Chapter Twenty-Six
CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX
A bedraggled figure appeared in the open doorway. ‘You’d better come in.’
Resisting the urge to shout in relief, Lily stepped over the broken stone in the threshold of the building. Morven retreated to the shelter of the stone hearth where there was also a camping stove, a sleeping bag, a metal mug and an empty Pot Noodle tub.
‘Don’t say you slept here last night?’ Lily said.
‘’Course I did! I’ve stayed on Stark before.’
‘On your own?’
‘With Damon. And no , there’s nothing going on between us. Not like that. We’re both seventeen so we could do whatever we wanted to, if we wanted to, but – and not that it’s any of your business – Damon is gay.’ Morven rolled her eyes. ‘He’s in the closet at home so don’t tell anyone, but all his friends know. He can’t wait to get to college.’
Lily let this outpouring settle. ‘It’s none of my business.’
Morven scoffed, ‘You could have fooled me. You’re out here hounding me.’
‘I’m not hounding you. I’m here because I care what happens to you.’
Morven laughed and Lily braced herself for another tirade but instead the girl said: ‘You’d better come under here before you get too wet. The roof’s barely there.’
‘I don’t think I could possibly get any wetter, but thank you.’
Morven sat down, knees tucked to her chest, under the hearth. With some difficulty, Lily squeezed in at the opposite side, relieved to be out of the rain – and ecstatic to have found Morven safe and well.
‘You’re going to tell Sam and Auntie Elspeth where I am, aren’t you?’
‘I don’t have a choice. They’re going out of their minds with worry.’
‘Yeah …’
Lily thought of the radio in her pocket and went to pull it out.
Morven shrieked, ‘Don’t call them or I’ll run away!’
Yet she couldn’t go anywhere, Lily thought, but saw the panicked terror in Morven’s face and kept her hands in view.
‘OK, I’ll hold off calling for a minute, but I have to let them know you’re safe. They’re so worried.’
‘Just a minute more,’ Morven said, her voice pleading.
‘How did you get over here?’ Lily asked.
‘Damon brought me in his brother’s boat before dawn. I met him at the quayside. His brother didn’t realise I hadn’t told anyone I was coming.’
Lily resisted the urge to scream. ‘That sounds dangerous.’
‘Not for us! Damon was practically born in a boat. I could pilot an RIB over here if I had my own. Sam won’t let me use the Hydra or even practise. He says he’s afraid something will happen to me. It won’t. This proves it.’
‘Yeah. I can see that. But why didn’t you stay in one of the cottages? Sam said you had a key.’
‘Because I was hiding ,’ she said as if Lily was stupid. ‘And it wasn’t raining when I first got here. And anyway, I forgot the key, didn’t I?’
Lily saw the rucksack and camping lantern tucked in a niche under the hearth.
‘Looks like you thought of everything else,’ she said.
‘I did. I can survive without anyone’s help. I might just take off and leave. I’ll hitch, find a job on the mainland or in London. You started without going to uni.’
‘Yes, but ,’ Lily said carefully, ‘I had a lot of help and support.’
‘Your parents, you mean?’ Morven said contemptuously, picking up a pebble.
‘Yes, and I’m sure you would too. You must tell Sam – without blaming him – how you feel and what you want to do.’
‘He’s too busy … and that’s the thing!’ She tossed the pebble across the empty room, hitting the far wall. ‘I don’t know what I want to do.’
‘Don’t know, or are worried it’ll all go wrong if you try?’
‘It would.’
‘Why?’ Lily asked. ‘Tell me what the “it” is that would all go wrong?’
Morven shook her head. ‘You’ll laugh.’
‘Morven,’ Lily said patiently, ‘I’m the girl who told her parents I didn’t want to apply for uni. I wanted to run a market stall instead. No one had any idea that it would eventually lead to a successful business.’
‘I do want to go to uni … to Falmouth, to study Fine Art.’
‘Sounds like a great plan. Why can’t you?’
‘Because Dad’s in the States and might drag me back at any moment, if he cares enough. Because someone’s got to pay for it – and I can’t ask Sam or Auntie Elspeth to help … they don’t have the money and I wouldn’t take it from them anyway,’ she said fiercely.
‘OK,’ Lily said, aware that everyone else was getting drenched, frantically searching for Morven – yet also aware that this might be her only chance to find out how the girl really felt. ‘Let’s imagine, let’s say in your wildest dreams, that you could afford it. That it wasn’t a problem.’
Morven hugged her knees, avoiding Lily’s eyes. ‘I – I still couldn’t.’
‘Why not?’
‘Because – I – because—’ She kicked at an empty Red Bull can. ‘I’m not good enough! That’s why.’
