The following day they cruised out of King’s Corner after an early breakfast, and Summer held her head high, breathing in the cold, fresh air as she followed behind Doug’s Antique Barge, waving at helmsmen and -women and people on the towpath. Even though it was daylight, the lights on her boat sparkled, and Claire interspersed her usual soundtrack with Christmas carols, keeping the volume low in deference to the unknown territory and wildlife. Once they were moored up in Little Venice – and in their other stops along the way – Summer knew she would blast the songs out, the perfect advertisement for the boat that sold CDs and LPs, and sold them well despite the digital age.
Now they were heading south-west, soon to join the Grand Union Canal and meander their way along it towards London. The views were new and fresh, the villages different, all with their own, unique character. The terrain changed too, becoming hillier, the stretches of fields replaced by sloping banks, the canal sitting in valleys, evergreen or skeleton forests sometimes hugging close to the water’s edge, obscuring the land beyond.
Over the next few days, Summer did more than her lion’s share at the helm, enjoying the fresh air, the sights and sounds. Mason often joined her, and they took it in turns to make hot drinks, keeping the cold at bay.
As the journey to London would take most of the two weeks, they had only fleeting opportunities to open their businesses: a couple of hours in the morning before they left a mooring, an afternoon when they arrived at their next destination. Whenever they did, Summer and Mason worked as a team in the café, Mason proving excellent at chatting to the punters, coaxing strollers on the towpath over to the hatch for a coffee and a pastry. He’d helped out during the summer when she was rushed off her feet, but had focused on clearing tables, loading and unloading the dishwasher, leaving the serving and interaction to her and Harry. Now, though, he was getting stuck in.
‘That’s an Egyptian goose,’ he said, leaning out of the hatch and pointing to a pale brown and grey goose with darkish red-brown patches around its eyes and on its tail feathers. A couple nearby, who were taking photos and holding out stale bread, looked up. ‘They’re not native,’ Mason continued, ‘they escaped into the wild after being brought to this country as an ornamental bird.’
‘Really?’ The man, in his late forties, Summer guessed, straightened. ‘I’ve not seen one before. Unusual markings.’
‘You only get them in this region,’ Mason added. ‘I’ve always thought that they’re particularly beautiful. And not as aggressive as the Canada geese.’
‘Oh, those blighters!’ The woman spoke now. ‘I’ve given up getting my bread out when they’re around, they’re like attack dogs.’
‘They’re becoming a bit of a nuisance in some places,’ Mason agreed. ‘Not their fault really, but they’re not the most tactful of beggars.’
The man laughed, approached the hatch and carried on the conversation while ordering two gingerbread lattes and a bag of six mince pies. Summer watched from the table she was pretending to clear, feeling a flush of pride.
‘Who knew the Springwatch sales technique would prove so successful?’ she asked, once the customers had gone away happy.
Mason smiled at her. ‘I love Egyptian geese.’
‘So you weren’t even trying to reel them in?’
He shook his head. ‘I wasn’t, but I might do now. Though I expect it only works when you’re not trying too hard. I’m not a natural salesman.’
‘You could have fooled me! But you don’t have to be very often,’ Summer said. ‘The boat usually entices people in; the idea that they can have a cream tea on a narrowboat is tempting enough. Maybe there is something to this leaning out of the hatch business though.’ She pondered, looking at him, and ran her fingers through his unruly curls. ‘Maybe Ryder’s right about the hair. It is very good hair, and attached to such a lovely face, too.’
Mason rolled his eyes. ‘Ryder’s a wide boy. I don’t believe anything that comes out of his mouth.’
‘You used to be a rover too,’ she said quietly, knowing this was uncertain ground, that he’d made the move after Lisa had died, and might not want to talk about it.
‘I did. I was younger, and in a bad place when I became a liveaboard. I might not have done everything the right way, but I wasn’t manipulative, and nowhere near as sure of myself as Ryder is, even if I tried to pretend I was. Confidence radiates off him like the sun, and it’s unnerving.’
‘I wish I’d known you then,’ Summer admitted. ‘I know that you were struggling, that it wasn’t easy at the beginning, but I’m intrigued about your wild side.’
Mason leaned against the coffee machine, and briefly closed his eyes. ‘I was never wild, Summer. I was grieving, blundering through this new lifestyle with blinkers on, barely able to see past my own nose. If we’d met each other then, I don’t know if we’d be together now.’
Summer nodded, her eyes directed to the floor. ‘Tania?’ she asked softly.
