Aunt Dimity and the Summer King by Nancy Atherton
For Chlo? and Emma,
who will always be my kittens
One
Every back road is somebody’s main road. No matter how rough or remote it might be, a road always leads somewhere, and for someone, that somewhere is home.
I lived on a back road, a narrow, twisting lane bordered by hedgerows, lush pastures, and shadowy woodlands. My home was a honey-colored cottage in the Cotswolds, a region of rolling hills and patchwork fields in England’s West Midlands, and my little lane was used chiefly by my family, my friends, and my neighbors.
Bewildered strangers occasionally knocked on my door to ask for directions, but they left as quickly as they came. They had no reason to linger—no castle, no cathedral, no Bronze Age barrow or seaside promenade to pique their interest. There was nothing special about my corner of the Cotswolds, apart from its tranquil beauty and the unchanging, ever-changing cycle of country life.
My husband, Bill, and I were Americans, as were our nine-year-old twins, Will and Rob, but we’d lived in England long enough to be accepted as honorary natives by our neighbors. Our cottage was situated near the small village of Finch, a place so tiny and of so little consequence to the world at large that most mapmakers forgot to include it on their maps.
Finch was, of course, of tremendous consequence to those of us who lived there. It was the center of our universe, the hub around which we revolved. We might not be able to name the newest celebrity, but we knew everything worth knowing about one another.
We knew whose dog had acquired fleas, whose roof had sprung a leak, and whose chrysanthemums had been fatally stricken with root rot mere moments after such catastrophes took place. We knew who could be relied upon to make six dozen flawless strawberry tarts for the flower show’s bake sale and who couldn’t be trusted to bake a single macaroon without setting the oven ablaze. We knew whose children and grandchildren were delightful and whose were to be avoided like the plague, and we shared our knowledge with a diligence that put the Internet to shame.
Local gossip was the stuff of life in Finch, a sport, an art form, a currency that never lost its value. We didn’t need celebrities to entertain us. We found ourselves endlessly fascinating.
Finch wouldn’t suit everyone—those desiring privacy, for example, would find the lack of it hard to bear—but it suited Bill and me down to the ground. Bill ran the European branch of his family’s venerable Boston law firm from an office overlooking the village green; Will and Rob attended Morningside School in the nearby market town of Upper Deeping; and I juggled a multitude of roles—wife, mother, friend, neighbor, community volunteer, gossip gatherer, and devoted daughter-in-law.
Bill’s father, William Willis, Sr., lived up the lane from us, in Fairworth House, a splendidly restored Georgian mansion surrounded by an impeccably maintained estate. Willis, Sr., had spent most of his adult life in Boston as the head of the family firm, but he’d moved to England upon his retirement in order to be near his grandchildren.
My father-in-law was an old-fashioned, courtly gentleman, a handsome widower, and a doting grandfather. I adored him, as did nearly every widow and spinster in Finch. Many a heart had been broken when Willis, Sr., had bestowed his upon the celebrated watercolorist Amelia Thistle. Amelia had taken nearly two years to return the favor, but Willis, Sr.’s patient pursuit of her had eventually paid off. He had proposed, she had accepted, and the date of the wedding had been set.
Bill was delighted by the match. He looked forward to being his father’s best man as eagerly as I looked forward to being Amelia’s matron of honor. Will and Rob were somewhat less enthusiastic about fulfilling their forthcoming roles as Grandpa’s ring-bearers, but Amelia had bought their cooperation by promising to hide a handful of their favorite cookies in her bouquet. For a woman who’d never had children of her own, Amelia possessed a rare gift for dealing with nine-year-olds.