‘Forward planning,’ Shelley cuts in. ‘Would you like something now? You must be hungry…’Please say no, she wills him.
‘Um, a coffee would be great, if that’s not too much trouble?’ His demeanour is more relaxed than when he arrived, and he’s giving the impression that he’s not averse to some company.
‘Of course it’s not.’ Shelley fetches the stovetop coffee maker as he takes a seat next to Pearl.
‘So, whereabouts have you come from today?’ Lena asks.
‘Derbyshire,’ he replies.
‘That’s a long drive,’ Pearl remarks. Niall nods and agrees that it is, although he has the look of man who’s no stranger to lengthy journeys. His clear blue eyes are alert, his face lean and jaw darkly stubbled.
‘So what are your plans while you’re here?’ Shelley hands him a coffee. ‘Lots of walking, I guess?’
‘Yes,’ he says, ‘but other stuff too. This is actually a work trip for me.’
‘Really?’ Pearl asks in surprise.
‘Yeah, I’m writing about this area. And other parts of the Highlands too…’
‘D’you work for a magazine?’ Pearl asks.
‘I’m freelance,’ Niall says, ‘so I’ll write for anyone who’ll have me. But this past year or so it’s pretty much dwindled to a handful of regulars.’ They quiz him further and he rattles off a list of publications, one of which Shelley recognises as a glossy monthly that Joel subscribes to. For its high-quality design, she’s surmised, as he never wants to travel anywhere.
‘So you get plenty of work?’ Lena asks.
‘Yes, thankfully. One editor in particular seems to think I’m the only person alive who understands “the north”. And I’m talking north of Watford Gap,’ he adds with a smile.
They chuckle and Shelley thinks of Joel’s intense preparations for that Glasgow trip. He’d panic-bought an ensemble of thermal undergarments, including what she’d termed long johns but he had snarkily insisted were ‘base layer bottoms’. It had been a summer trip and the sun had blazed incessantly onto her lumbering pregnant form.
‘So you’re the northern correspondent?’ she suggests.
Niall grins. ‘That’s pretty much it. So, I suggested a whole supplement on the Highlands…’
‘Great idea!’ Pearl enthuses.
‘Actually, my editor wasn’t sure. He reckons it’s all about serious hiking and climbing. For tough, gnarly outdoor types…’
‘All walking poles and Ordnance Survey maps?’ Pearl remarks. Although her parents – long gone now – had settled in Cheshire, her father had been Cumbria raised and loved nothing better than a hike up Helvellyn or Scafell Pike. Her devotion to the world of beauty had baffled him, but he’d been proud of her all the same.
‘Exactly,’ Niall replies. ‘And his readers are more your urbane type. Exclusive Ibiza resorts, that kind of thing. But I managed to convince him.’
‘Well, we’re glad you did,’ Pearl says. ‘And look at us. We’re not exactly gnarly outdoor types.’
He smiles at that. ‘So, how did you three meet?’
‘Actually on a magazine in London,’ Lena tells him.
‘Really? That’s amazing!’
‘I know, isn’t it?’ Shelley laughs. ‘We led glamorous lives once. But that was a very long time ago…’
‘I just meant with you all being up here,’ he says quickly, ‘running a B&B. It’s quite the leap?—’
‘Oh, we don’t really run it,’ Pearl explains. ‘Michael had to go away unexpectedly so we stepped in?—’
‘We’re only holding the fort,’ Lena adds, and he smiles.
‘Well, I think it’s incredible.’ Whether he means Shore Cottage itself, or the fact that the three women have landed here, they are not entirely sure. Yet as they all swap fond tales of the glory days of magazine publishing – when editorial budgets were huge and jobs plentiful – Pearl finds herself picturing her younger self, having landed in London at twenty, a shy country girl knowing no one. She quickly built a career and has weathered the hardest of times. And recently, despite the wrong turn with Elias, she has felt things shifting, as if she is ready forsomething new. Perhaps being thrown into this bizarre situation is the start of it, and together they can pull this off after all.
