Chapter 3

GILL spent the week at home wearing a haversack full of cans of soup and baked beans, weighing about 24lbs, to get her body used to carrying weights again. She had never been up and down the stairs as often during that week since she’d bought the narrow three-storey town house three months ago. She took it easy on the Friday, though, to conserve her energy.

Thus Gill was extremely relaxed, her face smothered in smiles, when Wayne came over to collect Jenny and Clay on Friday evening. It was the only time she had managed to face her ex- in that cheerful state since the full extent of his infidelity had first come to light after Wayne Jarvis declared he wanted a divorce. Yes, she felt good. She felt even better when Wayne seemed rather subdued instead of breezing in larger than life as he usually did. Added to that, Jenny and Clay were full of news about Gill’s Derbyshire camping out with a person they both described as this ‘really cool dude’, which appeared to piss off Wayne tremendously. This was a really good day for Gill.

Next morning, at just before the crack of dawn, Jake was full of matching smiles as he called to collect her, exactly when he said he would, and quickly stowed Gill’s haversack and other gear in the boot of his car alongside his luggage. There was rain in the air in the South of England and the forecast for the Dales was mixed rain, wintry showers and sunshine, but they had all the equipment they needed for a perfect weekend. Whatever the weather had in store for them, they were going to enjoy the exercise and good company.

They chatted on the journey north in much the same fashion as they had on the phone every evening, usually for about eighty or ninety minutes each time. They seemed to speak about everything and nothing, but each completion of their conversations always left her with a warm glow to go to sleep with.

Gill had only risked visiting Jake in the print room once during the week. She popped in an hour early on Tuesday morning and even at that early hour they had soon been disturbed by several early droppers-by. They were all asking advice on a wide range of topics from sport and investments. She was surprised that even the head of foreign markets had prattled on to Jake about eastern European currency exchange rates, before realising that Gill was also in the room.

“You were right about the extra-marital affair between Sampson and Sheila that I didn’t have a clue about,” Gill said when they were sitting in the car, the sky still dark around them as they motored northwards. “I called them into the office individually and told them to keep it out of the office, or else. Sampson has been coasting a bit work-wise recently due to the distraction, and he promises that he’s going to pull his finger out. As for Sheila, she was mortified that she had been found out and swears she wants to put it behind her and concentrate on fixing her marriage. Apparently, she thinks her husband is having an affair and wanted to get back at him with an affair of her own. She and Sampson was only a fling and she was ready to bring it to a close anyway.”

“Thinking that two wrongs made a right, was she?”

“Something like that, I think. She’s had it out with her husband since and tells me they are going to start counselling in a couple of weeks’ time. Are you going to tell me how you knew and no-one else noticed, Mr Nicholls?”

“Trade secret, Ms Moorhouse, Chinese Walls and all that,” replied Jake, “Any luck with RadAlloy Industries and Autobit Engineering?”

“Yes, much more interesting, that is,” Gill looked at the driver to try to see his response but it was hard to see his reaction clearly in the feint green glow from the instrument panel and the lightening sky behind him in the east.

“I had Tom Stevenson contact RadAlloy, who admitted they were looking for more metal bending capacity in the UK preferably or Western Europe at a pinch but making little headway. They were delighted to hear we had a potential source in the Midlands. Then Tom called Autobit, who have a lot of experience working with us in the past. Tom fired some loaded questions at his contact there and got him to admit they were preparing to close their Birmingham factory, due to lack of work, within twelve months. They were delighted to allow us to broker a deal for them that is going through now. It could mean a lot more banking business in the future with RadAlloy, who have big expansion plans.”

“Great news, Gill.”

“OK, spill the beans. Where did that little tip come from?” Gill asked, laughing, seeing Jake’s impassive face, only his lips parting to crack a slight smile, “and I won’t take ‘trade secrets’ as an answer!”

“Tom’s quarterly report in January last year stated that Autobit were increasing the number of pressed steel and die-stamped units from the Far East and, with the downturn in trade since then, I thought it likely they would have to cut production in the UK rather than cut back on the new contracts that they have only just negotiated, bearing in mind the penalty clauses involved. Then in the press on the Monday before last, RadAlloy announced a huge contract to supply parts for the aero industry and put out a few subtle feelers for any spare capacity, which Tom also mentioned in passing in his weekly report I printed a week ago.”

“Does that mean you read and remember all the reports you print?”

“Of course, don’t you?” he grinned.

“I do, but putting those things together, takes a special talent. You really should be on the bank’s management scheme.”

“You forget, Gill, I don’t actually work for the bank.”

“I know, you’re a contractor, but that could change.”

“Also, I am perfectly happy where I am,” Jake said with his usual smile.

“What about if we start you on a 35k package, rising to 38k once you’ve covered the basic three-month training?” she offered, “you’d be on 45k within a twelve-month.”

“No thanks, couldn’t afford the drop in salary, I’d have to make some serious budgetary decisions!”

