The clouds were thickening overhead as Robbie looked out of the window of the old Landrover he was sitting in. From an elevated position he had a good view of the landscape and the dark clouds that were building above the bleak limestone plateau as the vehicle pulled out of the hotel driveway and onto the main road.
The Stone Edge House minibus had already left to go to the caves and there had not been enough seats free for all of the teambuilders, so Robbie had volunteered to go with one of the potholing guides, a young lad called Sam, in his Landrover. As the old but trusty 4x4 turned off the main road onto a narrow ancient road that led up to the upland villages and the potholing cave site, Robbie learned that Sam was local to the area and had lived there all his life. Robbie enjoyed chatting to him; the conversation made a nice change from the shop talk and the managerial guff that he had been exposed to since the arrival at the hotel. He was also glad of a distraction from his thoughts of Laura and McLeod.
As they headed up the winding country roads, Robbie discovered that Sam was clearly passionate about potholing and caving and had plenty of experience in taking groups of office workers down into the vast network of limestone caves and old disused Lead mines.
After some initial exchange about their respective jobs, the conversation inevitably turned to the weather.
"Aye, you 'ave to get used to rubbish weather round here" Sam chuckled as Robbie asked him if he enjoyed being in the outdoors in all weathers.
"We're lucky, most of the rain isn't coming until later or that it hasn't already been" he added, glancing up at the sky from his driving.
"You don't like the rain then?" Said Robbie
"I don't mind it at all, but it puts a stop to the caving, when it gets heavy"
"Oh, why's that then? I mean, you're underground, aren't you?"
"Yeah, and that's the problem, especially round here. The rain runs straight through the limestone rock, stuff gets flooded within a few hours and although a lot of the caves and old mines are connected by tunnels that you can access from the outside, if you get caught in one when it gets flooded then you're pretty much stuck, unless you fancy some underground tunnel swimming"
"Doesn't sound like fun to me" Said Robbie
"It's not, even if you know your tunnels" Sam replied, his face a little serious at the prospect.
Robbie smiled at the lad's clear passion and knowledge as he glanced out at the landscape as it passed by. The road, flanked by the drystone walls that were particular to the area was narrow and winding but Sam drove quickly and expertly along it. Looking at the strips of greyish white walls that divided up the hills and fields, Robbie noticed that there weren't many trees about, but where they did make an appearance they were huge and majestic, commanding the landscape like ancient custodians. As they sped along in the old Landrover Robbie saw what looked like a small village come into view in the near distance, with houses and a church; presently he saw a sign by the side of the road. ASHLOW it read and Robbie realised it must be Laura's Aunt's Village. A steep slope rose up to the west of the road and Robbie saw a lonely looking house, set back from the road beneath the ridge. Behind the house, on the slope of the ridge was an enclosure of large trees, penned in by a drystone wall. The trees were magnificent and Robbie wondered why they seemed collected together, as if hiding something. He looked again at the house and as they passed nearer he saw a car parked outside and instantly recognised that it was Laura's; the house, he realised, must be her aunt's. He glanced back at the trees in the walled enclosure and was surprised to catch sight of a figure, between the trees. He kept watching the figure who seemed to be looking down at the ground. Suddenly the man seemed to vanish, and Robbie thought he must have knelt out of sight, behind the drystone wall. For a moment, Robbie wondered what the man was doing there, it seemed like the wall was there to keep people out, not enclose them in. But as the old Landrover had made its way across the landscape, Robbie had seen a quite a few people dotted about – farmers, walkers, cyclists and runners. Perhaps there was nothing strange about the figure after all.
And as the truck sped past Ash Rake House, Robbie thought no more of the man in the enclosure.
Hi Folks. Apologies that this is just a short chapter, I've been so busy recently that I've not had time to write very much and when I have done I knew I shouldn't really be doing so due to a huge workload. Very frustrating and I just wish there were more hours in the day. Anyway, I have the next two chapters in the works and hopefully they will be longer AND things will really start to kick off. . .
Thanks again for your continued readership and I hope you are all well.
ML