“Hello,” she greeted them as Katie came up the steps and John threw the mooring ropes up to Clay. “You haven’t been rescued again, have you, Katie?” Her cousin tugged at her long hair gently and half smiled. “No, we’ve only been for a spin, Miss Inquisitive,” he teased. “I didn’t know you two were going for a joy-ride,” she said, her frank, ingenuous face beamed into a smile. “If I had I’d have come with you.” “Would you?” he asked, walking with them across the road to Coral House. “I don't know that you’d have been invited.” He turned to Katie, “I hope you’re convinced now that there was no one on the shingle strip,” he said. The blue eyes looked at her steadily, as if they had never been warm and excitingly close, and she had noticed the brief meaningful glance that had passed between him and Clay Pengarth before he joined them crossing the quay. At the gate of Coral House he left, striding off towards his own house, without a backward glance, or waiting to have Katie confirm that she was convinced about the voices below the cliff.
