Contents ( 57)
- 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
- Thirty-Three
- Thirty-Four
- Thirty-Five
- Thirty-Six
- Thirty-Seven
- Thirty-Eight
- Thirty-Nine
- Forty
- Forty-One
- Forty-Two
- Forty-Three
- Forty-Four
- Forty-Five
- Forty-Six
- Forty-Seven
- Forty-Eight
- Forty-Nine
- Fifty
- Fifty-One
- Fifty-Two
- Fifty-Three
- Acknowledgements
- About the Author
- Also by Sharon Gosling
‘I understand,’ Rachel said, feeling shaky. ‘It’s what I expected, really. I just… it’s come rather suddenly, that’s all. I suppose I wasn’t expecting this call tonight.’
‘I know. If there had been a way to soften it, I would have,’ said Crosswick. ‘She’s asked to talk to you.’
‘To me? Why?’
‘I think she wants to explain. I stressed the position you’ve had here over the past five years, and that this is your home as well as your workplace. I get the impression she wants to apologize for her decision to sell.’
‘There’s no need,’ Rachel said, not at all sure she wanted to talk to this young woman, who was about to turn her life inside out from the other side of the world.
‘Are you sure?’ the solicitor asked. ‘I haven’t told her about the camera obscura yet. You could do that yourself. You’re the one who found it, after all.’
Rachel let her gaze drift to the bookshop ceiling. Upstairs, tucked away in the clouds, was Eveline MacDonald’s camera obscura. If anyone deserved to know, it was the last descendent of the woman who had built and then hidden it.
‘Okay,’ Rachel said. ‘All right, then. I’ll speak to her.’
‘Great,’ said the solicitor. ‘She’s working – she always seems to be working – but said that she would try to call any time that you said was convenient. Shall I tell her now would be good?’
‘Now will be fine.’
They said their goodbyes and Rachel cut the call as Crosswick hung up. She leaned against the mezzanine railing for a moment, trying to work out how to frame the words to tell Trudy Goodwin of the true nature of her lighthouse. Around Rachel the books sat quietly, waiting for their perfect reader to find them. She wondered how likely it was that they would still be here next year, even if she wasn’t. Plenty of people dreamed of owning a bookshop, didn’t they? Perhaps whoever bought the estate would do it for that purpose alone. The bookshop might stay, even if she wasn’t here, and that would be something at least. Rachel dismissed that idea immediately. The price the land, the lighthouse tower and the gatehouse would command would far exceed anything it could make back through the bookshop alone. There wasn’t enough living space in the tower for more than one person, and the gatehouse couldn’t fit a family. No, it would make no sense to buy this place and keep it as it is.
Rachel leaned on the balcony rail, trying not to let the dark cloud hovering over her settle. Below her, Gilly was quietly counting change, noting totals on a sheet of paper. She seemed so much more collected since she had moved into Edie’s place, with less bluster and more calm confidence. A stable roof over the girl’s head had changed her life as surely as the same had changed Rachel’s own.
‘How are you doing, Gilly?’ Rachel called.