“No. Too steep. They try coming across the fields but fortunately the farmer keeps his bull two fields across in that direction—” he waved an arm “—so that’s a kind of built-in security. They can come by road, but I have Kathleen to protect me from that.”
Liza closed her eyes briefly and breathed in salt air and sunshine. Her usual daily view was buildings and streets choked with traffic and people. Her soundtrack was engines, car horns, airplanes overhead. Now there was nothing but sea, sky and seabirds.
She opened her eyes. “How does my mother protect you?”
“She has numerous interesting strategies. She misdirects people. Sends them across country, or to the next village. Occasionally she pretends to be deaf and lets them shout louder and louder until they give up.” He took off his glasses. His hair was tangled and tousled from the breeze, his eyes were bright with laughter. “She’s never told you?”
“Would it damage your ego to tell you that she barely mentions you?”
His smile deepened. “It would confirm my suspicion that she’s probably the best neighbor on the planet.”
Liza rolled up the bottom of her trousers. The pale skin around her feet and ankles was evidence that she hadn’t stayed still long enough for her skin to see the sun. She needed to do something about that, and she definitely needed to do something about her wardrobe which was entirely unsuited to relaxation or beach life.
“How often do you see her?”
“Most weeks when I’m here.” He stooped to pick up a shell. “We drink coffee in her garden, or she comes up here to swim in the pool and we have a glass of something cold afterward.”
“Every week?” Liza couldn’t believe what she was hearing. “She swims in your pool?”
“She used to swim twice a day in the sea, but after she had that dizzy spell I persuaded her that the pool was safer.”
Dizzy spell?
If she asked him for details he’d think she was a terrible daughter. And there was no point in asking herself why her mother hadn’t mentioned it. She would have been afraid Liza would have lectured her on safety. And no doubt she would have done exactly that.
Maybe she was a terrible daughter. She’d been trying to help and protect, but in doing so had cut herself off from a large part of her mother’s life. Her constant urging to stay safe didn’t have any impact on her mother, who always did exactly as she pleased. All it did was encourage her to keep things from Liza, to avoid any fuss. But it seemed she didn’t keep things from Finn.
“She took your advice and stopped swimming in the sea?”
“Not at first, but I told her that if her body were to wash up on the shore one evening she might ruin one of my beach parties. She laughed and agreed to use the pool instead.” He glanced at her. “Glenys, my housekeeper, is always around when she uses the pool so she’s safe enough.”
Liza tried to think of a time she and her mother had shared a conversation that made them both laugh.
“You’re fond of her.”
He shrugged. “I don’t have parents or grandparents alive. I guess I see Kathleen as someone older and wiser.”
“Really?” That wasn’t how she saw her mother at all. “I tend to think of her as reckless. She gives me constant anxiety attacks.”
“I guess it’s different when it’s your mother.” He walked to the water. “Has she always been the way she is?”
“Stubborn?”
“I was going to say adventurous. Bold.”
“I suppose so, yes.”
“Must have made for an interesting childhood.”
It had made for a lonely childhood. But that wasn’t something she intended to discuss with Finn Cool.
“I always got good grades in geography. I’m the person you want on your team in a pub quiz.”
“I watched a few of her old shows on the internet. Incredible. She had such presence.”
She hadn’t watched The Summer Seekers since she was a child. They reminded her of absences. “She has them all on DVD.”
“You’re kidding.” The breeze had blown strands of hair across his face. “But they would have been shot on 16mm film, surely?”