She found she liked the physical side of the work as well. There was some satisfaction in watching the old flaky paint disappear, leaving a new canvas underneath for them to work with. She knew it would be a huge job, but she didn’t want to just sit idly with her thoughts or Anna’s diaries all day long, now that there were no more guests or wouldn’t be until what little maintenance work they could afford was complete.

As she worked, Elle took up a substantial amount of her thoughts.

She felt that her sister was making a huge mistake. Rob still cared about her, any fool could see that. And Elle would be a worse fool if she threw that away.

Penny knew that it was partly her own bad relationship experiences that made her so keen for her sister to be happy. She had fallen in love so many times, with locals mostly and the odd tourist over the years, but none of those relationships – if you could even call them that – had ever lasted beyond the early stages. Rob had tried to set her up a few times with his mates and even a couple of lads from his work crew, to no avail.

It was part of the reason Penny didn’t want to go and speak to the town’s business people. She just didn’t have enough confidence in herself, and thought her tongue would stiffen like concrete if she had to persuade a single one of them to help the hotel. Elle, who was used to this kind of thing, had to do it; it was their only chance.

When her arms got tired, Penny turned and sat and watched the sun go down. She felt that if she could have this view every night for the rest of her life, perhaps it might not matter if she always watched it alone.

That night Elle had another restless slumber, thinking of the unpleasant day ahead of her tomorrow. She would have to clear the air with Rob for starters, before things got too awkward. Obviously he felt the embrace the other night was a mistake, too, since he’d been in such a hurry to get away after dropping off the scaffolding today. He hadn’t wanted to face her either.

She felt oddly disappointed, despite her own decision earlier that morning not to pursue it. Well, it was never nice to be rejected.