Was he waiting for Ore? Daniel was driving himself crazy, totally unsure whether he was accurately reading into Claude’s actions.
Chuck wandered out onto the deck, slipping the phone from his ear and back into his pocket. ‘Sorry about that, folks. Are we there yet?’
‘Yes, Mr Regas, just waiting for the dinghy to come back.’
‘Good job, Danny boy.’
Daniel cringed. He hadn’t thought it could get much worse than Dan, yet here they were.
‘Where’s our dear lady journalist?’ Chuck asked, holding his hand to shield himself from the sun as he identified the five figures bumping over the waves.
‘She’szeik… how do you say that in English?’
Chuck shrugged. ‘Christ, Claude, I don’t know, Flemish is hardly a universal language.’ Chuck’s tone was lightly mocking. He chuckled to himself, but Daniel noticed it falter quickly into silence in the face of Claude’s piercing stare.
‘Sick, she is being sick,’ Claude said flatly. How strange it was to see Chuck embroiled in a power dynamic where he was not in the driving seat.
‘Poor thing,’ Chuck replied meekly. Claude said nothing, simply turning to look out to sea.
The three men stood, silently watching as the dinghy pulled up to shore in the distance, and the passengers got out. As it sped back towards them, Ore and Nicole emerged from below deck. Ore was looking worse for wear, ashen-faced with a film of sweat coating her forehead.
‘We’ll be on firmer ground soon enough, just one short little ride further,’ Nicole said soothingly, as she guided Ore to where the men were standing. Ore looked like even the mention of ‘one short little ride’ was enough to make her vomit. But she nodded stoically.
‘Are you feeling better?’ The sympathy seemed alien coming from Claude’s mouth, Daniel thought.
‘Yes, thank you, Claude.’ Ore managed a small smile, and Claude returned something similar, although it didn’t warm his eyes like it did hers.
‘Everyone ready?’ It was Oscar, calling out from the boat.
Everyone apart from Nicole, who was helping Ore with hers, donned their life jackets and climbed in. It was a bit of a tight squeeze with five passengers. Ore was sandwiched between Daniel and Claude. As Oscar drove the boat towards the island, Daniel tried to think of anything but the overwhelming awareness that his arm and leg were pressed up against Ore’s.
