Footprints in the Sand

Footprints in the Sand
Eleanor Jones

Elsa May Malone was only five when the sea took away her beloved father. Traumatized, angry and forced to leave her home on the Cumbrian coast, she became hostile and withdrawn. Then she met Bryn Evans, a kind-hearted boy who’d experienced loss, too. Slowly, Elsa began to let down her barriers – until she and Bryn were torn apart.Alone again, Elsa was sure of one thing: Everyone she loved would eventually leave her. When Bryn and Elsa finally reunite, Elsa’s determined not to let her true feelings show. But they’re grown up now, and Bryn clearly hopes their childhood friendship can become something more. Elsa is painfully aware that love can be as serene and yet as terrifying as the sea.But can she let Bryn into her heart before she loses him a second time?

“Bryn! Bryn!”

Couldn’t he see the danger?

I ran along the shoreline, scanning the beach for Bryn. And suddenly there he was, bright and fluorescent in my dad’s old fishing jacket, waving back at me.

Yellow Dog bounded around him in crazy circles, a distant dot beside the faraway figure of the man I loved. There, I’d said it. For the first time in my life, I’d said it. I yelled it out loud, caressing the words that had taken a small miracle to finally get out.

“I love you!”

My voice was carried away on the rising wind.

Bryn threw a stick as the tide rushed around the edge of the bay. Yellow Dog leaped up into the air, and then they were gone, lost in an opaque mist.

I stopped, aware of rippling water moving relentlessly toward me.

And then it was upon me, dragging me down. The surging white wave that heralded the tide, taking all in its path.

“Bryn!”

Dear Reader,

The inspiration for this story came to me when I was walking by the sea not so very far from here, where the tide comes in quickly and silently around the outside of the bay, often cutting off those foolish enough to walk way out across the sands.

It seems so tranquil and so beautiful a place and yet, in an instant, it can become deadly–much like life, really.

I do hope you enjoy this story.

All very best wishes to you,

Eleanor

Footprints in the Sand

Eleanor Jones

www.millsandboon.co.uk (http://www.millsandboon.co.uk)

ELEANOR JONES

Born and raised on a farm in northern England, Eleanor Jones has always had a passion for animals and the countryside. She has been writing almost all of her life. The poems and stories she wrote as a child, which still grace a cupboard somewhere, were mostly written in longhand. She later wrote articles for an equestrian magazine, and her first big break came when she began writing teenage pony mystery stories. These still sell successfully in seven countries throughout Europe and in America.

Married at eighteen to Peter, she had two children and then set up the Holmescales Riding Centre in Cumbria with her husband. This busy center now trains career students, takes hacks and treks and teaches at all levels from children and total novices to competition riders.

Eleanor still rides every day, schooling and training horses, and her daughter is now a partner in the business and competes at national level. Both her daughter and her son are now married and she has three wonderful grandchildren with whom she loves to spend as much time as she can.

I would like to dedicate this book to my dear

mother, Grace, who always loved the sea.

THE SORROWING SEA

By T J Darling

A sight so wide it fills the eye, its vast horizon

meets a sky that stretches to infinity. That holds

my heart. That sets me free.

Timeless echoes in my ears; a haunting melody;

ten thousand seabirds sing their woes to a wild

and restless sea.

So many lost beneath the waves of the mighty

ocean’s rage: How much more heartache can it

writhe its anger to assuage.

But when it sparkles, shimmering sands, its

transient beauty a promised land, it sings another

song to me, of peacefulness and harmony.

A place to live: A place to die.

A place I love.

Contents

CHAPTER ONE (#uf096704d-e3cf-5419-93bc-1ef6f843f617)

CHAPTER TWO (#uc9f7ab1b-67e7-526e-95de-ba23f551fc93)

CHAPTER THREE (#u1f7d44a8-82b6-5f86-bd0f-40bc362bf6a8)

CHAPTER FOUR (#ud9efce34-32d8-5660-90c3-59a9ac546f38)

CHAPTER FIVE (#u4a5b83d0-6b11-52c5-b477-38390c845878)

CHAPTER SIX (#u2017a6c0-c90b-5017-bb6a-2fc31b059450)