‘Can you actually get down there?’ He gazed dubiously at the drop.
‘You most definitely can. It’s steep and narrow in places, but loads of people do it, even kids.’
‘Are you insinuating that I’m a scaredy cat?’
Giselle smirked. ‘I wouldn’t dream of it.’
‘Then lead on, Ellis,’ he commanded with a mock frown.
The path was gravelly and well defined at first, but quickly became less easy to navigate, with a steep drop on one side. But the views were worth what was promising to be a very challenging hike back up.
The gorge was a gash in the earth, the river cascading through it, and with the mountains as its backdrop, it was breathtaking. Dropping lower, the views changed as she and Rocco traversed the rough zig-zag path, and they paused for a moment to gaze out to sea.
‘How does it compare?’ Giselle asked. ‘I bet you’ve been to some impressive places.’ She recalled that he’d been travelling around Europe with a friend when she’d met him, and assumed he’d seen grander sights than this.
‘It doesn’t.’ His reply was thoughtful, considered. ‘I’ve been to some great places – the Alps, the Pyrenees, Iceland—’
‘Iceland? I’d love to go there!’ she interrupted. ‘What was it like?’
‘Otherworldly, magnificent, humbling, but…’
‘But, what?’
‘There’s something about Skye, isn’t there?’ His eyes shone as he turned to look at her.
He got it, hereallygot it. Therewassomething special about Skye. It was difficult to put into words, but the island tugged at your heartstrings, and Rocco felt it too.
She cleared her throat, a throat that had suddenly developed a lump in it.
The rest of the descent continued in silence until they reached the rocky beach bisected by the river. Crumbling stone buildings sat on either side, the water relatively shallow because the tide was out. Above the high-tide mark was a stone structure with tumbledown walls and no roof, but a tall, metal-clad, orange-rusted chimney still stood proud.
‘What did this use to be?’ Rocco asked.
‘I’m not a hundred per cent sure, but I believe it was something to do with the mining of diatomite, back in the nineteenth century. Diatomite is used in cat litter and toothpaste, of all things. The rock was prepared here, then shipped out on boats. Don’t ask me how the chimney comes into it, though. If you go around the other side, you can actually go inside and see right to the top.’
Eagerly, Rocco did as she suggested and she followed, standing close beside him to stare up through the brick heart of the chimney at a circle of bright blue sky.
‘From the road, you’d never know any of this was here,’ he said, running a hand over the coarse worn bricks. ‘Is it possible to get to the buildings on the other side of the river?’
‘The tide is low, so we can paddle across.’ She eyed his hiking boots. ‘You might have to take those off, though.’
‘I’m game, if you are.’ He paused. ‘Would you like to explore the beach? See if you can find any sea glass?’
She shook her head. ‘This is your day, not mine. I can look for sea glass any time.’
‘Here?’
‘Well, no, nothere, exactly.’ She could get here on the bus, but it was a bit of a faff.
‘Are you in a rush to move on?’
She wasn’t, and Rocco seemed happy enough to dabble around on the rocky, pebbly beach. It was probably too pebbly for any decent finds, but she wasn’t about to pass up the opportunity to have a quick look.
After half an hour of poking around, she’d managed to find a couple of fragments, which she carefully stowed in her bag.
‘Do you still want to go to the other side?’ she asked, and when he confirmed that he did, they headed upstream to find a suitable place to cross.
The water was clear, fast flowing and icy cold, as Giselle discovered when she delicately dipped a bare toe in it.
