Chapter Nine
CHAPTER NINE
An hour later, Lily was trapped on a small ledge of rock.
She’d grazed her hands trying to climb up the rough cliffs and waves were now breaking over her knees. No one was coming to her rescue and the tide could only recently have turned, which meant there were hours to go until it started to recede.
The fishing boat was at anchor further out. She could make out the man hauling in his pots. Was it Rory? The yacht had gone, although another had sailed past in the opposite direction.
Even though she was trying to stay calm, every moment brought fresh dread as the tide flooded in. The waves seemed to roll in in sets, with much larger ones every ninety seconds or so. She’d counted the interval: one elephant, two elephant.
She’d given up shouting. It was pointless and only made her throat raw, and besides, she needed to conserve her strength for what now seemed to be her only course of action: she must enter the water and try to swim back to the little cove. It was about two hundred metres away. She had a badge for a thousand metres. She would be OK.
Even as she told herself this, she knew she was being ridiculous. Any serious swimming she’d done had been at school. Even if she’d kept up her visits to the pool at the health club, how could she battle the cold, churning water with rocks lying in wait under the treacherous Scilly surface? Sam had said that the jetty was the only safe passage to the shore, apart from risking holing a small boat by running it onto the beach.
Yet Lily had no other choice but to swim. She’d weighed up the risks, as she had many times in her business life, and calculated that this was the only course of action left open to her. The tide would carry on rolling in, the waves growing bigger and swamping the rocks on which she was now perilously perched.
She pulled off her trainers and stuffed them in a rough niche above her, though she may as well have flung them into the water. They were her favourite pair, bought the day that the new design had been released. They’d cost two hundred pounds. How ludicrous they seemed now.
She took a deep breath. Swim or die. Both, probably.
She turned towards the cliff face, lowering her foot until it felt a slender ledge. The sharp rocks hurt her feet, though a few grazed toes were the least of her worries. Slowly, she let herself down to a narrow platform six feet below, that would soon be buffeted by the waves.
She had sixty seconds left before the big set rolled in. A quick check for hidden rocks during a moment when the water receded, and … jump .
Instantly she regretted her leap. She was stunned by the icy cold and disorientated, but kicked her legs until she reached the surface, gasping for air and thrashing at the water in a parody of front crawl. The swell and cold were way worse than she’d anticipated: like being tumbled inside a washing machine. She continued to flounder, kicking as hard as she could in an attempt to move forward, but the little cove seemed to come no closer. Her limbs were growing heavier much quicker than she had expected.
She screamed ‘Help!’ and then heard the roar of water. The ninety seconds had ticked away, the next set of waves just a heartbeat away. Her last heartbeat.
She felt the swell lift her, closed her eyes and dived under before the wave engulfed her. She’d closed her lips tightly but water still entered her mouth. Everything was a churning mass of green; she didn’t know which way was up or whether at any second she’d be pushed down onto rocks or hurled towards the cliffs.
She attempted to breathe but began to choke on the salty water.
This was the end, then .
Her parents’ Ruby wedding party flashed into her mind. She would never have the chance to celebrate their next. She would never see her nieces again. All those missed occasions: the anniversary party, forgetting to pick the girls up from the theatre, neglecting her friends … what she would give for that time back.
Above all, when she reached the other side, would Cara forgive her for throwing her life away?