Slowly, Evie turned her back on the yard and looked up at the cliff, craning her neck, trying to work out where the yard and the drying ground stood in relation to the church and the abbey. Fixing it in place on the map.

There was no real way of telling, but that was OK, if she—

She didn’t hear the noise, exactly, it was more like she felt it. At first, she thought it might be Flossie, the stupid animal, snuffling through the long grass, scrabbling at the earth. But when she turned around, there was nothing there. The kitchen windows were a dull yellow, and the house was still. She turned her attention to the roof, the attic where Maude slept, and wondered if Maude could see the whole yard from her room; the Wilson’s cottage and the gate they’d put up. Sealing them all in.

This time the noise came from behind her, a trickle of pebbles falling, and Evie turned quickly. Rock falls were rare, but they did happen, and she was close to the cliff after all.

Too close.

It was getting colder, and she stood for a moment listening to the pounding of her heart as the skin on her arms prickled. Goosebumps.

She clutched the linen bag, took a deep breath.

*

‘He was nice enough,’ said Carolyn, ‘friendly. And I wasn’t that much older than him.’ She looked at Kym. ‘What did Pete say? He worked for us for a bit, did you know that?’

‘Not until he told me. When he was eighteen he had a year out between school and university, and he spent it labouring. He knew my dad, and they both worked for you,’ said Kym.

‘Always a smile and a hello whenever I was on site. He couldn’t do enough for me.’ Carolyn shifted position, trying to get comfortable. ‘He and Pete, they made a big deal of explaining the system to me. How we should always check the fuse box, and to mind out for exposed wires. Like I was thick, or something. The little woman.’

Kym hoped Carolyn was in pain, that she had broken a bone; she was in the mood to break something else.

‘What else did he tell you?’

‘He said my dad told him he’d arranged to meet you at the house. And he never told anyone, not even at the inquest – because he thought you two were . . .’ Kym hesitated. ‘You know – he thought it would make the both of you look bad.’