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
Sweet selkie lass,
The boy and me met the woman who’s taken Bren’s bothy. Bren would like her, I think. And I think you two would be friends. Robbie wants us to take her out to meet his dolphins.
Love you.
PS: No beetroot. I got home and it wasn’t in the bag.
PPS: I’ll call Miss Carmichael myself, then?
PPPS: How does a chef called Anna wash up here of all places, on our wild and narrow shore?
Fourteen
As April faded into May, the weather set fair again, the longer days warmed by a sun that seemed to shine without pause from dawn until dusk. Over the bank holiday weekend, Liam’s bench hosted its largest gathering yet. Finally, with somewhere larger than her miniature front room to entertain, Anna could invite the entirety of the group that Frank habitually referred to as ‘the Usual Suspects’. Though Anna saw Rhona, Pat and Frank regularly, and still had her customary walk along the cliffs whenever David and Glynn were in residence, she hadn’t had the chance to get to know Marie and Philip or Terry and Susan very well at all.
‘I love the planters you’ve put out,’ Marie said, admiring the old terracotta chimneys that Anna had dragged back from an antiques place she’d found in Portsoy and filled with bright pansies and scarlet begonias. ‘And the strings of fairy lights, too.’
‘It looks great,’ Philip agreed, over the hubbub that had enveloped Anna’s garden beneath the tiny glittering lights she’d strung up above their heads. ‘I’ve always thought this bit of concrete was something of a lost cause, but you’ve transformed it.’
‘Rhona’s been telling us about the lunch club,’ Susan added. ‘Have you heard about this?’ she asked the rest of the gathered friends. ‘It sounds like a brilliant idea.’
Anna explained again about her plans for Liam’s bench, and was relieved that the idea seemed to be met with universal approval.
‘When are you going to start?’ Terry asked.
‘All being well, the fifteenth of May,’ Anna said, ‘so two weeks from now. I’ve got quite a lot to organise before I go ahead.’
‘Tell me about it,’ laughed Rhona. ‘I’d better get a move on, eh? I left four plates glazing in the kiln before I left but I’ve still got a ways to go.’
Rhona had been the beneficiary of Anna’s razor clam harvest. Over dinner and wine the evening she and Old Robbie had brought them back, Anna had explained her plan. Rhona’s enthusiasm had been touching, as had her insistence on making a set of plates and dishes especially for the table.