Page 83 of The Sisters at the Last House Before the Sea

‘You’ll need more logs than you’ve got in the hearth.’

‘There’s plenty in the outhouse that need chopping.’

‘Do you chop them?’ asked Isla with alarm. Connie, for all her bluster and belligerent attitude, looked as if a strong wind might blow her over.

‘I manage. Why? Are you going to report that to social services?’

‘Absolutely not,’ Isla assured her, noticing Maisie slip out of the room.

‘They’re looking for any excuse to make me leave. And I won’t go. I couldn’t take Dolly and Petra with me. What would happen to them?’ Connie’s bottom lip wobbled and she stroked the cat on her lap so vigorously, it stirred in its sleep.

‘I’m sure your cats would be well cared for, but I’m honestly not here to report you or to try and persuade you to do anything you don’t want to do.’

‘If you say so.’

‘Have you always lived here?’

‘I was born here and I’ll die here.’

‘Have you travelled? You know,’ Isla added, when Connie peered at her blankly, ‘gone on holiday or spent time anywhere else?’

‘Never. My family didn’t have the money for jaunts and where would we have gone anyway when we’ve got all of this?’

Connie went back to staring out of the window and Isla sat quietly with her for a while, imagining what it must have been like, growing up in this isolated spot. This house and the land surrounding it was Connie’s whole life and it struck Isla as appropriate that she would see out her days here. But it was also sad. There was a whole wide world out there that Connie had never seen and never would. Just like Paul.

Both women looked up when Maisie barged back into the room, her arms filled with logs, and cobwebs sticking to her hair.

‘I went through the logs outside and found these,’ she declared, dropping them with a clatter onto the stone hearth. ‘Save you from bringing them in. The rest are too big to put on the fire but I couldn’t find an axe.’

Isla’s eyes widened. She’d never seen Maisie being so consistently helpful before.

Connie nodded. ‘That’s good of you, girl.’

‘I could always come up and have a go at chopping the wood if you want. If you give me the axe,’ said Maisie, scuffing her feet against the threadbare rug and biting the inside of her cheek. ‘While I’m here, that is. I expect we’ll be going back to London soon.’

‘Poor you,’ said Connie.

‘Yeah, poor me,’ murmured Maisie so quietly that Isla almost didn’t catch it.

* * *

‘That was kind of you offering to chop firewood for Connie,’ said Isla as their car made its way slowly along the lanes that led into Heaven’s Cove.

Maisie continued scrolling on her phone as she spoke. ‘Yeah, well. Don’t want her accidentally chopping off her leg with an axe or she will end up in care and then the cats will die.’

‘I don’t think that would happen to the cats. Someone would take them in.’

‘Yeah, but they’d still die. Of a broken heart.’

Isla took her eyes off the road to glance at the teenager sitting beside her. Maisie was prickly and combative and a right royal pain in the backside. But dig a little deeper and she was just a confused kid with a well-hidden heart.

‘You didn’t seem too happy at the thought of going back to London,’ said Isla, driving by the quayside.

Maisie stopped scrolling. ‘Has Caitlin told you my dad has lost our house?’ she asked, watching the grey sea that stretched to the horizon.

‘Yes, she told me this morning. How do you feel about that?’

‘How do you think I feel?’ Maisie shot back, then her shoulders slumped. ‘Sorry, but school’s been…difficult, and now I don’t know where I’m going to live. My dad’s a mess who’s never been around much, and don’t even mention my mum.’ She shot Isla a warning scowl.

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