e are each the authors of our own lives…there is no way to shift the blame and no one else to accept the accolades.

PAUL MCGILL, in!!!A Woman of Substance

They sat together on the rocks at the Top of the World.

It was a glorious Saturday afternoon in late September. The sky was the colour of speedwells and glittering with sunlight, and below them the implacable moors were softened by wave upon wave of purple heather. Somewhere in the distance there was the sound of rushing water as a stream tumbled down over rocky crags, and on the lucent air there was the smell of heather and bracken and bilberry.

They had been silent for a while, lost in their own thoughts, enjoying being together again, being up here where it was so peaceful.

All of a sudden Shane put his arms around Paula, held her close to him. ‘It’s wonderful to be home, to be with you,’ he said. ‘I’m lost when we’re apart.’

She turned her head, smiled at him. ‘I feel the same.’

‘I’m glad we came up to the moors today,’ Shane went on. ‘There’s nowhere like them in the whole world.’

‘Grandy’s moors,’ Paula said. ‘She loved them, too.’

‘Especially up here, at the Top of the World.’

‘Grandy once said that the secret of life is to endure,’ Paula murmured and looked at him quizzically. ‘I hope I will.’

‘Of course you will, my darling. You have. In fact, you’ve not only endured, you’ve prevailed. She’d be very proud of you. Emma always wanted you to be the best. And you are.’

‘You’re prejudiced.’

‘I am indeed. But that doesn’t make my statement any less true.’

‘I almost lost Harte’s, Shane,’ she whispered. ‘But you didn’t. And that’s what counts, Paula.’

He jumped off the rocks, took hold of her hands, helped her down. ‘Come on, we’d better get back. I promised Patrick and Linnet we’d have nursery tea with them.’

They walked through the heather, holding hands, buffeted forward by the wind as they headed for the car parked on the dirt road. Paula stole a look at him, loving him, relieved and happy that he had returned from Australia. He had arrived in Yorkshire last night, and he had not stopped talking since, full of his plans for rebuilding the Sydney-O’Neill Hotel.

Paula came to a sudden halt.

Shane also stopped, turned to look at her. ‘What is it?’ he asked. ‘Is there something wrong?’

‘I hope not,’ she replied, starting to laugh. Her eyes were bright with happiness. ‘I’ve wanted to tell you since last night, but you haven’t given me the chance – ‘

‘Tell me what?’ he probed.

She leaned into him, looked up into his face, that face she had known and loved all her life. ‘We’re going to have another baby. I’m almost three months pregnant.’

He pulled her into his arms and hugged her, then held her away. ‘That’s the best welcome home present I’ve ever had,’ Shane said, smiling at her.

And he continued to smile all the way back to Pennistone Royal.