes as “lovely” so it was a big shock when I found out that he’d met someone else. We worked together too.’
Genevieve paused, her wine poised just short of her lips. ‘Was working together still tenable? After?’
Clancy sighed. ‘We tried. Will managed OK, but I … didn’t. It became obvious one of us had to leave and it seemed as if everyone wanted it to be me.’
‘But that’s not fair!’ Genevieve exclaimed.
The warmth of sisterly solidarity stole over Clancy. ‘Agreed. And I could question the legality, if I wanted to.’ It had crossed her mind often, sitting alone in the Roundhouse and feeling betrayed. ‘But, anyway. Roundhouse Row needed a new caretaker, and filling the position got me out of two unpleasant situations in one go. Now I’m in Nelson’s Bar, while Will moves his new girlfriend into our apartment.’ She chose not to admit that Will was mainly moving Renée in because of the financial knot Clancy had tied him up in, which had pretty much bound him to the apartment, at least for now.
Genevieve’s eyes had been getting bigger and bigger. ‘I can see you’re Alice’s cousin.’
‘Really?’ Clancy turned to look at the other woman. ‘So you knew her well?’
‘We were friendly enough to go out for a drink together, until she … Well, neither of you are frightened of making big changes to your lives, are you? Your relationship ends and you just move on.’
Clancy polished off a couple of gulps of wine thinking there had been no ‘just’ about her moving on. ‘A woman doesn’t have to be defined by the love of a man, or the loss of a man. I do regret that I closed my eyes to warning signs, never challenged Will on why he was spending so much time elsewhere. I was complacent, which put my fate in his hands and set me up for a nasty fall. But I deserve better and I’m getting used to being single.’ She held aloft her wine to invite Genevieve to clink glasses.
Genevieve obliged. ‘Until you meet someone new?’ she queried with a grin.
Clancy batted the idea away. ‘I’m in no hurry for that, believe me.’
It had been good to get a full day’s work in, Aaron thought, as he drove into the village late on Tuesday afternoon. He’d just about finished planting out the terraces in Titchwell. A heatwave was predicted and he was already anticipating customers not watering their gardens and then blaming him for dead plants and lawns with gaping cracks.
He was due to pick his mum up to collect Aunt Norma from King’s Lynn hospital and wanted to be at the ward at seven when it opened. Then he was meeting Genevieve later.
A quick stop at home to shower and grab a sandwich, then he set out again for De Silva House. Yvonne was uncharacteristically quiet when she climbed into his truck.
On the journey, through Hunstanton and on to King’s Lynn, Aaron tried to get the conversation going but his mother replied only absently, even to his enquiries about Daisy. He settled for concentrating on the traffic and listening to Capital FM.
Aunt Norma was ready when they arrived, a plaster cast on her ankle and a livid bruise on her temple. The nurse who organised her discharge said she was being sent home with a walking frame. ‘Bloody thing,’ Aunt Norma called it. Aaron brought the truck up close and settled her into the front seat and she wasn’t much more talkative than Yvonne while Aaron negotiated the overcrowded traffic system out of King’s Lynn.
It was only as they were on the more open road that she shifted her plastered foot irritably and demanded, ‘Aaron, what are you doing allowing Awful Alice’s cousin to park herself in the village?’
Aaron glanced across at her. ‘Clancy? I couldn’t do much to stop it. She acts for Alice. And I don’t suppose she even gets paid for that,’ he added, realising he’d never before thought of it. He received an income stream from the rental but all Clancy saw was the profits vanish, half in his direction and half in her cousin’s. ‘I told her about Evelyn leaving and suddenly she was moving in.’
Aunt Norma sniffed. ‘But what about Lee? How does he feel?’
His great-aunt was old and just out of hospital so Aaron kept his