Page 46 of A Letter to the Last House Before the Sea

Corey looked at her for a moment, as though he was going to say something more about his grandmother, but then he looked down at her toes, curling into the wet sand.

‘So are you going for a paddle?’

‘No, I don’t think so.’

‘Why not? It’s late summer and not so cold.’

He must be joking, thought Lettie, as the dying edge of a wave washed over her toes. It was absolutely freezing.

‘I don’t feel like it.’

‘So why are you standing here with bare feet?’

What was Corey Allford, the water police? ‘If you must know, I was trying to summon up the courage to paddle.’

She waited for him to laugh but he tilted his head to one side and looked at her. ‘Why would it take courage?’

Lettie swallowed and blinked to shake off the image of cold water closing over her head. ‘Because I’m fed up with being frightened of the sea. Fear of deep water is one of my…’ She paused, trying to find the right word to convey the terror that gripped her. ‘It’s one of my demons, I suppose. But I wanted to prove that I could do it.’ She pulled her shoulders back, keen to move on from the subject. ‘So what are you doing on the beach at this time of the morning?’

‘Running.’ He pointed at his shorts and trainers. ‘I often run at this time, before the streets and the beach are full of people. It’s a good way of clearing my head of my demons.’ He stopped speaking and stared straight at her. ‘So are you going to paddle then, or just talk about it?’

‘I’m… not sure.’

‘I can help you if you’d like.’

‘Why would you do that?’

‘Because it’s a shame to let fear rule your life.’

‘Fear of the sea hardly rules my life. London doesn’t have a lot of coastline.’

When Corey shrugged and turned away, Lettie had second thoughts. ‘Although…’

‘Although?’

She took a deep breath. ‘I do want to paddle. I’m just not sure I can. Pathetic, huh?’

‘Come on,’ said Corey gruffly, bending to pull off his trainers and socks. He threw them across the sand, farther away from the tide, and strode into the waves until they were over his ankles. Then he held out his hand.

Lettie hesitated. What was the point of this? She could go back to London and never set foot near the sea again, if she chose.

‘Are you a scaredy cat?’ Corey’s face creased into a smile as he waggled his fingers at her, his arm still outstretched.

‘Definitely not.’ She shook her head. ‘Possibly.’

‘Don’t worry, scaredy cat.’ He grinned. ‘I promise that I won’t let you drown. That wouldn’t do my reputation on the lifeboat much good. So what do you reckon?’

Before she could chicken out, Lettie grasped his hand and stepped into the water. Jeez, it was even colder than she’d thought. An incoming wave broke around her feet and swirled freezing water around her calves. She could feel her chest tightening and her throat constricting. She took in short, shallow breaths and tried to resist the urge to run back to the safety of dry sand.

It’s ridiculous, she told herself, the sea is calm and it’s not even reached your knees. Young children do this all the time. But images of cold, dark water crashing over her head began to swirl through her mind. She couldn’t breathe.

‘You’re all right,’ said a low, calm voice beside her and she felt Corey’s hand tighten around hers. ‘The sea is really calm today. Do you want to go farther out or back to the beach?’

‘A bit farther out,’ she gasped, desperate to be brave, like Iris would have encouraged her to be.

‘Come on then, step by step. And remember, if you ever lose your footing in the sea and you can’t get up, try to float on your back.’

Slowly, they shuffled farther out from the beach and the water got higher, until it was past her knees and halfway up her thighs. Water splashed, leaving dark marks on her pale blue shorts.