He helps me sit onto the rim of the boat, then fixes himself up and when I hear an almighty splash, I find both him and Williams and Gregory surfacing from under the water.
‘What on earth? How do I do that?’
‘Fully inflate your BCD. Good girl.’
‘Don’tgood girlme.’
‘Christ. Come on then,biggirl, put your hand over your mouthpiece and your mask. Now cross your legs and?—’
When I surface, Gregory and Williams are on my side of the boat. Gregory removes his mouthpiece to speak. ‘Okay, you need to deflate your BCD and sink down. Don’t forget to go slow and equalise your ears like I showed you. If your ears hurt, kick back up just a little and try again.’
My heart starts beating fast but I deflate my BCD and sink just like he taught me. Williams is there hovering just above the ocean bed and once I’ve managed to stabilise my buoyancy, he signals to ask if I’m okay then for me to follow him and as I do, I notice Gregory slide in line beside me.
It takes me a minute or two to adjust to being in the water, trying to remember everything I learned and swim and float at the same time. Gregory stays right by my side the whole time and signals to ask if I’m okay. My breaths come thick and fast, many more bubbles rising from my regulator than the number coming from Williams and Gregory combined. Gregory rolls onto his back and looks me in the eye, reassuring me and making me feel safe. My breathing calms and when he’s satisfied, he drifts back to my side. He takes my hand, rolling his thumb across my knuckles, guiding me along with him.
Now. Calm. Safe. I start to appreciate this new, colourful, exquisite underworld. We move over corals, pinks, purples, blues. Gregory points out an enormous aqua and purple giant clam that snaps shut when we move close. Small, orange, weed-type things, beautiful and bright, like jelly, are just like I’ve seen on TV. Gregory leaves me briefly to swim to the mini bushes and points out a fish that looks just like Nemo.
I hear a ting and I’m surprised by how easily I can manoeuvre to look at Williams tapping his tank with a piece of metal. He places one hand over the other, fingers bent, interlaced and pointing to the seabed, and he turns his thumbs in circles. Gregory moves quickly at the signal I don’t recognise and, taking my hand, he glides us towards the spot Williams is watching. A huge, beautiful green turtle moves its arms elegantly up and down and drifts through the water. The sight is so profound, the bubbles from my regulator stop until Gregory taps my back.
The most important rule is to breathe, Scarlett; you mustn’t hold your breath underwater.
I nod and take a breath that makes me rise in the water so Gregory has to take my hand quickly and pull me back to his level, where I continue watching the turtle and follow behind as it swims away from us. When it eventually moves into the distance, I’m so giddy, I roll in the water, amazed at the feeling of complete weightlessness. Freedom. So far removed from the real world. And I get to share my technicolour heaven with the man of my dreams.
His eyes are beaming when he swims alongside me.
I point to my eye, then my heart, then right at him.
16
Yesterday, Richard confirmed that the tabloid has agreed to settle. DI Barnes confirmed that Trina has been suspended on suspicion of releasing a conspiracy theory to the press. We’re one week into our holiday and since their talk, Gregory and Amanda are getting along, possibly even enjoying each other’s company. Yet, I wake to find myself alone in bed for the third time in five nights and I wish I knew how to help him. I’ve been doing what I know, whatweknow, helping him forget. But the effect wears off. It doesn’t stop the next nightmare from coming.
‘Come to bed,’ I whisper into his naked back, running my hands down his shoulders.
He’s leaning over the rail of the yacht holding a crystal glass of liquor, most likely Scotch. ‘I’ll be back shortly. You go get some sleep.’
I lie in bed, tossing and turning, wishing he would come back to me. As tiredness takes over my thoughts, a sense of uneasiness fills my mind. I might think my own worries about Katrina Martin were irrational if I didn’t know the same thoughts were keeping Gregory up every night and sending him back to his dark, closed world.
* * *
I stretch in the brightness of our bedroom, sunlight beaming in through the small window and reflecting off the bright walls. I’ve managed to sleep until after ten; that’s practically unheard of. The disrupted previous nights have obviously taken their toll.
After a shower, I dirty back up with an application of suntan lotion, then pull on one of several pairs of light denim shorts Julia and Lucas packed for me. Pairing the shorts with a white vest over a shimmering silver-grey bikini, I head out to the deck.
Bertie has left plates of food from breakfast on the table, covered by linen napkins. I pour a coffee and take it with a slice of fresh bread and jam to the sun loungers where Amanda is laid out with the latest edition of her favourite magazine.
I settle onto the lounger next to her. ‘Morning.’
‘Hey. What do you think of this?’ She opens a double spread of pages to me and I’m confronted by images of ten vintage designer prams. ‘I’m thinking of going old chic. I think Baby would like it.’
‘I like them. Erm, why do you have a baby magazine hidden insideVogue?’
‘Meh, Ed keeps telling me to calm down but it’s exciting. I have so many ideas for clothes, the nursery. Oh gosh, there are some amazing Christening ideas in here, too. I mean, I think we should be married before the Christening, it doesn’t seem right otherwise, but there’s no harm in future-proofing. And, of course, we still need to think about a house for us all.’
‘A house? Wouldn’t you stay in Williams’s place?’
‘Ongoing discussion. Ed has a two bed but I think we need a house. A home for Baby.’
‘Wow, Amanda, I don’t say this to be shitty, really I don’t.’
