Page 84 of The Path to the Last House Before the Sea

They were both in love with unsuitable men, and there was nothing that either of them could do about it.

THIRTY-SEVEN

JACK

Jack sat with his knees pulled up beneath his chin. Behind him, Driftwood House was empty of guests while Rosie and Liam were away on their honeymoon. He turned and studied the handsome house, perched so high on the cliffs above Heaven’s Cove, and wondered about Josiah Gathergill.

Did his seven-times great-uncle walk up this cliff path in the hope of catching sight of Charity and enjoy this same view? Had he been the sort of man who marvelled at the whole grand ‘wonderment’ of a sunset, or who dissected it into smaller chunks to be better understood?

Whatever sort of man Josiah was, he wasn’t a murderer, and that made Jack’s heart sing. His pleasure was entirely illogical, seeing as he’d never been worried that criminality was inherited. But he felt it all the same.He was happy that Josiah’s reputation had been redeemed and that he and Charity might soon bereleased from their dark tomb.

And their release was all due to Alyssa, who’d never given up in her bonkers quest to uncover the truth. Unpredictable, chaotic, intriguing Alyssa, who had been in his arms deep beneath Heaven’s Cove just a few hours ago and who, he’d since found out, was now leaving the village.

He’d never met anyone like Alyssa before, but he understood her better now. She had craved redemption for Josiah, just as she craved it for herself.

Jack looked back at the sunset spread out before him and drank in the scene. Pillows of cloud near the horizon were violet jewels in a sky banded pink and gold, and the sea was a rippling palette of translucent blues.

Alyssa was right, he thought, his heart heavy. It didn’t always matter why the sky was breathtakingly glorious. Sometimes it was simply enough that it was.

He glanced at Heaven’s Cove to his left, far below him. It wasn’t dark enough yet for people to switch on the lamps in their cottage windows, but the low sun was reflecting off panes of glass and making the whole village twinkle.

Was Alyssa still down there or had she set off already, to who knew where?Jack sighed and began to recite pi, but he couldn’t think straight and the numbers wouldn’t come.

A flash of yellow caught his attention and he squinted at the cliff path, then groaned. Another walker like him, keen to enjoy the sunset from on top of the world, was making their way up the path, and he was in no mood to make polite conversation.

Getting to his feet, he stretched his legs, ready to move off. But he did a double take when the walker got closer. He would recognise those impractical yellow trousers anywhere, and the streaks of peacock-blue in her hair.

Jack sat back down on the grass, trying to appear nonchalant as Alyssa approached him. He wasn’t sure which posture would best communicate this, so he leaned back on his elbows, smiled and hoped for the best.

‘Hello,’ she said, standing in front of him. She pushed hair from her eyes, a serious expression on her beautiful face. ‘What are you doing?’

‘Watching the sunset.’

‘Nice.’

He cleared his throat. ‘I thought you were leaving Heaven’s Cove.’

‘Why did you think that?’

‘Magda told me. She came round – I thought to see Dad – and said you were going. She went out of her way to tell me, actually. I was sorting out some stuff in the loft and she climbed the loft ladder to find me.’

‘Is that right?’ The hint of a smile played on Alyssa’s lips.

‘I went to your caravan to try and find you, to say goodbye, but you weren’t there.’

‘I’ve been out walking for ages, trying to clear my head after everything that happened today. In the tunnel, I mean.’ She wrinkled her nose and fell silent.

‘And you decided to come up here?’

‘Only when I bumped into Magda and she told me you’d gone out for a walk to watch the sun set.’

Jack sat up, a puzzled expression on his face. ‘I came down from the loft and told Dad where I was going. She must have overheard.’

‘And she then passed that information on to me.’ Alyssa raised an eyebrow. ‘Actually, she didn’t so much bump into me in the street as pursue me along it until I stopped to listen to her.’

‘Mmm.’Jack shook his head. Magda’s conniving to get the two of them together was worthy of his mother’s matchmaking efforts in the past. But her efforts had been wasted.

It was nice that Alyssa had climbed up here, presumably to say goodbye to him after all that they’d shared deep underground. But the inkling he’d had at times that she might feel something for him was nothing but his ego giving him a boost. He was, and always would be, a nerd in Alyssa’s eyes. A nerd with a closed mind.

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