Bastian laughed this off but Cass knew that Delphine was right.
‘OK,’ said Bastian slowly. ‘Let’s wait a day or two to see how Ranulph gets on and then decide. We could always take one of the guys with us. I don’t want to climb all the way down the side of a mountain without enough people if something goes wrong. We don’t know how the hurricane will have affected the landscape.’
‘Oh, we shouldn’t take anyone local!’ said Austin. ‘We need to keep it secret.’
Cass agreed with him. Austin would have been the person she felt the existence of the petroglyph should be kept secret from, but that ship had sailed.
‘I know who I can trust,’ said Bastian firmly.
‘What the big secret is about some old thing no one knows is there, I don’t know,’ said Delphine with a shrug, resigned and accepting. She got to her feet. ‘Working for “de history boy”’ – Cass could hear the inverted commas in her voice – ‘is strange, but I like it.’ She gave Bastian the fond smile of a parent who didn’t really understand her child but was very proud of him anyway. She got up. ‘I’ll make more coffee.’
‘I think we should go to this place as soon as possible,’ said Austin. ‘I have to get my book finished. Once I know there is no petroglyph – or at least not one we can prove is there – I can go for the prize.’
‘It’s hard to prove a negative,’ said Bastian.
‘My father is convinced the petroglyph is there,’ said Cass, on impulse, knowing she should really be keeping her connection with the petroglyph vague, or non-existent.
‘He maywantone to be there, but has he got proof?’ demanded Austin.
‘He and Bastian’s father met a man who used to see it every day,’ said Cass. ‘Of course it’s there.’
Austin frowned. ‘My research makes it clear that the Kalinago people didn’t get to Dominica until after Columbus did. And even if they did, they wouldn’t have made petroglyphs. They did that to honour spirits who sent water. But here, there is no shortage of water.’
‘There are parts of the island that aren’t so blessed,’ said Bastian. ‘But I suggest we go and look as soon as is practical.’
‘I’ll be able to walk in a couple of days,’ said Ranulph.
Cass inhaled sharply. She wasn’t having him risk her handiwork before he was completely ready.
Bastian shook his head. ‘The hurricane may well have changed everything, but the valley we’ll be searching in is very steep. You won’t manage on even a slightly damaged leg.’
‘I promised Cass’s father—’ Ranulph went on.
‘I’ll be fine without you,’ said Cass quickly, hating to think she was someone to be looked after. ‘I’m not going on my own. I’ll have Bastian, and Austin.’
‘And my friend Toussaint,’ said Bastian.
‘Do you really need to bring him?’ asked Austin.
‘Yes,’ said Bastian firmly. ‘He knows the area as well as I do.’
‘OK, everyone,’ said Delphine. ‘If you’ve eaten enough I have things to do.’
Cass got up to help clear the dishes. She wanted Delphine’s view on the matter of the petroglyph.
‘No point in going while we’re cut off from the world,’ she said after Cass had asked her. ‘But people are saying the roads are being cleared and it’ll soon be possible to get to Roseau. The internet will come back there first.’
‘But you don’t think Ranulph will be able to go?’
Delphine shrugged, bringing a saucepan out of the washing water. ‘It might strain the stitches you put in so carefully.’
Cass shuddered, remembering how difficult it had been for her and painful for Ranulph, although he had hardly made a sound. It would be better if he stayed behind. ‘How do you know about the roads?’
Delphine shrugged. ‘People walk, people talk, news travels.’
As far as Cass was concerned it was annoying that the news about the roads travelled to Austin first, especially as she knew Bastian was in no hurry to go on a long trek when there was still so much work clearing up after the hurricane.
‘We need to do this thing, guys!’ Austin said the next morning. ‘We can drive to Roseau now, although it will take a while. And they have the internet there, or will have very soon. Then we can be in touch with the world.’
