about it.’
‘That’s heartbreaking, terrible! I don’t understand how it’s allowed to happen.’
‘It’s a problem, but it’s just one small part of a very complicated puzzle. It would be better if more tourist dollars were invested in facilities for those who need them the most, but it doesn’t seem to happen like that. We are like every other island: we need the money that tourism brings, but it comes at a very high price.’
‘I don’t understand it, Simon. I’m trying to imagine a big company coming along and buying up England’s green spaces. Can you imagine if Exmoor, the Yorkshire Dales or the Lake District were suddenly no-go areas because they had been sold? Or Hyde Park or the Bristol Downs? People simply wouldn’t stand for it!’
‘They would if they had no voice. Sometimes money is very hard to be heard over; it talks the loudest of all.’
‘It makes me feel guilty. I’m staying at one of those flash hotels.’
‘It’s good that you are aware and I don’t want you to feel guilty. We want to share our beautiful home with you. I just wish people knew when enough was enough.’
She nodded. ‘All things in moderation, is that right?’
‘You got it.’
The two sat in silence for a moment, letting the sun warm their skin.
‘What is it you are trying to escape from, Kate?’
So suddenly had the topic been broached that his question caught her off guard.
‘Well, I don’t really know where to start.’ She dug her toes into the sand.
‘How about the beginning?’ he prompted.
‘I wish it was that easy. Actually it’s not that I don’t where to start so much as how to. I think you may feel differently about being my friend after you know a bit more about me, you being a man of faith.’
Simon smiled. ‘Isn’t that strange, Kate, that you judge me, decide on my reaction, second-guess my opinion and yet I would do no such thing to you?’
‘You don’t know what I did.’ Kate bit her bottom lip, fighting the nerves that trembled there.
‘Try me.’
She exhaled slowly, trying to think of the right phrase, of a way to deliver the information in the least shocking manner.
‘I’ve been in prison for the last five years, serving a sentence for manslaughter. I killed someone. Well, not just someone… I killed my husband.’
Kate waited for a reaction or comment. There was none and so she continued.
‘I need to start over and find a new life, but I don’t really know how to do that. I don’t know how to begin. My children, Dominic and Lydia, are angry with me and of course I understand that, but I miss them so badly that some days I can hardly breathe. My husband was a cruel man, the cruellest.’
Kate ran her palm across the underside of her thigh, in an almost subconscious gesture.
‘I spent years trembling at the prospect of being alone with him, two decades when I was too afraid to speak up, to ask for help or tell anyone how I lived. Every thought and action had to be contained. I was shrinking inside myself and I knew that one day I would disappear completely. I don’t regret what I did, Simon, but I do regret the hurt I have caused others. And then I feel tremendous guilt because I am finally free, but in gaining that freedom I have spoiled things for my kids.’
Simon paused before slowly delivering his words. ‘Luke says, “Do not judge, and you will not be judged. Do not condemn, and you will not be condemned. Forgive, and you will be forgiven.” This is how I live my life and those like me that follow Jesus shall know forgiveness when they need it the most. It can bring great peace, Kate.’
‘Ah, but that’s just it. I don’t follow Him and I don’t believe. I could really have done with a spot of divine intervention over the last few years: where was your God then? I used to pray, asking for help from anyone who was listening; I got nothing. So I stopped asking – at least that was one less disappointment to contend with.’
The two sat in silence for a few minutes. Then Simon stood.
‘Come on!’
He took her hand and pulled her towards the shoreline. Without waiting to test the temperature and without the caution of those less comfortable in the ocean, he ploughed on until he and Kate were wading waist-deep in the water. Eventually he stopped and grasped her hand. Her linen