A Summer to Remember (10 page)

‘Dudley, dear—’ Olivia began.

‘What the HELL happened here?’ He turned around to Olivia, his face now as red as his V-neck pullover. ‘What’s been going on?’ he asked, but didn’t pause for an explanation. ‘I can’t leave the place for the space of two days without someone interfering.’

‘She’s not interfering.’

‘She? Who’s
she
?’ Dudley walked into the centre of the room. It was then that he clapped eyes on Nina.

‘And who the hell are you?’

Dominic walked back over the fields to The Folly. As he’d left the mill, he’d seen Nina and Faye talking in the garden to each other. He couldn’t hear what they were saying but Faye had that haunted look about her that made Dominic feel instantly guilty. It was a feeling that he’d tried to suppress since he’d broken up with her three years ago, but his emotions had been hovering dangerously close to the surface since she’d started working in the garden.

Why oh why had his mother employed her? He’d been able to forget about Faye whilst he’d been away at college, but seeing her here at the mill had resurrected all sorts of feelings that he thought he’d said goodbye to.

He knew what his mother had in mind, of course – that the two of them should get back together. In fact, she was doing absolutely everything she could to make it happen, short of actually booking the church, but he’d made his decision, hadn’t he? He had to concentrate on his work.

All too often, he’d seen artists – good artists – throw it all away because they got involved in a relationship. Events overtook them and, before they knew it, a baby would become part of the equation and any dreams of making it as an artist flew out of the window as the parents knuckled down to a sensible job – one that was guaranteed to pay the bills. Well, Dominic was determined not to make that mistake. It was a tough decision to make and it seemed absolutely heartless, he knew that, but what choice did he have if he really wanted to make it as an artist? And yet, he couldn’t help remembering the good times he’d had with Faye and how effortless everything had been with her. They’d never had to work at their relationship because they’d just been content to be with each other. Most of his friends at the time had always been in a nervous state as to what to do on a date. Which restaurant should they go to? What film should they see? But with Dominic and Faye, it had been so simple. They’d just meet up and talk. It didn’t really matter what they did. They might wander into town and look around a few galleries, but they’d be equally happy to go for a walk by the river.

Dominic had fond memories of those walks. He always had his sketch book in his pocket and would secretly take it out and capture those little moments when Faye’s hair was blowing back from her face or when she was running through the fallen beech leaves, her boots kicking up great heaps of them. He still had all those sketches.

He sighed. Whether sitting, walking or running, Faye had always been smiling. He missed that smile so much. He hadn’t seen it for years and he had a feeling that he was partially to blame for its disappearance, but he just hadn’t been ready to settle down into a cosy, full-on relationship and he knew that that was exactly what Faye had wanted from him. It had all become too serious too quickly, and he’d used the excuse of his work and his departure to college to put an end to things.

He shook his head. See! This was exactly the reason why he had to forget her – because she filled his head when he should have been focussing on more important things. He took a deep breath and tried to banish Faye from his mind.

Walking through the fields, he smiled as the first sight of The Folly greeted him, its mellow red bricks glowing in the sunlight. He never grew tired of looking at it. The Folly had stood in the grounds of The Old Mill House for over a hundred years and, as far as Dominic remembered, had never been used for anything more than storing old bits of tired machinery. It had been his idea to renovate it. So, during the Easter holidays before graduation, he’d arrived home with three mates who’d spent the holiday sleeping rough in the old building, and creating what they’d called ‘a new living space’ over its four compact storeys.

Olivia had been horrified. First of all, because they should have been cramming for their finals. Secondly, because she couldn’t understand why her son wanted to live in a pile of old bricks that was fit only to house bales of hay and spiders, especially when he had a perfectly comfortable, spacious room at the mill. But Dominic had wanted his own space, even if it was a pretty basic set-up, with recycled furniture that had definitely seen better days.

Now, with its bare floorboards and two separate living areas joined by a salvaged wrought-iron staircase, it was the perfect den for a budding artist. The trouble was, Dominic hadn’t actually sold anything since he’d taken up residence and had yet to replenish his own savings and repay his father’s loan.

