The Restless Sea. Vanessa de Haan

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СКАЧАТЬ is greeted by an elderly servant with hair that was once black but is now peppered with grey.

      ‘Your aunt sends her apologies,’ says the servant. ‘But she’s a wee bit tied up with unexpected visitors. She says Munro’s to take you down to the bothy, and she’ll be there as soon as she can.’

      Olivia stares at the maid blankly.

      The man who she assumes is Munro grunts as he opens the trunk and starts to unload the cases, handing two to her, by which she understands that she is meant to carry them.

      ‘Shouldn’t we leave them here?’ she asks.

      ‘Oh no,’ says the maid. ‘You’ll be needing your things.’

      ‘You mean I’m not staying in the house?’

      ‘No, no. Didn’t I say? You’re in the bothy. You’re very lucky. She doesn’t usually let anyone stay down there.’

      The maid disappears back into the house. Olivia’s bottom lip trembles. Munro looks her up and down with disgust. She digs her nails into her palm. She won’t give him the satisfaction of seeing her cry.

      She traipses after him down a dry, rutted track covered in wispy, pale grass that soon becomes a tunnel flanked by twisted rhododendron bushes beneath thick woodland. The house disappears behind them. The air is cooler here, and birds and other creatures call warnings to each other as they trudge on. Olivia’s fingers ache, the blood squeezed out of them by the handles of the bags. A layer of dirt attaches itself to her shoes. They will soon be ruined.

      Eventually, they emerge into the sunlight on another lawn that ends only a couple of hundred yards away at the shore of the loch. To their left is a small white cottage, bright beneath the dark Scots pines of the woodland behind.

      Munro puts the bags down on the stone steps.

      ‘Is this it? Is this the bothy?’ she asks.

      ‘Aye,’ he says. ‘You go and have a look around. Take your time. We’ve plenty of it.’

      Olivia climbs the steps. The door is propped open with a large pebble. Inside, it is cool compared to the thundery heat outside. It smells of flowers and the sea. Along the sills are old shells, stones, sea urchins, and driftwood that have paled in the sunlight over the years. To the left is a small sitting room that looks out towards the loch; on the right is a tiny kitchen warmed by a large range stove, and a bedroom that is just large enough for a bed and a dressing table, also with a view of the loch. Someone has blown the dust from the kettle, there are fresh sheets on the bed, the cupboards are filled with food, and the windows have been flung open. At the back of the cottage an old lean-to has been converted into a lavatory accessible through the kitchen; the other half acts as coal shed and wood store.

      The entire cottage is smaller than the folly at Stoke Hall.

      Munro is still standing on the steps, staring out towards the loch. The only sound is the rasp of water on the shingle and the whisper of wind in the leaves behind the bothy. What Olivia would give to hear a familiar noise: the whistle of the groom, or cook shouting in the kitchen, or Pike banging the gong for tea. She makes a noise, a half-strangled sob, and Munro turns to look at her, his eyebrows knitting together. He clears his throat. ‘Where would ye like to start?’ he asks.

      ‘I don’t want to start anywhere,’ says Olivia.

      ‘Would ye rather fish?’

      ‘No,’ says Olivia. ‘I don’t want to fish. And I don’t want to stay in this hovel. I can’t understand what I’m doing here. I just want to go home.’

      He watches her without blinking, and then slowly shakes his head as she runs past him and back up to the house.

      Olivia stumbles through the front door and across the echoing hall, wildly trying every door to every empty room until she finds the occupied one. It is a large drawing room with French windows opening out on to the lawn and grand views of the loch, the sea a sliver of silver beyond it. And there at last is her aunt, head bent over a table, deep in conversation with a couple of men. As her niece enters, Aunt Nancy looks up, a smile breaking across her face. ‘Darling girl,’ she says. ‘So sorry. We’re just wrapping up here …’

      Olivia stops, suddenly self-conscious. She smooths the creased pale-green coat and pats her blonde hair. Her hat is lying somewhere on the floor of the bothy. She is out of breath, and aware that she is not entirely decorous before these men.

      Her aunt bustles out from behind the table, extending her arms and clasping Olivia’s face in her hands. ‘Look at you! You must be exhausted. Have you found everything you need?’

      ‘I … Well …’

      ‘Did Munro show you how to light the stove? Don’t you love it? It’s my favourite place in all the world. So special …’

      Olivia swallows, aware that the men are watching her. ‘It’s just,’ she says. ‘It’s just … so … so lonely.’

      ‘Such bliss.’

      ‘But couldn’t I stay here? I’d so love to catch up with you …’

      ‘There’ll be plenty of time for catching up. I can’t wait to show you about the place …’

      ‘But I really don’t want to stay down there. Isn’t there a spare bed here?’

      Aunt Nancy’s smile is beginning to look a little worn. ‘There just isn’t enough room at the moment, what with Commander Shaw and Brigadier Worthington here.’ The men nod apologetically. ‘And more arriving tomorrow.’

      ‘But I’m your niece!’

      ‘And these are my guests …’

      ‘But what will I do? There’s no one to help me …’

      ‘There’s Munro …’

      ‘I don’t think Munro wants anything to do with me …’

      ‘Hush, hush.’ Her aunt is holding up her hand. She ushers her out into the hall. ‘Now what exactly is the problem?’ she asks.

      Olivia starts to list. ‘There’s no bath.’

      ‘There’s a tin bath in the shed.’

      ‘How am I meant to fill it?’

      ‘From the tap.’

      ‘You mean with a bucket?’

      ‘You’re jolly lucky there’s running water. I had it put in especially for you. We used to have to fetch it from the burn.’

      ‘There’s no electricity.’

      ‘Did Munro not show you where the oil lamps are kept?’

      ‘I don’t know how to light a fire.’

      ‘Munro will show you.’

      ‘I don’t know how to cook.’

      ‘Then it’s about time you СКАЧАТЬ