Page 83 of The Path to the Last House Before the Sea

They sat in silence after that, both women preoccupied with thoughts of what they’d done that could never be changed, what they’d lost, and what might have been.

‘So, are you still leaving Heaven’s Cove?’ Magda asked after a while.

Alyssa breathed out slowly, her mind still elsewhere. ‘We found the bones of Charity and Josiah today.’

Magda sat up straight. ‘What did you say? Who found what bones?’

Everything that had happened during the last few hours already seemed like a story – a myth she should tell to tourists, because it felt so far removed from her quiet little caravan. But Alyssa outlined the day’s adventures: ‘Jack and I discovered an old smugglers’ tunnel leading from the cellar in his shop. We went inside it – long story, and my fault – and we found them in there: two skeletons, the bones of Charity and Josiah, the couple who disappeared from the village almost three hundred years ago. It turns out that Charity wasn’t murdered by Jack’s ancestor or dragged into the ocean by a sea dragon. She did die that day in 1753, but she died beneath Heaven’s Cove alongside Josiah, after a part of the tunnel collapsed.’

Magda’s mouth had fallen open but she snapped it shut. ‘Are you quite sure it’s Charity and Josiah?’

‘As sure as I can be. A beautiful brooch disappeared at the same time that Charity did, and one of the skeletons – the smaller one – had the brooch in her hand.’

Magda’s jaw had dropped again. She breathed out slowly. ‘So, where’s the brooch now?’

‘Still with Charity. It didn’t seem right to leave her in the dark without it. Not when it’s been with them for so long.’

Magda nodded as if she agreed with Alyssa’s reasoning. ‘Have you told anyone else about this?’

‘Not yet. Maybe Jack has, although he’s probably too busy right now.’ Alyssa brushed a hand across her face, trying to wipe away the thought of Jack and Miri making up.

‘But this is absolutely amazing!’ Magda was on her feet. ‘No one has known what happened to that poor couple for almost three centuries and you’ve been in Heaven’s Cove for a few months and have solved the mystery. Did you say you found them in a smugglers’ tunnel?’

‘Yes, I guess Josiah was a smuggler and Charity was trying to help fund his escape from the authorities with the brooch. But then the roof of the tunnel fell in and they were trapped.’

‘Poor loves.’ Magda shivered. ‘I would imagine smugglers’ tunnels were very unstable.’

‘They still are,’ murmured Alyssa, but so quietly that Magda didn’t hear her.

‘You said you found these bones with Jack. So where is he now?’

‘I have no idea,’ said Alyssa, staring at her fingers. She’d washed off the worst of the dirt, but dark soil was still trapped under her nails. Proof that she really had been trapped underground with Jack, even though it was all starting to feel like a dream: darkness, bones and an almost-kiss.

Magda’s eyes narrowed. ‘I know you’re a private person, Alyssa, but I have to ask, what’s going on with you and Jack?’

‘I told you. We found the tunnel together and discovered the bones.’

‘No, love.’ She sat down again beside Alyssa and took hold of her hand. ‘I mean, what’s really going on with you and Jack?’

‘He and Miri are back together.’ Alyssa tried to sound upbeat as she shared the news, but failed miserably.

‘Ah, I see.’ Magda tapped the toe of her trainer on the caravan floor. ‘That’s a shame.’

‘I thought you’d be pleased.’

‘Not really. I want Jack to be happy, of course, and I don’t have anything in particular against Miri. She’s nice enough, but I don’t think she’s the right sort of person for Jack, and I know that Penny thought the same.’ Magda gave Alyssa a sideways glance. ‘I thought that you and Jack were becoming good friends. I saw you talking at Rosie’s wedding reception.’

‘Only talking?’

‘Yes, why? What did I miss?’

‘We kissed,’ said Alyssa, not caring who knew any more. Jack had probably confessed all to Miri by now anyway. ‘We were trying to make Miri jealous, which sounds ridiculous now. He told her I was his girlfriend, and I played along.’

‘I see, and your deception appears to have worked very well. Rather better than you’d have liked, perhaps?’ When Alyssa nodded, her throat too tight to answer, Magda sighed. ‘We both appear to be in love with men who are in love with other women. Which is rather unfortunate.’

Magda’s words brought Alyssa up short. She knew she really liked Jack, but as she remembered Jack’s arms around her in the dark tunnel, the way his eyes crinkled when he smiled, and the pain in her heart when Miri had kissed him, she admitted the truth.

She couldn’t be sure when it had happened – when dislike had turned to friendship and then to much stronger feelings – but Magda was right.

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