The Smuggler's Daughter by Kerry Barrett

Author:Kerry Barrett [Barrett, Kerry]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers
Published: 2020-08-14T17:00:00+00:00

Chapter 24

Phoebe

2019

My running stuff was at the bottom of my drawer. I pulled it out, and put it on. I glanced out of the window to check the weather and then found a hoodie too, which I tied round my waist. Just in case.

Liv was nowhere to be seen when I went back downstairs. I’d left my phone on the bar to stop me checking it but now I picked it up and looked at the screen. Nothing. Gah.

I put in my earbuds, turned my music up loud, and headed outside.

I glanced back at the pub as I went. The sign swayed gently in the wind, showing the figure of a young girl, bathed in an ethereal glow, perched on the edge of a cliff. I’d not paid much attention to it when we arrived but now I could see that the scenery in the picture was obviously based on the cliffs where I stood. I felt a little flutter of sadness for poor Emily Moon. For what had happened to her.

I didn’t really want to run along the clifftop because it just reminded me of kissing Jed, but it was better than going along the side of the road to Kirrinporth. So I took a breath, concentrated on the sound of my trainers hitting the ground, and the music in my ears, and started to run.

The footpath ran alongside the road for a short while, then snaked off across the clifftop. It was easy to follow because the long grass was flattened by ramblers’ feet, and there were occasional signposts telling me I was on the Great Cornwall Way. The cliff edge was about the length of a football pitch away, marked with fairly inadequate wooden posts. There was no one else around and in between songs I could hear the waves crashing down below and the seagulls screeching.

Running had been a good decision, I thought. I could feel the endorphins doing their job and my mood lifting as I went. Maybe Jed was just busy. It had only been a few hours. It was fine. I had absolutely no reason to worry.

I would distract myself with more Emily Moon research. I still had no idea what had happened to her and seeing her picture on the pub sign had made me realise I was desperate to find out.

I ran for about half an hour until I reached a stile and the path turned inland towards another small village that I could see in the distance. Somewhere to explore another day, I thought. The wind had got up, and the sky over the sea was darkening – it looked like more rain was heading our way – so I pulled on the hoodie I’d had tied round my waist and turned back the way I’d come.

I ran more slowly on the way back, thinking about Emily Moon and the gang of smugglers. I could see how easy it would be to plunge from the clifftop in the dark and I wondered why she’d been up there in the first place – if she had been up there of course.

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