She stopped eating as a pang of grief shot through her and it was a moment before she could answer him. ‘I lived near Alnwick till I was twelve. Then my parents were killed and I’ve never been back since.’

His voice was soft. ‘So this is a sort of pilgrimage?’

‘I suppose so.’

‘What happened after they died?’

‘My aunt and uncle brought me up. They live in Gloucestershire. They’re like a second set of parents. They’ve been lovely to me.’ And that was enough about her, she decided. ‘Are your parents still alive?’

His expression became grim. ‘My mother is. She’s on her fourth husband now. My father died when I was twenty-three and I had to take over the business. It wasn’t quite what I’d planned to do with my life, but if I hadn’t, it’d have gone under. My father wasn’t very attentive to the practicalities of business after my mother left us, you see.’

He stopped and looked at her in surprise. ‘I don’t usually tell people about that part of my life.’

‘I’m honoured, then.’ She was surprised at how different his face looked with that grim expression on it. Intimidating. Not a man to cross. ‘I – um, think I’ll get some bacon and stuff now.’

The grimness vanished and he gave an exaggerated shudder. ‘Bacon at this hour? Ugh.’

She chuckled and went to fill her plate.

When she came back, he greeted her with, ‘Why don’t we go for a drive to Edinburgh instead of the walk? Even if it’s raining, there are things to do in the city and if we take the coast road, the scenery is beautiful whatever the weather.’

He turned another of those devastating smiles on her. ‘Unless you have any other preferences for our day out, Megan?’

‘I’d love to go to Edinburgh. I’ve not been to Scotland since I was tiny. I’ve not been anywhere, really.’

‘Do you dislike travel?’

‘No. I’ve just never had the money. Or the courage to go anywhere alone. My parents were killed in a plane crash, you see, and they didn’t have life insurance. If I hadn’t been at a school camp, I’d have been with them.’ That thought always made her shiver.

‘That must have been hard for you,’ he said softly.

Megan nodded. It had been very hard indeed and she’d taken over a year to settle down in Upper Shenstead. There hadn’t even been anywhere private to weep in such a tiny cottage, where she had to share a bedroom with her cousin. And why she had told him about that, she couldn’t think. She’d found long ago that people didn’t want to hear about your personal griefs. But then, he’d confided something of his own past to her, so maybe he wouldn’t mind.