The Weekend Escape, page 17
‘It’s okay.’ Lyndsey patted her shoulder again, carefully. ‘You need to rest.’
Amanda murmured something else that could’ve been an objection, but she made no move to get up.
The others exchanged worried glances. ‘She’s half-asleep,’ Juliet said in a whisper. ‘It’s nothing.’
‘Are you sure?’ Lyndsey’s mouth had gone dry. ‘What if—?’
‘It’s nothing,’ Juliet repeated, firmly. ‘She’s just woozy from the painkillers.’
Lyndsey lifted her gaze to meet Val’s eyes. ‘Val?’
‘I mean, it’s possible.’ Val shrugged. ‘Everyone reacts a little differently to tablets.’
‘Maybe you should quit giving them to her, then.’
‘She’s in pain. I know what I’m doing.’
‘It’s not even your medication. The label on the box has someone else’s name on it.’
Val’s forehead creased into a frown. ‘Has everyone been going through my property today?’ she demanded. ‘What the hell happened to privacy?’
‘We don’t have time for this,’ Juliet said. She’d changed into a lightweight T-shirt and jogging shorts. ‘I want to get across the Sound before it gets dark. Shit. I knew I should’ve brought my wetsuit. I even laid it out on the bed before I left, but I thought, no, we’re not planning to go in the sea, so I won’t need it.’ She glowered to herself. ‘I knew I should’ve brought it. I’m supposed to be organised.’
Lyndsey looked back at Amanda, who appeared to have dozed off again. It was as though that bad moment, when Amanda had called her by the wrong name, had never happened. ‘What if this isn’t a side-effect of the painkillers?’ she asked. ‘What if she’s getting sick? Remember how Bobbie was acting? What if—’
‘Then we need to get the helicopter here immediately. It’s more urgent than ever.’
Sonia was busy towelling her hair dry. ‘I still say it’s impossible. Have you ever heard of anyone swimming across the Sound?’
‘They used to swim cattle across there,’ Val said, helpfully. ‘That’s why the northern harbour is called Cow Harbour. The farmers would swim them over to graze here for the day, then swim them back again in the evening.’
‘Yeah, but the farmers themselves didn’t swim, did they?’ Sonia asked. ‘They were sensible enough to take a boat.’
‘True. Humans aren’t as hardy as cows. You can die just by jumping into the sea, if it’s too cold. The saltwater floods your sinuses and can stop your heart.’
Lyndsey chewed her lower lip. Hearing Cherry’s name, so soon after talking about the last time they’d all gone climbing together… It had unnerved her more than she wanted to say. All too well, she remembered how Bobbie had acted the night before. It’d started small, with a few little missteps and confusions, which they’d all discounted as nothing serious. It’d ended with her walking out into the darkness and never coming back.
What if Amanda has been poisoned too? Is this the start of it?
There wasn’t enough room in Lyndsey’s head for all this. She closed her eyes, feeling her thoughts churning like the currents in the Sound.
‘I’ll go,’ she heard herself say.
‘No,’ Juliet answered. ‘Don’t be stupid.’
‘I’m a much better swimmer than you. I’m probably the only one here who can make it that far, in this weather.’
Val pursed her lips. ‘You’ve certainly got me beat. I’m buoyant but I’m not exactly speedy.’
‘If anyone’s got a chance, it’s me,’ Lyndsey said. She had to force the words out.
Juliet watched her, frowning. ‘I can’t ask you to do that. I got us into this mess, so I need to get us out.’
‘All you’ll do is get yourself killed, and frankly that’s the last thing we need right now.’ Lyndsey attempted to smile, but failed. ‘Besides, I owe it to Bobbie. If she hadn’t lent me the money to pay for this trip, I wouldn’t have been able to come at all. The only way I can pay her back now is to go and raise the alarm.’
Chapter Twenty
SATURDAY
3:30pm
The waves rolled up over the shore, sending crests of spray into the air, before retreating sullenly, as if gathering their strength for the next assault. Lyndsey edged down onto the slick rocks. She shuddered. The bare stone was freezing cold beneath the soles of her feet. She could only imagine how cold it would be once she stepped into the water itself.
‘Are you sure about this?’ Sonia asked, for the seventh time. She had to raise her voice to be heard over the noise of the waves.
