January
It was a week after their
first meeting, on a crisp and frosty New Year’s Day morning, when Elizabeth
Rodriguez and Matthew Woods met again.
The sky was a brilliant blue
and the leaves crunched underfoot, and the air was the freshest Elizabeth had
ever known.
It was the dogs who spotted
each other first, Elizabeth and Brandy had just passed the Seaview Hotel and
were on the path about to head down from the cliffs to the beach, with Matthew
and Digger coming in the other direction, the latter considerably faster than
the former.
“Good morning” Elizabeth
called brightly, as she had been walking in the area every day since Christmas
Eve, hoping to run into him again.
“Morning” Matthew said
breathlessly “That dog will be the death of me”
“He’s hardly panting at all”
She pointed out and laughed
He would have laughed as well
if he’d had the breath for it, he just about had enough breath to say.
“Well, he’s a lot younger
than me”
When Matthew had completely
got his wind back, he asked
“So where are you off to?”
“Nowhere special” She replied
“We’re off to the Lighthouse”
he said
“Would you mind if we tagged
along?” Elizabeth asked hopefully
“Not at all, I would
appreciate the company” He replied and smiled
It wasn’t a long walk from
where they met and the dogs reached the top of the cliffs first and then
Matthew and some distance behind was Elizabeth, who was extremely out of
breath.
“I thought you had decided
not to come” he said jovially
“You must have the
constitution of a mounting goat” she retorted
“The legs certainly” he
agreed and laughed
By the time they reached the
cliff top, Elizabeth was panting worse than the dogs and as she walked to the
edge and took in the vista, it took away what little breath she had remaining.
“Wow” she said as she looked
out across the sea stretching into the distance and they sat down on the rocks.
“This is my favourite place”
Matthew said
“I can see why” Elizabeth
said
It started snowing on the
walk back down, and the walk wasn’t much easier on the legs than the one up
was, but they both thought it was worth it, because by the time they reached
the beach again Elizabeth and Matthew had a dinner date for later that night at
the Seaview.
With the arrival of the snow
came the familiar disruption to the ferry services so Elizabeth had to extend
her stay on St Giles which very much suited her and Matthew in equal measure.
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