Cass, who had been sweeping the veranda of the detritus left over from the second hurricane, looked up.
‘But there’s still so much to be done here,’ she said.
Yet in spite of her words, she suddenly really wanted to leave. She wanted to curl up on the sofa at her mother’s house and watch something mindless on television. Or be with her father on a Scottish island and look at the ever-changing view of the sea and the mountains beyond.
‘You must go home,’ Ranulph said, in a more gentle tone than he’d used for days. ‘You’ve worked very hard. You’ve done everything you came to do. You can stop now.’
She nodded. ‘And we still need to get Bastian’s work into the competition.’
‘You do know that Bastian has a long-term female friend, don’t you?’
Ranulph was still being gentle with her, and Casssuddenly realised what he was implying. ‘I did know that, yes,’ she said.
‘You’re far too young for Bastian. He’s even older than I am.’
‘I did know that, thank you. I read his CV,’ she said. ‘I know to the day how old he is.’
‘It’s just a crush, Cass. You’ll get over it if you don’t see him every day.’
‘I know that too!’ she said with a rueful smile. But what Ranulph didn’t know was who her crush was on.
‘We’ll miss you,’ said Delphine the next morning. ‘You’re part of the family now.’
They were just finishing breakfast. Ranulph and Cass were meeting a fishing boat in the early afternoon. Suddenly Cass felt tearful. ‘I feel part of it and will do my best to come back soon.’
‘Make sure you do!’ said Delphine, sounding almost cross.
‘Are you sure you don’t want this dress back?’ She indicated what she was wearing. ‘I know you told me someone just left it here—’
Delphine interrupted. ‘You keep it and think of our time together when you wear it. It looks good on you. I’ve noticed the guys looking at your legs.’
‘I’ll wear my shorts to travel in,’ said Cass, hating the thought of her thighs being on show for that long journey. ‘I’ll be getting in and out of boats a bit.’
Becca appeared with a large cotton wrap. ‘Put this in your bag,’ she said. ‘It can be chilly on planes and it’ll be cold when you get to the UK. This will help.’
‘That is very kind. I can post it back—’
‘Don’t bother. You lent me clothes when I needed them.’
‘And you returned them. Goodness knows where they are now!’ she laughed. ‘I hope someone who needed them found my backpack wherever Austin chucked it, and found a use for the contents.’ She didn’t mention the camera; she knew if she did she would definitely cry.
‘So, what’s your route back?’ asked Becca.
‘Fishing boat to Martinique. We’ll email Bastian’s work and everything from there. Bastian has told us where to go to do all that. And then we’ll fly to Paris, and a quick hop to London, where my mum will meet us, according to the messages we’ve had from my dad. He’s arranged all the tickets.’ She paused. ‘I just hope it all works and I can pick up all the emails on my phone when I get to somewhere with a signal. But there’s time to sort out new tickets if not.’
For some reason she thought back to that time, several lifetimes ago, when she and some friends almost failed to catch a flight to Ibiza. Now she was facing the thought of a much more complicated journey with complete calm. Travelling with Ranulph would make it all easy.
While they waited on the beach for the fishing boat, Cass said, ‘It seems like years since we arrived, so much has happened.’
‘I know. We hardly knew each other when we set off but now it seems we’re old friends.’
Cass was grateful they were both looking out to sea.She didn’t want to be Ranulph’s ‘old friend’. ‘We may have fallen out a few times,’ she said, ‘but we travel well together.’
For a moment Ranulph seemed about to say something but then he said, ‘Ah! This is our lift, I think!’
A fishing boat, looking horribly small, was steering its way through the waves. The sight of this plucky vessel, knowing it was going to take her away from Dominica, caused a lump in Cass’s throat. She coughed.
And as Cass walked through the soft sand and the warm water so she could climb into the boat, she couldn’t help wondering when she would be in Dominica again.
