AllFreeNovel
Share Us
The water was crystal clear. They could all see the bottom and an obvious channel, which was why this spot, presumably, had been chosen for access. It occurred to Aleksey, for some reason for the first time, that this island had been inhabited long before air access was possible. The earliest settlers could only have arrived by boat.
As soon as they came alongside the dock, the dogs abandoned ship. Their frantic skittering up the old wooden planks to find dry land made them all laugh and eased the tension. Ben and Squeezy jumped out too and ran to see if they could open the doors to the boathouse. It was locked, so they caught the line Aleksey threw them, and just tied Spindrift up to a weathered stanchion.
It was intensely warm here in the lea of the land.
The scents were almost overpoweringly aromatic.
A flock of highly coloured birds shot up from a nearby tree and Aleksey saw a bright orange squirrel.
Moments like this had happened to him once or twice in his life before, for reasons he kept from Ben, but the others seemed astonished and awed to silence as well, so he assumed it was actually happening.
Ben heaved him out from the cockpit onto the dock and did the same for Tim so no one was embarrassed, and then they let Aleksey take the lead.
It was his island, after all.
Although he had meant what he said that he didn’t intend to become a megalomaniac creating hybrid creatures, nor did he want to prop up a rotting corpse and worship it quite yet, he did intend to do pretty much what he liked on this little piece of land he now owned.
Lord of Light Islandhad a nice ring to it.
An obvious path led from the shore through the woods, so he took it. Aleksey knew less about trees than he did about flowers, but Tim had the little book they’d purchased open and murmured awed, ‘All this was planted a couple of centuries ago. Seedlings collected from all around the world: New Zealand, Canada, even the Galapagos. Elm, sycamore, oak…palm trees. Oh, a monkey puzzle. I used to love those as a kid—just like fuzzy tails… It’s all able to grow here because of the sub-tropical air from the… What?’
Squeezy plucked the book from him and put a finger to his lips, and they all stood for a moment, listening.
There was birdsong and the occasional screech from a gull, but that was it. The silence was profound, the perfumed air intoxicating. Cooler in the woods than it had been on the dock, it was still incredibly warm for May. Everywhere they let their gazes rest were flowers in such profusion they could have filled a hundred stately homes with magnificent displays and still be spoilt for choice. There was a wildness to this excess, however, that spoke of nature untamed and unrestrained.
Ben murmured, ‘Have we died?’
This so closely mirrored Aleksey’s thoughts that he just replied softly, ‘I’m not sure.’
Squeezy even added, ‘Prettiest place I’ve ever fucking seen, that’s for sure. Not happy about those orange tree rats though.’
After fifteen minutes of walking, exploring one or two paths that only took them to lookouts over the sea where strategic gaps in trees had been created and little wooden seats placed, they finally discovered the house.
‘Oh.’ Ben put a hand out to a tree. Aleksey had never seen him need support before. Squeezy opened his mouth as if to swear, but nothing emerged, which was even more uncharacteristic than Ben’s response. Tim just sat down and took his glasses off.
Aleksey reckoned the jury was definitely in on the heaven thing.
The house was a masterpiece of the Arts and Crafts era. It sat gracefully in its surroundings with a sunken lawn in the front, which itself led down to a small sandy beach. A slightly tattered tennis net was stretched across this soft green grass.
Aleksey had seen many beautiful houses in his life. He’d lived in more than a few. He’d designed many more in his head. Built one. But he had never seen one that so beautifully fit its environment, one that seemed to emanate from the ambience ofits setting, quite as perfectly as this one did. His glass house on Dartmoor was an anachronism: glass rising out of granite, light from darkness, permanence from fragility. It was what he had wanted to say to Ben, for whom he had designed it.
But this house did not appear to have been created by man at all. It was entirely organic.
Ben came over and wrapped his arms around Aleksey’s waist. ‘I thought it would be…just a…’
‘Ben?’
‘Hmm?’
‘No house fires? Please?’ Ben flashed him a familiar look and Aleksey ducked his head on the pleasure of it all. The sun was going down, salmon and fiery reds now being reflected in the west-facing windows.
Aleksey laid his forehead to Ben’s for a moment. ‘Shall we?’
* * *
Chapter Thirty
The house was made of shale with a slate roof. It appeared to curve around the sunken lawn, but this was merely an illusion created by one long central portion being flanked by two shorter wings easing away from this main section at very shallow angles. Also, the middle section of the house had rounded bays on the windows, sort of bisected turrets, which softened the whole exterior. One of the wings was set a couple of feet slightly lower than the other two parts of the house, and had a catslide roof down to the lower storey. This sweeping roofline and lowered aspect again lent a gentle elegance and organic feel to the architecture. All the windows were set in metal casements mullioned with oak, and the small glass squares appeared almost smoked, their dimness matching the soft fawn-grey of the slate-rubble walls.
