Page 48 of Together Again at the Cornish Country Hospital

‘Well, this is very good timing young man.’ Albert greeted him with a hearty slap on the back, when he met Lijah at the door. ‘You can help me pick out an outfit for a date with Cami this evening. I’m still getting used to calling her that instead of Millie, but whatever name she goes by, she’s still the girl for me.’

‘That’s brilliant, Albie.’ A genuine smile tugged at the corners of Lijah’s mouth for the first time in what felt like forever. ‘Where are you off to?’

‘Out for dinner. It’ll be our tenth date since we got back in touch.’ Albert stood back and waved Lijah in. ‘Come on through lad, there’s a nasty storm brewing out there.’

‘Ten dates, wow. You must have seen each other almost every day since the dance.’

‘Almost, but it’s still not enough for me.’ Albert was beaming when they reached the living room, and then he turned slightly, picking up the photograph of his wife that he’d shown Lijah before. ‘I must admit it makes me feel a bit guilty.’

‘You shouldn’t feel guilty. I’m sure Lizzie would have wanted you to be happy.’

‘Oh, she would, I’m just not sure how she’d feel about me being this happy. I haven’t felt like this since I was with Cami first time round.’ Albert sighed again. ‘Me and Lizzie were happy enough, but I always knew I wasn’t the love of her life, and I know for certain now that she wasn’t mine either. It’s always been Cami. There are plenty of people you can muddle through life with and get by okay, but everyone deserves to be the love of someone’s life. I’m glad Lizzie had that with Brian, but I’m even more grateful that I had it with Cami, and that now I’ve got to the chance to rediscover it. The thing that makes me feel guilty, is that I wouldn’t be experiencing this if Lizzie was still around. If she hadn’t died, I’d never have been in a position to meet Cami again. Over the years, I tried to convince myself that the strength of my feelings were the folly of youth and that they would have worn off eventually, even if we’d stayed together, but I know now that isn’t true.’

‘I’m sure Lizzie knew you loved her, even if it wasn’t quite the same and it sounds like you were lucky to have that companionship together.’ Lijah was saying what he thought Albert needed to hear, but what the older man had said had really got him thinking. No one wanted to spend their life feeling second best. ‘Does Cami know how you feel?’

‘I think so, I can’t seem to hide it.’ Albert smiled again. ‘And she’s been pretty up front too, telling me the reason she never married was because no one else measured up to what we had. That makes me feel guilty too. I left Cornwall, thinking I was doing it for her and that her life would be better if I disappeared. That way, she wouldn’t have to give up the estate and she’d be able to marry someone who could give her the lifestyle she was used to. Except I didn’t stop to ask her what she wanted. She says she’d have given all that up to be with me, and that she’d happily have traded it for the decades we missed out on. Still, you can’t turn back the clock, can you?’

‘No.’ Lijah’s mind was racing, as he looked at Albert again. ‘If the roles had been reversed, would you have given everything up to be with Cami?’

‘Like a shot. I built up my business and bought several houses in Yorkshire, I’ve still got some of them, as well as the farm, but none of that matters when you’re lonely. Before you came to visit, I’d go days without speaking to anyone sometimes and I used to talk to myself just to make sure my voice hadn’t disappeared altogether.’ Albert looked so sad for a moment, and Lijah had to swallow hard against the lump forming in his throat. Then the older man seemed to shake himself. ‘Still, that’s all behind me now and I just feel so lucky that me and Cami have been given this second chance, even at our age, and second chances should never be wasted. But I’m sure you didn’t come here to listen to me droning on about all of that.’

‘Actually, I came to say goodbye, Albie.’ Lijah didn’t miss the look of sadness that crossed his friend’s face, and he shook his head. ‘Except the truth is I don’t want to leave, and what you’ve said made me realise I need to tell Amy everything I want to say, before I even think about going. If I give you some advice on what to wear on your date with Cami, will you give me some advice on what to say, so I have the best chance of not blowing it?’

‘You’ve got yourself a deal.’ Albert winked. ‘I’ll put the kettle on first, though, lad. I think we’re going to need a strong brew, and if all those years in Yorkshire taught me anything, it’s how to make one of those.’

Lijah nodded, silently hoping that the years in Yorkshire had taught Albert far more than that, because he was going to need all the help he could get if he was going to persuade Amy not to waste the second chance they’d been given.

28

Just as Albert had predicted, the storm clouds had closed in and, as the heavens opened, day seemed to turn into night within a matter of seconds, despite being only mid-afternoon. Lijah had rung Aidan, the only one of Amy’s close friends he had a number for, and had hastily explained why he wanted to see her and how urgent it was that they got the chance to speak before he caught his flight. She’d blocked his number, and he had no idea whether she was at work, home, or somewhere else. Aidan had promised to try and track Amy down, and Lijah had been staring at the phone, willing it to ring ever since. He just wanted a chance to explain how he felt before he went away. It would give her time to think, him being on tour, and the knowledge that if she wanted him to, he’d be coming back as soon as his commitments were seen through. They could go wherever she wanted after that, the Outer Hebrides, Timbuktu, or stay right here in Port Kara. It didn’t matter to him as long as they had the chance to see if they could make it.

