Page 107 of Somewhere Only We Know

‘Please. Tell me the truth.’

‘She planned to do a bit of digging, yes,’ Harry admitted. ‘She didn’t have anything major to go on, but she had found an old man who you knew when you were in Bali. She was going to start there.’

‘Was his name Utt?’ I suggested.

‘Yes, I think so.’

She had planned to do exactly what I was doing now. My gorgeous girl, two steps ahead of me, as she had been on this entire trip. And now I was to be the one to complete the task on her behalf, in her final destination. I felt her gentle presence beside me then, like a silk scarf around my shoulders. I needed to book a taxi, I had to get moving, I was doing this for both of us.

Intent on flagging down a taxi myself on the street, I got to my feet quickly – and felt my knees begin to buckle. Dancing spots appeared before my eyes and I tried to blink them away.

‘Maggie?’ I heard Harry shouting. ‘What’s going on? Are you still there?’

‘Air,’ I gasped, pressing a hand to my chest. ‘I can’t breathe.’

I staggered forward to escape the hotel lobby and get myself into the open air. A couple more paces, that’s all it would take … My bag slipped off my shoulder and hit the marble floor, followed a second later by my phone.

And then the world went silent.

‘Can someone get this lady some water, please?’ I heard someone shout.

Bodies pressed around me. Someone fanned my face.

‘‘She’s out cold.’

‘Do you have a nurse in the hotel?’

‘Call an ambulance.’

I don’t need an ambulance. I wanted to speak, but my mouth wasn’t working properly and all that escaped was a tiny moan.

‘I’m a first-aider,’ said a man with a voice that sounded familiar. One I hadn’t heard for twenty-four years. But it couldn’t be him, could it? It was my imagination conjuring him up. ‘Please let me through.’

It had to be him. He sounded more gravelly, richer, but I’d recognise that voice anywhere. My eyes flew open and there he was, kneeling beside me.

‘Oh my God, Maggie, it is you!’

The sound of my name on his lips stirred a thousand butterflies in my stomach.

‘Jackson!’ I struggled to sit up, and despite my dizziness my face broke into a smile. His face was as handsome as I’d remembered, his gaze just as striking. ‘I can’t believe it.’

‘Whoa, take it easy, Mags.’ He caught hold of my arms to steady me.

‘How are you here? I mean, why are you in Bali at my hotel?’

He smiled lazily. ‘You mean right now? Looks like I’ve come to your rescue again, like the first time we met, when you decided to go off swimming in strong currents by yourself.’

‘I didn’t need rescuing then,’ I replied, ‘and I don’t now either.’

He threw his head back and laughed properly. ‘Here she is. My feisty girl. You haven’t changed a bit.’

‘Neither have you.’

‘Here, drink.’ He handed me a glass of water and I gulped it down. ‘Okay, thanks, everyone,’ he said. ‘I’ll take it from here.’

The other hotel guests melted away until it was just him and me. We held eye contact, his hand was still on my arm, mine was gripping my glass. Two middle-aged people meeting again after over twenty years.

‘Thanks.’ I trembled as he took the glass back from me and for a second or two, we allowed our fingers to touch. I wanted to hold his hand, feel his arms around me and melt into him, as I’d always done.