‘Nor me.’ Cass found herself overcome with emotion. She turned away so Ranulph wouldn’t see.
‘Now we have to wait for what the good omen was for,’ he said after a few moments. ‘But I feel hopeful suddenly.’ And he smiled at Cass, who suddenly felt full of happiness – and hopefulness, too, that things would work out between them.
‘We should go,’ she said after several moments.
CHAPTER FORTY
The journey back in the dark was necessarily slower and it seemed to take them a long time to reach Bastian’s house. Now, there were several cars parked and the beach was full of light, people and music.
Cass didn’t want to go and join them immediately, she wanted to cherish the special atmosphere she and Ranulph were sharing.
‘Will they believe us when we tell them we saw the Emerald Drop?’ she said as an excuse to keep him by her side.
‘You know what? Let’s not tell them now. Everyone is already partying. We’ll tell Bastian in the morning.’
‘Good idea,’ she said. ‘Now, shall we join the others?’
He took her hand.
There were large storm lanterns all down the long table which now had huge bowls of food along the middle of it. There were bowls heaped with rice. Plates of piled-up turkey, ham, vegetables, salad, corn bread, saltfish fritters, dumplings and all manner of things Cass couldn’t recognise. There was a steel band playing and Clyde, Loretta’s brother, was dancing with agirl in a red dress and matching bandana. Briefly, Cass remembered dancing in the hurricane shelter and smiled.
Sylvie came up to them and handed them drinks. ‘You were out for a long time. Have you had a lovely day?’
‘Yes, thank you,’ said Cass. ‘We went to Scott’s Head. It was beautiful.’ She didn’t want to go into details; as Ranulph had suggested, she wanted to keep what had gone on just between the two of them. She raised her glass. ‘Santé!’
It wasn’t long, though, before they were fully drawn into the beach party. Delphine handed Cass a plate of food. ‘Eat it before you have too much rum punch,’ she ordered.
Cass took the plate, amused at how bossy Delphine was, which disguised the fact that she cared about people.
Michael and Sylvie were obviously enjoying themselves. The conventional publishing couple from London had become proper Dominican party-goers, drinking, dancing and laughing at everyone’s jokes.
Errol, Delphine’s brother, came up to Cass and asked her to dance. She got rid of her plate and glass and joined him on the canvas pegged out on the sand, which formed a makeshift dance floor. She was soon remembering some of the moves she had been taught, and really let herself go. She spun from partner to partner, giving the appearance of a girl without a care in the world, even though really there was only one man she wanted to dance with.
She looked up to see Ranulph looking at his phone. Why was he on his phone? she wondered. It was a party! Why didn’t he come and join everyone on the dance floor?
She forced herself to stop looking at him. Instead, she thought about the special things they had shared today. One day, in the distant future, could anything feel as special again, with someone else?
Suddenly he smiled and looked up from his phone. He put it in his pocket and caught her gaze. Cass looked away, embarrassed suddenly, but he came over.
‘Can I cut in?’ he said to Toussaint, Cass’s current partner.
‘Hey, man, you can claim what’s yours,’ Toussaint said.
Before she could get indignant about this remark, Ranulph took her arm and led her away from the dance floor and the party to a place where the loudest noise was the sound of the surf crashing on to the shore.
‘I’ve had a message,’ he said, obviously pleased. ‘But actually, it’s for you.’
He handed her his phone and she took it, confused. She looked at the message on the screen.
Hi Cass, I’m messaging via Ran because I don’t have your details, but I want you to know that he loves you very much! He and I have never really been an item although I did try very hard when we were on Dominica together. But it was always you for him. I know he thought you were too young forhim and was being all old-fashioned and gentlemanly (men, eh?) but he asked me to tell you that he is a free man.
I realised when I checked that on Facebook it might have looked as if we were together. If I’d seen a group shot and Ran’s arm was round me and my status was ‘in a relationship’ I’d have thought that too. But I have my own lovely man now, nothing to do with Ran.
Be happy! And look after Ran. He is a man who deserves all your love.
Love and Happy Christmas! From Becca. Xoxoxo
‘What does this mean?’ Cass asked him, handing back his phone.
