Chapter Thirty-Seven
CHAPTER THIRTY-SEVEN
Lily slung her rucksack over her shoulders and stepped off the tourist ferry onto the quay at Bryher. A week, she’d been away, almost a whole week – and yet it felt like a year.
Over the weekend she’d managed to book a last-minute flight to Newquay from London City Airport and connected to an afternoon shuttle to Scilly. A car to the harbour, the passenger ferry to Bryher, and now she was here in the sunshine, the blue waters shimmering.
With her hair under a baseball cap, wearing shorts and a hoodie, she hoped she’d be taken for any other holidaymaker out for a day’s walking. Not a deranged woman embarking on the biggest gamble of her life.
She set off along the path to Hell Bay House, stopping at the top to catch her breath.
The house shimmered in the sunshine, with the bay stretching ahead in front of it. The tide was out as far as she’d ever seen it: the sandbanks lying like stepping stones. If Sam was on Stark, she could almost walk across. Elspeth had told her it was possible once in a blue moon.
A glint of light drew her eye. The Land Rover was parked on the driveway … which meant he was at home.
Her stomach knotted and then tightened.
This was a huge risk. Leaving the business – again – and telling Richie she was off sick with a bug. She’d never done such a thing before and wouldn’t have been impressed if an employee had. Yet these were extraordinary times, so she forgave herself this once.
The rucksack on her back felt comfortingly normal and she set off down the hill on the path that led to the rear of the house. Even with her eyes closed, the scent of honeysuckle drifting on the breeze would have told her she was in the garden. The flowers seemed brighter than ever: crimson geraniums, mauve agapanthus, yellow daisies nodding their heads in the breeze.
Familiar memories and anticipation made her heart beat faster.
She half-expected to see Sam or Morven in the kitchen window as she went straight up to the back door. It was open slightly, which reinforced her idea that someone was in. She might be seconds away from Sam: moments from explaining why she’d left work and travelled here on a mad impulse …
‘Hello!’ she called. ‘Sam?’
There was no answer but the kitchen door was open a sliver, so she pushed it and stepped inside.
‘Sam? It’s Lily,’ she said, walking into the kitchen. Yet while there were coffee mugs on the table by an open cookbook and some mail, there was no answer. She listened hard but heard only the wind rustling the shrubs outside.
Onwards through the kitchen she went, calling: ‘Anyone home? Sam? Morven?’
Still, thick silence, not even the tell-tale creak of a floorboard upstairs.
She poked her head around the sitting-room door but by this point had surmised there was no one in. Someone must have left the kitchen door open so they couldn’t have gone far, but then again, this was Scilly – a place where people did leave doors unlocked.
She shrugged off her backpack and sat on the sofa, calming herself.
What to do now?
She could hardly hunt all over Bryher for Sam. Suddenly she felt incredibly foolish and her bravado dropped off a cliff. Why had she thought it was a good idea simply to head down here unannounced? The sensible thing would be to call him and find out where he was, so she took her phone from her pocket and dialled his number.
It went straight to voicemail. Lily left a message: ‘Hi, Sam. Lily here. Can you call me as soon as you get this, please?’
If he was on Stark he might not answer at all and, whatever else occurred, she wasn’t going to be able to get back to the mainland today. She’d need a place to stay.
How had she not given that a thought until now? If it wasn’t to be Stark or Hell Bay, she’d have to find accommodation – or stay with Elspeth, which would be excruciating if her gamble had failed and it turned out Sam didn’t want her there.
She’d been so bound up in her determination to surprise him that she hadn’t thought through the practicalities.
Thinking on the hoof, she decided the only thing to do would be to head to the Quayside Café and find Elspeth to see if she knew where Sam was.
‘Oh!’
Lily almost jumped off the sofa. A loud bang had come from the kitchen, the sound of a door slamming.
‘Sam?’
She hurried through the hall to find the heavy oak door between it and the kitchen had slammed shut in the wind.
‘Hello?’
The kitchen was empty, the back door wide open and the curtains fluttering. Papers and leaflets were scattered over the tiles so she went to pick them up. There were a couple of utility bills, a leaflet about mini-diggers and a card that had fallen open.
