I heard her voice loud and clear in my head. I thought about how excited she would’ve been about the baby and how she definitely would not have offered to babysit.
She’d have loved the fact that Gully and I were together. I knew she’d never thought of him like that, but she’d mentioned him a lot to me and tried to sell him on occasion – I should tell Gully that when I got home.
Our home had never looked so welcoming or so good, even though there were no lights on.
Gully’s car was on the drive, exactly where I would’ve expected it. I reversed mine as close to the door as I could; while I’d leave my suitcase where it was, my photography equipment would have to come inside. There was low crime on the island, but I wasn’t taking the chance, even in the storm of the century.
Inside the house was quiet. Still. Everything was where it should be, including a letter left out on the table with my name on it.
I opened it, thinking there’d be something in it that told me where Gully was.
There wasn’t. This had been left with him expecting to be in the house when I read it as it was basically a detailed account of what he was going to do to make-up for a week of no orgasms.
I checked the time. I was only slightly after when I’d expected to be home and the ETA I’d given him. I checked my phone – still no signal.
Panic bubbled in my stomach like acid, creeping up my throat and making me feel nauseous.
Where was Gully?
Had he gone on a call out? This was the sort of night when the lifeboat would be called out. Was he at the Puffin Inn? During a storm, there’d often be a gathering there, particularly with the elderly members of the town, making sure they were warm and okay and together. Amelie had an emergency generator in case the power went out, so the pub would be a safe haven.
There was nothing to suggest this had happened. No other note, nothing pinned to the fridge – nothing.
Panic was real now. I was thinking about my sister’s last hour, heading out in a storm like this which was sheer stupidity. She’d just finished writing a book which was always a big deal for her, more so than when it was published. It was when she’d dosomething big, something adrenaline fuelled after being chained to her computer for what to her felt like an age.
That night she’d made a really bad decision.
Gully didn’t make those sorts of decisions. When he finished a book he headed over to the Puffin Inn and bought a round for everyone in there and put money behind the bar for meals for people that week who didn’t have a lot of spare cash – a tradition Ivy had started years before when she’d send Amelie money to pay off the bar tabs for the older people in there who weren’t flush with cash.
Gully might also have ordered something as a treat online, hence the fishing gear in the garage that had been used twice.
He wouldn’t head off on a motorbike on a path that wasn’t safe during a storm.
I breathed a little easier, fear and worry still bubbling. I couldn’t sit there and not do anything.
The deafening roll of thunder suggested otherwise.
I looked at my phone for the fifteenth time in five minutes. Still no signal.
The landline! We had a landline. There was a chance it was still connected. I flew over to where it was stationed and picked it up, hearing a choir of angels with the dial tone. Using my mobile as an address book I put in the number for the Puffin Inn. Gully’s phone wouldn’t be working, but someone at the Inn would know if there’d been a call out for a rescue, or if Gully was there.
It was Amelie who answered, speaking in Welsh first.
“It’s Iris. I’ve just got home and Gully’s not here. Is he there?” The words were forced and fast.
“Breathe, sugar. Are you okay? Is the baby okay?” Her voice was calm and soothing, exactly what I needed to hear.
“Baby’s fine. I’m panicking.” I sat down, needing someone to take control even if it was just for five minutes.
“Stop panicking. Gully’s not here and we haven’t had a call out, but Finn and Roe are here. I’m going to send Finn over to you, okay?”
“Okay. But what about Ruby and the kids?”
“They’re here. I’m going to get Finn to bring you over here so you’re not on your own.”
“But what if Gully comes home and I’m not here - ”
“Leave him a note, sugar.” She said something in the background that was muffled so I couldn’t hear. “Finn’s on his way. Stay on the phone with me. How was the photoshoot? Tell me about it.”
