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did just that, and for that fleeting instant there were three of us again upon the wide and sunlit hill, before the ashes gathered on an upward swirl of breeze that blew them westward, out across the blue and endless sparkle of the sea.

Chapter 5
    ‘ Do you know,’ I said to Mark, ‘I think I’m getting drunk.’
    We were still sitting on the cool ground at the summit of the hill with all the old stones of the Beacon tumbled round us, giving us some shelter from the strengthened wind that blew across the waving grass and wildflowers.
    I looked down at my paper cup. ‘What do you call this stuff again?’
    ‘Scrumpy.’
    ‘Scrumpy.’ I’d have to remember that name and avoid it in future, I thought. It came on at first like common apple cider, and then suddenly you realized you were, ‘Definitely getting drunk,’ I said. ‘You have the rest.’
    Without a word he poured the bottle’s dregs into his own cup and sat back and leaned his elbows on the table rock, and looked as I was looking down the hillside to the sea. Like me, he seemed to be in no great hurry to go anywhere.
    As if he’d read my thoughts, he asked, ‘How long till you have to go back?’
    ‘I don’t, actually.’ Far over the water the tiny white speck of a gull wheeled and languidly dipped and I followed its flight with my faintly blurred gaze. ‘I don’t have a job or apartment, I gave them both up. It’s not home for me there anymore, not since…’ Letting the words trail off, I gave a shrug. ‘When Bill gave me those ashes, I had to think hard, really think, about where I should scatter them. Where she belonged. And it got me to thinking where I belonged, now that she’s gone. I have friends in L.A., but not real friends, you know? Not the kind you can really depend on. And where I was living… well, it was all right, but it just wasn’t… just wasn’t…’
    ‘Home?’
    ‘No.’ It was comforting to know he understood. ‘I thought I might look round here for a property to rent. A little cottage, maybe.’
    ‘Everything around here will be full up for the summer,’ was his guess. Then when he saw my disappointment he went on, ‘But come the autumn you could have your pick of properties, and meantime you can stay right where you are, with us.’
    ‘Oh, Mark, I couldn’t. That would be imposing.’
    ‘Why? We have the room,’ he pointed out. ‘You always used to come and stay the summer.’
    His tone had taken on a stubborn edge that I recalled enough to know I wouldn’t win the argument, and so I simply told him, ‘Well, you’d have to let me pay you then.’
    ‘The hell I would.’
    ‘I have the money, Mark. I have more money than I need. I can’t just sit here like a sponge and let you feed me and take care of me when…’ Just in time I caught myself, remembering I wasn’t meant to know about Trelowarth being in financial difficulty.
    Mark glanced sideways. ‘When what?’
    ‘Nothing.’
    Silence dropped between us like a stone. I felt his gaze grow keener. ‘What has Susan told you?’
    ‘Nothing.’
    I had never been much good at lying and I knew it, but he didn’t press the point, and after studying my face a moment longer he looked back towards the sea again and told me, ‘Friends don’t pay.’
    There was no way of getting round that, so I took a different tack. ‘Then let me pay in kind.’ I paused a moment, trying through the growing haze of drink to organize my argument, both because I had only just thought of it and because all of a sudden it struck me as something that truly appealed to me, something I’d even enjoy. ‘I could help Susan with her tearoom project, help her get it off the ground.’
    ‘Oh, right. That’s all I need.’
    ‘You’ve seen her plans?’
    ‘You think I’ve had a choice?’
    I said, ‘I like them.’
    ‘Do you?’ It was more a comment, really, than a question, but I answered.
    ‘Yes. She seems to have it all in hand, she’s thought it through.’
    ‘I