Aria declined the drink. With Felicity, ‘a cuppa’ was code for a counselling session. Apparently, she psychoanalysed horses, or something like that. Aria wondered what a crisis at the stables would look like. She’d never heard of a stallion having a breakdown.
‘So, shall we get going on the nibbles or would you prefer to plough straight into the cakes? There’s everything from chocolate cake to lemon drizzle,’ Felicity pressed her.
Aria wished the woman would stop yapping about food. She hadn’t eaten since yesterday and the idea of it made her feel sick. And all this baggage confirmed she couldn’t take the dog. Her suitcase was full of her clothes, and she wasn’t even sure where she’d be spending tonight, let alone the rest of her life.
Felicity spotted her lack of enthusiasm. ‘I know! It’s more than Eddie left behind,’ she laughed, before looking ashamed of her inappropriate joke. ‘I assume you’ve brought a car?’
Aria chewed her lip. She was still upset about her vehicle being scrapped and didn’t have money for another. Neither did she have a house, a partner, or a job. But she wasn’t going to mention any of this to Felicity who hadn’t earned any of those things. Instead, she made non-committal noises as she perched on a chair, deciding to refuse her dad’s pet. She knew very little about animals. How often did a pug need walking? How much did they eat and how long did they sleep for?
‘I didn’t know how you’d feel about taking Tiger,’ Felicity interrupted Aria’s thoughts. ‘As I’m sure Eddie informed you in his letter, he was determined to gift you what he called‘the hound and the hut’. But I told him you might not have space for a dog, especially with your busy life. I could always adopt him, if it’s not convenient for you to look after a pet. I’m sure he would have understood. And Tiger is obviously used to living here…’
Aria’s head jerked up. So, Felicity had been left the house? Although she’d half expected this, it was still a punch in the stomach. Her stepmother had already inherited the earth, leaving Aria with only a patch of it and a tumbledown shack. And now she had designs on the dog? ‘I’ll be delighted to take Tiger,’ Aria said firmly, leaving no room for further theft.
‘Super. And, if you don’t have the necessary transport right now, feel free to come back with a van and pick up any bits you’d like. I’m aware a lot of the furniture was around before I appeared. I’m not attached to any of it, so have free rein.’
How magnanimous, Aria thought bitterly, taking in the photos on the walls and the antique copper pans that had hung from hooks on the kitchen walls every day of her life. This was all just furniture and equity to Felicity, but for Aria it was so much more. It was her childhood and her security. This was where Mum had taken her photo on her first day at school and Dad had taken it on her last. It was where she’d baked award-winning apple pies for town fetes, argued about the climate over long Sunday lunches, and warmed herself with hot chocolate on winter days. She’d practised cartwheels on the flagstones and fallen asleep at the table after a drunken prom. She had been so close with her mum, a closeness which intensified with Dad once they were on their own, until her stepmother turned up years later looking for a husband. Whyon earth had Eddie made Felicity his favourite? Had he even realised what he’d done? No one over fifty had any idea of how difficult it was to get a foothold on the Lakeland housing ladder – quite honestly it felt like ascending a beanstalk. Dad’s decision to leave Felicity the house cruelly ensured that Aria’s magic bean was just a bean, leaving her stranded on the ground while her stepmother free-wheeled into the clouds. She looked down at the envelope she’d taken back from Tiger. She’d need to contest the will but wouldn’t give Felicity the heads-up until she’d taken advice. Determined not to let the woman see any weakness from her, she ran her fingers through her hair and whispered three words to herself.Get. A. Grip.
‘What are your plans going forward?’ Felicity asked, placing a hot drink in front of Aria that she hadn’t asked for. ‘Where are you staying?’ Her questions were tentative, as if she wasn’t sure of the direction the conversation would take. ‘You know you could always…’
‘Time to go!’ Aria jumped up, grabbed a bin bag and started throwing Tiger’s stuff inside.
