It began with a misplaced thermos and a speech that ran long.
The Lower Tissington Historical Society had decided to mark the anniversary of the 1932 Kinder Scout Mass Trespass. Audrey Crenshaw called it “an homage” — though the placards she handed out read TRESPASS AWARENESS, more drill than protest. She also produced a trespass rota, typed and laminated, so each member could sign their incursion in orderly sequence.
Reginald Smythe-Harrington rationed sandwiches as if issuing rations in the desert campaign. Netta Flinn brought nettle tea that smelled faintly of cough syrup and insisted on sprinkling dried herbs “for blessing” at the stile. Someone else produced Kendal Mint Cake, though no one looked keen to eat it. Maggie had agreed. It was February.
They set off in the order Audrey had specified, into low cloud, Reginald’s thermos sealed under one arm. The dog trotted ahead, unimpressed by laminated history.
By the third stile, Audrey’s map had fogged. By the fourth, the wind had turned and the path had gone to guesswork. Somewhere past the heather rise, it thinned and vanished. Boots went into soft ground. They kept moving, though no one was sure quite where.
Then a call: “Hello?”
A figure appeared, headlamp bobbing, breath clouding. No mountain-rescue jacket, no clipboard. Just a running vest, mud to the knees.
She stilled. The smell of bad coffee.
“Keep left of the gully. It drops off sharper than it looks.” He steadied Netta at a boggy patch, pointed out a fence line Maggie hadn’t noticed, and brought them to a gate that hadn’t been visible from the path.
At the car park, he pressed a chocolate bar into Audrey’s hand, scratched the dog behind one ear, and jogged back into the fog.
Netta started something — “Did you know—” — and then didn’t. The question sat in the cold air.
Audrey opened her rota. Three members had not yet signed their incursions.
That evening, Maggie brewed tea she didn’t drink. She opened the grey notebook — hardcover, a little warped — and wrote:
Casefile #39: Right to Roam Tuesday. Lower Tissington Historical Society. Kinder Scout anniversary walk. Nine in attendance. Path lost in fog east of the heather rise. Runner provided directions. Name not given. Returned, slightly muddied. Temperature: low. Approx. four miles.
She closed the book.