She put the junk mail on the table but kept the card in her fingers. It was too late to unsee it, with its painting of a beautiful bay, the message in neat handwriting and the signature at the bottom.
Dear Sam,
I bet you’re surprised to hear from me after so long and by snail mail too, but I saw this card in a gallery and it reminded me of happier times. Do you remember when we took the Hydra over to Tresco and had a picnic in Apple Tree Bay? How could either of us forget …
Anyway, I’ve taken a month’s leave from work and I’m staying with my parents in Penzance for a few days.
I know it’s been a while, and that we haven’t kept in touch, but I keep thinking of that 28 miles of sea between us – such a tiny distance after the 10,000 that have separated us for the past couple of years.
There was so much left unsaid when we parted. I think it would be good for both of us to set things straight, don’t you?
It’s a long shot and short notice but if you’re on the mainland, maybe we can meet up in the next couple of days? I had thought of coming over to Bryher but it seemed a step too far to land on you without a warning after all this time.
Anyway, it would be really lovely to see you again.
Rhiannon x
Lily held the card in her fingertips. It was dated a couple of days previously and had been left on the table before it had blown onto the floor. Sam had made no attempt to hide it. In fact, if it had been blown off the table, had it been up on display? Had he decided, upon reading it, to take Rhiannon up on her offer to meet?
The note sounded very nostalgic, regretful even – was it a veiled plea to rekindle their old relationship? Rhiannon must have regrets if she’d broken her silence to ask to meet him, and Lily knew Sam had been devastated when they’d split up. How could he resist a request like that?
Her stomach turned over.
How stupid she felt for turning up unannounced at his home like this!
Her fingers weren’t quite steady as she replaced the card on the table and hurried out by the front door.
Feeling more dejected by the second, she was about to take the path back to the quay when she spotted two figures heading towards the house from Hell Bay.
She jogged over to meet Morven and Damon carrying fold-up easels and kids’ buckets.
Morven looked her up and down. ‘What the hell are you doing here?’
The typical greeting was momentarily comforting. ‘I was looking for Sam but he’s not at home.’
‘That’s because he’s gone to St Mary’s to get a flight to the mainland.’
Lily’s legs buckled slightly. All her worst fears were confirmed.
‘Did he say why?’ she asked, already knowing and dreading the answer.
Morven shrugged. ‘Nope.’
Lily almost screamed. Only Morven could be so lacking in curiosity.
‘Nothing at all?’
‘He just said he was going to the mainland and to tell Elspeth when I saw her, he’d explain the rest later. He was in a rush. It wasn’t that long ago. He might still be at the airport.’ Morven wrinkled her nose in puzzlement. ‘Anyway, you still haven’t said why you’re here out of the blue. Thought you weren’t coming back until the launch of the retreat?’
‘I took a few days off,’ Lily said, not exactly lying. ‘I was hoping to see Sam but if he’s already at the airport, I’ll have missed him. I’ll never get there in time.’ Despair washed over her.
‘If you got a move on, you might catch him,’ Morven said. ‘And if you’ve come all this way, it must be important?’ She gave Lily a smug smile, clearly wanting to provoke a response.
‘It is. I really wanted to talk to him … but it’s too late.’ In every way , Lily thought.
‘Not if we take you.’ She glanced at the silent Damon. ‘In your brother’s boat.’
Damon finally spoke. ‘It’s got a new outboard. I’ve been dying to try it.’
‘What will your brother say?’
‘Nothing. He’s in Gran Canaria with his girlfriend.’ His eyes gleamed with excitement but Lily was torn.
‘Do you want to go or not?’ Morven said.
No matter how hurtful the news, Lily had to know where she stood with Sam, and now was the time to be honest and not to shrink away from hard truths. It was time to take her courage in her hands.
‘Yes. I do.’
‘Come on, then!’ Morven said and hared off towards the quay.
Lily tried to call Sam as they jogged along but her calls went straight to voicemail. How had she ever thought it was a good idea to get a lift with two mad teenagers in a tiny RIB with an overpowered engine?
