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from the
rock and lined with slabs of sandstone, like the ones near the Hermitage. This route-way
continued for about fifty yards, hugging the cliff face, till she could see the
wide mouth of a cave, set at right angles to the path itself.
    ‘Come in. It’s light inside,’ Jed told her.
    She walked inside - the roof of the cave was way above her
head, so no need to duck - and looked around. Light flooded in from the open
air behind them, and there was a thin slice of illumination that slanted from
above, ten feet or so within the cave, presumably from a hole or shaft in the
cliff.
    Then she saw the carvings: dots and spirals, lozenges and
chevrons all over three enormous oval sarsens. Both the paving for the path,
and these boulders, must have been brought from the other side of the island -
heaven knew how, as they were pretty hefty. She marvelled at the feat of
engineering that must have been involved, even as she admired the beauty of the
work. An aura of mystery hung over the place, much like the atmosphere at the
stone circle, and yet more concentrated in this enclosed space.
    When Jed spoke, his voice echoing, it made Tamsin jump, so engrossed had she been.
    ‘The cave faces east. Fi insists it was chosen because it
lines up with sunrise at the Winter Solstice. I don’t know how true that is,
but it’s certainly a mystical place.’
    ‘It certainly is.’ She ran her hands over the grooves and
notches on the stone surfaces as she spoke, feeling a definite tingling in her
fingers as she did so. Then there was a jolt of sexual energy that rose from
her groin to her breasts, shocking in its force and suddenness. She turned to
see Jed staring at her, eyes almost predatory in their intensity, before he
seemed to mentally shake himself, turning on his heel and exiting the cave.
What happened there? she thought, following him meekly
into the sunshine and back to the Land Rover for the drive to the Hermitage.

Chapter 6

 
 
    It was dark and very quiet. That evening, Jed had lit a fire after all, as the
temperature had dropped again, and now the last embers gave a glow by which she
could just make out the details of the room. There was no sign of Jed himself.
    After coming back to the Hermitage, they had left the Land
Rover by the side of the building and gone inside to cook a proper meal. After,
Jed had gone out for a while to feed the goats and chickens. Tamsin had offered
to help, but he’d brushed it aside, saying that she’d done enough for one day
after her recent concussion, and tomorrow would be soon enough. He was right:
she’d felt overwhelmed with tiredness and had lain down, falling into a deep
sleep, only surfacing when Jed came back in and built the fire. They’d chatted
for a while as the day drew to a close, exchanging information about
themselves, Tamsin telling him about home in Tunbridge Wells and her job
teaching drama in London, where she now lived with Damien, and Jed, in his
turn, telling her he lived near St Austell when he wasn’t on the island.
    After that, they’d made tea and toast and had sat by the
fire while it grew darker outside, he going through the day’s work on the
laptop and she trying to get into a detective novel on the borrowed Kindle. After
ten minutes, she gave up and took herself off to bed, waiting till he went to
the kitchen before wriggling hastily out of her jeans and diving under the blanket, wearing the same striped top she’d arrived in. She
hadn’t felt him get into bed, in fact wasn’t even sure if he had, so deeply
asleep had she been. Till this moment, when something must
have disturbed her.
    She waited for half an hour or so, having checked both
kitchen and bathroom, but he didn’t come back, and she began to worry in case
he’d slipped on the rocks and had some sort of accident. At last, she pulled on
jeans, sweater and boots and ventured outside.
    It had warmed up since sunset and was almost balmy.
Overhead a slim crescent moon seemed to be heading