Page 57 of A Letter to the Last House Before the Sea

He waited for her to catch up before carrying on at a more manageable speed.

‘Do you come out here often?’

‘Quite a lot, to get away from the crowds in the village and have some thinking time. I can’t bear it when it gets too busy and the streets are packed. It reminds me of living in London.’

‘When did you live in London? I thought you were Devon through and through.’

‘I lived in Hammersmith for three years before moving back to Devon two years ago. Grace had the chance to work for an advertising business in the capital. It was quite a promotion and I didn’t want to hold her back, so we went together.’

Lettie hesitated, noting that this was the first time Corey had ever mentioned his wife.

‘If you don’t like the tourists here, how on earth did you cope with all the crowds there?’ she asked, picturing him marooned in a milling throng of people. The entire population of Heaven’s Cove plus tourists would hardly make a dent on Oxford Street on a Saturday afternoon.

‘It was fine for a while. I was younger and more carefree.’ His face twisted into a sardonic grin and he brushed away a fly that was buzzing around his head.

‘I don’t suppose there’s much call for sea fishing in London.’

‘You suppose right, which is why I ended up working at a bar in the city, serving braying businessmen like Simon.’

‘Is that another reason why you don’t like him?’

‘Probably.’

Corey’s face clouded over and Lettie kicked herself for asking the question.

‘Now you’re back, do you think you’ll stay in Heaven’s Cove forever?’ she said quickly, keen to put Simon behind them.

‘Forever is a long time.’ He shrugged. ‘Who knows?’

‘Well, I don’t know how you could even think about leaving such a wonderful village.’

‘It is pretty special. Maybe you should move in.’

‘A Starcross back in Heaven’s Cove? I’m not sure it would be allowed,’ said Lettie, raising an eyebrow.

He smiled at that and they walked on, chatting about London and Devon, climbing all the time. He was quite easy to talk to out here, realised Lettie, as though the sun had lifted the cloud that seemed to hover over him.

Shaggy brown sheep with white faces watched dispassionately as they went past, the land turning from green to yellow to brown as they neared a huge mound of bare granite blocks that rose out of the ground – the stone layered as though a giant had made cuts into it with a sword.

Corey began to climb up the tumble of rocks, grasping Lettie’s hand and helping her to navigate the steeper sections. At the top was a flat section where Corey flopped down and took off his black backpack. Lettie stood for a moment enjoying the panoramic view, the wind whipping at her hair. There was no one for miles. Just tree-less land in all directions, dotted with granite tors. They were so high up here, the clouds could almost be in touching distance. Lettie stretched out her hand before withdrawing it, feeling foolish.

‘This place is awesome,’ she said, sitting down beside Corey. ‘Thank you for bringing me up here.’

‘It’s wonderful, isn’t it? I come up here whenever I can.’ He started pulling food from his backpack.

‘What’s this?’

‘A picnic. I thought you might enjoy having lunch up here, though it’s nothing special – just the spoils of Gran’s food cupboard plus a quick trip to the grocery shop.’

Lettie looked at the home-made ham sandwiches he was unwrapping, the cherry tomatoes and packets of crisps.

‘Snap!’ She laughed and unpacked ham sandwiches from her bag. ‘Rosie made these for us. She insisted that I bring food, so we’re definitely not going to starve.’

She sank her teeth into a doorstep chunk of fresh bread and savoured the taste of thick ham and hot mustard.

The two of them ate for several minutes in silence punctuated only by the rush of the wind and the mournful cry of a bird of prey circling overhead.

‘What happened upstairs with Gran this morning?’ asked Corey after a while, wiping crumbs from his chin.