A Secret Cornish Wish (St Felix #5)

Prologue

Autumn 2024

It never really changes, does it – the sea?

The seasons change, the weather changes; the light that bounces on the waves and makes them look either an invitingly turquoise blue or a bitterly cold grey – that changes. But the sea, with its rhythmical waves washing in over the sand, time and time again – it doesn’t change. It simply remains a constant. You can rely on the sea to do its thing, day after day, year after year, without any fuss or worry. It’s always there – just like it always will be.

Sitting high up on the rocks that overlook the beach and the little Cornish town of St Felix, I gaze out over the sea while I watch the gulls soaring above, and I remember . . .

I remember us all standing together down there on the rocks as the waves splashed below. Six school friends with our whole lives in front of us. We had no idea back then how the world would change over the next thirty-five years, or how we would, too. We were young and full of hope and anticipation at what our futures might bring.

Back in 1989, we’d rush home every day from school to watch Neighbours

; Harry had only just met Sally on the big screen, but you could giggle at Baby and Johnny dirty dancing on the small screen if you were lucky enough to have a machine and a local video rental shop; Kylie and Jason, and New Kids on the Block, topped the charts; telephones were something plugged into the wall and computers were something you learnt about once a week at school.

I had no idea back then that I’d be sitting here in St Felix once more when I reached, what seemed to me at the time, the incredibly ancient age of fifty. No idea that my teenage friends would be here with me again – well, most of them would. Sadly, this time, there would be one of us missing.

But on that magical evening, when we stood on the rocks together, we each wished for something different, and we each kept it a secret. All except for the wish we made together: that we’d be friends for ever, no matter what happened in our lives, that we’d keep in touch and try to be together, and, amazingly, all these years later, we’ve managed to do just that.

Unlike the sea, every one of us has changed over the years. We’ve grown older, some of us wiser, but we’ve kept the promise we made to each other.

The promise we’d always be together.