Page 77 of Coming Home to Sturcombe Bay
They had been trotting along the path as they talked, past the golf course. Now there was farmland rolling away to their right, while to their left the sea was glittering beneath the high blue sky.
Sturcombe nestled in the dip of the hills, the houses jumbled up the slope like children’s toys. The Esplanade, with its amusement arcade and ice-cream parlour and Kate Rowley’scosy café, skirted the red-gold sweep of the beach, while across on the far side of the bay she could see the rising line of the houses on Cliff Road.
Home. New Zealand might have stunning scenery, loads of exciting things to do, but it could never truly be home.
There were several parties of walkers on the footpath that ran alongside the bridleway — serious hikers with poles and stout walking shoes, casual strollers in shorts and sandals. They greeted each other with smiles and remarks on the weather. Several dogs were running around, chasing each other or sniffing along the hedges, but neither Hector nor Missie seemed bothered by them.
“Have you had much chance to ride these past few years?” Liam asked.
She nodded, smiling. “I worked on a dude ranch in Montana for a while. That was really fun, taking care of the horses and escorting trekking parties. They all thought my English accent was ‘real cute’.”
“Sounds good.”
“It was. I really enjoyed working at the water-sports centre in Florida, but I only had a year left on my work visa and I really wanted to see more of the country. So I lined up the job in Montana, and teamed up with another girl to hire a car and drive there, taking in a few other places on the way.”
“Oh?”
“We drove up to Washington and New York. We stayed there for a couple of days. Then we headed south again to New Orleans and through Texas to visit the Mission Control Centre in Houston.”
“I bet young Noah was excited to hear about that.”
“He was. You can see the spacecraft and the astronauts’ suits, and even touch a bit of moon rock! And you can visit the room where they controlled the moon landings, with all the oldcomputers they used. It was incredible to think that they were able to do that, all those years ago. Then we drove on to the Grand Canyon.”
“It must have been a very long drive.”
“It was, but we shared the driving. And those big American cars are very comfortable. We hired a Chrysler. Once you got used to it, it was a doddle.”
He nodded. “So you visited the Grand Canyon? Very Thelma and Louise.”
She laughed. “Well, except for the robbery at the grocery store, and blowing up the oil tanker. And we didn’t meet Brad Pitt. But it’s the most amazing place — so vast, and all the rock formations and different colours. And there’s a skywalk, where you can walk out literally over nothing. It’s got a glass floor, and you can look down four thousand feet to the river. It’s mind-boggling.”
“I can imagine.”
“It was only a short drive from there to Monument Valley, where they made all the cowboy films. Rhona was going on to California, so we parted company there. She caught a Greyhound bus and I took the car the rest of the way up to Montana.”
* * *
Liam listened with mixed feelings to Cassie’s story. It was interesting, and clear that she’d had a wonderful time, fulfilling all the things she had dreamed of.
Yes, she had been right to go. But after all her adventures it seemed very unlikely that she would be content to stay here in sleepy Sturcombe. There was Tom and Vicky’s wedding, and after that she would be gone again.
“Montana is just incredible. It’s called the Big Sky Country, and that’s certainly true. The sky is so blue, you wouldn’t believe.And the mountains, the lakes, the green valleys full of pine trees. In the winter it gets seriously cold, well below freezing, and there’s deep snow right through from September to March. I learned to ski, or we’d go snow-shoe trekking. It’s so peaceful with all that snow on the ground.”
“And you got to ride horses?”
“Of course. In the summer we’d take parties of guests out trail riding. There wasn’t so much of that in the winter, of course, but we still had guests and the horses still needed to be looked after. And we ran natural horsemanship courses, teaching people how to train their horses through gentle cooperation.”
He laughed dryly. “We could do with some of that here. Maybe then we wouldn’t have so many horses wind up in rescue centres. So how long did you work there?”
“About a year. Then my US work visa was due to expire, so unless I was lucky enough to get a Green Card, I was going to have to leave. The cousin of the guy who owned the ranch owned a water-sports and safari outfit in Tanzania. I really wanted to see the Victoria Falls and the Serengeti, so he put me in touch with him and he offered me a job.”
“Lucky.”
“It was — perfect.”
* * *
Missie had taken exception to an empty crisp packet blowing along the path, prancing around like a diva, and for a moment Cassie had to give all her attention to settling her. “How’s Hector doing?” she asked.
