They stopped at The Cosy Kettle and grabbed a couple of coffees.
‘It’s a perfect morning for exploring,’ said Becca. ‘The causeway will be back open soon, as long as the rain doesn’t come down again.’
They carried on, following a sandy footpath, and at the top of the dunes the path flattened out into the start of the cliff walk. From here, everything looked impossibly picturesque. Cliff Top Cottage sat back a little from the path: a beautiful, clearly much-loved cottage with an abundance of hanging baskets and lavender clumps growing through the picket fence. The vet’s surgery was tucked beside it, with a little blue sign swinging in the breeze. Further along, there was a small hilltop garage with a guy working under the bonnet of a car inside the workshop.
Pippa stopped to take it all in. ‘Look at that view. It’s… beautiful. This is genuinely stunning.’ She pointed to a bench at the top of the cliff overlooking the boats bobbing in the harbour. As they came nearer to the edge, she gave a tiny gasp. ‘Theo, look! I’ve never seen a puffin before!’
He moved beside her. ‘Aww! Your first puffins!’
Below them, spread out over the rock shelves and grassy ledges, were thousands of puffins. Bright-beaked, round-bellied, waddling little clowns with the unshakeable confidence of birds who owned the island. Some clustered in little huddles, a few darted around, and others waddled slowly along. Pippa pointed and laughed at a puffin that popped his head from a burrow, extended his neck, then disappeared back underground. Two got into what looked like a very dramatic argument, complete with wing-flapping and indignant squawks, before one gave up and stomped away. ‘They are utterly fascinating!’
‘They are,’ Theo agreed, smiling at her instead of the birds.
Pippa grinned at one particularly plump puffin that was trying and failing to hop onto a rock. Every time it got halfway up, it slipped back down. ‘That one’s having a rough morning.’
They sat on the bench and simply watched. The sun warmed their backs. The sea breeze brought salt to the air, and the puffins mooed, bumbled, and flapped around them like tiny, confused comedians.
Pippa tilted her face to the sun and closed her eyes. ‘I feel so relaxed… like I’m on holiday.’
‘You are, in a roundabout sort of way,’ Theo said. ‘Just imagine if that holiday became your life. I’m beginning to feela little jealous that you might actually stay here.’
‘I lay awake last night in bed, thinking about the pros and cons.’
‘You should have woken me. And?’ he asked, nudging her knee gently with his.
She opened her eyes. ‘The thing is… even with the weather being a complete nightmare since I arrived, I’ve felt safe here and… settled, strangely. Maybe it’s because it’s quiet, or the fact that I’m not being talked about…’
‘That’s because after that interview with Horace it’s me that’s being talked about,’ he joked.
‘You even made the news! But I guarantee back home they’ll have their own news channel talking about me running from my wedding. People won’t be kind, whereas every person I’ve met from the island has been kind without wantinganything from me.’ She shrugged. ‘There’s something quite lovely about that.’ Her thoughts turned to Clemmie rescuing her in the rain and making sure she had food and boots.
Theo smiled. ‘So, the pros?’
‘Pros…’ She counted them off on her fingers. ‘A new life. A proper fresh start. New friends, even though no one will ever replace Rose.’ Her voice softened. ‘And there’s the workshop. I can’t stop thinking about The Clock House. It feels almost like fate. A special island known for its clock history, and then a converted barn suddenly becomes available the same week I show up out of nowhere? It feels like the universe is giving me a nudge.’
‘It does seem very… convenient,’ Theo said softly, ‘but some things are just meant to be.’
‘That’s the thing,’ Pippa went on. ‘Even though the rain hasn’t let up since the minute I got here, until now, I still like it. I’ve barely explored the island properly, and yet something about it feels right. That has to mean something. I feel like I’ve sacrificed everything I’ve wanted for other people.’
‘Like not getting married under a clock tower?’ He smiled.
‘Exactly that.’
‘What’s not to like about this place?’ Theo gestured towards the glittering view. ‘And if you did move here and changed your mind, what’s the worst that happens? You simply go back to the place you’ve come from.’
She gave a small, humourless laugh. ‘No, I’ve definitely outgrown that place. And there’s my work. I need to find my own workshop anyway, so why not this one? Rob never wanted me to get my own workshop– that, apparently, was a waste of money. All those lectures about how every penny needed to go towards the wedding… which, as it turns out, was the biggest waste of all.’
Theo’s brow creased. ‘Why would he stop you doing something that mattered to you?’
‘Because he didn’t get it,’ Pippa said simply. ‘He didn’t see the point. He always thought it was a hobby, and he often asked why I restore old clocks if I was never going to become a millionaire doing it. He never understood it isn’t about money; it’s about doing what I love, and this is what I love.’
‘Exactly that.’
‘I always imagined myself working in a proper workshop. A real space. An old bench, and tools hanging on the wall. Big windows so people could see the projects I was working on. My name above the door.’ She paused. ‘I still want that. That’s my dream.’
Theo nodded. ‘Then you should go for it. There’s nothing and no one stopping you now. Are you able to afford The Clock House?’
She nodded. ‘I have my mum’s life insurance money, and I can get a mortgage.’