‘OK. You probably won’t believe any of what I’m going to say but I’m not here to blow smoke up your arse.’
Morven laughed.
‘You know I speak plainly. Too plainly sometimes.’
‘Like, yeah!’
‘So, I’ll be honest. I’ve seen your work. Before I even knew who’d created the artwork on the walls of my cottage, I was impressed. Very impressed. You have heaps of talent; your work is original and – affecting. It made me feel something. It has a power born of this landscape.’
Morven still wasn’t looking at her, but she was listening. Listening hard.
‘I would probably stock it at Lily Loves, even now.’
The girl’s head snapped up. ‘Probably?’ she said indignantly.
Lily smiled. ‘Ah, some artistic pride. I like it.’
‘I don’t care if you’d stock it.’
‘That’s fine, but you do care about going to uni. So, you are good enough, more than good enough, and you must follow your dream. There will be a way,’ Lily said, hoping that Sam and Nate would agree. If not, she’d have to intervene. ‘You need to have self-belief and to fight for what you want.’
Morven was silent, drawing in the ashes with one finger.
‘I could try, I guess.’
‘Could?’
‘I will try. Look, I need to tell you something. It was me who was spooking you.’
Lily let out a mock gasp. ‘Really? Who knew?’
‘You might have guessed.’
‘I didn’t. Not until I saw the pebbles. You do have a distinctive style, Morven.’
‘Shit.’ She heaved a dramatic sigh. ‘I’m sorry for scaring you.’
Wow! thought Lily. ‘Can I ask why you did it?’
Morven couldn’t meet her eyes, then muttered, ‘I guess I thought you might be a stuck-up cow, from what I’d read online. And you weren’t very friendly when you first arrived at the quay.’
Ouch , thought Lily, remembering her obsession with the phone and rudeness to Sam afterwards.
‘So, you disliked me and thought you’d spook me?’
‘It wasn’t just that!’ Morven said then swallowed. ‘I suppose I was jealous.’
‘Jealous?’ Lily exclaimed. ‘Why?’
‘Because Sam never has time for me. He never has time for anyone, but all of a sudden, he’s all over you and everything is about you …’
‘I’m his guest,’ Lily said gently. ‘It’s his job to look after his guests.’
‘Sure it is,’ Morven said. ‘And I feel stupid now, but I was worried that you and he were getting too close and you’d take him away and I’d be kicked out and have nowhere to go.’
Morven hugged her knees again and cast her gaze downwards. When she looked up, her eyes were shining with unshed tears.
Lily couldn’t reply for a moment as a lump formed in her throat. Morven was exposed as a scared, lonely, abandoned child. Lily had experienced similar feelings after the business on the web, and again when it had resurfaced. She had a loving family and friends and colleagues who cared, yet she had felt that no one could understand her situation or what she was going through.
‘That would never happen,’ she said firmly. ‘Never. He’s a good guy, your uncle,’ she continued, reminding Morven of their relationship. ‘He’d move heaven and earth to help you. He’s got so many people out looking for you now.’
After a dramatic sigh, clearly calculated to keep Lily in suspense, Morven nodded. ‘OK. I suppose he must have been a bit worried.’
‘A bit worried …’ Lily restrained herself from swearing and blowing up the fragile bridge she’d built with the girl. Besides, Sam and Elspeth would make her fully aware of the anguish she’d caused, without Lily adding her thoughts. ‘The most important thing now is letting Sam and Elspeth and your friends know you’re safe. Believe me, they care about you more than you could ever imagine.’
Morven started stuffing rubbish into a bag and Lily joined in, aware of Sam and Elspeth waiting nearby, sick with anxiety. At any moment they might call the police.
‘I’m going to call Sam on my radio to say we’re heading to the retreat, OK?’ she said finally.
‘Yes.’ Morven nodded, still looking apprehensive.
‘Good.’ Lily exhaled in relief and pushed herself up to her feet.
‘On one condition,’ added Morven.
‘What’s that?’
‘You like Sam, don’t you?’ the girl said, her eyes gleaming with triumph. ‘Admit it. You fancy him.’
‘Morven!’
‘True, though?’
Lily was in turmoil. There was no way she was admitting a personal detail like that to anyone. Or to herself.
‘Yes, I like him, but today,’ she said, deploying a politician’s tactic, ‘is about you. Your welfare and your future. So, come on,’ she added, ‘before your auntie has a heart attack and your uncle goes out of his mind.’
Clutching her rucksack to her chest, Morven started to move towards the door, then said, ‘Wait!’
Lily’s heart sank. She gripped the radio, about to push send. What now?
‘For what it’s worth, that Tyrone deserved what you said. He is totally devoid of talent.’