‘What for? Scaring you to death?’
‘Not leaving me lying on the floor, waiting to be eaten.’
‘Ah, I never thought of that. That could have been an idea.’
‘What, eating me?’
‘Not me.’ He chuckles and sets me down in front of his tent. I stand on one leg, clinging on to his lean, sinewy frame as he reaches inside and brings out a dark green camping chair. ‘Here, sit on that. No, I was thinking more of the animals I could film eating you. Foxes and badgers and stoats and—’
‘Charming! Thanks very much,’ I say, sinking down into the chair. ‘Badgers are herbivores, aren’t they?’
‘No, omnivores.’ He fetches a small folding stool and gently lifts my bad leg to rest on it. ‘Can you take your boot off?’
‘Yes.’ Leaning forward, I unzip my boot and ease it off. It hurts like hell and as I slip my sock off, I see it’s already starting to swell. A purple and yellow bruise is spreading across my foot.
‘Can you wiggle your toes?’ He squats and peers closely at my foot and ankle. I try and though it hurts a lot there is some movement. ‘Ah good. I doubt you’ve broken it then, but you’ll have to get it checked at the hospital.’
‘I don’t want to go to hospital! Besides, how would I get there?’
‘Same way you’ll get home, I expect. I’ll take you. The main problem is getting you up the hill to my truck. You saw how steep it is when you came down so I don’t know if I’ll be able to carry you all the way up.’ He places a hand gently on my knee as he peers again at my ankle, then removes it quickly as though realising what he’s doing. I’m not offended by his touch though. It doesn’t feel inappropriate, especially since he’s just carried me bodily through the trees. ‘Really you should ice it. I’ll run up to the farm and see if Ivy’s got anything we can use, but in the meantime I’ll wet a towel in the river. The water’s pretty cold and it might help with the swelling.’
‘Okay. Thank you.’
He roots in the cupboard in his tent and pulls out a blue towel before going down to the river. I watch him through the trees, squatting on his haunches as he submerges the towel, long hair falling around his shoulders. He looks like how I imagined Jesus when I was a child. I’m hoping he can perform a miracle and make my ankle better so I can drive home. I really don’t want to go to the hospital.
The wet towel is freezing cold and I flinch and squeal when he lays it over my ankle. He cringes and squats next to me. ‘I’m sorry. I’ll get the ice.’
‘No, leave it. This will do.’ I pant a little as I get used to the sensation of coldness and he reaches for my hand and squeezes it. Strangely, it seems to help and we sit for a few moments in silence, just holding hands. ‘We may as well do the interview now,’ I say when it starts to feel weird. ‘Who knows, I might feel better by the time we’re done.’
‘Christ, how long’s the interview? Two or three weeks? Have you seen the size of your ankle? That’s definitely a hospital job.’
I scowl. ‘No, it’s probably just a sprain. I’ll be alright. Actually, I’ve got some paracetamol in my bag. That will help.’
Aiden laughs. ‘Ah, optimism. I like it.’
Ignoring him, I find my tablets and pull my notepad from my bag. ‘Okay, are you ready?’
‘No.’
‘But I need to do this interview.’ There’s a note of pleading in my voice that I don’t like, and I cough to try and cover it up.
‘I think you should just rest.’
‘I think I should work. It will take my mind off the pain. Besides, this is my first solo interview. I need to complete it.’
Aiden’s eyebrows shoot up. ‘This is your …? Oh my God! That makes this so much worse.’
‘Yes, I know. Thank you for pointing that out.’ I flip open my notebook. ‘Anyway, it’s really important that I get this interview otherwise I’ll look like a complete failure.’
‘No one can blame you if you’re hurt.’
‘I’m pretty sure they can. So if you wouldn’t mind, I’ve only got a few questions and they’re not especially taxing.’
‘Okay, go ahead.’
‘So, your name is Aiden Byrne and you’re a wildlife photographer, is that correct?’
‘Yep.’
‘Can you tell me a bit about what you’re doing here?’
‘I’ve been commissioned to film and photograph otters, so I made some enquiries and found that this was an ideal spot. Ivy and Bill up at the farm have been great letting me stay down here.’
‘I didn’t even know there were otters around here.’
‘Yeah, they’ve made a big comeback in recent years, and now can be found all over the country. But they’re very secretive animals, coming out mainly at night to hunt and play. It’s not so much that they’re nocturnal, they’re just shy of humans. Around here is great because it’s part of the farm so there are no dog walkers or kids playing or anything else that might disturb them. It’s very quiet so I have more chance of seeing them in the daytime.’
‘Have you seen them?’
He hesitates and scratches his beard. ‘Yes, but not for a while. When I first got here a couple of months ago, I got some great shots of a male and female mating. It’s a miracle really. The timing was perfect. I mean, I was tipped off by the local otter watch. They have people monitoring otter activity along the river and they’d seen the pair together. Not right here’ – he waves his hand at his little stretch of river – ‘but a bit further upstream. So, they phoned me and I got here just at the right time.’
‘How long do they mate for?’ It’s not on my list of questions, but I find myself fascinated by what he’s got to say.
‘A couple of days or so. It’s quite brutal, really. Not the nicest courtship in the world. I was really lucky to capture some of it on camera. The male moved on straight after, so he’s gone now and I doubt I’ll be seeing him again, but I got some good footage of the female on her own afterwards. Some great underwater shots of her hunting for fish too. But then she disappeared, presumably to have her pups, so …’
‘How did you get the underwater shots?’
He turns and looks towards the river. ‘I’ve got underwater trail cams set up in the river.’
‘Oh wow.’
‘Yeah, they stream to my laptop so I can see what’s going on down there. I’ve got hours of footage that I’m still going through. But like I was saying, she disappeared so I assumed she went into her holt to give birth. The problem is, they stay in the holt until the pups are three months old, so basically all sightings of the female have dried up.’
‘Why three months?’
‘Their coats have to be fully waterproof before they can swim, so then the mother brings them out and teaches them how to swim and survive in the wild. That’s the moment I’m waiting for. I’m desperate to get that on camera. I went away for a while, assuming she was giving birth and therefore I had about two months before she reappeared, but I came back early just in case I’ve got the timings wrong or she reappears. So now it’s just a waiting game. Anyway, sorry I’m going on and on. I’m sure you don’t need to know all this for your article, and I told that Phil on the phone that I really don’t want people knowing exactly where I am. I can’t afford to have day-trippers coming down to see what I’m doing or trying to catch a glimpse of the otters. It’s blissfully quiet here at the moment and when I first saw the otters they seemed really relaxed, even coming out in the day. I don’t want that to change, especially if there are pups about.’