He studied the huge creature for a while, thinking back to Ben’s comment about his stiffness improving, staring into his eyes, which if you looked at them in certain lights, as now for instance, didn’t seem all that murky at all. Either the dog was fooling them all, or his solution to the inevitable and depressing ageing problem was working—for both of them. Thinking this, eyeing up his cigarette, the wine and the few crumbs of pastry caught in the old boy’s beard, he clicked his fingers and they went together into the twilight gloom under the winter trees behind Guillemot. It took some persuasion to actually get an elderly wolfhound full of mincemeat and good cheer into a cold pond, but once he was in, he paddled about relatively happily.
When Aleksey exploded up into the night air from a deep dive beneath the clear waters, he saw Miles sitting on the bank next to his discarded clothes. He waded out and flung himself down alongside. Miles was watching Radulf, who was heading back to shore with alacrity now the source of most of his treats had appeared.
‘Why do you both swim here all the time? Ben said not to ask because it would either be something very bad or very silly.’
‘Huh. Then he will have to be demoted yet again. In fact, I think I might make this downgrading permanent. How would you like to be my new second-in-command of Light Island?’
‘Oh, yes please! But does it mean I have to swim in there?’
‘Not at all. But you do have to believe in angels who came to Earth and who ended up beside a pond on an island in Scilly and purified its waters.’
Miles blew out his cheeks, clearly puzzling this over, but surprised Aleksey when he asked, ‘Do you remember the story you told me about the tsunami? How you were captured by those pirates?’
‘Uh-huh.’
‘And they had you and Ben tied to the mast.’
‘Uh-huh.’
‘And they were trailing the decomposing body of this man who they’d pushed out of a plane behind the boat to attract great white sharks—like chum?’
‘Uh-huh.’
‘And they were going to feed you and Ben to the sharks if you didn’t give up the location of the gold?’
‘Uh-huh.’
‘Well, what if just before the tsunami hit, when you sensed it—because you have the senses of a lion—instead of climbing, you’d shouted, “Let us go or I will bring down the wrath of God upon you and smite you, and I will order the seabed to rise and the waters to drown you,” and then the seadidgo out, which would look like the sand rising, wouldn’t it? I do think most things can be explained by science.’
‘Most things?’
‘I’m not entirely sure about an afterlife yet. I’ve been doing a lot of research.’
‘Ah.’ He began to dress. He knew very well why the boy might have this subject on his mind. He wondered if his new second-in-command would approve more of the swimming if it had the same effect on his grandmother as it appeared to be having on an old dog. It was not an experiment he had been brave enough to attempt yet. He imagined the shock of being plunged into cold water for one so incredibly frail might kill first before cure. He ruffled the boy’s hair. ‘Come, I will outline your new duties as we return.’
‘Can I have a sword?’
‘Absolutely.’
‘Can I beofficiallyin charge of the telescope?’
Aleksey laughed inwardly. He had seen neither hide nor hair of Ben’s superb gift for many months for some reason, but suspected it was being squirrelled away somewhere in a small Devon cottage. ‘Main duty.’
‘Can I make Uncle Michael walk the plank?’
‘I will supply the wood.’
As they came back in sight of Guillemot, Aleksey saw Ben sitting on the steps of the patio, leaning back, eyes closed. Aleksey felt it was a neat trick to improve on Guillemot House, but somehow Benjamin Rider-Mikkelsen managed it. He put his hand to the boy’s back. ‘Go make sure your grandmother is plied with sherry. It takes the place of blood in the elderly.’
About to remonstrate with this logic, Miles also apparently spotted Ben. He smiled shyly and continued on his own.
Aleksey stopped to light a cigarette to give himself more time to admire the perfection before him. Obviously, Ben had heard them, but he hadn’t moved. His incredibly long legs were stretched out, ankles casually crossed, his broad strong shoulders straining the black shirt he was wearing. Relishing the fact that he, and he alone, could slide in behind and cross his equally long legs over Ben’s thighs and flick his wet hair over him, he did just that, pressing his cold body against the warm back. Ben had been drinking from the bottle of wine, and he passed it back. ‘Good swim?’
Aleksey took a swig from the bottle. ‘It was. Did you solve the star crisis?’
‘Yeah. Tim suggested we use the ladder from the boatshed.’
‘A typically boring professorial response.’ He took another drag on his cigarette then propped his chin on Ben’s shoulder. ‘Speaking of being boring, but when Jennifer arrives—’
