‘Maybe!’ She tried to sound lighthearted. Austin had a point but she and Ranulph had come here as a team and if she planned to leave without him, he needed to be informed. She decided to go on the offensive. ‘Supposing you hear of a plane before the pick-up is ready?’
‘That’s when I’ll negotiate with Errol how much he’d need to pull an all-nighter to get the truck done.’
‘Although if the plane was coming specifically to collect you, presumably it could wait until you could get to an airfield?’
‘I know Europeans tend to think all Americans are loaded, but it’s not actually true. I wouldn’t be chartering a plane, I’d be hoping for a space on one that’s returning from an island with a functioning airfield, or has a couple of passengers already and wants a full load.’ He looked at her intently. ‘It will affect you, Cass. We can get out of here if we co-operate.’
Cass smiled, certain she must look like an idiot. ‘I still need to think about it. Now, if you don’t mind, I’m going to have a shower quickly before the archaeologists come back and want one.’ Too late she remembered that the archaeologists had their own house now.
While she was in the shower, Cass contemplated going down to the archaeological site to talk to Ranulph, and get him to tell her what she should do for the best. But by the time she was wrapped in a towel, rubbing at her hair with another one, she’d decided against this.She had to sort this out herself. When Austin had said she should think for herself he had hit a nerve. How could she ever expect anyone to think of her as an adult if she was constantly asking other people what she should do?
She went to look for Austin after her shower.
She managed to locate him but didn’t have to ask how he was getting on. He was in one of Bastian’s outhouses, looking at a very old piece of equipment.
‘This thing is out of the ark! Pre the ark! Pre Amerindians!’ he said.
Cass bit back the ‘what did you expect?’ remark that was her initial response and changed it to, ‘I’m sure you can work it out, Austin.’
He snorted in derision. ‘You’d have to be an archaeologist to work this out, this set is so old.’
She was about to say that surely hewasan archaeologist, and suggested tea instead. ‘Or I could make coffee?’
Austin regarded her. ‘That would be great. And I’m glad you’re starting to be a bit friendlier, Cass. Up to now you seem to have been seeing me as the enemy.’ He smiled. ‘I really like you. I think we could get along just fine.’
They walked back to the house in silence. Cass’s mind was whirring; would it be a good thing if she appeared to like Austin?
She made him coffee, longing for Ranulph, after which she and Austin sat on the veranda together in silence.
‘Why don’t you ask Ranulph to sort out the radiofor you?’ Cass suggested, choosing her words carefully. ‘He’s very practical. He’s not an academic like the rest of you guys. He might be able to fix it.’
‘What does he do?’ I mean in real life?’ asked Austin.
‘He’s a journalist,’ said Cass.
‘I might have guessed,’ said Austin. ‘Happy to hang on the coat-tails of work others have done.’
‘I wouldn’t say that, exactly.’ Cass was put out by Austin’s disparaging attitude but didn’t know if sticking up for Ranulph would be good or bad. She still hadn’t worked out if she should pretend to like Austin or not.
‘You wouldn’t, but I’ve had my work taken apart by journalists in the past. It’s so easy to find holes in what others have done. It’s so much harder to do the work from scratch.’
Cass smiled again. She could actually agree with this statement although she longed to shout, ‘Ranulph’s not like that!’ In truth, she didn’t have much of an idea of what Ranulph’s journalismwaslike. She hadn’t spent any time reading it when she had the opportunity. Now she wished she had. ‘It’s weird not having the internet, isn’t it?’ she said.
‘Why did you say that suddenly?’
Cass shrugged. ‘I was just thinking. I’ve always had it, I suppose, and now I don’t.’
‘You’re young.’
She sighed. ‘I’m going to go to the dig and ask Ranulph if he’s up to fixing a radio set.’ She gave Austin a fake beam. ‘That would be cool, wouldn’t it? If he could fix it?’
‘Sure would,’ said Austin with the sort of patronising look that normally would have made Cass want to throw something at him. As it was, she just smiled again and set off down the beach at a run.
A few minutes later, she arrived in front of Ranulph panting slightly.
‘Hey!’ said Ranulph, putting his hands on her arms. ‘What’s the rush? Is everything all right?’
‘I think so. But I wanted to talk to you without Austin being around.’
