Seaside Manor Bed and Breakfast - Lilly Mirren Page 0,71

him out in the yard… the relief is that they were able to call the ambulance as soon as he fell. So, he wasn’t there long. The neighbour then sat with him until the ambulance arrived, from what I understand. So, he wasn’t alone. Perhaps you could speak with her when you get home to find out more.”

Diana nodded. She didn’t know her neighbours well yet, but she’d certainly get to know the woman who tried to save her husband’s life. A fresh wave of tears came then, and she couldn’t speak any longer. The doctor patted her shoulder, then left her in the room alone with the door shut.

It wasn’t fair, wasn’t right — Rupert was good, he’d never done anything underhanded, or secretive. He didn’t have a bone of betrayal in his entire body — she’d been the one to do those things. It didn’t make sense that he should die before her. She’d always hoped she would go first, but not yet. They hadn’t had a chance to go on that cruise they’d been talking about for twenty years. Hadn’t visited London or seen the Eiffel Tower. They shouldn’t have put off their dreams for a business… she could see that now. Now that she’d stepped away and the Manor didn’t occupy her every waking moment — she understood that it’d consumed them for far too long.

Sobs wracked her body, and she slumped sideways onto the row of chairs, ignoring the pain of the plastic as it dug into her side. Rupert was gone. With a start, she sat up, wiped her cheeks dry and stared at the door.

He was gone, but his body lay beyond that door. She had to say goodbye, to give him one last kiss before he was gone. She leapt to her feet and pushed through the door.

Chapter 27

Ethan

The Murwillumbah council was a place Ethan had never considered working before in his life. Too country, too rural… he’d always had his sights set in bigger and better, and those kinds of jobs were in the city.

But now, everything had changed. The town itself was quaint, and the council building old but in decent shape. Dark brick, with a rabbit warren of offices hidden inside along narrow hallways. As many phone calls as he made, as often as he explained to prospective employers that he hadn’t done anything wrong at Mammoth, hadn’t known what was going on and that in fact the charges against him were dropped, or never laid in the first place, they didn’t hear him. Didn’t care. There was a mark against his name he wasn’t able to remove with a few weeks living in Emerald Cove.

Here it was different. In Murwillumbah, only a twenty-minute drive from Emerald Cove, he was Ethan Flannigan. Nothing more, nothing less. People he knew, knew someone who worked for the head engineer at the council. They recommended him for a job opening, and that was all it took. Here he was, seated in one of a row of chairs, waiting for his chance to interview for a job as an engineer.

Nerves fluttered in the pit of his stomach. Strangely enough, he wanted the job. One look out of the window at the small, picturesque riverside town, was all it took. He’d visited the town often enough throughout his childhood, had ridden there by bus regularly for inter-school sporting competitions, high school dances, camps… and even though at the time he’d wondered who in their right mind would live by a river instead of the beach, now he understood. There was a natural charm to the place.

Set by a slow-moving, wide river, the centre of town was a study in century old architecture. Every shop front was a relic of the past, painted anew and holding modern wares, but a walk-through town was like a stroll through the past. And now, in his late twenties, he liked it. Enjoyed the feeling of history, the old-fashioned town clock sitting in the centre of the main street on an island of its own, the banks that looked as though bush rangers might emerge from their front doors at any moment, bandanas obscuring their faces, pistols held high.

He wanted to work there. And wanting made him nervous.

“Mr Flannigan, you can come in.”

A woman ushered him into a dark office, then shut the door behind him. A man, seated at a dark timber desk, stood to offer him a hand. “Hi Mr Flannigan, I’m Paul Riordan, the head engineer