Claire’s friend, the woman Mason had been with all those years ago, who he’d left without a proper explanation – not just in the emotional sense, but in the physical too, taking himself and his boat away from Tania without looking back. It was why Claire hadn’t had much to say in Mason’s favour when Summer first met her, and he’d turned up on her boat one evening when they were moored up in a market town called Foxburn. Claire hadn’t been happy that Summer knew Mason, already feeling protective of her despite their fledgling friendship. But once Mason had explained what had happened – that he should never have got together with Tania, that he had been too damaged by his grief, nowhere near healing – Claire had forgiven him, embraced him with open arms.
‘Tania,’ Mason repeated, the word coming out as a sigh. ‘It was a disaster. I treated her so badly. I’d like to think that, had I met you back then, things would have been different, because, believe me, Summer, the way I feel about you …’ his voice hitched, and he shook his head. ‘But I was barely making it through each day. I put on a front, pretended I was just a new liveaboard getting the hang of the lifestyle, and I thought being close to someone again would help to patch me up. But it was selfish, and she paid the price. So … I wasn’t a wild, enigmatic rover like Ryder. I had a broken spirit, and no way of knowing how to fix it.’
Summer swallowed. Mason suddenly looked so forlorn. She went round to the other side of the counter and took him in her arms, kissing his forehead, trying to kiss away the memories. ‘I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have brought it up.’
‘No, of course you should. I often wonder what it would have been like if I’d met you sooner, if you’d been on your mum’s boat helping out when I’d passed by – a couple of years later, once I was slowly getting back on track.’
‘See, that’s when I’m talking about. Not at the very beginning, but once you’d established yourself as a wildlife photographer. You, Archie and The Sandpiper cruising up and down the waterways, dazzling everything in your path with your beauty—’
‘I hope you’re talking about my boat, there.’
‘I bet you were a force to be reckoned with, Mason Causey.’ She smiled, and his eyes danced back, his face transformed by a sudden grin.
‘As opposed to the staid, boring old codger I am now, you mean?’
‘That’s not what I meant!’
‘And you’re highly romanticizing everything, by the way. It wasn’t like that. The only reason I sold any of my photos was because of the contacts I’d had before. You’re imagining this confident, dynamic guy—’
‘I’m not imagining him, Mason, I’m standing in front of him.’
‘Just a girl, standing in front of a boy, asking him to love her.’ He raised an eyebrow, but Summer’s breath stalled in her throat.
‘Now who’s romanticizing?’ she managed. His words were too close for comfort to the proposal she’d been imagining. ‘And when did you learn all the words to Notting Hill off by heart?’
Mason looked shifty. ‘Sometimes when you’re busy in the café and my article refuses to write itself, I turn to the television for company.’
‘Specifically Richard Curtis films?’
‘Not exclusively.’
Summer tried to slow her pulse. ‘I despair—’
‘Hello, are you open?’
‘Yes of course.’ Summer spun so quickly that she knocked into the counter, smiling widely at the family as they stepped inside. ‘Please, come in. Have a seat and I’ll be over to take your order in a moment.’
She watched as they took their coats off and picked up the menu, the children aged around eight and ten, wide-eyed at being on the boat, uninterested in sitting while there were so many windows to look out of.
‘Can you go and check on the brownies in the oven, Hugh?’
Mason turned in the kitchen doorway. ‘I think you’ll find that line belongs to Julia Roberts.’
Summer shook her head and went to greet her new customers.
The Grand Union Canal was much busier than the fenland waterways, as if they had turned onto the M25 of canals. The going was much slower, the routes narrow in places, wide in others, so they often found themselves getting up a head of steam, cruising at a regular speed and then having to slow to negotiate a tight bend, while other boats tried to manoeuvre through from the opposite direction. But despite being harder work, it woke Summer’s eyes up to the buzz and chatter of a busy, good-tempered waterway.
Welcomes were exchanged, there was time to talk to the other helmsmen and -women as they queued for locks or tackled bends, and everyone was cheerful despite the cold weather. Life as a liveaboard wasn’t without its challenges, but it was certainly a slower, less stressful pace of life. And Madeleine wasn’t the only festive boat. They passed narrowboats with Christmas trees on their decks, one with fake snow covering the roof (Mason wondered aloud how long that would take to clean off once Christmas was over) and many that were also adorned with lights, though Summer secretly decided none were as vibrant or sparkling as theirs.
One evening, a week into their journey, they ended up on The Wanderer’s Rest, Ryder’s narrowboat. It had a small bathroom and open-plan kitchen towards the bow end, the engine at the stern, and then the rest of the interior was like a shell, a single, open space scattered with beanbags and oversized cushions. Ryder opened up his boat for the use of others, and when there was no pub to convene in, and on the nights when the group of travellers came together rather than hunkering down in their own cabins, this was often where they came.
On this occasion, Ralph had cooked a Christmas curry, which Summer eyed suspiciously before tasting and falling instantly in love with.
