‘Forced them out by paying thousands of pounds for their basic wooden huts?’ Nic couldn’t help increasing his volume, and his voice carried down the street. He took a beat, reminding himself he was already public enemy number one. ‘I gave everyone who sold their cabins to me a generous deal and I offered your father the same price, then more, but the stubborn old man refused to sell.’
‘Because of his principles. Something you wouldn’t understand!’ She looked away, perhaps embarrassed by her outburst, before continuing. ‘He was never anything but his authentic self. Unlike you, who presented as Stephen and Nic within a two-hour slot. Oh, and let’s not forget Colin the Complainer. Thanks for putting my job on the line.’
She turned, picked up her shopping and strode off in a huff. Nic didn’t know how he could win. But, if people wanted a neighbour clad from head to toe in Berghaus who ignored people at the till, that’s what they were going to get.And then they’d all have to judge him on his achievements and not his accent or his appearance. Although Eddie Wilson had been a thorn in his side from the start, Nic was suspicious of Aria’s provenance. She talked the talk about loving the Lakes, but who was she and why hadn’t he met her on previous visits? When she’d arrived out of nowhere with a red-hot splash, he should have known she’d be trouble.
15
As she stomped off down the street, Aria ruminated on Nic’s fixation with carving up the lake, and his sneaky tricks around the viewing. When she also remembered the jolt of electricity that had run through her when his hand briefly landed on her chest, she decided it must have been static. Realising she forgot to put her postcard in the window, she nipped back to Inglemere Stores. Keen to avoid another fuss, she tied Tiger up outside, popped the shopping down next to him, and told him to guard it with his life.
‘What’s with their ridiculous obsession with gangs?’ she muttered, shaking her head in disbelief. ‘You could literally leave a platinum statue in the town square, and no one would lift it.’ Ignoring his gentle whine, she stepped inside the shop and made straight for the till, only to find the neighbourhood’s friendliest cashier was on another power trip, asking a middle-aged man if she could see his ID to check he was old enough to buy vodka.
‘Forget it,’ the guy said, banging the bottle down and walking off.
‘Already have,’ she muttered, cleaning her till with blue roll.
The logo on her t-shirt saidSue Me,and Aria remembered she’d flooded the debating society with radical ideas about scrapping the government and forming ‘voluntary authority collectives’. Turning to Aria, Sophie made a praying sign with her hands. ‘His baby will thank me when it reaches puberty. Foetal alcohol syndrome is a pernicious disease.’
‘He almost looked old enough to have grandchildren, so I think you may have lost a sale there. I’m Aria, by the way. I didn’t introduce myself in the chaos earlier. We sat next to each other in Science. Neither of us were bright enough to do Triple so they lumped us together in Combined.’
‘I was smart. I just didn’t give a triple F,’ Sophie shrugged. Aria assumed her use of the initial was due to the trainee manager appearing to rearrange the vegetables, as she’d never been shy of shouting ‘fuck my life!’when she got yoghurt down her front in the school canteen.
‘Yeah. I remember you. All the girls were jealous in Year 8 because you had massive…’ Aria baulked at what she was about to say, covering her chest with her arms before Sophie verbally swerved, ‘…hair that looked like a cormorant building a nest.’
‘No, that was Bird’s Nest Bridget. I followed you around a lot.’ Aria flashed back to a time when she was so shy of making her presence felt, they sometimes marked her absent in the register.
‘Oh, yeah, that’s right. I thought you were a sap who would have gone back for a firework, if I’d asked you to, but you filled my water bottle for me which basically saved me from death by dehydration.’ Sophie visibly softened. ‘Sorry I calledyou out on not being able to pay before. But at least you got your bill picked up.’
‘To be honest with you, I am broke, although I’d never admit it to him. Could you please put this in the window?’ Aria handed Sophie the handwritten advert for house-
sitting.
‘Tell me about it. I need a second job.’ Sophie reached for a pack of gum and plonked a fifty pence coin on the till. ‘I chew gum instead of lunching now. None of the calories or goodness, but it costs pennies and gives me something to do with my teeth. Notice the coinage – I’ll stick this in when I open the till. Some people steal all sorts of things like sweets and postcards, but not me. I’m honest Joe.’ With a cheeky grin she offered Aria a piece of gum before unwrapping and stuffing two pieces in her mouth.
