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
‘Of course it would be!’ Anna laughed. ‘He’s got a child, he was married to someone that everyone around here knew, he’s part of the fabric of this place. I’ve recently bought a house here. What’s the saying? Don’t foul your own doorstep? We’d not be able to move two steps without everyone knowing our business. Regardless, it’s a moot point. I’m not staying, and he’s still in love with his wife. I’m not getting into the middle of that, thanks very much.’
There was a moment of silence. ‘Seems like you’ve given it some careful thought,’ Rhona said.
Anna opened her mouth and then shut it again, feeling her cheeks flush. ‘No! I—’
‘I’m only teasing, hen!’ Rhona laughed. ‘You’re right on all counts. Far more sensible than I would be if Robert MacKenzie ever looked at me across a room for a second or two longer than necessary.’
Later, Anna walked back along the coastal path with her new flatware carefully wrapped and packed in the canvas bags Rhona had lent her. The weight felt good, like anchors keeping her at rest. Shooting the breeze with Rhona, talking rubbish while the sun blazed overhead – it wasn’t something she’d done for a long time, or had ever really had time to do at all. Geoff hadn’t liked her going out without him, even on the rare occasions that she’d had an evening off, and he often hadn’t wanted her with him when he went out, either. It seemed crazy to her now, how she’d simply accepted it as the way their relationship worked. That it had somehow seemed perfectly normal that her entire life had been moulded to fit around what worked best for him at any given moment.
Never again, she thought. Whatever I end up doing now, it’ll be because of what I want, not what’s best for someone else.
Anna breathed in, a fuzz of happiness hazing around her along with the faltering light of dusk. The fishing trawlers had gone from the harbour. There was no sign of them on the horizon, either. Anna imagined what Liam Harper might be doing at that moment, and then told herself that was a gin-thought, not a real one. She pushed it back towards the nowhere it belonged, and should most definitely stay.