BOOK 3

'Yes,' she said. 'That's all. Goodnight Brand.'

He didn't answer, but she thought she saw him frown in the dim light. Then suddenly he put his hand on the back of her head and drew her to him, crushing her Hps briefly and thoroughly before he let her go. Isabella knew, with an instinct that had rarely let her down, that this was Brand's way of telling her goodbye.

'Goodnight, Isabella,' he said, as if it were any normal night. 'Sleep well.'

Isabella was too worn out and too devastated to do anything but nod. Because it wasn't any night. It was the last time Brand would hold her in his arms.

A branch snapped in the wind and came crashing to the ground behind her. Isabella jumped. She was on the beach, not leaning alone and empty in her doorway watching Brand drive off into the night.

Oh, Mother of God! Had she made a terrible mistake? Were the wind and the waves trying to tell her something? She watched as two seagulls battled the updraughts to descend onto a patch of seaweed draped ov