She would have liked to go to art school, but this had never seemed an option. There was no spare money to help support her at the time and, anyway, Cass kept her interest in drawing and painting fairly secret, knowing that even her mother felt there was no future in it.
Howard made tea and they took it into the sunroom, which looked out on to the Atlantic. Although the sunshone and the weather was calm, there was still a white lace frill of foam around the rocks which could be seen if you stood up and looked straight down. Ahead was the vastness of the Atlantic going on forever until it reached America, Cass knew. Seabirds swooped and dipped, and the sun sparkled on the wavelets like diamonds. This view would never be the same twice, Cass realised.
‘This is the room I rented the house for,’ said Howard. ‘I plan to learn what all the seabirds are. You can see my telescope is in daily use.
‘I can understand why you fell in love with it. This view is amazing.’ She stood watching the waves for a while, hypnotised by them. Eventually she said, ‘But how did you hear about this place, this island, even? It’s such a remote spot.’
‘It was Ranulph. He and I met a few years ago. He heard through a mutual acquaintance that I wanted to finish a book and needed somewhere out of the way to do it. He got in touch and told me about it, sending some photos. I got in touch with Eleanor in my turn, and came along to see it. It was a filthy day, but it was still beautiful. I said yes immediately.’
‘Ranulph lives here?’
‘Most of the time. He’s a hotshot journalist who happens to want to write a book about me. I think that was partly why he was so keen for me to move here.’ Howard tried to look modest at the thought that anyone would want to write about him and failed. ‘He was a bit of a wunderkind, won all sorts of prizes. But in spite of all that, he’s a good chap.’ He paused topass the biscuit tin to Cass. ‘I wanted to ask him to dinner tonight but Eleanor vetoed it. She said we had to spend some time together. Although she has agreed to stay herself.’
‘I appreciate that. We should probably talk, Dad. What is it you want me to do for you, for example?’
Howard brushed away her question. ‘I’ll tell you later, darling. Is there anything you particularly want to say to me?’
Somehow Cass found she couldn’t. It shouldn’t be a big thing. It wasn’t a big thing! All she wanted to tell him was that she wasn’t interested in photography, not as an artistic pursuit, and didn’t want to teach. She was far keener on drawing and painting, what her elder siblings referred to as ‘colouring in’. Why did that seem so hard? She supposed it was that she felt rejecting photography in favour of drawing and painting was denying everything Howard stood for. She’d talk about it tomorrow; like her father, she wanted to put off the difficult conversation. ‘Not now, Dad. I just want to enjoy having got here, and seeing you.’
After a long and delicious dinner, presided over by Eleanor, Cass had gone to bed, tired after her journey. As she lay in bed, appreciating the luxurious bedding, she was proud of herself for not asking questions about Ranulph. But the thought that she would see him tomorrow made her heart give a little flip of joy. She went to sleep thinking about him. It was such a shame that a high-flying journalist would never be interested in a girl like her.
She wasn’t bad-looking, she reasoned. The hair her brothers had described as carroty was actually strawberry blonde and the rose-gold colour was unusual considering her eyes were dark. She was average height, average build and lots of people considered her pretty. But average wouldn’t be enough for a man like Ranulph, she decided.
CHAPTER TWO
It was very early the following morning when Cass got up. Primed by Eleanor the previous evening, she found the stone steps down to a hidden cove. The sky promised another hot day, and the water was pale aquamarine, crystal clear. She pulled off her shorts and T-shirt and ran into the sparkling sea, naked, relishing the feel of the icy water on her body, confident that no one could see her.
Eleanor had told her how to find this tiny place, sheltered from the ocean by rocks that formed a natural harbour, making the water calm. There was a fingernail of pure white sand at the bottom of the steps. It was the perfect beach in miniature. According to Eleanor it was always sheltered, but in this spell of good weather, it was also warm. The water was still cold but not impossibly so. Cass felt she could have been anywhere in the world and not found a spot as lovely as this.
She was swimming on her back, luxuriating in the feeling of the water passing over her body when she heard a vehicle going up the track to the house.
The sound jolted her out of her dreamy state. She felt annoyed and excited at the same time. She recognisedthe engine of Ranulph’s Land Rover, but why was he calling on her father so early? It wasn’t even eight o’clock in the morning. She swam quickly to shore and found her clothes.
Cass rubbed her towel sketchily over her body and pulled on her shorts, wondering if Ranulph had seen her swimming naked. But it wasn’t so much that which bothered her; it was the timing of the visit. Howard wasn’t a morning person. It was possible Ranulph didn’t know that. She’d have to try and stall him.
She had nearly made it up the many shallow steps to the house, plaiting her hair as she walked, when she became aware that there were voices coming from the sunroom that looked over the sea. Just then, one of them laughed. It was Ranulph. There was obviously no emergency or there wouldn’t be laughter, but why such an early visit?
Cass took the time to go into her room to find some more clothes and finish plaiting her hair. She didn’t go as far as putting on full make-up – that would look strange so early in the morning when she didn’t often wear it – but she did put a tiny bit of mascara at the end of her lashes and made sure her eyebrows all lay in the same direction.
Then she made herself a cappuccino and went to the sunroom to see why Ranulph had called at this time. She also wanted a chance to meet him properly.
He was standing with his back to the huge window and Cass realised that he was a man who had all the Scottish ruggedness that the house and weather currently lacked. Now she could get a proper look at him,she realised his hair was more grey than white; in the sunshine when she’d first seen him it had looked very light. His dark eyebrows and lashes drew attention to eyes the same bluey-green as the sea would have been on a less sunny day. He was a big man, and could, Cass decided, have stepped right out of the pages of a catalogue selling tough, vastly expensive outdoor clothing. He was, in an expression she’d read somewhere, ‘a man to ride the water with’.
‘Hi, Cass,’ he said, his voice deep and slow. ‘I don’t suppose you expected to see me again so soon, and so early.’
‘No,’ she said, waiting for an explanation. ‘Did you come for breakfast?’
‘Not deliberately. Some of Howard’s post came to my house while I was away and I brought it over in case he was held up without it. It has a publisher’s label on it.’
‘I think our usual postie is on holiday as post rarely goes astray,’ said Howard. ‘But I’m glad to get it, so thank you, Ran. And while you’re here, what about breakfast?’
Ranulph looked at Cass. ‘Would that be a lot of trouble?’
‘Not at all,’ she said.
One of her many jobs, one she’d done for several summers, was working at a small family-run hotel. When she wasn’t being a chambermaid, she helped with breakfasts. On a couple of occasions, she’d had to do the entire breakfast shift on her own. Scrambled eggs were her speciality.
Cass set the big oval table in the dining room before calling in Howard and Ranulph. This room also had a view, almost as good as that from the sunroom.
