Chapter Fourteen

Clancy realised she’d spoken unguardedly when Aaron’s arms dropped away from her.

‘Ah,’ he said, unsmiling. ‘Hence today’s meeting. These are your handover notes.’ He tapped the printout she’d brought him.

‘I’m only going until Friday!’ she put in quickly, her heartbeat beginning to thud heavy and deep at his froideur. ‘I’ll be back for changeover day on Saturday.’

‘Of course.’ But the warmth had gone from his eyes.

‘It’s time I talked to Asila, Tracey, Monty and Will.’ At the same time, she didn’t actually want to see Will, which was tricky.

She knew she was being cowardly but the prospect of seeing him frightened her. She’d thought of it over and over during her clifftop walks. He’d done everything he could to make her fall out of love with him and their old relationship seemed to have taken on the unreal quality of having happened to another person but … what if she saw him and some remnants of her old feelings came flooding back? She’d despise herself for not remembering the all-encompassing betrayal that had shrivelled her heart a few short months ago.

Her thoughts circled endlessly around the way everything had come to a head within IsVid. More than once she’d been on the verge of letting things ride for another month, or till the end of summer, or the end of the year.

But, in her heart, she knew that the funds that had arrived in her bank account over the past ten or eleven weeks tied her to the past. She needed to move into her future.

What she’d done had to be undone, but it was going to be unpleasantly like walking over a minefield – and she’d laid the mines herself.

‘I’ll be back on Friday,’ she repeated now, perhaps to emphasise this to herself. ‘Apart from anything, there’s a Parish Meeting in the evening and the chair, Megan, has asked if I’ll say something about broadband so it can be officially minuted.’

He nodded, closing his laptop. ‘It would certainly be helpful if you could tear yourself away from the bright lights to do the rest of the summer.’

She tilted her head. His reaction wasn’t what it had been in her imagination. ‘What happens at the end of the summer?’ She was curious about his views because she’d begun to give the occasional thought to autumn and winter herself. If she stayed in Nelson’s Bar then she needed to think about the future. She was enjoying being the caretaker at Roundhouse Row for now but suspected it might not fulfil her long term.

‘Autumn and winter,’ he replied with a smile that didn’t light his eyes. ‘Autumn can be great but winter’s pretty bleak in Nelson’s Bar, when the headland’s enveloped in mist or deluged with rain. We’re having such a great summer that winter will seem all the worse in comparison.’

Clancy’s mouth went dry. She rose to her feet and shoved her laptop into her bag. ‘Amazing so many people live in Nelson’s Bar at all,’ she said softly. ‘You’d think that they’d choose to live somewhere more hospitable. Why do you stay?’