“You are joking! Aren’t you?” she spluttered.

“I don’t joke about money,” Jake grinned, “Actually, I am not really sure how much I earn at the bank. I know it more than covers my outgoings and that is all that matters.”

“If you change your mind, Jake, the offer’s on the table,” Gill smiled “But I don’t want to get into an argument about it and spoil the weekend. So, where exactly are we going?”

“Thought we’d camp in the Peak District and try the foothills of Kinder Scout and see how far we get. The visibility is likely to be poor today with all this low cloud, so it’s not worth climbing to the top, but the forecast tomorrow is better and we can try to get to the top of one of the smaller peaks then.”

“Sounds like I’ll be holding you back.”

“Nonsense,” he said, “We are going to have fun, it doesn’t have to be a slog, and we can relax, get comfortably tired and leave all our cares behind us.”

“Thank you,” Gill said, reaching out with her right hand and finding his left. “I have been looking forward to this all week,” she continued, enjoying the comfortable gentle grip of his warm dry hand.

“Me too. Jen and Clay looked like they enjoyed the walk last Sunday, do they want to come out again, perhaps camp out as well at some stage?”

“They did enjoy it, I think, and Clay is definitely up to come out again and soon. Jenny was, well Jenny is going through a phase where she doesn’t want to do anything, and was non-committal about camping out. I think she’d like to stroll out with the toddlers again next month, though.”

“We could do that, certainly, in the meantime we could always try the New Forest for a weekend, would she be interested in pony trekking, I wonder?”

“She used to have horse riding lessons when she was younger, but gave it up when she became a terrible teenager about three years early. Clay never showed any interest before, but yes, I think they’d both enjoy it.”

“What about you?” Jake asked, “Is it something you’d like to try?”

‘Gosh!’ she thought, a man in her life considering what she wanted to do. This was practically a first. All those years with Wayne, all the time doing what he wanted. She was the one who had to give up enjoyable active weekends like the last one and this one that she had looked forward to all week. Just thinking of all those wasted years made her both sad and angry.

“I have been horse riding before,” Gill said, reminiscing, “I enjoyed it when I was a girl. It was only schoolwork that got in the way in my teens, so I stopped. That’s one reason why I introduced Jenny and then Clay to it when they were younger, knowing they’d get so much out of it. Clay refused to go when he was old enough to have a say, thought horse riding was ‘sissy’. He’d change his mind if you were also riding though. So, yes, pony trekking would be quite high on my check list of things to do with the kids.”

“I’ll look into it on Monday.”

“I am surprised you haven’t already got the information at your fingertips,” Gill teased.

“It is all on my laptop, actually, available dates, costs, contacts, but I didn’t bring it with me,” Jake grinned.

“We’ll sort it out on Monday, then.”

Gill smiled and settled back even more comfortably in her seat, closing her eyes, still holding Jake’s hand as they bombed up the quiet motorway. Mmmm, barely into the weekend and they were settling on where to go for their third date, she thought. Could this weekend get any better?

Gill had to admit defeat soon, she was pretty well pooped. For the last twenty minutes she had simply placed one foot in front of the other like an automaton. She was thirsty but her tiny water bottle was emptied a long time ago and she was sucking a small pebble to keep her saliva going, which made her mouth taste somewhat metallic. Their breakfast, taken three-quarters of the way through their car journey, seemed hours ago. No, it really was hours ago.

Jake had taken her haversack from her without receiving too much protest. He added it to his load of two tents plus most of the other necessary gear for an overnight camp in what to her looked pretty wild terrain. He was just ahead of her in a relentless march that seemed incongruous to her. How could someone so skinny have the muscles, lung capacity and stamina to carry all that gear and keep going without seeming to break into a sweat?

Although he was ahead of her for this little stretch of path, a narrow steep incline between weather- and water-smoothed rocks, most of the time they had walked companionably side by side. He had been extremely solicitous of the effects of the strenuous climb thus far and had a ready hand when she stumbled. He had noticed when she began to struggle under the weight of her pack and had insisted on taking it from her, saying they were within half an hour of their first stop and lunch. Five minutes ago they were only five minutes away but she had visibly slowed and there was no way they could stop here, there was simply no room. Gill gritted her teeth and gathered the rest of her strength. She could have been home hoovering and ironing but she had done all that Thursday and Friday evening. She would still much rather be here than not, really, honestly, she insisted.

Her lungs bursting, they emerged from the narrow passageway between the rocks to a broad expanse of grass, heather and patches of gorse. The sun had been out for twenty minutes since the most recent of several heavy wintry showers and they seemed to have climbed out of the clouds as they appeared to be above the thick layer, while overhead rather more fluffy, less threatening puffballs of cottonwood scudded across the azure sky.

“Oh, Jake,” Gill always called him Jake now, even at work, “this is lovely, no, it’s absolutely glorious!”