Not one to go running back home at the first sign of failure, Dominic was determined to make a go of it, but that meant making money – and fast. The pressure was really on for his upcoming show in Norwich, but the question was, could he really pull it off?

Dudley paced up and down the centre of the study, his words coming out in fits and starts. ‘I can’t believe you’ve gone behind my back like this!’

‘Dudley! Not in front of Nina!’ Olivia remonstrated.

‘
Two
days!’

‘Yes – that’s right – we weren’t expecting you back until tomorrow,’ Olivia said in her defence.

‘What difference does that make?’ Dudley bellowed.

‘I was going to tell you about it,’ Olivia said.

‘But the damage is already done!’ Dudley grimaced at his desk.

‘Damage! Oh, I’ve never heard such nonsense. The only damage in this room has been
you
ever since you retired and started holing yourself up in here!’ Olivia shouted back at her husband. He turned around to look at her, her green eyes sparkling with fury.

‘
Me
?’

‘Yes,
you,
you great oaf! Ever since Teri left—’

‘Don’t
ever
mention her name in here!’ He was pacing again and Nina stood stock-still, her ears burning as the pair of them shouted at each other.

‘Ever since Teri left, you’ve been running around the house like a mad man, what with this crazy novel business you keep muttering about,’ Olivia continued undeterred. ‘You’ve
no
idea what you’ve been like to live with, and we’re just not going to put up with it. For a start, I want you to move all these library books that I keep finding in strange towers all over the house, as well as all these messy bits of paper with your scribble on them.
This
is your study! I don’t want you taking over the whole house. The boys will all be home soon for the summer and I refuse to have any more chaos than is absolutely necessary.’

Nina watched, hardly daring to breathe, hardly daring to move an inch from her dark corner of the room.

Dudley stopped pacing and held Olivia’s gaze. It was like a scene from a Western, with both of them waiting for the other to either back down or draw their guns. It was Dudley who decided to back down first.

‘I think you’d better introduce me to our new secretary,’ he said in a strangely subdued voice.

‘
That’s
more like it,’ Olivia sighed with relief. ‘Nina, you can come out now,’ she said with more than a touch of humour, well aware that she had been hiding in the shadows whilst the scene had played itself out.

Nina emerged and stretched her hand out to meet Dudley’s.

‘Well? Don’t you recognise her?’ Olivia prompted.

‘Recognise her?’ Dudley’s white eyebrows rose.

‘There aren’t too many Ninas about, are there?’

‘Nina,’ Dudley said thoughtfully. ‘NINA!’ he suddenly exclaimed, taking her hand again and shaking it vigorously. ‘Good heavens! Young Nina – the babysitter!’

‘Hello, Mr Milton,’ Nina said, suppressing a sudden urge to hiccup for the first time since leaving the claws of Hilary Jackson.

‘Dudley – I think you can call me Dudley.’ His hand was still shaking hers, but then his face clouded with embarrassment and he withdrew it, raking it through his thick white hair.

‘I should think so, too,’ Olivia said, as if reading her husband’s mind.

‘I er—’ he began, sounding very much like Dominic apologising the day before, ‘I feel I should apologise for my earlier outburst.’

Nina looked down onto the rug, feeling the weight of his embarrassment.

‘Really, Dudley, I don’t know what got in to you. We’re only trying to help. I don’t know how you think you can live in such a pigsty of a study and be able to work efficiently. You can’t produce anything good in this awful mess. It just isn’t conducive to a calm mind – and it’s a calm mind you’ll need if you’re going to get this novel finished.’

‘All right, all right!’ Dudley raised his hands into the air in obvious defeat, but his eyes were scouring the room at the same time. ‘It’s just that I don’t like strangers going through my things.’

‘But Nina’s hardly a stranger now, is she?’

‘I’m sorry, Mr Milton – er – Dudley – if I’ve upset you in any way,’ Nina said. ‘My only intention was to help. I really want to help out, and I know I can. I’ve made a start, but—’

‘But she needs
you
to be at least a little cooperative if she’s to continue,’ Olivia finished.

Dudley glanced at Olivia, before walking over to the table that Nina had been in the process of tidying when he’d arrived so unexpectedly. His fingers gingerly touched the receipts and papers she’d been organising into neat piles, his eyes narrowing at her work. Reaching forward, he picked up what looked like an invoice, examining it in silence. After a few moments, he turned around, holding the yellow paper.

