The Shell Seekers

by Rosamunde Pilcher

the old man had died, and she had left Nancy in the care of her mother-in-law to travel to Cornwall for his funeral. After the funeral, she and Doris had spent a couple of days clearing Carn Cottage of his possessions, and then she had had to return to London and the pressing responsibilities of being a wife and mother. Since then she had never been back. She had meant to. I’ll take the children for holidays, she had told herself. Take them to play on the beaches where I played, to climb the moors and look for wildflowers. But it had never happened. Why had she not gone? What had happened to the years, speeding away as they had, like swiftly flowing water pouring under a bridge? Opportunities had come and gone, but she had never grasped them, mostly because there was no time, or no money to pay for the train fares; she was too busy running the big house, coping with the lodgers, bringing up the children, coping with Ambrose. For years she had kept Carn Cottage, refusing to sell the house, refusing to admit to herself that she would never go back. For years, through an agent, it had been let to a variety of tenants, and all this time she’d told herself that one day, sometime, she would return. She would take the children and show them the square white house on the hill with its secret high-hedged garden and the view of the bay and the lighthouse. This went on until finally, at a time when she found herself at her lowest ebb, she heard from the agent that an elderly couple h...

fancy to the gardener.” He had hoped to shock her. “Well, that’s very nice,” said Olivia. “What’s he like?” “Odd.” “Odd? Do you mean queer?” “No. I mean he’s odd. Fish out of water. Square peg in a round hole. Upper-class, public school, so what’s he doing being a gardener? Another thing—he doesn’t drive a car and he doesn’t drink. And he never smiles. Nancy’s convinced he’s hiding a dark secret, and for once I’m

Gardens for bees and the butterflies...

are, but none the worse for wear.” And

Going back indoors, she found that the two men had left the dining room and returned to the comfort of the sitting room. Noel had drawn the curtains and made up the fire, but once he had finished his whisky and soda, he looked at his watch, got to his feet, and said that it was time he took his leave. Mr. Enderby suggested that this might be a good moment to telephone his wife, so Olivia left him doing this and accompanied Noel to the front door. She said, “I feel as though I’ve done nothing but see people off all day.” “You’ll be tired. Better have an early night.” “I think probably we’re all tired.