‘Darling!’ said Howard. ‘Ranulph’s come early. He has news.’
‘Yes, and it’s not good news, I’m afraid. I have a hurricane alert on my phone – I still feel attached to the island although I’ve never been back – and there’s a hurricane heading straight for Dominica.’
‘Oh my God!’ said Cass. ‘That’s awful.’
‘If it’s a small hurricane, a one or a two, they’ll weather it just fine,’ said Ranulph.
‘But we’ve looked,’ said Eleanor. ‘And it’s increasing in power by the hour.’
‘Of course it could easily veer away from the island,’ said Ranulph. ‘It won’t definitely hit Dominica. Howard? Would you mind if I had a look to see how it’s going on your laptop?’
‘Help yourself.’
It wasn’t long before the weather map was up and visible to all of them.
‘To think just a couple of hours ago – less – we were talking about me going to photograph a petroglyph and now we’re worrying about a hurricane.’ Cass perched on the arm of a sofa. Everything was happening so quickly.
‘Has Bastian found a petroglyph? asked Ranulph. ‘He is incredibly knowledgeable about the island. I’ve met him a couple of times. He’s very impressive.’
‘Unfortunately, he hasn’t found it,’ said Howard. ‘If he could, it would justify all his father’s work as a historian and anthropologist. It would prove that very early peoples – pre-Columbian – were on Dominica. This has been denied by other academics. The trust awarding the prize really wants this to be the case. But of course they can’t grant the prize without proof. And as I said to Cass earlier, there are several people chasing that money.’
No one spoke for a few minutes. ‘I can’t bear the thought of that beautiful island being dashed to pieces by a hurricane,’ Cass said.
‘We won’t know if it is until the morning,’ said Ranulph. ‘But people do have advance warning. They can take precautions. Dominica has suffered hurricanes before.’ He spoke gently, which for some reason Cass found a bit patronising.
No one spoke for a few seconds. Everyone studied the computer screen.
‘I think we should have dinner,’ said Eleanor. ‘It’s all ready.’
Although the food was delicious and Howard provided excellent wine to drink with it, no one could quite forget what was possibly going on thousands of miles across the world, and the atmosphere was sombre.
Cass declined the drams her father offered after the meal. ‘I think I’ll go to bed,’ she said. ‘If we won’t know about the hurricane until morning if it hits, I might as well.’
‘I think I will too,’ said Eleanor.
‘Ran?’ said Howard. ‘One more dram before we follow suit?’
Ranulph nodded. ‘Just as well I walked over.’
Cass didn’t sleep well and woke early. She desperately wanted to know about the hurricane but didn’t want to wake the household finding out, so she took her towel and went down to the cove for a swim. It was all so still and idyllic, she thought, but the very water she was swimming in, the Atlantic Ocean, was the same water that might now be full of huge waves thousands of miles away. She walked back up to the house afterwards full of trepidation. What had happened to Dominica overnight?
CHAPTER FOUR
When Cass got in, Eleanor was pouring coffee for Howard and Ranulph. He must have walked over as he had done the previous evening, Cass thought, knowing that a glance down would have revealed her swimming naked in the cove. But there were more important things to think about now.
‘So?’ she said, on the threshold of the sunroom where everyone was. ‘Did the hurricane hit?’
Howard nodded. ‘I’m afraid so.’
‘Badly?’
‘As far as we can tell,’ said Ranulph.
Cass sat down, utterly dejected. ‘It’s so awful, not being able to help. Although we can send money to the disaster funds.’
Eleanor handed her a mug of coffee. ‘Toast?’
Cass nodded. ‘Thank you. To think just yesterday we were planning a trip. I was going to go to Dominica and find a petroglyph.’
