Chapters (39)
- Title Page
- Dedication
- Prologue
- One
- Two
- Three
- Four
- Five
- Six
- Seven
- Eight
- Nine
- Ten
- Eleven
- Twelve
- Thirteen
- Fourteen
- Fifteen
- Sixteen
- Seventeen
- Eighteen
- Nineteen
- Twenty
- Twenty-One
- Twenty-Two
- Twenty-Three
- Twenty-Four
- Twenty-Five
- Twenty-Six
- Twenty-Seven
- Twenty-Eight
- Twenty-Nine
- Thirty
- Thirty-One
- Thirty-Two
- Epilogue
- Author’s note
- Acknowledgements
- About the Author
She restarted the car and turned out onto the road. Anna wasn’t sure she really wanted to cook for the get-together. She’d been thinking that she’d pick up a bottle of wine or two, maybe some fancy crisps, that was all.
Hours later and with the car stocked to the gunnels, she drove the twenty miles back to the village along the coast road, enjoying the green of the fields and the flash of light dancing on the water. There were only a handful of villages along the route – none were as precariously placed as Crovie, but all of them were small, with a slightly desolate sense of clinging to their existence by force of will alone.
She negotiated the road down to the harbour more easily this time. As she dragged her bags out of the boot and into her cart she saw a figure in the distance. Hunched over a cane, a flat cap pulled down over his eyes, it was clearly Douglas McKean. Anna slammed shut the hatch and headed for the cottage, studiously ignoring his glare.
Anna spent the next couple of days deploying her purchases around the house. The beautiful wine-red throws she had found were strategically tucked over the sofa and armchairs, followed by new cushions. At some point she’d probably have to replace the sofa, but actually it was surprisingly comfortable and the throw disguised the ageing fabric perfectly well. Meanwhile, the wool rug in a similar colour with blue and cream accents covered the worn patches in the carpet and tied the whole together. Upstairs, Anna wrestled the new muslin curtain into place, pausing to watch the light dancing on the waves, the sun so warm and bright through the glass that she thought she could probably lie on the floor and sunbathe in it.
Since she’d decided to stay a while longer, Anna also unpacked the last few boxes of her belongings. Her clothes she tidied away into the wardrobe and drawers upstairs. As her kitchen equipment found its way into the cupboards downstairs, Anna realized that her initial dismay at the general grubbiness of the space had blinded her to how well it had been designed. Yes, it was tiny, but it was beautifully laid out, with everything positioned exactly where Anna herself would have put it had she been fitting it out herself.