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‘You better had,’ said Isla with a smile, even though her heart was aching at the thought of Ben leaving. But she would see him again soon, and who knew where their travels would lead them?
With one last longing look at her, he turned and walked briskly away.
Isla dabbed a tear that was trickling down her cheek, and sat down on the cold stone wall of the quay.
She would miss this amazing village, which had welcomed her into its heart when she’d first arrived as a grief-stricken child. The beauty and community of Heaven’s Cove had nurtured her over the years, and it would do the same now for Caitlin, whose heart needed mending – Sean would help with that as well.
Being a part of the village would do Maisie good, too. It would smooth off some of her rough edges and make her feel that she belonged amongst good people who cared about her.
Isla would miss Caitlin and Maisie so much, but she knew it was time to leave, at last. Time to go off and have her long-overdue adventure. Maybe she’d come back to Heaven’s Cove for good one day. She thought of Ben and smiled. Or maybe not.
43
CAITLIN
Three Weeks Later
‘Another message from Ben?’ asked Caitlin, although she already knew the answer. Isla’s soppy smile was a dead giveaway.
‘Yeah, he’s clearing clutter out of his apartment, ready for my arrival. Look, you can see the view from his window in this pic. Don’t you think it looks amazing?’
She thrust her phone into Caitlin’s face so she could agree that, yes, it looked fabulous. Which it did. Caitlin peered at the elegant brownstone buildings in the tree-lined street. Isla was going to have a wonderful time, and she deserved it.
Her sister had booked her flight, given notice at her job and started working out what she was going to pack. She’d spent very little time with the man who would be meeting her at John F. Kennedy International Airport on the 17th of January, but she and Ben were getting to know one another better, thanks to a stream of phone calls and messages – and Caitlin trusted her sister’s instincts when it came to this new man in her life.
She’d also begun to wonder, though she’d never admit it to Isla, if their gran was watching over them somehow and pushing them along the right path. The letter and riddle she’d left had sparked so much – new beginnings for all of them.
Isla was off travelling with a man who made her eyes light up, Maisie would be starting her new school in January, and Caitlin felt at peace in this old house. She had a couple of job interviews lined up, and Stuart had promised to pay his daughter a Christmas visit in a few days’ time.
Seeing him would be tough, Caitlin knew, but she would encourage him to get the help he needed to stop gambling, and try not to say anything too cutting about Chiara. She wouldn’t mention Sean, who was spending more and more time here, but if Maisie did, so be it. He was an old friend who was fast becoming a lot more.
She glanced at Maisie, who was huddled in the corner with Beth. The girls were relaxing after spending the afternoon doing chores for Connie, and were laughing at something on YouTube. Maisie was still giving TikTok a wide berth, even though Madison’s mother had made her daughter take down both videos immediately and had, apparently, grounded her for a fortnight. And she seemed happier already: accepting of their change in circumstances and willing to try out a different kind of life.
Surely that amounted to the ‘good fortune’ alluded to in her grandmother’s riddle? Caitlin smiled to herself because she was being daft, thinking that Jessie was guiding them somehow. But it was comforting, nonetheless.
‘What are you smiling about?’ asked Isla, pushing her phone into the pocket of her jeans. She was sitting next to the Christmas tree whose fairy lights were giving her hair an angelic glow.
‘I was thinking about Gran and the riddle that we never solved.’
‘I still think about it too and worry that we’ve let Gran down because it’s beaten us. Paul reckoned the riddle was nonsense, but he spoke about Gran as if she was unwell and confused when, in reality, she was sharp right up to the end.’
‘She was,’ Caitlin agreed, automatically scowling at the mention of Paul’s name. He’d been a pain at first, messaging Isla constantly, wanting to know where she was all the time, and sending her flowers. Then he’d turned nasty when she’d told him she was off travelling. But his mean texts had dried up over the last few days and Sean had spotted him arm in arm with a woman who, Isla said, sounded very much like Fizz from his office. Romancing your younger assistant seemed to be de rigueur for some men, thought Caitlin.
‘At least we found out what happened to Edith and William.’
Isla reached into her handbag and pulled out the envelope – all that was left of William’s letter. She ran a finger across the handwritten address before placing it on the table next to her.
‘I’m almost out of drink,’ Maisie announced, getting up from the floor in one fluid movement. ‘Do you want another one, Beth?’
When Beth said she would, Maisie squeezed past the gap between the Christmas tree and Isla’s chair. She spotted the envelope and muttered: ‘Sorry.’
‘You’ve apologised already, many, many times, so just let it drop now. We all do things we’re not proud of. Even me.’ Caitlin grinned. ‘I’m afraid that’s part of being human.’
‘S’pose’, said Maisie, waving her not quite empty can of fizzy orange around.
‘Could you put the envelope into the bureau please, Maisie,’ said Isla, obviously imagining a flood of soft drink swamping the only remaining piece of evidence they had that William and Edith had ever been in love.
‘Yeah, sure,’ Maisie grunted. She picked up the envelope and studied it as she walked to the bureau. ‘Shame he couldn’t even stick the stamp on the right way round.’
