had no idea whether the ‘us’ referred to him and Martha, or him and Holly, perhaps it was all three. What she did know was that it had cut deeply into the sadness she was feeling, and ludicrously, she’d felt she really didn’t want to take care of herself at all.
Childish and attention-seeking, she’d scolded herself, and knowing she could do better she’d composed a message back to them both saying, Leave Me Alone.
And she’d sent it!
It had felt good at the time, but it didn’t feel all that great now.
What felt better was the message she’d received from Holly shortly after midnight saying, Good luck tomorrow.
She’d stared at the words for a long time, pretending to herself that Callum hadn’t talked their daughter into sending them.
She wondered if it might be easier if he was being mean to her, or carrying on as if she’d stopped existing.
‘Distraction,’ she announced, as they began the descent from the moor. ‘That’s another very good reason for taking this job. I can throw myself into work for the next few weeks and by the time I look up again who knows where we might be?’
A few minutes later as both Lynton and Lynmouth came into view, seeming almost too much too soon, Joely said, ‘OK, you need to slow down, because this is seriously lovely.’
With a smile Andee did as she was told, giving them as long as she could for their northerly approach from the moor to take in the small sprawl of a town at the top of the cliff, and the seaside village at the bottom. For the moment Joely was fixed on Lynmouth where the tide was lapping over two rocky beaches that fanned out like skate wings from the river at their centre making its way through to the sea. There was a small scoop of a harbour, with grey stone sea walls surrounding it, a Rhenish tower and a handful of single mast boats moored in the mud. A long, thatched terrace of white cottages, a pub, a café and shops slanted up an incline alongside the harbour, and the rest of the shore village curved around the seafront like a protective arm.
After crossing the West Lyn river, Andee steered the car to the left to begin a steep and winding drive up over the cliff, home to hotels, B&Bs and guest houses, to the high perched town of Lynton. Joely felt herself smiling as they meandered along the main street taking in the olde worlde charm and narrow streets that tumbled away to one side as if pulled in by the moor, while on the other more hotels and guest houses towered over the village and sea below.
‘We’re going to need further directions soon,’ Andee said as they drove out the other side of town where green fields jostled for space in the rough and undulating moorland.
Calling up Sully’s email on her phone, Joely looked around again as the satnav instructed them to keep going straight and her eyes grew round as they entered what could only be the Valley of Rocks. ‘Wow,’ she murmured as they moved slowly through a lunar-like landscape where vast tors of jagged stone patched with grass and lichen soared skywards on one side, and dry, bristled slopes of flinty terrain rose majestically on the other.
‘The largest rock there,’ Andee said, pointing to the right, ‘is known as Castle Rock, and the one over there, to the left, is Devil’s Cheese Rock. Legend has it, if you walk around it a certain number of times, probably under a full moon, Satan will appear.’
Deciding she probably wouldn’t be giving that a whirl any time soon, Joely returned to Sully’s directions. ‘OK, we need to follow the road all the way through the Valley of Rocks to … Oh my God, are they goats? Yes, they’re goats. They’re so sweet.’
‘They live here,’ Andee told her, steering around a handful of the small, feral beasts that had broken off from the main gang.
After taking in more of the scenery, Joely continued with the directions. ‘OK, there’s a small track at the end of the valley that eventually leads to a spiritual retreat. We’re to take that, but about twenty metres in we’ll see another track to the left that we should follow all the way along the ridge to the next vale.’
Soon after passing the spiritual retreat in its haven of natural beauty they began a gentle descent from the next hilltop into an