A Perfect Cornish Escape by Phillipa Ashley Page 0,60
a couple strolling past. It was so British, keeping up the niceties while her heart was in turmoil.
‘Shall we find somewhere quieter?’ he asked. ‘There’s a bench near here that’s tucked away in the gorse. I saw it when I was running and sometimes I go there if I need some peace. If you want to tell me more about what happened that day,’ he added.
She nodded and followed him up a ribbon of a track away from the main coast path. They sat on the granite bench with its pale green coat of lichen. It was slightly elevated and afforded a beautiful view over the sea while shielding them from the coast path below. Marina inhaled the scent of the gorse and pushed her hair from her eyes. Lachlan sat next to her, evidently waiting for her to take the lead.
‘I wish I could tell you what happened,’ she began. ‘I only know fragments of what took place in the time leading up to his disappearance. He hadn’t had the fishing kayak long. It was his new thing; he was hoping to make a bit of extra cash.’ She allowed herself a brief, bitter smile. ‘He was always looking to make a bit of cash. We’d been married almost two years and, actually, I hadn’t known him long before we were married. He’d moved to Porthmellow from Newlyn.’
‘He was from a fishing background, then?’ Lachlan put in.
‘His father worked on the trawlers apparently, but Nate had never seen much of him. He kind of abandoned Nate after his mum passed away and Nate was left to his own devices in his teens. He didn’t go to sea that often. It’s a hard life after all, and many don’t take to it, but the fishing kayak … well he seemed to enjoy that and went out on it a couple of times a week.’
‘So the man knew what he was doing?’
‘He thought he did. That was him all over. You might say he was always a glass half full man, even when the glass was obviously almost empty. He was funny, the life and soul. I thought he had a real zest for life when I first met him at a mutual friend’s wedding in Porthmellow. He was popular even though he was relatively new here. He was always first to buy a round in the pub, he told a great story, and he’d help people out if he could, but he owed money too. He had debts I didn’t know about until after he disappeared.’
Lachlan simply listened, nodding from time to time.
‘I shouldn’t go on about him …’
‘I asked. And you obviously still need to get this off your chest,’ he said.
‘I thought I’d done that long ago. But yes, I understand only too well what it’s like to want to walk away from a situation that triggers bad memories,’ she said.
A lightbulb flicked on in her mind … maybe, she thought, that’s what Nate had sought to do: flee from a situation that he found intolerable. She’d always refused to entertain any suggestion by her close family that Nate may have wanted to harm himself, always believed it was a tragic accident, but if his debts and responsibility were getting on top of him, perhaps that’s why he went off on his own so often. If that was the case, she wished he’d been able to talk to her. It was too late now.
‘I guess I’ll never know what really happened, which is why I find stuff like what happened today so difficult. But I’ve tried to stop asking “what if”. It’s only this milestone and the finality of the legal declaration that’s making me focus on it again.’
She paused to collect herself, eyes resting on the panorama of the coast stretched out before her. The pink thrift rippled as one in the breeze and the gorse thrummed with bees.
‘You’re bound to miss him, despite everything. It’s obvious you loved him.’ Lachlan spoke softly. He waved away a bee and smiled at her. There was warmth in his smile, but sadness too. Was it sadness for her or himself?
Marina pressed her palms against the cool granite. ‘Life wasn’t boring with him, that’s for sure. It was a rollercoaster ride. You never knew what he’d do next. He had big ambitions, but no real plan, and he was always getting bored and moving on to the next exciting scheme.’ She smiled ruefully at the reminder of their topsy-turvy existence.