‘Oh! But your dad wanted us to chat about that letter. He had specific reasons for—’
Aria didn’t want to hear their justifications. ‘I haven’t finished reading it yet,’ she said, shaking off the hand on her arm and making a snap decision to go to the hut. While she might not be thrilled to inherit the decrepit shack, the simple premises would be calming and familiar, and a swim would hopefully quieten her jangling feelings of shame and rejection. As she grabbed Tiger’s bed and asked for his lead, she imagined wading in, letting the cold water close around her until the outsideworld muffled and slipped away. All at once, she craved the taste of fresh water on her lips, the brush of stray weed against her legs and the feeling of weightlessness and freedom. Eighteen months of urban living had prevented her from getting a decent fix. Maybe the dog could be her new swimming companion? She squeezed the rubber duck, and its belly squeaked.
‘You should know Tiger’s not a swimmer,’ Felicity trilled, as though reading her mind. ‘I watched your dad fish him out of the lake once when he took a dip and got into trouble. His stubby legs have very little power, and he can’t easily hold his head up when bobbing about.’ When the dog dropped his lead at her feet, Felicity uttered a schoolgirl giggle. ‘Good fetching, but Aria’s your owner now, you chump. You’ll be heading off to a fabulous new life with her.’ Unable to decide whether her stepmother was being sarcastic, Aria asked if she could return to collect the rest of Tiger’s things another time.
Felicity held out a foam key float with two keys on it. ‘Why don’t you come back tomorrow, and I can talk you through your father’s decision.’ Torn between wanting her stepmother to feel accountable for the unfair settlement and desperation to get out of there, Aria sidestepped Felicity and left with the bin bags, a dog bed and a crushing sense of displacement.
***
Hours later, after picking up some shopping and waiting for buses that didn’t turn up, Aria trudged down the woodlandpath to the lake. Despite the beauty of the location, her luggage and spirits felt heavier by the minute. They plummeted to the earth when she saw the state of the shack.
‘Oh, the irony of inheriting a fishing hut when the only thing I’m capable of catching is a cold,’ she complained, a chill brewing in her bones on this April evening. When Tiger barked happily, she briefed him about their precarious future. ‘You and that tumbledown shack are the sum total of my inheritance – basically all I have on this earth.’ She dropped to her haunches and stroked his head. ‘And when the dog food runs out we will be in a mess. You’re not the kind of tiger who hunts and kills, are you?’ Tiger assured her he definitely was not that kind of animal, lifting his wet nose to meet her hand and licking her fingers. Around them, the last of the day’s sun threw pink light on the overgrown shrubs, wildflowers competing with the weeds for dominance. Nettles and brambles issued a warning to stay away but the silver lake drew her forward like it was magnetised. When a flock of geese flew over in an arrowhead formation, honking out a rough hello, Tiger pulled at his lead, and she wondered if she could safely release him. Bearing in mind Felicity’s comment about his limitations near water, she kept him close and let her mind wander.
For the last twenty years, this hut had opened up so many adventures for her family, for the three of them, and later just her and Dad. A former pilot of the tourist steamer, he’d assured her they’d be bobbing about on boats and exploring the fells together long into his retirement. She felt a lump in her throat at how wrong he had been, accompanied by guiltthat she’d left Inglemere while he was still healthy and full of plans for the future. As Aria pottered around the beach with the pug, she caught sight of the villa further up the hill and wondered why work hadn’t begun on the land snatched up by Castle Enterprises. She vaguely remembered her dad telling her the ‘offcomer with the cash’ was having problems with planning as she assessed the exterior of her cabin. The polar opposite of an opulent development, it was a boxy building on stilts with a flat green corrugated aluminium roof. The decking had rotted over the years, and the whole thing badly needed a coat of paint. Her dad always had a habit of bringing the garden inside, and there was a clutter of cobweb-covered pots on the doorstep. Most importantly, the garden behind the cabin seemed in a worse state than Felicity’s cottage. While it was a pretty hangout for a picnic or lake swim, it wasn’t a home.