‘Amy’s brother’s gone missing.’ Aidan had called him back a few minutes later, sounding almost as breathless as Lijah felt. ‘Apparently he threw one of his hissy fits at lunch time and said something about making them all sorry.’

‘Sounds like Nathan.’ Lijah clenched his jaw.

‘Yes, it does. Except this time someone’s found his rucksack and coat on the cliffs near Dagger’s Head. He can’t have had a lock code on his phone, because the person who found it managed to use it to call Kerry. Now Amy and her parents have gone out looking for him. The rescue team have been called out too, but there was an incident at one of the old copper mines, so a second team is coming from Port Tremellien. This weather isn’t helping anything, it’s so windy, the rain is coming down sideways.’

‘I’m going to go and find her.’ Lijah’s chest tightened at the thought of Amy being out on the cliffs in weather like this and it was clear he wasn’t the only one who was worried.

‘I know I should probably try and talk you out of that, and tell you how dangerous it might be, but Ames is out there and…’

‘I’m going straight there now.’ He didn’t need Aidan to finish, because all that mattered to Lijah was getting to Amy and making sure she was okay. The thought of anything happening to her was unbearable, and if he’d needed any more indication of how strong his feelings for her were, this was it.

* * *

There’d been times in Amy’s life when she’d hated her brother. Not that kind of faux-hatred that siblings sometimes had for one another, but the deep-seated kind when the idea of a world without him had seemed far more appealing than one with him in it. That sensation never lasted long, and deep down Amy had known she didn’t really hate him, she just hated the way he behaved, and what that did to the people around him, especially her parents. She didn’t really want a world without Nathan, she just wanted a world where Nathan got the help he needed and he could interact with the people who loved him in a way that was enjoyable, rather than toxic. Even if she had genuinely wished him ill, her mind would have been changed when she saw the expression on her mother’s face after the call came in to say his coat and rucksack had been found on the cliff.

‘No, please, he can’t have done anything stupid.’ Kerry had broken down in tears in the middle of the conversation and Amy had been forced to take the phone from her and finish the call. She’d gone cold when the person had described finding Nathan’s belongings on the cliff. Like her mother, Amy desperately wanted to believe he wouldn’t do anything to put his life at risk, but Nathan’s ability to think logically was severely impaired and he was capable of catastrophising and turning what his mother had said into a situation where he was prepared to do almost anything. Despite a GP suggesting that Nathan had a severe personality disorder, he’d refused to see the specialist because he didn’t think anything was wrong with him. He claimed benefits and, when he was forced to go to job interviews, the way he presented himself was more than enough to put off any potential employers. His world had become smaller and smaller, and his behaviour more extreme, getting him into fights when he insulted the wrong people. He was a disaster waiting to happen and, when Amy reached the cliffs with her mother and got out of the car, a trickle of dread ran down her spine, along with the rivulets of rain that had quickly found their way in through the neck of the coat she’d grabbed off the hook in her parents’ porch.

‘We should split up, so we can cover ground in both directions.’ Amy’s father had come straight from work to meet them in the car park at Dagger’s Head and Kerry had run into her husband’s arms.

‘You and Mum go together towards Port Agnes, and I’ll go the other way.’ Amy looked over her mother’s head towards her father, silently mouthing the words, ‘She needs you.’

‘Okay, good idea, but keep in contact and be careful, Amy. The rescue team are on the way and the last thing they need are two casualties.’ Her father’s tone was firm, and he wagged a finger at her when she nodded. ‘I mean it, sweetheart, promise me you’ll be careful.’

‘I promise.’ The wind in Amy’s back propelled her forward as soon as she stepped away from her father. She’d been sent an alert by a weather app on her phone with a red warning for high winds, which could reach sixty miles an hour. They weren’t anything like as high as that yet, but being up on the cliffs still made it pretty hair raising and the sea was churning, grey and foreboding, crashing up against the cliff with enough violence to drown out the sound of anything else. It wasn’t even 4p.m. yet, but she was already using a flashlight. The visibility wasn’t the only challenge. When she tried to call out Nathan’s name, in between the sound of the waves crashing against the cliffs, her voice was lost on the wind, making it pointless to even try.

Amy had been up and down the coast on various boat trips enough times to know there were some ledges and hollows in the cliff face, and despite the promise she’d made her father, she moved closer to the edge of the cliff, forcing down the fear that made her breath catch in her throat and her scalp prickle. She was close now to where her brother’s coat had been found. The person who’d called her mother had met them at the car park, to hand over Nathan’s belongings, in case there was anything she’d missed which his family might pick up on. She’d described the exact spot where she’d found his things, at a point where the clifftop narrowed and two rocky outcrops jutted out towards the sea in a V-shape. There was a crevice where the V-shape began, and it was where Amy was heading. The coat she’d borrowed was already heavy with rain, and the wind was so strong now that she was fighting to keep moving, almost bent double with the effort.

---