Her attention was caught by the huge beast, and suddenly a change came over her as she stepped further into the water. ‘Much-mhara adharcach,’ she called out softly. Joel couldn’t make out a word she was saying, but she wasn’t talking to him. She seemed, although it was absolutely crazy, to be talking to the huge creature. Certainly it looked as if it were looking straight at her – at them – but that couldn’t be right, could it?
The thrashing tail seemed to quieten somewhat and Flora moved forwards, even though the water was up to her neck, and he wanted to grab her and hold her and keep her safe. He glanced back towards the beach. The flames – scores of them – roared high above the waves, the noise reaching them, but Flora was still talking quietly to the creature and, as he watched her, she put her hand out and touched the beast on its grey-blue flank, just once, and as she did so, quick as anything, the creature’s tail shot up and hit Flora on the side. It knocked her clear out of the water and through the air, and there was a bounding and a massive churn of the waves, and a huge splash and noise, and Joel felt himself almost slip under the water as he yelled and pushed forwards. He tripped and his head went under, and everything was churning beneath him. When he pulled it up again, he couldn’t see anything at all; his glasses had gone and he’d lost sight of the whale and lost sight of Flora and he could see nothing and hear nothing except the roar of the ocean and the cries of the lost.
Chapter Sixty-seven
Joel washed up on the shore.
By the time he had recovered his footing – if not his glasses – and started to fumble around, looking for Flora, calling her name, realising how freezing the water was, he saw that the sky was already lightening in this ridiculous place at the top of the world. A dawn was somehow coming. He looked around. The narwhal … The narwhal was gone. The great creature had somehow managed to turn itself around and get away from the island it had haunted all summer.
‘FLO-RAAAA!’
Nothing. The sea ahead was just starting to glow with the first rays of light of the morning.
‘FLOOO-RAA!’
He could hear nothing above the waves; his teeth were chattering. Then there was a noise behind him. He turned around, incredibly slowly.
All along the beach of the Endless stood a line of islanders, still brandishing their torches. And they were cheering and applauding.
In the middle of all the people was a pale figure with long hair the colour of the sea, and a green dress that clung to her like a mermaid’s flesh, and she stepped forward, looking as if she didn’t feel the cold in the slightest, and she opened up her arms. And he pulled himself back and away from the waves, looking out into the open sea one last time, thinking he could just – could he? – make out the shape of a fin in the very far distance.
He waded in to shore, utterly soaked, utterly freezing, straight into the arms of Flora, who wrapped them around his neck, equally soaked, and kissed him in front of the entire town.
Chapter Sixty-eight
‘Oh God,’ said Lorna, who had been waving a torch next to Saif, who’d wisely decided to stay on shore and try and persuade the more elderly and drunken residents not to get in the sea. ‘Oh God.’
Lorna was a little over-emotional and had been up all night.
Saif shook his head. ‘I know.’ He glanced up. ‘Would you mind coming and helping me with Colton?’
‘Of course not,’ said Lorna. Wild rumours had already been running riot around the Harbour’s Rest, unfortunately most of them correct. Together, with Fintan stumbling along behind him like a child, they managed to load him up onto one of the Rock’s golf carts to take him back to the Manse.
‘Is he going to be all right?’ whispered Lorna. Saif shook his head in a warning that she shouldn’t ask him about it.
‘Oh goodness,’ said Lorna and she helped him get the sleepy Colton down and undressed and into his pyjamas. Saif gave him a shot that should make him feel better and told the maid what to do.
It was fully light by the time they took the cart back across the island, but it didn’t seem like anyone was going to bed any time soon.
‘Well, that’s not how I usually expect weddings to turn out,’ said Lorna, making conversation.
Saif was tired and not concentrating and blurted out the first thing that was on his mind. ‘I thought you’d be with Innes anyway.’
Lorna turned to him in shock. ‘Of course I’m not with Innes! Why would you think that?’
Saif shrugged. ‘He’s very popular. Why wouldn’t you be?’
He wished he could keep the infernal tone of jealousy out of his voice. He couldn’t be jealous: it was ridiculous. Absolutely ridiculous.
‘Why wouldn’t I be?’ said Lorna. ‘Why wouldn’t I be?’
She clambered down and stood on the beach, the early rays of the sun hitting her bright hair. Saif got down onto the beach beside her.
‘Well, one, he’s practically my brother, and two …’
He stared at her. ‘Two? What is two?’
Lorna reached out her hands and said, as if he were a complete idiot, ‘Saif … two … is you.’
‘ABBA! ABBA!’
And then Ibrahim and Ash found their father and overwhelmed them both. They were overexcited, both of them babbling in a mixture of Arabic and English, had he SEEN it, had he SEEN the huge hawt, had he seen it, Abba? It was huge, it was amazing and it was night-time and only dark for a little bit, and the water was so cold, and there was a BIG MAGIC WHALE …
Lorna melted into the shadows, wishing the ground could swallow her up, but somehow, deep inside, glad. At least she’d said it. At least she didn’t have to go through the rest of her life turning down opportunities – Innes might not be the right thing for her, but it was definitely a start – or wishing for what might have been. Because she knew, she knew one hundred per cent, that it absolutely never could have been and never could be, and there was – even as she watched her friend walk up the beach in a daze, hand in hand with Joel – a satisfaction in that, if nothing else.
Chapter Sixty-nine
‘You saved her,’ said Flora.
‘How do you know it was a girl?’ said Joel later, as they were warming up in the huge bath at the Rock.
‘I just do,’ said Flora, but wouldn’t be drawn any more on what had happened.
‘You did it,’ said Joel. ‘With your magic powers. That are totally made up and I totally don’t believe in them …’
‘Good,’ said Flora. ‘Oh Christ. I should call Fintan. Maybe I’ll just go up there.’
Joel put his hand out. ‘You should probably give them a bit of time.’
Flora shook her head. ‘I can’t … I just can’t …’
‘There’ll be plenty of time to be with Fintan. In the weeks and the months …’
They had got into the bath together. Somehow it was the most vulnerable position imaginable: the two of them, back to chest.
‘The last time,’ said Flora, staring down at the water. ‘The last time … He looked after our mum. When I was … well. When I was working for you. But when I was too scared.’
She swallowed.
‘This time, I can be there for him. At least.’
He soaped her shoulders gently, marvelling once more at their pale shapely perfection, kissing her tenderly, wondering how close he’d come to nearly losing her.
‘Very close,’ said Flora suddenly.
‘What?’ said Joel, startled that she’d read his mind.
‘I like it,’ said Flora. ‘When we’re very close.’
She in turn couldn’t believe how different it was from the last time he’d been in this bath, at the very lowest ebb.
‘I need …’ She took his hand and placed it over her heart. ‘I need you to feel for me. And let me feel for you. I need to know you, and I need you to know me. And that is all I have to say.’ She took a breath. ‘Tell me everything about Colton.’
He half-smiled. ‘I can’t,’ he said one last time.
Then, slowly but deliberately, he turned her round. She stared into his eyes fearfully.
‘But if you like,’ he said, ‘I can tell you everything about me.’
She held his gaze for a long moment.
‘I would like that,’ she said.
Chapter Seventy
Fintan was standing, silent and brooding, by the window, the dawn light shining in.
Colton stirred.
‘Please,’ said Colton. ‘Please come and lie down with me.’