The Couple at Causeway Cottage by Diane Jeffrey

Author:Diane Jeffrey [Jeffrey, Diane]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: HarperCollinsPublishers
Published: 2022-06-06T17:00:00+00:00

Chapter 22

The fortnight at my mum’s whizzes by and when it’s over, I feel a twinge of homesickness, as I always do when I leave my home town. I know from experience it will last a week or two. But I also feel relaxed and revived. The summer season had ended for the bed and breakfast, so I spent a lot of quality time with my mum, who pampered me and cooked all my favourite meals for me. And she plans to come to Ireland, just before Christmas, so we can visit Dublin, Belfast and, of course, Rathlin Island together. I know Mum loves my visits and I’m already looking forward to hers. She feels lonely during the off-season when she’s not nearly so busy. She has friends, but no boyfriend. After years of putting up with my father’s sexual transgressions, she has sworn off men for the rest of her life.

Charlotte came down from London the weekend before I came back to Rathlin. It was lovely to catch up with her again. We met up with some of my old school friends for a pub dinner at the George & Dragon and had a great girlie night out.

I worked on my website when I was at my mum’s, tweaking and adding to my online portfolio, and I’ve lined up some work in and around the county of Antrim – school photos, headshots, product photos and even a wedding for next summer. I’ve also sold some prints of my wildlife and landscape photos of Rathlin Island via my website, which I’m thrilled about. I’m putting together a calendar of top sights to see in Northern Ireland, which I hope to add to my online store well before Christmas.

While I was in Devon, Mark sent me text messages during the day – loving messages as well as funny ones. Several times we talked late into the night on the phone, as we did at the start of our relationship, when Mark was away and we were falling madly in love, unable to get enough of each other. Now I’m back, Mark has made it his mission to take over from my mum, pampering me and cooking for me. He has also got out of staying away overnight for work for the next three weeks to spend some quality time with me.

Mark banishes me from the kitchen while he makes the meal for my first evening back, so I come upstairs to unpack. Mum did my laundry when I was at her place, so it’s mainly a question of taking my clothes out of my suitcase and putting them onto the shelves and hangers in the wardrobe.

When there’s only one item left in my case, I hesitate, not knowing where to tidy it away. Or hide it away. I don’t want Mark to see this. Or rather, what’s inside it.

It’s a jewellery box, a present from my father when I was a little girl. He bought it for me to say sorry for missing the school concert.

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