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‘Stuff and nonsense,’ Ron heard Helen mutter, followed by, ‘Fancy scaring the children like that.’ But Kate gave him a wink, so he carried on. ‘Another legend has it that there was once a town called Kenfig which stood on the very spot where the pool is now. Long, long ago, a young man fell in love with a lord’s daughter, but he was poor and the lord refused to let him marry her. The young man was desperately in love, and because of that he did something unspeakable.’ Ron paused dramatically.
‘What, did he do, Ron?’ Sam demanded.
‘He killed a wealthy man, stole all his money, and buried the man’s body. Then he asked the lord’s permission to marry his daughter, and the lord gave it because the young man was now very rich indeed. But during the wedding celebrations a huge storm blew up, and in the wind a voice could be heard, and do you know what it said?’ He paused again, and saw Izzie slip a hand in her mother’s. ‘It cried “vengeance will come!”. The storm raged all night and by morning the town was no more. It was underwater – all that could be seen of it were two chimney pots belching out black smoke. And sometimes in the darkest middle of the deepest night the bells of the drowned church can still be heard.’ He finished his story, and there was silence for a moment. Even the insects had stopped buzzing.
Then Sam asked, ‘That’s not really true, is it?’
Ron shrugged. ‘Who knows? But there really was once a town called Kenfig and it’s not here any more, so...’ He shrugged again. ‘Look, I think we’re almost at the lake.’
Whilst they were listening to his story, the grassy dunes had given way to scrubby bushes and small trees, and a few minutes more saw the path wind through much taller ones before it abruptly opened out into a clearing.
‘Told you I knew how to get here!’ Sam cried, as he shot down the small gently shelving beach towards the water.
‘Wow, this is beautiful!’ Kate exclaimed, and Ron had to agree.
The lake was larger than he’d expected and was surrounded by trees, and the beach they were standing on had a couple of picnic tables dotted around it. It was also completely theirs, as there was no one else in sight.
With the blue, cloudless sky overhead, the call of water birds, and the utter tranquillity of the place, it was magical.
Pepe rudely broke the spell by dashing to the water’s edge and barking at the rippling wavelets.
‘What if he goes in?’ Izzie asked, turning her worried little face towards Ron. ‘The whirlpool might get him.’
‘He’ll be fine. It’s OK to paddle near the shore,’ he assured her. ‘And if anyone wants a swim later, I’m happy to take a quick detour to the sea. That beach we saw earlier looked fabulous.’
‘Yay!’ Jake leapt up and down in excitement.
‘He loves the water,’ Annabelle said,asRon put the rucksack down on one of the benches. ‘Thank you,’ she said to him.
‘For what?’
‘Most people would have just said no when Jake asked if he could swim in the lake. No explanation, nothing. And your story took Izzie’s mind off the final part of the walk.’
‘It was nothing.’ Ron reddened and hoped she hadn’t noticed his embarrassment at the praise.
‘I think it was. Their father—’ She stopped abruptly and looked away.
He couldn’t be certain, but he thought she might have had tears in her eyes, and a wave of sympathy swept through him. ‘Sandwich?’ he asked, changing the subject.
Her grateful look stirred a feeling of protectiveness in his chest.
‘That would be lovely,’ she said.
Ron unpacked the rucksack, laying out a veritable feast, whilst Brett took out towels, a ball, and sun cream, and everyone settled down to refuel and enjoy the view.
It really was a fantastic spot, Ron thought, munching on a mini pork pie and gazing around. But its scenery failed to hold his attention for long as his eyes kept returning to Annabelle. She was half-turned away, a sandwich in her hand, wearing a pensive look on her face, and he wished he could take her sadness away.
Then he snorted in disgust at his ridiculousness. He wasn’t able to helphimself, so how on earth could he help anyone else? He was in a worse position than she was!
The noise he’d inadvertently made attracted her attention, and he found her looking at him curiously, her head tilted to the side. Giving her a smile, he popped the last morsel of pork pie into his mouth and chewed. It was like eating cardboard and he swallowed with difficulty, wondering what was wrong with him.
It really was time he moved on, he decided. He was getting far too comfortable living with Beverley, and he suddenly had the awful thought that maybe she wanted him gone but didn’t like to say. Eight months he’d been living in her house – eight months! It was only supposed to have been a couple of weeks.
In the early days, whenever he’d mentioned leaving, Beverley would persuade him to stay, and he’d let her. He got the impression she was lonely, and long after he’d instilled some manners into Pepe and should have been on his way, she was finding things to do to keep him there. Eventually, though, he’d run out of odd jobs and DIY, yet still he’d lingered, believing her when she’d appeared horrified at him going.
This holiday though...
He didn’t belong here. This wasn’t his family, these weren’t his people. No matter how welcome they made him feel (Helen aside), he didn’t belong. Had Beverley only asked him to come with her out of duty, a sense of obligation because she’d taken him in and didn’t know how to extricate herself from the situation? He knew she genuinely cared for him, but was she taking altruism too far?
His gratitude to her was endless and he cared for her too, more than she’d ever know, but emotions which he had no business feeling were starting to surface, and they scared him. Even before Annabelle’s arrival, he’d made the decision to go back on the road. Meeting her had now made it imperative.
A sudden loud shriek had him leaping to his feet, fear surging through him, and he quickly scanned the shocked faces to make sure that the children were OK. After his cautionary tale, he didn’t think they’d go in the water, but—
He sighed with relief when he saw that everyone was present and correct, and no one appeared to be in any danger.
Apart from Pepe, who was haring down the little beach with a sandwich flapping in his mouth and Helen in hot pursuit.
Ron laughed and shook his head in despair.
Maybe his attempt at teaching the poodle some manners hadn’t been quite as successful as he’d hoped!
