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wind, her head lowered, her eyes streaming. But then Juliet’s eyes were also streaming; they were walking straight into the wind.
    â€œSo how long have you been living here?” Lucy asked.
    Juliet narrowed her eyes against the onslaught of the wind. No matter what she’d said to Lucy, it really was freezing out, even for Cumbria. “Ten years.”
    â€œWhat made you choose this place? I would have expected you to live in London or something, doing something important. Stockbroker or solicitor or something.”
    Juliet let out a bark of a laugh at that. “Solicitor? I didn’t even finish university.”
    â€œDidn’t you?” Lucy’s gaze widened and Juliet gritted her teeth. She didn’t know what annoyed her more: that she’d told Lucy or that Lucy hadn’t known. “Why not?”
    â€œI dropped out. Wasn’t for me.” Juliet dug her hands into her pockets and started to walk faster. “I did a catering course instead.”
    â€œI never knew that,” Lucy said, and Juliet shrugged.
    â€œWhy would you? We haven’t exactly kept in touch.”
    â€œI know, but . . .” Lucy trailed off and Juliet didn’t fill the silence. What was there, really, to say? Their mother and Lucy had chosen to make their lives in Boston, separate from Juliet. They’d been perfectly happy in their little bubble of fame and fortune, a far cry from the council flat Juliet had grown up in, when Fiona had been struggling through night classes and jobs working in pubs. Lucy had no idea of what life had been like before Fiona Bagshaw had become
the
Fiona Bagshaw.
    â€œSo a catering course,” Lucy said after a moment. “Have you always worked in the hospitality industry?”
    â€œI got a job at a big hotel in Manchester right after graduation. I worked there for a few years.” Until her life had fallen apart, though not in the spectacular way Lucy’s had; more of a desperate, quiet crumbling.
    â€œSo how did you end up in Hartley-by-the-Sea?”
    Juliet dug her hands deeper into the pockets of her waterproof. “I was on a walking holiday up here and I stopped and decided to stay for good.”
    â€œReally? You just . . . stayed?”
    Juliet shot her a narrow look. “Why all the questions now, Lucy?”
    â€œBecause I’m living with you, and I realize I don’t even know you, not really. We’re sisters—”
    â€œHalf sisters.” It popped out before Juliet could keep herself from it, and Lucy blinked, clearly stung.
    â€œHalf sisters,” she agreed, “but we’re the only siblings we’ve got—”
    â€œTrue enough, I suppose.”
    Lucy continued stiltedly. “I don’t think I’ve thanked you properly for putting me up. Inviting me here, I mean. I really do appreciate it. I had nowhere to go—”
    â€œYou could have stayed in Boston.”
    Lucy shook her head. “No. I’d rather have gone anywhere than stay there.”
    Juliet raised her eyebrows. “Even a poky village with the worst weather in all of England? Although to be fair, it
has
been a miserable August. It’s not normally quite this cold.”
    Lucy raised her eyebrows right back at her. “And you told me it wasn’t that bad.”
    â€œWell.” Juliet could feel a sudden smile tugging at her mouth, surprising her. Were they actually joking with each other?
    â€œIt’s beautiful here,” Lucy said, and fluttered her fingers. It took Juliet a second to realize she was trying to touch her hand. “
Look
at that,” she exclaimed, and flung the other hand out to encompass the view.
    They’d turned off the high street at the train station, and had been walking along a lane aptly named Beach Road, with sheep pastures on either side, the steep, gray-green fells cutting a jagged line out of the horizon. As they rounded a gentle hill, they