‘Ferrars, Byrne and Co.,’ he said rather cryptically to Olivia.

‘What?’

‘The invoice I’ve been trying to find for the last three months,’ he explained.

‘What did I say?’ Olivia said, giving her husband an ironic smile. ‘I tell you, it’s a stroke of luck that Nina came along when she did.’

Chapter Ten

Olivia had made out a list of items that she thought would make Nina’s life a lot easier and had sent Dudley off into Norwich to buy them.

‘There, that should keep him out of our hair for a few hours,’ she said with a smile. ‘I
do
apologise for his behaviour.’

‘It’s quite all right,’ Nina assured her. ‘I don’t think I’d be very happy if I found a stranger in my private study. If I had a study, I mean.’

‘But you’re not a stranger, Nina,’ Olivia said. ‘You’re like family to us!’

Nina smiled. It was the loveliest thing anybody had ever said to her. Growing up as an only child to parents who didn’t pay her much attention and paid her even less now, she’d never really felt as if she had a family. But, with the Miltons, she really felt a connection – a deep sense of truly feeling a part of something bigger than herself.

For a moment, Olivia hovered in the door and Nina instinctively knew that she was working up to something.

‘You know, Nina,’ she began, ‘I’m worried about you being shut away here in this office all day.’

‘Oh, there’s no need,’ Nina said. ‘I’m quite used to it.’

‘Yes but a young person like yourself needs air and exercise, don’t you think?’

‘I guess,’ Nina said warily.

Olivia nodded. ‘And I have just the thing for you. Darling Ziggy!’

Nina’s eyes widened in surprise. ‘Ziggy?’

‘I think it would be marvellous if you could find the time to give him a couple of walks a day. It would do you no end of good to get you away from that computer and I’m sure Ziggy would respond
so
much better to you than he does to me.’

‘But I’ve never had any experience with dogs,’ Nina said rather hopelessly, feeling that she’d already lost this particular battle.

‘Oh, I just
know
you two will get along famously – just like you charmed our boys when you were their babysitter!’ Olivia said with a winning smile.

‘But dogs aren’t boys,’ Nina said, wondering if her rather simple statement would be enough to change Olivia’s mind.

‘Well, of course they aren’t,’ Olivia agreed. ‘I hear dogs are
much
easier. Now, let me fetch you his lead. He sometimes tugs at it with his mouth, but you mustn’t let him do that. And try to discourage him from jumping up and barking. It’s very annoying. Oh, and don’t let him anywhere near the water. He always makes for the muddiest part and he’s
very
ill-mannered if you have to wash him.’

Nina swallowed hard and tried not to bolt in sheer terror.

‘Okay?’ Olivia said.

‘Yes,’ Nina said, her eyes wide with fear.

Ten minutes later, Nina was on her first ever dog walk, her heart racing wildly at the thought of being responsible for the rather crazy animal at the end of the lead. The Labrador part of Ziggy was strong and determined, whilst the poodle part was flighty and excitable. It was a lethal combination that had Nina’s right shoulder straining in its socket as he pulled her along the river bank.

She remembered having desperately wanted a dog when she was a little girl, endlessly bugging her parents with requests, but they told her that dogs were a burden and that they tied you down and would be a pain when you went away on holiday – only Nina couldn’t really remember going on that many holidays. Still, perhaps she might not have been able to handle the responsibility as a youngster – at least not if she’d been bought a dog like Ziggy.

‘Slow
down
!’ she called, giving the lead a firm tug and stopping in her tracks. He stopped and turned around to look at her as if to say,
What’s happening? Why aren’t we moving forward? Forward’s good!

‘Now, a little gentler,’ Nina said, giving Ziggy some slack. Immediately, he tugged at full force, dragging her along the riverbank and over a particularly tussocky area, which set her off-balance and made her cry as she twisted her ankle and went flying forward, letting go of the lead as she landed in an ungainly heap on the ground. For a moment, the world seemed to tip and spin and Nina watched helplessly as Ziggy bounded away from her, quickly losing himself through a hedgerow.