“Worth the climb?” Jake grinned at her.

“Oh, yes, worth every second.”

“I’m sorry, Gill, it’s my fault I put you through that. I had forgotten quite how challenging a climb this hill was.”

“Well, we got here.”

“We did.”

OK, she thought, he has at last broken into a sweat, it was that warm, but he still had his long-sleeved sweatshirt covering his no-doubt glistening torso.

‘Listen to me, woman,’ Gill scolded herself. ‘Get a grip, Jake is just a friend. One friend kind enough to ask another friend to accompany him for a weekend adventure with no strings attached. No, he wasn’t a proper boyfriend ... yet.’ They did hold hands earlier but they hadn’t kissed today other than a little cheek peck just before dawn when he collected her.

They had not kissed for nearly a week as it happened, the thought went through her head, almost a whole week. And before that nearly three months of tortuous gym work to get into shape and no one but Jake had so much as touched her. She’d been hit on a couple of times down the gym, but they were not worth consideration as she had worn her old wedding ring for protection and that still hadn’t put the wolves off. No, she was definitely not going down the path of meaningless affairs.

Gill had been so hot climbing in the sunshine that she had taken off her sweatshirt and trackie bottoms down to just a sleeveless halter neck top and fairly short shorts, having tied her sweats around her middle. Now she was puffing like a steam train and probably looked red as a beetroot, while Jake was hardly breathing hard and still had his heavy thornless trousers and thick sweater on. ‘I must look a mess,’ thought Gill, depressingly.

“Sorry about rushing you through that last climb,” Jake said with a smile, resting a gentle hand on her bare shoulder, “We couldn’t stop anywhere there, but a lot of people take the opportunity to stop here for a while until rested. I’ll get the stove lit and we’ll have a cup of tea ready in less than five minutes.”

“Tea would be nice,” Gill admitted, “So then it’s downhill for a bit?”

“Yes, downhill for a while, then a more gradual climb to that hill over there.” He pointed away to a peak shrouded in clouds. Jake unpacked a small gas heater and lit it, placing a pot on top that he filled with water from a large bottle. “Then we have a fairly short descent to a campsite, with toilets and showers. We should arrive with plenty of light left to pitch our tents and prepare our evening meal.”

Gill nodded her approval and sat down on a convenient rock. It was warm in the sun and she was able to relax and get her breath back. Once she was breathing normally, she put on her sweatshirt again as the wind had picked up and still had some wicked winter cold in it. She looked over at Jake while he calmly busied himself brewing the tea. She noticed he had a two-litre bottle of water, part of which he had poured into his billycan.

“That reminds me, I drank all my water on the way up, and I should have brought more with me. This bottle is one that the kids used to take on school trips, it only holds about half a pint.”

“I’ve plenty of water. I’ll top your bottle up after we’ve had our brew.”

“Thanks. Have you been up here before, Jake?” she asked.

He looked up from the gas stove and smiled at her. “Yes, lots of times, the first time when I was only four.”

“Wow! You climbed this hill when you were only four?”

“Yes. My father was ex-military, and a keen route marcher, much more so than my mother,” he laughed, “She preferred walking on the level. But when she did come up here, she told me at the time, she loved the view.”

“So she came up here with you on your first time?”

“She did,” he replied, “It was middle of the summer and much hotter than today. We stopped here to rest for a while, so she and I could catch our breath. It has always been a special place for me. I suppose that’s why...” He left the rest unsaid.

“Have you come here often since?” Gill started, “Oh dear, that sounds like a bit of a line, doesn’t it?”

“Yes, it does,” he laughed, looking at her, his temporary reflective mood evaporating, “But, yes, I do come here regularly, a couple of times a year, sometimes three. It ... it’s the last place I remember my parents laughing, full of the joys of spring.”

“Oh, Jake, what happened?” Gill asked, concern at saying the wrong thing in her voice.

“They died shortly after,” he stated grimly, “An accident, not coming home from here but about a week later.”

“And you were only four?” Gill got up from her rock and stepped towards the crouching Jake, huddled over his tea-making utensils. This time she put her hands on his shoulders.

“You grow up pretty quickly when that happens,” he smiled up at her wanly.

“Stand up, Jake,” Gill insisted, in the voice she used to call bank meetings to order, “time for a cuddle and I won’t take no for an answer.”

“Yes, Ma’am!” he grinned and rose. As he turned towards her she slipped her arms around his waist, he wrapped his arms around her and pulled her to him. She buried her face in his chest and he lightly kissed the hair on the top of her head. Gill lifted her face to his and their lips locked. Nobody was counting the duration of this kiss, Gill felt light headed, relaxed, all her aches and pains from the climb melting away from her muscles.

When the kiss broke and Gill opened her eyes, she felt like she could float on one of those fluffy clouds.

“Jake,” she breathed, “As much as I’ve enjoyed the early start, the fresh air, the exercise and the view, that kiss ... has made my day.”