‘Will you be OK in the back?’ he asked, looking a bit guilty.
‘Of course! It’s part of the Dominica experience, going in the back of Bastian’s pick-up!’
Bastian laughed. ‘I’ll help you up. I hope we don’t have to wait too long for Michael. He knows we have a lot to fit in today.’
‘Where do you think we should go?’
‘We’ll explore what we can of the north of the islandand then go further south if we have time. Do you have any preferences?’
‘Not really. As long as I have something pretty to paint at the end of my time here, I’ll be happy. I wonder how many illustrations Michael wants?’
‘There’ll be some he definitely wants and I will certainly want some from the very top of the island where there are parrots. And waterfalls – very picturesque.’
‘What about the petroglyph?’
Bastian shook his head. ‘I don’t want to encourage people to go tramping through the forest looking for something they may well not recognise.’ He paused. ‘Here’s Sylvie, all ready, I see.’
Cass felt overcome with relief. If Sylvie was ready she and Ranulph would soon be off and she could relax. Then he appeared. After chatting with Bastian for a few moments, discussing where would be good to go and where roads were still nearly impassable, Sylvie, wearing enormous sunglasses and a big sun hat, was ushered into the front seat of the four-by-four.
‘Is there anything else you might need?’ asked Ranulph. ‘Have you got water?’
‘Here!’ said Cass, holding out a bottle. ‘Have mine. I’ll go and get some from the kitchen.’
She didn’t want anything to hold up Ranulph and Sylvie’s departure. She wouldn’t mind at all taking a plastic bottle from the fridge and letting Sylvie have her own water bottle, new and reusable.
At last, Sylvie and Ranulph set off but still Bastian and Cass waited for Michael. Bastian didn’t oftenshow impatience, but Cass could sense it without difficulty. At last, Michael appeared, full of apologies and explanations.
Cass was aware that sitting in the back she was missing out on Bastian’s commentary on what they were passing. She knew he was brilliant at adding life and colour to every little place or vista on the island. They all had stories attached. She remembered when she was driving his pick-up just after the hurricane, they had squashed three people into the front, but if she wanted to join Bastian and Michael, she would be practically sitting on their laps. She had to make do with noting the places she particularly liked as they passed by; she would ask Bastian about them later.
They stopped at the side of the road high up in the mountains. Cass had been glad of the pullover she’d put in her bag by the time Bastian gave her a hand to get out.
‘This is a glorious spot,’ she said, joining Michael who was looking far across the forest to where the sea could just be spotted.
‘It’s one of the places the hurricane was kind to,’ said Bastian. ‘If you look behind you, there’s a waterfall that wasn’t visible before the hurricane took down a lot of the forest.’
Cass got out her phone. ‘I’ll take a picture.’
‘I wouldn’t mind a chance to stretch my legs,’ Michael said.
‘Do you want to come with us, Cass?’ asked Bastian.
Cass shook her head. ‘I want to see if I can sketch the waterfall. As you know, currently I mostly do flowersand very small-scale things. I want to see if I could do bigger things if I tried.’
‘Of course you can,’ said Bastian. ‘We’ll leave you to it.’
Half an hour later, Cass was enjoying herself, drawing across two sheets of paper on a scale she hadn’t tried before. She was letting her arm move across the paper, sketching the waterfall, the trees, the ferns and the bromeliads which hung from the branches of the trees. She heard a car just as she was nearing the end of the first sketch, but didn’t stop. Only when she’d got everything she wanted on to the page did she let her hand fall.
‘That really is amazing, Cass,’ said Ranulph.
Cass jumped. She had been so wrapped up in her drawing that she hadn’t heard him approach. ‘What are you doing here?’ she said.
‘You’ve asked me that already,’ he said gently.
Cass shook her head to clear it. ‘No, I mean here? This particular spot? Miles from anywhere?’
‘I asked Bastian where he planned to go last night.’
‘So you’re stalking me?’ She was furious.
