‘I wanted to find the petroglyph, if it was there, when Austin was out of the way. I thought the place I had stopped was more or less where it should have been except there was a river on the map, and no river where I was.’
This time she was allowed to pause without her father badgering her. ‘I thought I’d sit a while with my eyes closed. I was tired, as I said. And it was while I had my eyes closed that I heard water. But it was a trickle, not a gushing river.’
‘It was such a long time ago that the map was drawn,’ said Howard. ‘The landscape would have changed.’
‘Anyway, I think I did actually doze off for a fewseconds because I woke up when there was a bit of a breeze suddenly and the sun fell on my face. I sat up and looked at the rocks which the others had looked at and walked past. With the sun shining in the right way I could see a face in the rock.’
‘The petroglyph,’ whispered Howard. ‘Oh, my dear girl!’ He got up and came over to Cass’s chair. She got up and he hugged her. ‘You’re so clever!’
‘But that’s not the end of the story, Dad,’ said Cass when everyone was sitting down again.
‘You had no camera,’ said Eleanor. ‘You couldn’t record it.’
‘But I could! I did. I had my trusty sketchbook and pencils. I slipped them into my pack just before we left, in case.’
‘But you can’t draw, can you, darling?’ said Cass’s father.
‘I can draw well enough,’ said Cass, feeling defensive. ‘And I had the means to do so with me. I drew the petroglyph and as many of the plants and trees around it as I could. But I knew that wouldn’t be enough so I tied my shoelace round a tree really near it.’
‘Cass! You are so ingenious,’ said Eleanor.
Cass shrugged, smiling.
‘This calls for whisky,’ said Howard. ‘Let’s break out the good stuff.’
‘Howard, you only drink the good stuff,’ said Eleanor. ‘You said that life was too short to drink blended whisky. I said it was too long not to.’ She laughed, teasing him: ‘But you are older than I am so perhaps you’re right. We’ll have it after dinner though.’
Howard’s good spirits had deflated and he suddenly looked his age. ‘Of course it was wonderful that you could draw the petroglyph, sweetheart, but I’m still sad about the camera. It was a present from my father.’
Cass put her hand on Howard’s. ‘Actually, I got it back that time. Toussaint, who was with us, found it and gave it back to me. It was unharmed.’
‘What do you mean “that time”?’ asked Howard.
This bit was going to be very hard, Cass realised. She felt so ashamed. ‘Erm—’
‘Why don’t you let Cass get to the end of her story?’ said Eleanor, her hand on Howard’s again, stroking it a little. ‘It’ll be quicker in the end.’
Howard nodded, and topped up everyone’s wine glass. There was a short time of silent eating before he put down his knife and fork and looked at Cass.
‘Much later, when Austin was so desperate to get off the island, he said I had to go with him, and that if I didn’t he’d destroy Bastian’s reputation academically – and his father’s, which was worse really.’
‘Go on,’ Eleanor prompted.
‘There was another hurricane threatening, but Austin wouldn’t wait. As soon as we set off I knew it was a terrible mistake. The weather was getting bad and the road, which wasn’t good to start with, was turning into a river.’
She’d spared her mother and Rosa some of the details of her journey with Austin, but she felt her father needed the whole truth.
‘I kept begging him to stop but it was only when we were quite far away from the house that he did. I thinkthat was so it wouldn’t be easy for me to walk to shelter.’
‘So you got out of the car?’ Her father sounded horrified.
‘He pushed me out. He leant across me and opened the door and then shoved me so hard I fell out. He had driven off before I had time to make sure I was out of the way. I had my daypack on my knee, so I was able to grab it, but my backpack, with everything else, including your camera, disappeared with him into the wind and rain.’
‘Oh God, Cass!’ Howard was horrified. ‘I can’t believe I put you in that dangerous situation.’
‘It was me, Dad! I was the fool who let herself be persuaded to leave.’ The realisation of what she’d done, how terrified and stupid she’d felt, came rushing back to her. She shook her head slightly to rid herself of the feeling. ‘It was all my fault.’
There was a pause and then Eleanor asked, ‘What did you have in your day bag? Why did you need to keep it so close?’
