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“I know, Maddie told me.”
“Hang on, what’s this?” Kate pulled a beautiful hardback book from the bag. The cover was a blaze of exotic flowers and birds. She flicked through the blank pages and eyed Bob with curiosity. “Are you suggesting I take up journaling?”
“Ha, no. That’s for your guests.”
“The guests?”
“Yes, you’re going to fill it with all the information they need. You can start with the boring stuff, Wi-Fi code, contact details etcetera etcetera, then give them tips about all the great things they can do round here. You know, places to eat, places to visit.”
“But I don’t know any of that stuff.”
“And that’s where I come in. Think of me as your local tour guide. We start today.”
“Today?”
“Yep, I’m taking you for lunch. You’ll need sensible shoes, it’s a bit damp out there.”
*
In hindsight, wellies were a bit over the top, Kate decided, as they strolled along the tarmacked path beside the old jail.
“That’s on our list for next weekend,” said Bob, pointing up to the sombre looking stone building.
Kate shivered. “It looks a bit depressing.”
“Think yourself lucky. I was going to take you on an overnight ghost tour, but I’m not sure they’re running now the place has been done up. I’ll ease you in with the museum, don’t worry.”
“Thanks.”
They strolled on past a park that quickly gave way to woodland. A narrow stream trickled along beside them and squirrels chased between the trees, following them along the path. The track was busy, cyclists in Lycra whizzing past, couples walking dogs, runners sweating heavily, distracted by the airpods in their ears, young families waiting patiently as toddlers collected sticks and jumped in puddles. Several times Bob said a friendlyHi, how are you?to people they passed.
“You know everyone here,” said Kate, after they’d stopped for a brief conversation with an older couple.
“Well, I still know quite a few people from when I was a kid, and now, as a solicitor, I deal with all sorts from the community.”
“Is it weird knowing people’s secrets?”
“It’s not that exciting, I promise. If anything, I prefer the boring stuff. There’s nothing worse than dealing with a divorce, that’s the absolute pits. On the rare occasions I know less than flattering things about people, you’ll be able to tell.”
“How?”
“They’ll very deliberately avoid my eye, pretending not to see me. More often than not, I wouldn’t recognise them anyway, but they give themselves away.”
“I’ll have to look out for that,” said Kate, stopping at a spot where the river widened enough to need stepping stones across it.
“I used to play here as a kid,” said Bob. “Mum would bring me and my mates down here after school. There used to be a rope swing over the river. We always got wet, but Mum would just laugh. The other mums weren’t quite so relaxed about the amount of washing it created.”
“It must have been a lovely place to grow up.”
“Yeah, it was really. You never appreciate it when you’re young, though. And as a teenager, all you want to do is get away as fast as you can. Me and my friends used to come down here when we were in our teens and plan our escape.”
“Are many of them still around?”
“Nah, not really. Out of the six or seven in our group, a couple of them dropped out of school and have about ten kids between them, but I don’t see them anymore, not much in common these days. The others all left and never came back. Most went to London, one’s in Sydney and one works for a big oil company in Bahrain. We meet up at Christmas when they come back to visit their parents. What about you? Do you still see anyone from school?”
“No, I wasn’t exactly popular back then.” Kate grimaced as she remembered the lonely lunch hours and long routes back from school to avoid the bullies. “Funnily enough, not many people want to befriend the kid with nits who stinks.” Kate laughed to lighten the mood, but Bob was looking at her with a frown.
“That must have been tough.”
