The sky was blue and the sun shining brightly as Alice, feeling very much as if she was on holiday, trudged across the pebbles and shale of the tiny Devon harbour and climbed the slippery wooden steps to the first floor of Danny’s boathouse which was situated just where the valley’s stream met the main river.
There was a weathered and ancient looking bell hanging by the door with a rope dangling underneath. The thick rope almost filled Alice’s tiny hand but she grasped it firmly and shook it hard. The bell pealed with a high clear sound that carried, lazily, across the small harbour and beyond to the river.
Faint sounds came immediately from within and after a few minutes a very dishevelled Danny appeared looking surprised to see her.
“I couldn’t resist finding out if your description of your romantic boathouse matched reality, “said Alice, smiling cheerfully.
Danny’s face was a studied mask as he assimilated this information.
He grunted “Well, you’d better come in,” and opened the door wider for her.
There was a short corridor beyond the door and then another door that led to a large room that ran the full length of the building. A cooker, a washbasin and hanging utensils defined the kitchen area. An unmade double bed lay at the back of the room near a door that looked as if it went into a bathroom.
Most of the riverside end of the boathouse was glazed and led on to a wooden veranda. It was untidy but friendly. Paperback books, some still in the process of being read lay everywhere. Original looking amateur oil paintings were on the wall; Alice noticed most were hanging crooked and crying out to be straightened.
Alice walked through to admire the river view. The water was blue and calm on this sunny afternoon, flowing unhurriedly down to the sea.
“If I had known you were coming, I would have tidied up,” said Danny. He shuffled a few books from one table to another. It made little difference so he gave up. Instead he joined Alice by the window looking out over the blue water.
“It’s a lovely aspect,” said Alice. “You are very fortunate. There must be many people who would be willing to pay lots of money for this view.”
“That doesn’t matter to me, “said Danny. “What good is money unless you have what you want? I love living here. It makes me feel comfortable. No amount of money could improve on that. The only disadvantage is the constant nagging I get about selling it from people who don’t understand my feelings about the river and this boathouse – or don’t care.”
“Surely you don’t get pushy estate agents in a small village like this?”
“You’d have to go a long way to find an estate agent more pushy than that Melanie.” Danny spoke the words with vehemence.
“She said she’d always wanted a boathouse investment. She tried to buy it through her agency and, for a while, she was even trying to kid me that she wanted to live here herself.”
Alice looked at the young man in front of her with his hangdog eyes, scruffy clothes but handsome looks and raised a quixotic eyebrow.
“Yes, I genuinely thought she was interested in me, at first,” he admitted. “She was always coming down and hanging around.”
“But isn’t she married to the policeman?”
“She might be. But she’s the one that wears the trousers and tells him what to do. If she wanted to spend time rolling around down here, he’d not be able to stop her.”
Alice considered the double bed in the corner with its four wooden posts and rumpled bedclothes wondering about it’s history.
“I can’t quite imagine her here. She seems more the sort of person you would meet in a Parisian boutique. I can’t imagine her in jeans hanging around a boathouse.”
Alice looked encouragingly at Danny hoping he would pick up the bait but Danny merely grunted and refused to elaborate.
So Alice went back into the living area and picked up a book by D. H. Lawrence. She flicked it open and browsed a few lines.
“D. H. Lawrence loved the countryside too,” she said.
“You’ve read him.”
“I read most of his stuff a long time ago. As one gets older, there is less time to read as the practical things in life become more pressing.”
Danny crossed the floor to join her, taking the book out of her hands, gently but firmly, as if he were retrieving a friend. He stayed standing close to her.
“You don’t look very old to me. I can imagine a lot of young men being attracted to you. he touched her arm gently.”
Alice was wearing an old pair of jeans and an old floppy pullover with her short curly fair hair pulled back away from her face with a ribbon.
“Old enough to know better,” she said, standing back and wagging her finger at him. “Just because I’ve come to visit you and am standing within jumping distance of your bed doesn’t mean that I am going to forget that I have a husband back at home.”
“OK, don’t get stressed. You can trust me,” smiled Danny, easily, “but I don’t know you can do the same with that man who runs the horse riding centre on the hill.”
“You may not be surprised to know that he says the same for you too,” said Alice.
“I’m only surprised that he recognized my existence,” Danny said contemptuously.
Alice wandered back to the window. “How much would you charge me for a boat ride out to the centre of the river. You made it sound so nice over there.”
“You can pay me what you want or you can have it for free. It’s the same to me.”
Alice wondered if he meant a double meaning but decided to let it go.
“OK, a little boat ride might be nice,” she agreed.
Danny slid aside the glazed door to the wooden veranda and led Alice down the wooden stairs to where a small rowing boat was moored.
She climbed in, uncertainly, and sat down, feeling awkward.
Danny confidently and expertly stepped into the boat and pushed it out into the river. With quick short oar strokes he took the small boat out into the river’s current.
When he’d reached the middle of the river, he stopped, retrieved an anchor from the bottom of the boat and dropped it over the side so he could stop rowing.
Alice shaded her eyes from the glare of the water. She could see the curve of the river upstream and downstream as it majestically flowed between the high trees that lay on either side.
Sighing, she lay back against the prow of the boat with her arms along the curved sides, letting her eyes fall dreamily half closed to reduce the glare of the sun as it glanced off the water.
At the top of the hill, she could just see Jack’s riding centre and wondered if this was the same view that Estelle had loved and often enjoyed?
Danny pulled a short rod and line from the bottom of the boat and dropped it over the side to do some river fishing.
“Tell me when you’re ready to go,” he said, tranquilly. “Take as long as you like.”
“Mm! Now I feel I’m on holiday,” Alice said, stretching contentedly. “The sun is shining and you really do have a romantic boathouse. I’m warm and the sound of the river flowing by could easily send me to sleep.”