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Back The Cliff House Save as PDF
Chapters (64)
  1. Cover
  2. Booklist
  3. Title Page
  4. Praise
  5. Dedication
  6. Prologue
  7. CHAPTER ONE
  8. CHAPTER TWO
  9. CHAPTER THREE
  10. CHAPTER FOUR
  11. CHAPTER FIVE
  12. CHAPTER SIX
  13. CHAPTER SEVEN
  14. CHAPTER EIGHT
  15. CHAPTER NINE
  16. CHAPTER TEN
  17. CHAPTER ELEVEN
  18. CHAPTER TWELVE
  19. CHAPTER THIRTEEN
  20. CHAPTER FOURTEEN
  21. CHAPTER FIFTEEN
  22. CHAPTER SIXTEEN
  23. CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
  24. CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
  25. CHAPTER NINETEEN
  26. CHAPTER TWENTY
  27. CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
  28. CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
  29. CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
  30. CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
  31. CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE
  32. CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX
  33. CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN
  34. CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT
  35. CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE
  36. CHAPTER THIRTY
  37. CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE
  38. CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO
  39. CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE
  40. CHAPTER THIRTY-FOUR
  41. CHAPTER THIRTY-FIVE
  42. CHAPTER THIRTY-SIX
  43. CHAPTER THIRTY-SEVEN
  44. CHAPTER THIRTY-EIGHT
  45. CHAPTER THIRTY-NINE
  46. CHAPTER FORTY
  47. CHAPTER FORTY-ONE
  48. CHAPTER FORTY-TWO
  49. CHAPTER FORTY-THREE
  50. CHAPTER FORTY-FOUR
  51. CHAPTER FORTY-FIVE
  52. CHAPTER FORTY-SIX
  53. CHAPTER FORTY-SEVEN
  54. CHAPTER FORTY-EIGHT
  55. CHAPTER FORTY-NINE
  56. CHAPTER FIFTY
  57. CHAPTER FIFTY-ONE
  58. CHAPTER FIFTY-TWO
  59. CHAPTER FIFTY-THREE
  60. CHAPTER FIFTY-FOUR
  61. CHAPTER FIFTY-FIVE
  62. Epilogue
  63. Acknowledgements
  64. About the Publisher

My shoulder burned. The tattooed cross pounded as if it might explode.

‘I’m sorry,’ I said. ‘I…’

She bit her bottom lip and lifted her hand as if she was going to take my arm. I pulled away before she could make contact.

Then I ran.

‘Tamsyn!’ Her voice was high pitched and loud and the birds hidden in the bushes flew up in panic. ‘Stop!’

But I didn’t stop. My lungs burnt as I ran. The gorse and brambles that bordered the path tore at my skin. My body dripped with sweat. My body screamed with complaint but I didn’t listen to it, I pushed on.

She yelled my name, but it was faint, I’d put enough distance between us. I turned inland, over a stile and along a footpath that took me through farmland back towards St Just. It wasn’t a path she’d know and I was certain she wouldn’t follow.

‘Tamsyn!’ Her call fainter again.

When I was sure I’d lost her, I slowed my pace and came to a halt. I put my shaking hands over my eyes, pressed the heels of my palms hard into my sockets and tried to block out her horror. I relived our mouths touching and shuddered.

What the hell had I done?

CHAPTER THIRTY-EIGHT

CHAPTER THIRTY-EIGHT

Tamsyn

August 1986

The doctor sat on the edge of my bed, but addressed my mother who stood behind him.

Too many people in the room. Too cramped. Not enough air.

‘It’s a dangerous infection. Is she allergic to penicillin?’

I’d collapsed on the doorstep, my mother said. Jago heard a bang against the door and opened it to see me laid out on the ground and burning up like a furnace.

As Mum and the doctor talked their voices drifted in and out of my mind as if somebody was fiddling with the volume on a radio.

‘Tamsyn? Did you hear me?’

I opened my eyes. The doctor’s face was close to my own. He was a kind man with soft grey hair. He was the doctor who’d come to help Mum after my father died, prescribed her some tablets which I overheard him telling Granfer would dull her grief and help her sleep. She refused to take them.

I don’t want to dull it. I want to feel it. I want to feel it all.

‘We need to clean the site up, Tamsyn. You need to roll over.’

I did as I was told. Moved limbs filled with lead slowly and heavily.

I drifted away again but a pain like hot knives being driven into me brought me back.

‘Bloody hell,’ I heard my mother say. ‘When did she get that?’

‘It looks home done. Or if not then the person who did it should be locked up.’

I was aware of Jago standing at the door. Then soft voices. What were they saying?