Page 61 of One Last Gift

“Sure, if you want me to.” His voice was casual—almost, Cassie thought, a little careful. Putting the ball firmly in her court.

This time, she did not hesitate, but squared her shoulders. If she was doing this, then she might as well go all the way. “Yes. I want you to come.” She tried, very hard, to match his easy, casual tone. It was natural, wasn’t it, that she’d want company? “Give me twenty minutes to pack and I’ll meet you downstairs.”

Chapter Twenty-Nine

The taxi pulled up outside the lighthouse, the midafternoon sun shining down on it, and Cassie stared, unable to believe that they were really here. It was a tall white building, contained within a little wall, with a couple of smaller buildings next to it, also white, all with a turquoise stripe running around the bottom. Cassie noticed that Sam had already gotten out of the car and was paying the taxi driver and she made herself open the door and get out too. She turned away from the lighthouse to the sea and felt her heart stutter.

It was stunningly beautiful, the type of place that was impossible ever to capture on camera. Green grass gave way to epic cliffs, where waves crashed underneath, foaming white hands clawing at the rock. Beyond it was wide, vast ocean, all the way out to the horizon. A white boat bobbed in the distance, but apart from that there was nothing but blue. She took a breath, enjoying the feel of being outside after so long on a train. The air was warm, though there was a hint of humidity, like a storm might be brewing.

“Come on a nice holiday, have you?” the taxi driver was asking. Cassie turned, saw that he’d been addressing her directly as he handed her the little overnight suitcase she’d taken to the manor. Sam already had his big suitcase, the one which, he’d told her, he’d brought directly from New York.

“I, err…” Cassie glanced at the lighthouse, though it took no notice of her, its attention firmly on the ocean. “Sort of,” she said eventually, deciding that would be easier than explaining. She felt the urgency pressing down on her, struggled not to bounce from foot to foot. She’d looked it up and she could get a five p.m. train back from Penzance to London, arriving after midnight but still back in time for work the next day. That meant they had to get on it though, and find the clue as soon as possible. “Do you know if we can get into the lighthouse?” she asked.

The driver’s eyebrows pulled together. “You’re not allowed to go in,” he said bluntly, as if she should already know this. “It’s a working lighthouse.” He peered at her suspiciously, like there was something untoward going on here. “You’re not staying in one of the cottages, then?”

Cassie felt Sam come alongside her, and jumped a little when he slung an arm around her shoulders. It made her feel small, pressed against him, though the weight of his arm settled her a little. “It was a surprise holiday,” Sam said, and winked at the taxi driver, whose look of suspicion was immediately replaced by a grin.

He smiled at Cassie. “Ah, you’re a lucky one then, aren’t you?” And, after giving them his card in case they needed another ride, he waved them away. Cassie watched the car disappear down the winding cliff road with a mounting pressure in her chest. She pulled away from Sam.

“Why did you send him away?” she squeaked. “We’re in the middle of nowhere and we need to get back!”

Sam’s lips curved, like he wanted to smile, but he didn’t give in to it, and ran a hand up and down her arm soothingly instead. “We’ll be able to call another taxi, don’t worry.”

They fell silent, and standing there, close enough to touch, with him smiling down at her, felt suddenly intimate. More intimate than on the train journeys—which had taken forever, given they’d had to connect in London—where they’d been surrounded by other people and other conversations.

Cassie shifted, staring up at the lighthouse. “So what, do you think a clue is stuck on it somewhere?” That was what Tom had done when they were younger after all, stuck the clues on objects or doors, before he’d gotten more ambitious. Very ambitious this time, apparently.

Sam looked at it too. “There was nothing else? On the clue?”

“Greg,” Cassie said. “He said he had a friend called Greg.”

Sam clapped, rubbed his hands together. “Right. Well, we best find Greg then.” They both looked around, as if a Greg might immediately materialize, but there was only someone walking their dog, a little way in the distance. “OK,” Sam said, “well, we’ll have to ask.” And with that he marched into the little complex, heading for one of the smaller buildings on the side of the lighthouse. Feeling incredibly conspicuous, like there might be someone peering down at her from the top of the lighthouse, Cassie followed him.

There was no answer at the first door, so Sam immediately proceeded to the second, which opened almost immediately. A man stood in the doorway, with scruffy gray hair and gray stubble that was on the verge of becoming a beard. He was also very short. Cassie only noticed that because he wasn’t much taller than she was—and she was only five foot.

The man frowned. “You the curtain people? You’re a day early.”

“We’re, ah…”

Sam glanced at Cassie, who shook her head, wondering what, exactly, “curtain people” were. People who made curtains, presumably? Or installed them? Though that wasn’t the right word, was it? Hung curtains? Was there a job for that?

Sam changed tactic. “Are you Greg?”

“Yessss,” the man said, drawing out the word. He raised his eyebrows—also gray—but didn’t offer anything more.

Cassie stepped forward. “I’m Cassie. Tom Rivers’ sister. He said to ask for you when I got here—I think you might have an envelope for me?”

Greg stared at her, then frowned. “He didn’t warn me. He was supposed to warn me when you would be coming, so I could get prepared.”

“He was going to warn you?” It made sense, she supposed—he’d have been following her progress, keeping tabs on where she was with it.

“That’s right.”

“He…” Cassie swallowed. “He couldn’t.”

His eyes turned shrewd. “Why not? Something happen?”

Sam glanced at Cassie and she knew he was wondering if he should step in. She nodded, unwilling to be the one to say it out loud.