‘Oh God,’ she said, closing her eyes as the flavours burst on her tongue, ‘what’s in this?’
‘Best not to ask, I always think,’ Claire said, her eyes glinting in the low light. There was a small log burner glowing and crackling in the corner, which Summer thought was a new addition since the last time she’d been on board. ‘If you enjoy it, leave it there. Don’t go digging for something you might not want to unearth.’
‘Good point. As long as it doesn’t have any kind of offal in it, I’ll be fine.’
‘Offal adds so much flavour,’ Ralph cooed, and Summer’s next mouthful hovered inches from her lips.
‘Ignore him,’ Claire said, laughing.
‘It’s delicious, Ralph. I’d love to have the recipe sometime.’
‘The secret,’ Ralph said, ‘along with the turkey and the spices, is sweet potato and aubergine. Remind me and I’ll bring the full recipe round in the morning.’ He gave her a thumbs up, his thin, fair hair wispy around his face, and went back to stirring the large pot on Ryder’s tiny stove.
‘So,’ Claire said, leaning back against the wall, curling her legs up beneath her, ‘what’s it like being back on the road again, so to speak? As good as last time?’
Summer twirled her fork in the rice. It was so different from last time. ‘We’ve not been able to spend as much time together. And we’ve been travelling so much that I’ve barely opened the café. It’s been great to come further afield though, to see the different canals – see how busy it is here. I can’t imagine anyone actually gets anywhere during the summer. If it’s like this now, then …’
‘I know,’ Claire laughed. ‘You grow a good chunk of patience. But we all get where we’re going eventually, and nobody’s ever in as much of a rush as they are on land. The water slows everything down, puts us all under its spell.’
Summer nodded. It was a good way of putting it. She had fallen under Willowbeck’s spell. It had been a slow burner, admittedly, but once it had her in its grip, it was never going to let go, and Summer was completely fine with that. ‘It’s a shame we can’t go to the woods this time, and terrify each other with ghost stories.’
‘The fairy glade.’ Claire’s voice was soft with nostalgia. ‘Yeah, that was a good time. Doesn’t mean we can’t get our storytelling on here, though. You need space, a bit of wine – which Ralph’s always got – and then create the atmosphere yourself. Fairy lights are an added bonus. Yours are spectacular, by the way. Almost like a disco barge.’
‘They’re very bright,’ Summer agreed. ‘Hopefully no chance of getting into any scrapes, because every other narrowboat can see us coming a mile off.’
‘It’s a good tactic, that.’ Claire sipped her homemade wine. ‘And Mason seems to be getting on with everyone.’
Summer followed Claire’s gaze further up the space, where Mason and Jas were sitting against the wall, deep in conversation. They had a trio of dogs lazing around them in various states of consciousness: Chester, Archie and Latte who, Summer was surprised to see, was licking their empty food bowls. She could usually guarantee that it would be Archie who would get to that first, but the Border terrier was sparked out, his front paw twitching as he slept.
‘He’s very sociable, despite his geeky habits.’ She and Claire exchanged a smile.
‘I’m glad that he’s found his feet with this regular column,’ Claire said, ‘it sounds just right for him. And I hope you told him to ignore Ryder’s idiotic comments.’
‘He chose to do that all by himself,’ Summer said.
‘That boy needs a good talking to, though it wouldn’t change anything. Ryder is Ryder. He’s not fond of new alpha males joining the pack, always has to exert his authority.’
‘Mason’s not a typical alpha male, but I can see why he feels threatened.’
‘That’s because you’ve got love goggles on. Mason’s definitely a catch though, and all the more for it because he doesn’t realize how hot he is. He was always like that, even back when I first knew him. Much tidier then, his hair short, because he’d only just started being a liveaboard, but still walking around deep in his own thoughts, unaware that every pair of female eyes followed him greedily. That was part of the problem, I suppose.’
Summer glanced at her friend. She seemed sad, rather than annoyed, and Summer didn’t know whether to push further or let her speak. In the end, she couldn’t help it. ‘With Tania, you mean?’
Claire’s lips pressed together. She nodded.
‘He never meant for it to happen. You know that now.’
‘Oh God, of course. He was in the worst possible place, dealing with something I can’t ever imagine having to go through. I guess, though, that made him even more oblivious to how hard Tania had fallen for him. He thought he was trying something new, testing the waters again, seeking comfort in company, and she was falling in love with him.’
‘Do you … have you seen her again? Does she know what happened?’
Claire glanced at her, looked away. ‘Yeah, I told her. I’d not seen her for a while, but our paths crossed not that long ago, and so I repeated what Mason had told me.’