‘Is this really all I’m worth?’ she asked herself, wondering if her dad was still hanging around in spirit so she could shout at him. She walked over to the small outhouse at the side and unlocked it with an unnecessary key. Dad had proudly installed the ‘state-of-the-fart’ compost toilet, considering it a highlight of his DIY career. At its grand launch party for two, she’d told him she’d rather pee in the water. Although she was only fifteen, this statement earned her a good talking-to, which made her smile now. Eddie Wilson was always passionate about a clean lake. He had ploughed across it every day of his working life on the steamer, and litter-picked in the hedgerows at the end of a shift. He’d spoken at just about every Women’s Institute in the countyon his pet subject of preserving the Lakeland environment for future generations. He was also proud owner of top commenter badges in Facebook groups ranging from fishing clubs to allotments. Practising what he preached, he’d tended his lakeside garden like a shrine, stocking the soil with native species and artfully designing it to look wild. But by the looks of it, he’d abandoned ship many months ago. Approaching the doorway where a spider’s web bonded the flimsy shack to a fern with the lightest of threads, Aria hesitated. Her teenage self would have blasted towards the hut like a bowling ball going for a strike. But this was different. Everything was. Before she could talk herself out of it, she unlocked the splinter-ridden door. A wave of damp hit her in the face as she nudged Tiger over the doorstep. It took her a couple of seconds to check out the limited living area, largely taken up by the decrepit sofa bed. It was so big and bulky she had no idea how her father got it into the property in the first place. It was also contraband – the deeds to all the fishing cabins in the area historically only allowed day visits, and the town council was populated by sticklers who monitored nocturnal activity. But in the long summers they’d spent here, they’d often ignored the rules, sleeping outside when it was hot. Dropping her case on the sofa, and the black bags beside it, she plonked herself down, appreciating the homely sag. A rogue spring in her back reminded her of bringing Justin here for the first time. After half a bottle of wine, he’d thrown himself down and pulled her on top of him, startled by a loud crack from inside the couch.
‘I’m supposed to be the clumsy one,’ she’d said, as she leaped to examine it.
‘Please tell me I haven’t wrecked your dad’s sofa. My allowance only goes so far,’ he’d begged her, covering his eyes with his fingers to make the problem go away. Justin Hetherington could certainly afford it now – she’d heard he was in the process of inheriting the holiday parks from his mother and father. He’d always had grand plans for expansion and no doubt he was putting them into place. Eighteen months on, Aria was still smarting from their broken engagement after he’d ditched her for a woman who was as likely to stay in a caravan as take a day trip to the moon. Wiping thick dust from the sofa arm, while noticing it was pocked with woodworm, Aria sighed. Although she’d rather eat skunk cabbage than get back with him, his rejection had hurt her to the core and prompted an ill-advised move to an unremarkable town near London. But home life had been changing anyway, as Felicity was there more often than not, leaving wellies at the door and horse-hair in the dinner, talking about the menopause over the pre-dinner drinkies she insisted on gathering for.
‘It’s six o’clock in China,’ she’d giggled, splashing gin and tonic into huge bulbous glasses.
Aria didn’t understand it: her dad had been a beer man all his life!
As she got to grips with her unenjoyable job, she’d felt offended that he’d never begged her to return or even offered to visit. Granted, he phoned regularly, but probably out of a sense of obligation. When he’d phoned to tell her they wereoff to Vegas, Aria had tried to dissuade him. Eddie always avoided flying – to save the environment – and she couldn’t imagine a place he would hate more. She would never in a million years have predicted their wedding, presided over by an Elvis lookalike in a chapel at midnight.
At his retirement do, when Eddie had shown her his simple ring, he’d seemed really happy, but she’d changed the subject. Feeling bad about that now, she let a tear roll down her face. Tiger licked her knee as though he understood the grieving process and she gave him a hug. Perhaps the dog would be a boon and not a burden after all. Stroking his ears, she picked up her phone to find them a place to stay tomorrow.Great, there was absolutely no signal here.
She needed to have that swim and make up a bed before it got too dark. Rooting around in her case, she pulled out her bikini, sending the bag crashing down onto her foot.
‘Why am I such a klutz, Tiger?’ she said, flushing as she recalled the blunder with the hot guy at the service station. Since she’d hit adulthood, she’d never been able to coordinate her body – her long legs deciding they had a duty to unbalance her while her arms flapped about independently of her brain. Looking out of the window, her eyes skimmed the water. She realised how much she had missed the lake and wondered if she would ever have enough money to buy a place in the surrounding town. Stepping onto the veranda, she stripped off her clothes. While she wasn’t a routine skinny-dipper, there was no one around the old fishing shack to see her and, in all honesty, she enjoyed the sensation of weightless boobs.
***
‘Ouch!’
