Chapter 23
I woke with a surge of nausea, followed by a gasp for air. My eyes were open, but my vision was blurred. I coughed and felt a hand on my back. A person. People around me in orange vests, but I couldn’t make out who they were. My head ached.
I gulped the air, reaching out with sudden, jerking movements, as if I was falling.
‘It is OK, Margot.’ A voice. A voice I knew.
I looked to my right and Antoine came into view. He was leaning down beside me. I glanced around at the other faces looking down at me. Sébastian, Lili and Delphine.
‘Breathe, Margot. Les sauveteurs are here. Give her some space,’ Antoine said, and everyone who didn’t look official moved out of the way as I coughed again. And I don’t know how long I lay there and coughed, but eventually, with an aching chest and sore throat, someone helped me sit up.
A blanket was wrapped round my shoulders, and it was Antoine who hunched down beside me.
‘What happened?’ I asked Antoine when I’d finished another coughing fit.
‘You almost drowned,’ he said, and his voice cracked as he said it.
I found his hand in the sand and grabbed hold of it. ‘You saved me?’ I asked, looking up at him.
He shook his head. ‘I was too late.’ Antoine looked down the beach at something. He stopped to listen to the two guys in orange talking French.
Then one of them knelt down at my side.
‘Can you tell me your name?’ he asked.
‘Margot Ryan.’
‘And you know where you are?’
‘Biarritz. The beach.’
‘Good. Any pain anywhere? Your neck, back, head?’ He gently examined my head.
I shook it. ‘I don’t think so.’
He took my pulse and asked me questions about my breathing. When he was satisfied, he stood up.
‘There is an ambulance on its way.’
‘Was it you who saved me?’ I asked, my voice weak and cracked. Antoine had come back and was listening to our conversation.
The man shook his head. ‘We got the call, but by the time we got there you were on your way out of the ocean, so we took you from there.’ He smiled.
‘But who then?’ I looked at him for answers.
‘I don’t know, he disappeared when he realized you would be OK. Good swimmer. Probably a local who did not want to do the paperwork,’ he said. ‘But it was lucky that they were here.’
‘Margot! We were not at the beach this morning. Antoine, he phoned us.’ Sébastian held my hand and cried, like he just couldn’t help it.
‘It’s OK. I’m OK.’
Most of the spectators had disappeared after Antoine’s order, but Lili and Delphine were still there, just holding each other on the sand. Lili’s head was buried in Delphine’s shoulder.
The coughing fits had died down. ‘I need to find out who saved me. I need to thank him,’ I said, my throat sore.
‘Delphine,’ Sébastian choked out.
Delphine came to my other side, out of breath, and laid her hand gently on my shoulder.
‘Oh, Margot.’ Then she hugged me, and I could feel the shake of her body as she did. ‘I am so happy you are OK.’
‘Me too,’ said Lili quietly.
‘Ah, here is your family, I ran to get them,’ Delphine said and pointed down the beach. I saw Mum dashing towards me.
‘Margot, oh, Margot.’ Mum dropped to the sand as Sébastian, Delphine and Lili moved out of the way.
Tears were streaming down her face. She took my face in her hands and just looked into my eyes. ‘I love you so much, don’t ever do that again,’ she said, kissing my forehead.
And then Dad came with Rue and Wren. And it was Rue who hugged me first. So tightly I thought I might throw up.
‘Ruthie, careful, love.’ Dad’s voice, but it didn’t sound like him.
Wren sat by my side with a tear-stained face. I reached out my hand to find hers and squeezed it. ‘I’m OK,’ I said.
I could see Dad talking to Antoine.
Rue released her grip, and I could breathe more easily again. ‘Mum and Dad thought you were going to die. But I knew you wouldn’t do that to us,’ she said, her face red from where she must have been crying.
‘I wouldn’t,’ I said.
And then I was surrounded by French paramedics, lifted on to a stretcher and carried towards an ambulance.
Mum came with me and Dad said he’d follow with Rue and Wren.
And through the open door I saw Antoine standing there. He was examining something. A necklace on a blue cord. One that looked like a shark’s tooth. Like one I’d seen before, but I couldn’t place it. I couldn’t think properly.
And Antoine looked like he’d seen a ghost.