Aria decided she liked adult Sophie. After saying goodbye, she collected Tiger and nipped from bakery to library, where she Googled how to contest a will and realised she had no chance of success unless she could prove her father wasn’t of sound mind or had been coerced by Felicity into leaving her the house. Neither of these would wash – Dad had been sharp as anything, and her stepmother couldn’t coerce a bee into a hive. As she waited for the bus in the town square, a woman came out of the tourist office and locked the solid wooden door.
She jumped when Aria stepped up behind her. ‘Oh, you startled me! Do you need a map or something? I’m closing a little early to get to the lake for a walk before dark.’ She brandished two Nordic walking poles in one hand while shepushed her hair behind her ears with the other. Belinda Barker was a fit, sixty-something woman, with a sleek pale-grey bob. She wore a high-vis vest over full waterproofs. Aria knew her as an ally of her dad.
‘I was just waiting for the bus, actually,’ Aria explained.
The woman bent down to stroke Tiger. ‘It’s handy to have a stop here. I can be on the bus in point five of a second after locking up. You’re Eddie Wilson’s daughter, aren’t you? Your dad and I sometimes did a pre-meet at his cottage before committees to discuss our position, even when on opposite sides. This town is so political.’ Her shoulders sank an inch as she spoke.
Aria smiled agreement before nodding to the approaching bus. ‘This is mine…’
‘I’m getting on it too.’ Belinda told her. ‘I used to walk down to the lake from here and pick up a path for my walk, braving the cows in the fields. But the closer routes are fenced off now.’
Aria held out a hand and the bus stopped in front of them. Sitting next to Belinda out of politeness, she nervously anticipated questions about where she was living, and resolved to tell her she was off to her cabin for a swim, should the subject come up. She really needed to hop onto some rental sites and try and find a cheap place to live. But Belinda filled the space with chatter about a romantic film she’d seen last night, telling Aria she couldn’t bear the sloppy noises made by actors in the kissing scenes.
‘You think they’d be trained at drama school to dampen the slurps.’ Her words made Aria question whethershehad ahabit of making unappealing noises mid-snog. It was so long since she’d had one, she could barely remember. She reached for the buttons fastening her cardigan, and spooled back to Nic’s hand on her top, before reminding herself he was a selfish human being who wanted to bulldoze his way to riches at the expense of everyone else. As the bus approached her stop, rain was starting to fall. Aria pressed the button and looked back at Belinda, still sitting, clutching her two poles. There were plenty of walks from her hut, and if the tourist officer also stomped across Nic’s land it would serve him right for trying to section it off. So, she invited her to begin her walk from the cabin. ‘It’s a beautiful spot and I can point you in the right direction for the bus home afterwards.’
16
Nic drove the long way around the lake to cast an eye on what his rivals were doing. Caravan sites dominated huge swathes of the landscape – it was obvious the Hetherington family was trying to establish a niche in American-style static caravans. He wondered if this Cumbrian mafia was having more luck with the planners than he was. Pulling up to the kerb outside his house, he found Aria occupying the space with a woman he didn’t know. She was holding a bunch of spindly flowers she’d likely picked from the kerb, with her bags and dog at her feet. Nic watched her stabbing at the panel next to the new gate, much as she had done with the box on his front door. Turning his music off, he steeled himself for more hassle from his ungrateful neighbour. He’d been looking forward to a few moments of peace, lying on his bed before his call with Theo. Most days, the skylight showed a rolling gallery of cloud, but he’d started to enjoy the way they swirled above him. It was also nice to see the stars later on, free of haze, before falling asleep listening to owls instead of traffic. Christ, was he going soft?
Before giving Aria the opportunity to dive into a rant, he opened the system app and pressed four numbers into his phone. When the gate didn’t move, he clicked his tongue.Shit.They’d assured him the code would work temporarily until he reset it. Stepping out of the car, he nodded hello to the unknown woman, before sidestepping Aria and banging the numbers into the control panel. Nothing. He pushed out an irritated breath and tried again. Still nothing. How embarrassing to have his technology backfire when he’d claimed it was burglar-proof.
‘It’s great to have a super-secure system in place, isn’t it?Sosecure, even residents can’t get past it!’ Aria’s voice was thick with sarcasm.
‘I’ll get it sorted,’ Nic sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose before repeatedly stabbing in the number.
