It was a temperate, mellow afternoon, and had it not been for the occasion I would have loved to stay longer in the area. Apart from its proximity to the sea, the village was not unlike Avoncote, with its old church and cobbled streets nestling in a dip amid rolling countryside; quaint, slightly wonky cottages and a small solitary grocery store in front of its green. There was no wake to attend, so we pushed the pram slowly back to the B & B, both of us lost in our own thoughts. It felt very much as if a chapter in our lives had closed. But now we had to look to the future.

*

With the funeral behind us and now that everything had been cleared from Rose Cottage, we were able to take stock of what needed to be done in order to make it more attractive to prospective tenants. While the house was old-fashioned, that was part of its charm. Mrs Barley had always maintained her home very well, so on the advice of the letting agent, we bought a huge can of emulsion and washed the interior walls in magnolia paint to freshen it up. Only days after the man from the agency had called to assess the property, I looked out of the window one Monday afternoon to see that a To Let sign had been erected in the front garden. I was apprehensive but also rather looking forward to seeing who our new tenants (and more importantly neighbours) would be.

I reflected on the past eighteen months and everything that had happened since our move to Avoncote. I had been through the trauma of losing my best friend; the physical and emotional upheaval of pregnancy. Making an unwanted and shocking discovery about my husband. And then there were the revelations about everything that had taken place at Rose Cottage. I thought about Joseph Barley, who had disappeared without trace since his mother’s death. We had changed the locks to the house as a precaution, although I couldn’t imagine him returning. There was nothing here for him any more. I wondered where he could have gone, and whether he felt remorse for his actions and their repercussions. Or if in his own mind none of it was really his fault.