Page 12 of The Sisters at the Last House Before the Sea

‘That’s right. I am.’

Jen’s eyes filled with sympathy. ‘I was really sorry to hear that your gran had died. I only knew her to say hello but she seemed like a lovely lady.’

‘She was.’

‘So…’ Jen’s face clouded with confusion. ‘What’s your connection to Isla? Are you cousins?’

‘No, I’m her sister.’

‘Really?’ Jen’s eyes opened wide. ‘I didn’t realise she had a sister. Though I don’t really know Isla, either, to be fair. We’re on nodding terms when we bump into each other around the village, that’s all.’ She paused. ‘Anyway, like I say, I’m very sorry about your gran. You must have been close if you lived with her.’

‘Mmm.’

All of a sudden, Caitlin needed to escape from Sean’s wife and her sympathy. She garbled something about needing to get back to Rose Cottage and fled, walking quickly past the garage, without looking in to see if Sean was there. She walked on and on until she reached the very edge of the village and then the beach that gave Heaven’s Cove its name.

Aptly named in the summer, today the cove was empty and far from heavenly. A cold wind was whipping sand into the air and Caitlin could taste salt on her lips. It was high tide and white waves were curling and crashing nearby. The cave at the corner of the cove, where Isla had played as a child, was surrounded by water. It was unreachable, just as Caitlin had been for the last fifteen years. Sean had simply been the first casualty of her new life.

Caitlin stopped and closed her eyes, surprised by the rush of regret that engulfed her. Seeing Sean, and then Jen, had thrown her completely. But she was being ridiculous because what Sean and Jen had could never have been her life.

Who settled down with their first ever boyfriend? And if she had, she’d never have stayed in London after university and met Stuart and Maisie. And, while she now had reason to regret meeting Stuart, she’d never regret her time in the city. Her life there had been mostly vibrant and interesting. And all she truly regretted, when she allowed herself to think about it, was the hurt that her decision to stay had left in its wake.

But people moved on. Sean was now with Jen, Isla had Paul, whom Caitlin didn’t much like, but her sister’s love life was none of her business, and Jessie was gone for good. Stuart was…Caitlin didn’t even want to think about her husband. And then there was Maisie. What on earth was she going to do about Maisie?

For Maisie’s sake, if not her own, she had to persuade Isla to sell up and move out. Her sister would be perfectly happy in a flat, and if she couldn’t afford to buy in Heaven’s Cove and had to live somewhere nearby, that wouldn’t be the end of the world, would it?

You’re a terrible sister, said the little voice in her head that sounded very much like her mother’s. I’m so disappointed in you, Cait. So very disappointed.

Caitlin gulped down the tears that were threatening to fall and stepped onto the cold sand. Everything would be better once she’d returned to London and left Heaven’s Cove and its painful memories behind.

6

ISLA

Isla opened her laptop at the kitchen table and began to check work emails. She was officially on leave from her part-time job at Callowfield Library, but she craved familiarity this morning and trawling through – she double-checked and sighed – one hundred and thirteen emails might do the trick.

Familiarity felt grounding when her life was in such upheaval, with her grandmother gone and Caitlin and Maisie showing no signs of leaving. Was her sister staying on in the hope of twisting her arm about selling Rose Cottage? Isla hoped not, as she deleted another email that she’d been cc’d into for no apparent reason. She’d made her decision about Gran’s house and she intended to stick to it. Malleable Isla who thought her sister walked on water had disappeared a long time ago and it was time to stick up for herself. That’s what Paul had said before he’d left for work this morning, and she felt that way too – most of the time.

It was sad, but she and Caitlin now lived totally separate lives. That was highlighted by her sister going out over an hour ago with no word about where she was going. Wherever it was, she’d taken her car and still wasn’t back.

And though her other current housemate, Maisie, was at home, she might as well not be because she was still in bed. Isla checked her watch. It was only quarter past eleven and Maisie rarely showed her face before midday.

Isla went back to her many emails and was mindlessly scrolling through them when a thought hit her out of the blue, about her mysterious ancestor Edith and the riddle her grandmother had left behind.

‘Of course!’ she said out loud to the empty kitchen.

She obviously wasn’t thinking straight these days because the answer to who Edith might be was literally staring her in the face.

Isla crossed the kitchen and went through the open door into the hall where a bookcase sat against the wall, near the stairs. Standing on tiptoe, she reached up and pulled a book from the top shelf, bringing with it a shower of dust that danced in the air.

The black book felt heavy in her hands, its leather binding cracked and battered.

‘What’s that?’ asked Maisie, who’d appeared at the top of the stairs, her long, dark hair tousled and her skin pale. She yawned and pulled down the sweatshirt she was wearing on top of her pyjamas.

‘You’re up early.’

‘I know, right? Some people outside were making lots of noise which is, like, totally inconsiderate,’ answered Maisie, not picking up on her aunt’s sarcasm. She glanced at what Isla was carrying. ‘What’s that, then?’

‘It’s the family Bible.’

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