Nigel
He got dressed and went down into the kitchen.
‘How’s your head?’ His mother asked as she looked up from her cup of tea.
‘Fine. I only had a couple of glasses of champagne. I didn’t want alcohol to make the jet lag worse.’
‘Very sensible. But then you always were the sensible one.’
‘Klaus not up yet?’
‘He’s an early bird. He’s gone for his usual morning walk. He won’t be back for at least another half an hour.’
Good. Nigel had the ideal opportunity to say something he’d been thinking about since he met Klaus last night. He busied himself with making tea. ‘I’m sorry I didn’t come to your wedding.’
His mother shrugged. ‘You had other things on. I understand.’
‘It wasn’t that.’ He sat down opposite her at the table. ‘I didn’t like the idea of you getting married again. I didn’t think I could fake being happy for you, so I stayed away. I thought Klaus was after your money.’
‘He’ll be sadly disappointed if he is, seeing as it’s all tied up in this place. Anyway, he has plenty of money of his own. I might be after his.’ She winked.
Nigel laughed. ‘I can see you two are blissfully happy. Do you regret that you didn’t have an opportunity to spend your whole lives together?’
‘Then I wouldn’t have had you and Mark, and I don’t regret that.’
‘But you’d have had other children instead.’
She looked at him carefully. ‘Are you regretting your life choices?’
‘Maybe.’
‘Regret can be a useful feeling, I find. Gets you to focus on what matters so when a similar opportunity arises you don’t miss taking it again.’
‘That’s quite profound for this early on a Monday morning, Mother.’
She laughed. ‘You should talk to me more often. I have opinions on most things. Anything else bothering you?’
He sighed. ‘Pretty much everything, but I’m not sure I’ve got my thoughts together enough to know what advice to ask for, if that makes sense.’
‘Take a leaf out of Klaus’s book and go for a walk. That always helps.’
The sun might be out, but the wind was bitingly cold up on the clifftop. Nigel pulled up the hood on his waterproof and zipped up the front so that the collar covered his mouth. He should have brought a scarf with him.
He walked along the path until he reached the highest point of the cliff, then turned to admire the view.
The sea seemed to go on forever, but somewhere beyond that horizon were Madison and his daughters, Sloane and Avery.
They’d still be fast asleep. Too early to text them a Happy New Year message.
He’d wait until lunchtime. Hopefully, one of them might reply when he did.
Something bashed into his legs, making him stumble. An animal. What the hell? He watched it continue its mad trajectory along the path. A small greyhound, or perhaps a large whippet, which explained the speed. Who was stupid enough to let a dog off the lead up here?
He turned to look where the dog had come from. A woman was jogging towards him. Judging by her padded full-length coat and walking boots, she hadn’t intended to go running this morning. ‘Rocky!’ she shouted.
‘Your dog nearly knocked me over,’ Nigel yelled into the wind. ‘You should keep him under control.’
‘I’m so sorry,’ the woman said as she drew nearer. ‘We don’t normally see any rabbits up here. Oh, thank God - he’s stopped.’
Nigel turned to follow her gaze. The dog was making his way slowly back to them.
‘A lead might be a good idea.’
‘He was on a lead.’ She was getting her breath back now. ‘He pulled it out of my grip.’
She held her hand out in front of her so he could see the angry red mark running across her fingers where the lead had given her a friction burn.
‘That looks awful. You need to put that under a cold tap.’
‘Bit tricky up here.’ She stared at him. ‘Nigel?’
How did she know his name?
She pulled down her hood.
He looked at her face properly for the first time. Oh god. Those hazel eyes. It was Helen. After all these years.
‘What are you doing here?’