Chapter 21
MARTHA
My head felt like it was stuffed with lead when I woke up and my throat seemed to have a million needles lodged in it.
I was actually amazed that I’d been able to sleep as the bus was so shaky.
There was a horrible droning noise coming from the engine and the air was stuffy.
I guessed that dosing myself up with those tablets had aided my sleep but hadn’t made me feel much better, though.
I looked across to see if Erin was asleep on the opposite seats but she wasn’t there.
I looked down the bus to see if she’d gone to sit somewhere else and then behind me too, but she wasn’t on the bus.
It took my heavy head a moment to process this and then I could feel the stirrings of panic beginning to travel up my body.
I could see that Sam wasn’t on the bus either.
‘Harrison,’ I said groggily, turning around to face him. He had sunk down in his seat, his longs legs stretched out underneath my seat and his head resting on his chest. He was snoring softly. ‘Harrison.’
He opened his eyes, one at a time, and lifted his head to look at me.
‘Yes?’ he said, a little bewildered.
‘Sam and Erin aren’t on the bus,’ I said.
He rubbed a hand across his mouth and sat more upright, then he glanced across at where Sam should have been. Harrison got up and looked behind him. His cameraman was fast asleep in his seat, his camera slumped next to him.
‘Gaz,’ he said, waking the man up instantly. ‘Where’s Sam? Where’s Erin?’
Gaz immediately stood up and scratched his head and if the situation hadn’t been serious, it might have been comical.
‘Where’s Noah?’ I asked him.
What had happened to everyone while I’d been asleep? It was as if aliens had come down and abducted them all.
‘Shit,’ Gaz said. ‘I think we’ve left them at the services.’
‘How on earth did that happen? Surely the driver does a head count. How long have we been on the road since the services?’
‘They swapped drivers and gave everyone plenty of time for a break,’ Gaz said.
‘Noah went to ride in the car with Cally. He said there was little point in both of us being on board, and he wanted to get ahead of the bus and be there when you arrived in Winnipeg. Anyway, I lost the coin toss. We’ve been driving for two hours since the stop. ’
‘For goodness’ sake,’ I said. ‘Phone Noah now and find out whether he knows if they got a lift. It’s not likely but I want you to check before I turn this bus around. It’s two thirty in the morning.’
‘Sam doesn’t have his bag,’ Harrison said.
‘Neither does Erin.’
I could see her rucksack and her coat on the seat opposite. Sam’s was there on the seat behind.
‘Erin might have alerted Noah with the tracker,’ Gaz said, taking out his phone and tapping on the screen. ‘I’ve had nothing from Sam.’
‘She doesn’t have it,’ I said.
‘Neither does Sam,’ said Harrison. ‘Or any money. I’ve got it all.’
I was about to say how ridiculous to not have any money on him, but I realised that I had never actually given the belt over to Erin.
Gaz came off a heated call and shook his head to us both.
‘Right,’ I said. ‘It’s time to turn around.’
I marched down to the front to speak to the driver but he was adamant he couldn’t possibly turn the bus around and drive back.
‘You’re not the only people on board,’ he said. ‘And they’re not children. They can get a taxi. I’m sorry but I’m on a schedule I can’t change.’
They couldn’t get a taxi with no money but I wasn’t about to tell him that.
I was about to say it was his fault for not checking them back on board but turned away instead.
It wasn’t going to change anything and passengers were beginning to grumble about the chatter that had woken them up. I walked back up the bus to Gaz.
‘Phone Noah. He has to go back and get them,’ I said. ‘Sod the show.’
‘I agree,’ said Harrison.
I sat back down and Harrison came to sit next to me.
‘At least they’re together,’ he said, but I couldn’t take comfort from that. Erin hated Sam. He wasn’t a decent person. ‘Sam is an exceptional man. He’ll look after Erin, please don’t worry.’
‘She can’t stand him,’ I said, nervously turning my mother’s wedding ring on my finger.
I’d taken off my own wedding ring years ago when Mike left me and replaced it with my mother’s.
Theirs was a perfect marriage, if there was such a thing.
They had their ups and downs of course, but they rode them united.
Mum had died a week after Dad went. She just wasn’t prepared to live without him.
‘What on earth did he do to deserve that?’ Harrison asked me. ‘He’s literally the nicest guy I know.’
‘Their first encounter in the hotel back in Vancouver,’ I said.
Surely Harrison could realise how that would have bothered her.
‘I didn’t know they met. Sam never said.’
‘They met in the bar. Erin told him all about her being on The Trip of a Lifetime and he pretended not to know anything about it,’ I said and then stopped. I wasn’t going to drop in the rest of their conversation. I didn’t look good in that part of it.
‘What an idiot. I’ve no idea why he did that.’
‘Game play,’ I said, my voice steely. ‘Perhaps he learned from the master.’
‘Look, Martha,’ he said and I couldn’t pretend that him saying my name didn’t do something to me.
It was his direct gaze as well. The bus was dark but the glow from the reading lamp being used by the person sitting in front of me gave us enough light to see each other.
And we were close too, unnervingly close.
‘I think it’s time we cleared up what happened in Madrid. I think about it a lot, actually.’
I was going to ask him what he thought about.
Was it us and that night we spent together, or was it how he raced to the finish after making sure I missed the train.
Either way, I thought about all of that too.
But I didn’t get to ask him because we were interrupted by Gaz.
I’d forgotten he was even there. And then I remembered my main focus – Erin.
I wouldn’t be discussing the past when the present was so important and besides, Noah might not be here with his camera in my face, but Gaz was and didn’t drama look great on TV.
‘Firstly, I’ve been given a bollocking for not making sure Erin and Sam got back on the coach and secondly, Cally and Noah have turned around and gone back for them. I am sorry I fell asleep. I think I may have a touch of what you’ve got, Martha,’ he said.
I dug in my bag and handed him the packet of paracetamol Cally had given me.
‘Don’t take too many,’ I said. ‘They knock you out.’
‘I think I’ll give it a miss then,’ he said, handing them back. ‘I’m in enough trouble.’
So am I, I thought as I chose to move across to Erin’s seat. Nothing good could come from a heart-to-heart with Harrison. I didn’t glance back his way but instead leaned my head against the glass and looked out into the blackness and waited to hear news from Gaz.
It came an hour and a half later as he sat down heavily in the seat next to me. My head was cold from the glass and I was still feeling pretty awful but I’d take that to know that Erin, and I would also say Sam, were safe.
‘Cally and Noah just arrived,’ he said, his expression a little alarmed.
‘And?’ Harrison said from across the aisle.
‘And they’re not there.’