A Perfect Cornish Escape by Phillipa Ashley Page 0,76

Devil’s advocate, which must mean he’d been holding back because he thought Marina was still in love with Nate. ‘Marina’s strong and even stronger after what she’s been through,’ she said, before adding, ‘She deserves a new shot at life, at every aspect of it.’

Lachlan’s lips twisted as if he was framing a reply.

‘Aye …’ he murmured. The clock tower struck three. ‘I’d best be on my way to the office again. I told Aaron I’d only popped out for a breath of air.’

‘Me too,’ said Tiff. ‘Thanks for the ice-cream and the seagull security advice.’

‘Thanks for your advice too,’ Lachlan said.

‘I hadn’t realised I’d dished any out,’ she said lightly.

He gave a wry smile. ‘Either way, you’ve helped me.’

‘I hope so. I only want Marina to be happy and step into the light again. She’s lived in Nate’s shadow, in so many ways, for far too long.’

Lachlan answered with a brief incline of the head before stepping from under the porch into the sunshine.

As she headed back to the office by way of the cottage to change her dress, Tiff hoped she hadn’t gone too far with her comments, although she doubted Marina would ever hear about their conversation because Lachlan struck her as nothing if not discreet. She was self-aware enough to realise that she might also take some of her own advice. She’d implied to Lachlan that he should waste no time in letting Marina know how he really felt.

Did the same apply to her? Should she admit that she was falling for Dirk far more than she’d ever expected?

She pulled out her phone to text him, and realised he’d beaten her to it.

Can you call me asap?

She could do better than that, she thought, making a detour to the lifeboat station. He was sitting at the desk in the crew room, a tabloid newspaper spread in front of him.

‘You’ve seen this, of course,’ he said, the moment she got through the door.

‘Seen what?’ She put her bag on the table and closed the door behind her.

He tapped the paper. ‘This.’ He passed it to her and frowned at her. ‘What happened to your dress?’ he said.

‘Seagull versus ice-cream,’ she muttered, realising she still hadn’t changed, though it was now hardly the main focus of her attention. ‘I haven’t seen this,’ she said, glancing at the newspaper with a prickle of foreboding. ‘Why?’

He folded his arms. ‘Read it.’

Tiff picked up the paper, and read the piece with an increasing sense of horror.

Amira had given a feature to the Herald about her new relationship with another actor from the medical soap she was starring in.

She scanned the copy, rolling her eyes and muttering to herself.

RESCUED BY LOVE

My heart has finally healed, says Amira

A Herald exclusive by Esther Francois

Soap superstar, Amira Choudhury, has finally broken her silence about her ‘agonising journey back to love’ after her split with partner, Dirk Meadows.

After enduring ‘months of misery’, she’s found love again.

And it’s her hunky Medics co-star Marc Rayburn who’s helping to heal the wounds.

Amira says she was left ‘in pieces’ after the end of her marriage to lifeboat mechanic Dirk, adding that while devoted to his job, he suffered from mood swings and ‘jealous sulks’ that strained their relationship to breaking point.

‘Things between Dirk and me had been going downhill for a long time. He said he supported my career but he wasn’t willing to compromise. In the end I made the terrible choice: Dirk or my future. I chose to be free.’

Amira claims that Dirk became ‘consumed’ by his job as a mechanic at a Thames lifeboat station.

‘Obviously I was proud of the good work he did there, but it affected him badly. He made it clear that our lives came second. When I landed the role in Medics and started to be recognised in the street, he’d try to hurry us away and then retreat into his shell.’

Amira struggles to hold back tears when she talks about those painful times.

‘It was clear Dirk didn’t like people wanting to talk to me,’ she said. ‘We were spending more time apart and things came to a head when I offered to support him so he could give up his job. He walked out and that was the night I decided to make a clean break.

‘I was devastated, but I had to do it for both our sakes. I felt like I’d cut off a limb, but it was essential to my recovery. It’s taken months to get over the split from