‘And?’ Summer swallowed. She was surprised Claire hadn’t offered up the news before now, and wasn’t sure what response she was hoping for, whether she wanted Tania to be thoroughly understanding, or if she’d prefer her to stay angry with Mason. She shouldn’t feel threatened – there was no reason to – but she couldn’t help it. Tania had loved Mason, and he had at least cared for her, however blinded by grief he was at the time.
‘Tania’s a very forgiving person,’ Claire said, almost a whisper.
Summer’s palms prickled with heat. ‘That – that’s great, that she understands. Mason would never intentionally hurt anyone.’
‘Course not. As I said, he’s a total catch. Sweet guy, hot as that log burner over there. You’ve fallen on your feet, Summer. And look, there’s something I should have mentioned, before, about how we got our moorings in Little Venice.’ She shuffled round to face her and Summer did the same, waiting to hear about some other spectacular fair that was going to be on at the same time as them, or that the static narrowboat café had found out they were coming and was refusing to let Summer trade.
‘What is it?’
Pain flashed momentarily across Claire’s face. ‘The thing is, Sum—’
‘How’s it going over here?’ Ryder slid to the floor, somehow managing to come between them and drape his arms around both their shoulders. ‘How are you enjoying the GU, Summer?’
When she frowned, Claire interpreted. ‘Grand Union. Actually, Ryder, we were in the middle of something.’
‘Oh great,’ he said, his blue eyes bright despite the gloom. ‘I love a something.’
‘It’s not …’ Claire sighed, giving Summer a meaningful look that said Later. Summer nodded.
‘Oh.’ Ryder did fake-petulant. ‘So, ladies, if you won’t spill the beans, then I’ll have to. It turns out our esteemed friend Jas is, at this very moment, convincing your better half to set up his own blog, all about birdies and fish and snakes, and whatever else it is you get out here that he goes all paparazzi over.’
‘Your ignorance is astounding, considering how long you’ve been on the water.’ Claire shook her head, exasperated.
‘There are more exciting things to focus on than the immediate surroundings.’ He was airy, false, and Summer wondered if he actually had a guidebook about wildlife on the British waterways in his back pocket. The idea made her grin.
‘Someone’s enjoying themselves,’ he said, quick as a flash. ‘Imbibing your fair share of Ralph’s homemade wine, Summer?’
‘Nope. Just having a good time. And I think Mason writing a blog is a great idea. Some people love knowing more about the wildlife outside their window, and Jas’s online following proves that narrowboats aren’t unfashionable. If Jas gave him a bit of a plug, he’d be bound to get lots of followers.’
Ryder nodded. ‘You play the dutiful wife well, I’ll give you that.’
Summer felt her cheeks redden. ‘I’m not his wife.’
Ryder narrowed his eyes. ‘Oh, and is that a sore spot?’
‘Sod off, Ryder.’ Claire shoved his shoulder and Ryder shrugged, kissed Claire on the forehead and sloped off to annoy someone else.
‘Why does he have to be so irritating?’ Summer asked, noticing that Claire was gazing after him, her expression unreadable.
‘Because he loves winding people up. It’s his superhero power, he’s scarily good at it.’
‘Ugh.’ Summer shook her head, trying to clear her thoughts, but Claire, eagle-eyed, had picked up on the last exchange.
‘Is it a sore spot, that you’re not married? You’ve only been together a year and a bit, Sum.’
‘It’s not, it’s just …’ She chewed her lip, wondering whether to let Claire in on her plans. But she’d already told Harry, and Jenny, and Jenny would have told Dennis by now, and while they were good friends, Claire was close to Ryder and everything would be ruined if he got his hands on the information. ‘I love him, and I want to be with him. I don’t want anything to get in the way of that.’ It was a lame explanation, but she didn’t know what else she could say.
‘What would get in the way?’ Claire asked quietly.
‘I don’t know.’ Summer glanced at Mason. He was gesticulating wildly, explaining something to Jas that had the blogger doubled over in laughter, and a smile curved her lips automatically. ‘It was so complicated at the beginning, so much delayed us admitting how we really felt – the past, misunderstandings, Ross – and then there was the fire. Even though we love each other, and we’re good together, I get this irrational fear that it’s more fragile than it is, that something’s going to come along and change everything.’ She stopped, wondering where the words had come from, realizing they’d been dragged up from deep inside her.
Claire’s smile was reassuring. ‘I get that fear, it’s totally understandable. Worried it’s too good to be true, waiting for something to go wrong. But you know Mason loves you, right? Even if something were to happen, something totally unexpected, you’d be strong through it. I know you would, because I know you, Sum. Everything will be fine.’
‘Thank you. I don’t know why I said all that. I’m excited about our future, I have so many plans, and along with that comes the fear that they’ll be derailed, but there’s nothing behind it. Besides,’ Summer said, feeling buoyed by her friend’s encouragement, ‘what could possibly go wrong?’