cackling laugh.
“So what brought you to Embers?” asked Rachel as they sat down to eat.
“Pretty bloody direct, you Aussies, aren’t you?” said Leah through a mouthful of pasta. “If you must know, I’d been living in the Highlands of Scotland. But it was too bloody cold there in winter, even for me, so I started looking for somewhere down south. A friend of mine knows the leaseholder of this island, a doctor, I believe, and he let me have it on the condition that I keep the place from completely going to wrack and ruin.”
“But why an island? And you the only inhabitant?”
“That way I’m in control, you see. I get to decide who comes, and mostly it’s no one, which is just fine.”
“Unless they shipwreck themselves on your doorstep,” Rachel said wryly.
“Yes, well there is that unforeseen interruption.”
Rachel couldn’t imagine why anyone would want to be so cut off from the world, entirely on their own, the only company a cow and a few chickens. Yes, she’d lived in some pretty remote places, but there had always been other people around. “Don’t you miss things?”
“Like what?”
“I don’t know . . . conversation, someone to share a sunrise or sunset with, the occasional glass of wine . . .”
“Don’t really drink,” Leah said bluntly, cleaning her plate with a slice of bread. “Not bad having another cook around the place for a change though.”
That was the most thanks Rachel was going to get for dinner.
Chapter Twenty-Five
Little Embers, Autumn 1951
Richard, who was making notes at his desk, glanced up to see Esther flying up the path from the boat, her arms dangling at her sides like a loose-jointed marionette, a stricken expression on her face. He put down his pen and went to meet her, catching her as she arrived at the front door. He had been anticipating this. He’d seen the alacrity with which she volunteered to meet the weekly boat and guessed that she was waiting for news from her husband.
“It’s all right,” he said, holding up a warning hand and standing in her way. “It’s all right, Esther,” he repeated. “Why don’t we go inside and talk about it?”
Esther went to move past him, shaking her head, refusing to speak to him, but he stepped to one side, preventing her escape. “I think I know what’s going on.”
He steered her into the drawing room and she looked up at him, her eyes a stormy violet. “I don’t know that you do.”
He blinked to keep his focus. “You had a letter from John. Am I correct?”
She nodded.
“And he is telling you that it is best if you stay here for the time being.”
“How do you know?”
“Because I advised him before he left that it would take some time before you were truly well again, no matter what you might communicate to him.”
She narrowed her eyes, scowling at him. “I see. Clearly you both know better than I what is best for me. You collude with each other; I should have known.” Agitated, she turned away from him, her fists clenched by her side and her whole body quivering.
“Come on now, Esther. We are all on the same side here. John cares deeply about you and I’m here to help you, if you’ll let me.”
There was silence and then the fight went out of her, her shoulders slumping. “I suppose you are.”
He closed the door and indicated that she should take her customary seat opposite him. It was time to broach the subject that they had been skirting since her arrival.
“Do you blame yourself for what happened?” he asked once they were settled.
“What do you mean?”
“For what happened to Samuel?” It was the first time he had mentioned the baby by name.
She hesitated, but then began to speak. “He died,” she said in a flat tone. “And yes, of course I am to blame. I was his mother; I should have known that something was wrong, very wrong.”
“Why don’t you tell me exactly what happened?” he said gently. “You have to tell someone, at some point. Why not me? I shall not think any less of you, that I can promise.”
She took a deep breath and gripped the edge of the chair, her knuckles white against its dark green fabric. Richard could see that she was battling to control the pain she held folded inside herself. “You can trust me, Esther, always,” he reassured her. “You can trust me with anything.”
She looked at him, blinked several times, and then began