Priddywould have to ask Merou about the toilet thing.As for the sex...He closed his mouth firmly on the affirmation.He was suddenly,passionately certain that he shouldn’t breathe a word of hisexperiences to Geoff Blades.“They were just stories.They don’tmatter, do they?Apart from the thing about thedolphins.”
Geoff frowned.“The dolphins?Oh, yes, of course—I almostforgot why we were here.There’s an incredibly rare species,Delphinus cantans, almostcertainly extinct now.In the nineteenth century, though, ascientist called Alberts—marvellously level-headed fellow, sailedwith Darwin—surmised that sailors were misinterpreting sightingsofcantansasmermaids, based on some of its behaviours.”
Priddyhad had a long night, and Geoff had the rare gift of making eventhe most intriguing of subjects sound dull.Kit, having got overhis short rebellion, was watching him in adoration.Priddy blinkedhimself awake.“What does it do?”
“From Alberts’ observations, it appears to strand itselfvoluntarily on sharply inclined shores, where it could be sure ofreturning to the water.It would bask, and it seems to have had aresidual hair-mass on the back of its skull, which it would rubagainst the rocks as if to preen it.Also, Alberts wrote, in theright conditions, it would exhale through its blowhole with amusical intonation, possibly in order to attract amate.”
“It would comb its hair and sing?”
“Essentially.What do you think?”
“I think Alberts must have been on the rum.”
Kitelbowed him ferociously.“Priddy!”
“No, no.It does all sound rather bizarre.”Geoff bared histeeth at Priddy.“I welcome enquiring minds, especially if they’vegot a better idea.The next most likely explanation is that thesemen—these grizzled old sea dogs, with no more imagination than aturd—were seeing mermaids.What do you think aboutthat?”
Priddy got up and went to the window.His eye had been caughtby a little group of people in bright sailing gear, making theirway up from the shore.He didn’t like Geoff, and he didn’t wantthat to become apparent so quickly to Kit.He’d met the typebefore, behind desks in classrooms and at college.Enquiring mindswere about as welcome as a dose of clap, and they could put a spinon words liketurdwhich left a sting of insult in the air, safely indefinable.“I think,” he said distantly, leaning on the window ledge, “we havesome visitors.Are you expecting anyone, Kit?”
Kitlooked indefinably stung as well.“No,” he said, his eyes fixed onGeoff in reproach.“What sort of visitors?”
“Family, it looks like.Man and a woman and a couple ofkids.”
“Probably some off-season tourists wanting to see thelighthouse.I’ll nip out and tell them we’re not open to thepublic.”
Priddydecided that Kit and Geoff needed time alone.“I’ll go,” he said,and knew he was right when neither of them reminded him about hisdressing gown.Maybe Kit had learned to put a spin on things too,and could pass off Geoff’s mood as jealousy, or something elsepalatable to early-stage romance.Maybe he’d come back and findthem in a clinch amongst the high-tech binoculars and trackinggear.He pushed his feet into Kit’s wellies—another habit fromtheir shared childhood—and let himself out into theyard.
The man was carrying a baby.The other three—a woman and twokids in their early teens—were trudging along, heads down.Theydidn’t appear to be bothered by Priddy’s dressing gown either, andcame to a shambling halt in front of him when he ran to open thegate.“Who are you?”he asked, already knowing, hearing once againFlight Lieutenant Trewin’s voice in his head.Five people missing, three under eighteen, one ababy.
The man fell to his knees on the cobbles, careful even now notto drop the child.“Help us, please.We were shipwrecked.We’refrom theSweet Rose.”
Chapter Ten
PoorFlight Lieutenant Trewin.If Merou had thrown him half a Cornishmile, that was nothing by comparison with the story he was hearingnow.Priddy sat hunched up on a kitchen chair in a corner, keepingwell out of the way.Kit was dashing back and forth, trying toprovide tea, biscuits and brandy all at once to the castaways, andProfessor Geoff was leaning on the mantelpiece, his expressionstrangely avid.“So,” Trewin said, tapping at his iPad, “just toreview—you ran aground on Hell’s Teeth last Friday night, and youhave no idea where you’ve been since then?”
“No.We don’t know anything except what we’ve already toldyou.”The man—Michael, he was called, a pleasant-faced guy wholooked more like an accountant than a sailor—was still shivering.He had his arms clasped around as many of his family as he couldmanage, and his teeth were audibly chattering despite the blanketsPriddy had brought through from the cottage bedrooms, and thealuminium ones Trewin and his partner had piled on top.“We’ve beenkept—somewhere.They didn’t hurt us.They helped us, I think, butI’m buggered if I understand how.”
“Me too,” Trewin said fervently.“Kit, no brandy in those teas,please.Tell me again—just so I’m sure I’ve got my factsstraight—about thismembrane.”
“I know it sounds bonkers.Please don’t lock us up.My wifewill tell you the same, and Mikey and Susan.They’re sensiblechildren, not...”He shivered so hard that his tea spilled, andTrewin patted his arm.“Notimaginative.”
“God forbid.It’s all right, Mr Henderson.I just need as muchas you can recall while the events are still fresh, and then Daveand I are going to airlift the whole lot of you to hospital.Youwoke up after the shipwreck—underwater, as far as you were aware,and cocooned in some kind of transparent sleeping bag?”
“With lights in it.You’d better put everything down.Lightsrunning through, and what looked like blood vessels, everythingshining and pulsating.I was warm, and although I should’ve beenfrightened, I wasn’t.I could see Gwen and the kids lying therenear me, all in their own pods of this...this stuff.Except thebaby—she was with Gwen, lying on her tummy.I had no sense of time,or being hungry, or worrying about anything at all.I think I justwent to sleep.”
“For four days.”Trewin closed the iPad off.“All right.Justfor now, you keep on not worrying about anything at all.We’re justvery glad to have you back—we were about to call off thesearch.”
“Thank you for looking.So foolish of me to let us drift nearthose rocks.So expensive to bring the helicopters out, Iknow.”
GwenHenderson, who until now had remained speechless, suddenly satupright in her chair.“We could do a charity fun-run!”
Trewinhid his amusement behind a cough.“That would be very muchappreciated, ma’am, but that’s what search-and-rescue is for.Ijust wish I knew where all of you had been for the last fewdays.”
“Isn’t that a Cole & Brightman watch?”
Trewinglanced over his shoulder at Geoff, who had shifted from his slouchto focus an alert, almost predatory stare upon Michael Henderson’swrist.“Beg your pardon, sir?”
“The watch he’s wearing.If it’s the latest model, it’ll haveGPS on it.”