She clung to the straps of the boat for dear life as the craft smacked over the swell with Damon at the helm. Morven was laughing and speaking to him, though Lily couldn’t hear a word above the roar of the outboard and the slap of waves against the hull every few seconds. Within minutes she was soaked through, but being wet was the least of her worries. Staying alive was the priority, with Damon whizzing past razor-sharp rock pinnacles. She didn’t dare try to call Sam again.
Somehow they survived, and Morven tied up at the pontoon at St Mary’s while Damon ushered Lily onto the back of his brother’s quad bike and set off along the main street and up the hill towards the airport.
He dropped her off outside the terminal, sodden and shaken to bits. ‘I’ll park the bike and hang around in case you need a lift.’
Lily ran inside to find the terminal almost deserted and a plane taxiing along the runway.
‘Is that the flight to Land’s End?’ she said to a uniformed man at the check-in desk.
‘It is.’
‘I’ve missed it!’
The plane hurtled towards the end of the runway.
‘It was fully booked anyway,’ the man said.
Lily’s heart sank into her soggy trainers as the plane soared off over the cliff. ‘I was looking for Sam Teague. You don’t know if he was on board?’
He sucked in a breath. ‘Sorry, I can’t give out information about passengers.’
Although ready to burst into tears, Lily restrained herself. ‘I understand that.’
‘Uncle Jack!’
The check-in man grinned. ‘What you doing here, Damon?’
‘I gave Lily a lift.’
Lily looked from one to the other. ‘This is your uncle?’
‘Yeah,’ Damon replied as if she should have telepathically known that.
‘You didn’t say you were with Damon,’ Uncle Jack said with an eye roll, ‘or I’d have told you Sam was on board straightaway.’
Finally defeated, Lily collapsed onto a seat.
‘I’m sorry you’ve missed him,’ Jack said, sympathetic now.
Lily nodded. ‘Is there another flight to Cornwall this afternoon?’
‘Nothing off the islands from here today.’
‘Helicopter?’ she said hopefully.
‘One, but you’ll never get to Tresco in time for it.’
Lily felt drained. ‘OK, thanks.’
Damon sat next to her. ‘We could try going to Penzance in the RIB,’ he said. ‘But it would take ages and I’m not sure the tank holds enough fuel.’
‘God, no!’ Lily cried, at the thought of a deep-sea crossing over the world’s busiest shipping lane in a rubber dinghy. ‘I mean, thank you for the offer but I wouldn’t put you in danger.’
‘Could be pretty awesome, though,’ he said, his eyes lit with zeal. ‘I could take some spare cans of fuel.’
‘I don’t think that would be a good idea,’ she insisted. ‘I’ll try to call Sam when he lands. He’ll be there in ten minutes.’
‘Oh. OK.’ Damon subsided like a sunken cake. ‘Suppose I should wait here?’
‘No, thanks. You go back to Morven. I’ll take a taxi to the port if I need to.’
‘We’ll hang about down there in case you need a boat back.’
‘Thanks.’
Damon slouched off, leaving Lily battling her emotions. It was excruciating to think she’d dropped everything to see Sam when he was clearly travelling to see another woman. She felt foolish for thinking her feelings for him were reciprocated. But she also felt confused because she was normally a good judge of character, and she had never thought Sam would do something like this after the life-changing experience they had shared on Stark. She owed it to him to give him an opportunity to at least explain before she made her way back to London.
The next twenty minutes were agony. Finally, her phone lit up.
As Lily answered, Sam launched a barrage of questions: Are you OK? What’s happened? Where are you? I’ve a ton of missed calls and messages from you. I had to turn off my phone during the flight.’
‘At the airport on St Mary’s.’
Silence. ‘St Mary’s? What are you doing there?’
‘Looking for you,’ Lily said. ‘I’ve not long landed at Land’s End airport. I thought you’d gone to Penzance …’ she said, regretting the words as soon as they left her mouth.
‘I am going to Penzance.’ He sounded completely confused. ‘How do you know that?’
Lily sank into complete misery. ‘I saw a card from Rhiannon in your house.’
‘You read it?’
‘Yes. And I’m sorry. I don’t know what to say …’
There was a long pause during which Lily could almost hear the beating of her heart, before he spoke again. ‘Stay exactly where you are. I’m coming home. We need to talk.’