After Barnaby had left, Amber looked out of the open door onto the sunny garden and smiled at her daughter. ‘I tell you what, if you’re good for Mammy, I’ll take you down to the beach today when I’ve done all my work,’ she promised.

The past couple of months had passed pleasantly with no more acts of vandalism towards them or the house, although Amber still avoided going into town except when it was absolutely essential and so it could be lonely at times. About the only visitor she ever had apart from May Jennings and old Ned was Nancy who came as often as she could. However, Barnaby’s new business venture handling cargo was doing well and so was his fishing trawler so all in all she supposed she had nothing to complain about. Even she and Barnaby were getting on much better now, and strangely that sometimes irked Amber. She still wanted to hate him but was finding it harder and harder. Only the day before, Charlotte had taken a tumble and they had both reached out automatically to catch her. As they did their hands had collided and Amber had snatched hers away as if she had been scalded. She instantly saw the look of hurt in his eyes as he mumbled an apology and she wondered why it had bothered her so much. She also wondered why his touch had sent little tingles up her spine!

Now she hoisted Charlotte from the chair and placed her on the floor and the infant immediately took two or three tentative steps before dropping to her knees and chasing Socks across the floor. She and the little dog were inseparable and Amber loved her almost as much as Charlotte did.

At eleven o’clock Charlotte went to bed for a short nap before lunch and Amber hastily did her outside work, feeding the chickens and collecting the eggs.

It was almost three o’clock that afternoon before all her chores were done and she took Charlotte and Socks down to the beach for an hour as she had promised. They were quite happy scampering about after each other, crawling into rock pools and generally getting into mischief, so Amber lay back on the sand, enjoying the feel of the warm sun on her face.

As she was lying there she happened to glance up towards the cliff top behind her and just for a moment she could have sworn she saw the outline of a man standing there, but by the time she blinked and sat up, shielding her eyes from the sun with her hand, he had gone. Even so, for no reason she could explain, she felt strangely unnerved so she quickly lifted a loudly protesting Charlotte, and with Socks trotting at her heels she climbed back up the steep path.