Page 80 of The Sisters at the Last House Before the Sea

‘I’m not sure this is a good idea,’ she said, when Connie’s isolated cottage came into view. ‘She wasn’t very welcoming when I turned up the other day and she’s a bit…’ She stopped talking and crossed her arms.

‘A bit what?’ asked Isla, frustrated with truncated sentences going nowhere. She stopped the car and turned off the engine.

Maisie shrugged in the silence. ‘I dunno. A bit weird and scary. The kind of person who might have a shotgun in the cellar.’ She paused. ‘Do you think she’s got a shotgun in the cellar?’

‘No, of course she hasn’t.’ Isla forced herself to laugh, hoping she sounded more confident than she felt. The Carmichaels’ reputation for being troublesome and hell-raising lived on in Heaven’s Cove, even though the only member of the family left was ancient Connie.

Isla swallowed. ‘Well, we’re here now. I’ll go and knock on the door and you stay in the car until I’ve had a word with her.’

‘Do I have to?’

‘Yes,’ said Isla sternly before sliding out of the car, slamming her door shut and walking to the front door. The blue paint was peeling and any metal letterbox was long gone. A piece of plywood covered up the rectangular hole left behind.

Isla hesitated and then knocked loudly on the door. ‘Hello, Miss Carmichael. I’m Isla, Maisie’s aunt. You met Maisie the other day when she brought you some food.’

She knocked again, more loudly this time, and, when nothing happened, turned to the car and raised her palms to the sky. Maybe Connie was out, though that was unlikely.

She turned back to the door and knocked again but inside the house everything was silent.

The car door slammed and Maisie appeared at her elbow. ‘Here, let me have a go.’ She leaned over to what was once the letterbox, lifted the plywood flap and shouted: ‘Connie, it’s Maisie and I have food for Dolly and Petra, and soup.’

‘Dolly and Petra?’

Maisie stood up when a door inside banged and there was a distant shout: ‘Wait!’

‘My job is done,’ she declared, with a smug smile. A carrier bag Isla hadn’t noticed before was banging against the teenager’s shins.

‘Is that cat food and soup, by any chance?’

‘Yep. I went to that supermarket by the church before you hauled yourself out of bed this morning. Though it’s so small, it’s a travesty to call it a supermarket. It’s smaller than the corner shop down our road in London.’

The front door was suddenly wrenched open and Isla couldn’t help taking a step back. Connie, in all her glory, was impressively scary. Her sparse white hair was standing on end and huge crevices lined her face. In their midst was a pair of beady brown eyes and a thin mouth pulled into a tight line.

‘You can come in,’ she declared, nodding at Maisie. She fixed her gaze on Isla. ‘You can’t.’

‘She’s all right,’ said Maisie. ‘Isla’s my aunt, Jessie’s granddaughter, and she only wants to ask you a couple of questions.’

‘I don’t answer questions. I get too many nosy folk poking their noses in from social services.’

‘She’s not social services. She’s a librarian.’ She glanced at Isla. ‘Are you a librarian? I’ve never properly asked.’

‘That’s close enough.’

Connie sniffed at this latest piece of information and stepped back to allow the two of them into her home.

Maisie went straight in but Isla stood on the doorstep. This had seemed like a good idea at the time – speak to Connie and see if she could shed any light on Edith and her decision not to go to New York with William. But now she was here, the isolation of this place and Connie’s appearance and belligerence were giving her the heebie-jeebies. Perhaps she did have a shotgun in the cellar.

‘Are you coming in or not?’ huffed Connie. ‘Makes no difference to me.’

Isla swallowed, stepped into the dark, narrow hall and followed Maisie into a large, old-fashioned kitchen. Connie came in behind them and pointed at a table covered in chipped Formica.

‘You can put the cat food and soup over there. What sort of soup have you got?’

‘I got a selection,’ said Maisie, pulling tins from the bag. ‘Cream of tomato, chicken broth, leek and potato, and beef and veg.’

‘Leeks are revolting.’

‘You can just eat the rest, then.’

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