Bracing myself for disappointment, and hoping that I’m not going to piss off a very tired man, I walk up to the cabin door and knock.
Silence greets me.
I knock again and back away, looking up at the first-floor windows for any signs of life.
Nada.
Swearing under my breath, I pull out my phone, checking to see if he’s responded to my text messages, but I’m not evensure he’s read them. Should I call him? No, I can’t even do that, I realise: there’s no mobile reception.
So maybe he hasn’t received my messages. Then I see his motorbike. He must be around somewhere …
Skirting the outside of the cottage, I notice something beyond the tree trunks up ahead: long green grass. I realise that the trees stop at the edge of a grassy hilltop.
‘Who’s there?’ I hear someone shout from off in the distance.
‘Ash? It’s me!’ I shout back.
‘Ellie?’
I catch him in the beam of my torch. He’s right at the top of the hill, sitting up, using his hand to shield his eyes from the light.
‘Sorry,’ I say, quickly switching it off as I venture out from under the trees, hoping the stars will light my way again.
‘What are you doing here?’ he asks as I approach. His voice sounds raw.
‘I texted you.’
‘Did you?’
‘Beca told me you were here.’
‘Beca?’ He’s taken aback.
‘She came to see me.’
He’s just a silhouette in front of me now, but he’s risen to his feet. I can barely distinguish his features in the darkness, but I can see how tall he is, make out the breadth of his shoulders, the shape of his hair.
‘What did she say?’ he asks edgily.
‘That she was going back to London.’
‘Yeah. She left me.’ He sounds as though he has the weight of the world on his shoulders.
‘I’m sorry.’
My eyes have grown used to the darkness enough to see that trees encircle this entire hill. My toes touch the edge of something and I realise that I’ve stepped onto a rug.
‘Can I sit?’ I ask him tentatively.
‘Sure,’ he replies heavily, settling down beside me.
‘Is this the clearing where you and Taran used to camp out?’
‘You remember?’
‘I remember everything.’
There’s a beat, and then he folds over and begins to sob, and it’s utterly heart-wrenching.
