A Perfect Cornish Escape
Page 31
I hope you’ll be happy with Lachlan. He seems OK to me and I’ll always be grateful he saved my life.
So, be happy, Marina, and try to think of me without too much bitterness and anger.
‘I won’t. I don’t, Nate,’ she murmured.
You won’t hear from me again and don’t worry, I’ll be OK, just as I know you will be fine.
With love,
Nate
She read the letter again and wiped away a tear.
In that moment, she knew it would be the last she ever shed over Nate.
She got up and retraced her steps through the gorse to the main coast path. A narrow track ran off it directly towards the cliff edge itself. Marina followed it and stopped a few feet from the edge, pausing to listen to the waves crashing a hundred feet below. Out to sea, a fishing boat bobbed off the island where Nate had last been sighted seven years ago.
She took a deep breath and looked into the horizon, at the magenta clouds and the setting sun. She stepped closer to the edge where the turf had cracked and the rock was crumbling. The seagulls circled high above the cove below. The October wind plucked at her hair as she recalled the vow she’d made after Nate had first vanished.
Silently she made another vow about love – but it was the future and Lachlan in her thoughts this time. She held out her palm with the sheet of paper balanced on it, and waited. By the time she’d let out a long breath, a gust plucked the paper from her and carried it over the cliff, whirling it higher and carrying it out to sea until it was a speck suspended high above the waves.
She didn’t know where it went next. She’d turned around, with the sea at her back, striding back towards the lookout station.
‘Marina!’
Lachlan climbed over a stile and jogged along the path towards her.
‘Marina! I didn’t know where you’d gone. You weren’t in when I got home. I let myself in with the key and then I got your text to say you’d come out here.’
‘No need to worry. I needed some fresh air. I’m fine.’
‘Good. Great. I thought it was that.’ She knew by the strength of his embrace and relief in his eyes that he had been concerned. She kissed him.
‘You don’t have to worry about me now.’
She smiled, determined to never look back again and to live with hope and for this moment, and for the man holding her even tighter against him. In that moment, she truly knew he would always be there, for as long as the waves crashed onto the shore in the cove.
THE END
Acknowledgements
With huge thanks to Moira Briggs for her help with Lachlan, and to Colin Taylor for his legal and policing advice. Thanks to Sarah Bennet for her suggestions on Lachlan’s background and to Angie for her insight into college life.
To Tiff from Radio Cornwall, I’ve never met you but your name alone inspired a character who I love and hope my readers have loved too.
As ever, my group of friends, including Janice, Sarah, Jules, Rachel, Bella, Nell and Liz, have been there for me through thick and thin, often on an hourly basis.
This past few years have seen Team Avon get my books into the hands of more and more readers, which is no mean feat and makes me happier than I can say! I want to also thank Sabah Khan and Ellie Pilcher of Avon, and all the book bloggers who spread the word about my stories far and wide.
My editor, Tilda McDonald, has been amazing, stepping into the shoes of Rachel Faulkner-Willcocks who was enthusiastic about the idea of the Wave Watchers from day one. Thank you, Tilda, for being happy to withstand the barrage of excited emails and for your insightful editing advice.
I’d also like to thank my copy editor, Jo Gledhill.
To the volunteers of the RNLI and the National Coastwatch Institution, I salute your inspiring work, which helps to keep us safe around our coastlines.
Finally, my family are the rock on which everything I do is founded. John, Charlotte, James, my parents and Charles: I love you – first, last and always.
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About the Author
PHILLIPA ASHLEY writes warm, funny romantic fiction for a variety of world-famous international publishers.
After studying English at Oxford, she worked as a copywriter and journalist. Her first novel, Decent Exposure, won the RNA New Writers Award and was made into a TV movie called 12 Men of Christmas starring Kristin Chenoweth and Josh Hopkins. As Pippa Croft, she also wrote the Oxford Blue series – The First Time We Met, The Second Time I Saw You and Third Time Lucky.
Phillipa lives in a Staffordshire village and has an engineer husband and scientist daughter who indulge her arty whims. She runs a holiday-let business in the Lake District, but a big part of her heart belongs to Cornwall. She visits the county several times a year for ‘research purposes’, an arduous task that involves sampling cream teas, swimming in wild Cornish coves and following actors around film shoots in a camper van. Her hobbies include watching Poldark, Earl Grey tea, Prosecco-tasting and falling off surf boards in front of RNLI lifeguards.
@PhillipaAshley
Also by Phillipa Ashley
The Cornish Café Series
Summer at the Cornish Café
Christmas at the Cornish Café
Confetti at the Cornish Café
The Little Cornish Isles Series
Christmas on the Little Cornish Isles: The Driftwood Inn
Spring on the Little Cornish Isles: The Flower Farm
Summer on the Little Cornish Isles: The Starfish Studio
The Porthmellow Series
A Perfect Cornish Summer
A Perfect Cornish Christmas
About the Publisher
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United Kingdom
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HarperCollins Publishers Inc.
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