Authors: Lucy Clarke

The Sea Sisters (40 page)

Katie let out the breath she’d been holding.

Noah ran a hand slowly over his throat. When he looked up, his eyes met hers. ‘I wish everything had been different. I’m so sorry.’

She thought of what he’d given her tonight: the truth. More valuable than anything. For that, she said, ‘It was an accident, Noah.’

He pressed his lips together, nodded. Then he turned and moved towards the path, casting a final glance at the sea before disappearing through the trees. As she watched him leave, she hoped that some horizon out there would one day bring him comfort. Mia would have wanted that.

After a moment, Finn stepped close to her, taking her hand. ‘Are you okay?’

She nodded. ‘How did you know I’d be here?’

‘I came back to your room. I wanted to talk to you about what you’d said … about us. But you’d left. Ketut told me he’d booked you a taxi to Umanuk. So I came here.’

She looked at him closely and saw the tension melting from his features. She didn’t know what Finn had returned to her room to say, but she knew he’d come up here for her. ‘Thank you.’

He squeezed her hand. Her fingers felt warm and safe within his – and she allowed herself to hope.

‘Are you ready?’

She made a final, sweeping glance of the cliff top – a place that had dominated her darkest thoughts for months. Now she saw that it was just a mound of earth, no more than that. She inhaled deeply, filling her lungs. ‘Yes, I am.’

She’d been terrified of this moment: reaching the end of Mia’s journey and having to start out on her own. But as they began to move away, their palms touching, the echo of wind and the rumble of waves fading in her wake, she realized that she wasn’t leaving Mia behind; she was carrying her sister with her.

When I smell salt air, it is you I’ll think of running along the beach with, your hair flying behind you. When I hear laughter, it is ours I’ll remember bouncing off the slats of the bunk bed we shared. When I listen to soul music, it is us I’ll picture dancing barefoot in the lounge.

I’ve no idea what happens from here – whether I’ll go back to London, or Cornwall, or even fly to a new country – because I’m no longer the same person who once plotted out schedules and itineraries. But I will make one plan. And it is because of you, Mia. Because of us. Tomorrow, I will step onto the beach, drop my towel on the warm sand, wade into the clear Balinese waters and kick my legs and swim.

A Chat with Lucy Clarke

Questions for Discussion

The W6 Book Café

Acknowledgements

I would like to thank the following people for making this book possible: my agent, Judith Murray, for her advice and wisdom; my friends and early readers whose feedback and enthusiasm has been so incredibly helpful; my parents, Jane and Tony, for their unwavering encouragement and support, and finally, I would like to thank my husband, James, for always believing in me.

About the Author

Lucy Clarke studied English Literature at Cardiff University. She has worked as an advertising executive and a presenter of enterprise events for students. She is now a full-time novelist. She spends her winters travelling and her summers at her home near Bournemouth, where she lives with her husband, James.

Find out more at
www.lucy-clarke.com

Copyright

Harper

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This ebook first published in Great Britain by HarperCollins
Publishers
Ltd 2013

Cover design © HarperCollins
Publishers
Ltd 2013

Cover photograph © Bildhuset / plainpicture • Author photograph © James Bowden

Lucy Clarke asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work.

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

Source ISBN: 9780007481347

Ebook Edition MAY 2013 ISBN: 9780007481354

Version 1

This novel is entirely a work of fiction. The names, characters and incidents portrayed in it are the work of the author’s imagination. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events or localities is entirely coincidental.

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