No. I’m not sure at all. Lyndsey bit her lip. The waves looked a lot bigger from close up. The distance between the harbour and the rocks that jutted up from the middle of the Sound – Kitterland – might’ve been a hundred miles. The tide had been rising all afternoon, eating into the stretch of barnacle-encrusted rock that led up to the high-tide mark, but it was still a long way off slack tide. The water was choppy and dark with currents. A hundred yards offshore, the warning light atop the concrete obelisk blinked steadily, as if telling her not to be so stupid.
She had to try. If she could swim to the rocks around the concrete tower, then on to Kitterland, it was only a short distance to the mainland. Close enough that she’d definitely be spotted by anyone who was still at the Sound Café. As long as they were looking in the right direction, and the weather didn’t completely obstruct the view.
Gritting her teeth, one hand holding onto the rock behind her and the other clutching the life ring around her waist, she gingerly stepped into the surf.
The shock made her gasp. Instinctively she wanted to draw her foot back. She made herself stand still, balanced with one foot in and one foot out, until she could bear the cold. Another wave rolled up, lifting around her ankle. It was like standing in ice.
Grimly, she placed her other foot in the water. She took a careful step forward. The next wave came up to her shins. She wished she’d had a drink to fortify her nerves before she’d come out, but Val had advised against it. Something about alcohol pushing the blood to your extremities and hastening hypothermia. Right then, Lyndsey wished she’d ignored her, even if Juliet’s accusations about her drinking habits were still ringing in her ears.
‘Give her some slack,’ Juliet said behind her. The rope tied around her waist loosened a touch, enough for Lyndsey to keep shuffling forwards into the surf.
Lyndsey didn’t dare look back. It was difficult enough to keep her balance with the waves shoving at her feet. Behind her, she knew Juliet and Sonia were keeping a tight hold of the other end of the rope, and, behind them, Val waited with a waterproof bag full of dry towels and a flask of hot tea – boiled from bottled water – in case Lyndsey had to be hauled bodily out of the water. They’d left Amanda alone at the bunkhouse, but Juliet had made sure to leave some bottled water by her bunk. Nothing they’d said had been enough to convince Amanda to get up and come with them. Her grief over Bobbie was like a heavy blanket, weighing her down.
The rope attached to her waist wouldn’t stretch all the way to Kitterland. Once Lyndsey was past halfway, she’d be on her own. If I make it halfway, I’ll know whether it’s safe to keep going.
Right now, she wasn’t sure she would even get into the water. She’d known the sea would be cold, but she hadn’t been prepared for exactly how bone-chilling it was. Even though she was barely up to her knees, she was trembling and gasping.
The wind, with nothing to block it, cut into her. Lyndsey had never felt so underdressed. There was no way she could’ve even attempted the swim while wearing proper clothes, but she’d baulked at the idea of going out there in just her underwear. Her compromise was her pyjama top and shorts. She’d left her boots, socks, jumper, and waterproofs on the shore.
She hoped her pyjamas were lightweight enough not to drag her down. The thought made her mouth go dry.
One step at a time. Slow and steady.
Lyndsey shuffled forwards. The rocks beneath her feet were hidden by swirling water. Her toes squished down on seaweed. She had to feel for the edge of the rock with her toes then gingerly search for the next step. Each movement took her further out from the shore.
The surging waves were past her knees now. It was increasingly difficult to stay upright. Lyndsey had to grip onto the life ring to keep it in place. It was heavier than expected, and its weight pulled her off balance. Juliet and Sonia were holding the rope too tight.
‘I’m okay,’ Lyndsey called back to them. ‘Let out the rope a bit.’
The tension eased off. When the next wave came in, Lyndsey was able to brace against it.
She couldn’t blame her friends for clinging so tightly to the rope. If it’d been her holding the rope, watching one of her friends scoot into the fast-flowing water, she would’ve been just as scared.
Lyndsey misjudged the edge of a rock and stepped into suddenly deeper water, up to mid-thigh. She teetered for a moment until she got her balance. The cold made her breath catch in her throat.
‘You okay?’ Juliet called from the shore.
Lyndsey nodded. She had no breath to reply. The cold can stop your heart, she remembered. Stupid Val and her unnecessary wealth of information. Why did she have to tell people things like that?
Lyndsey had to steel herself before she could take another step, which brought the water up to her waist. All her internal organs seemed to retreat from the freezing hand that clamped around her lower half. She couldn’t help but let out a small shriek, which she hoped was drowned out by the wind.
She paused there to let herself adjust. Each wave lifted the water up to her ribcage. She couldn’t seem to catch her breath.
You’re past the worst of it now, she told herself, though she knew that wasn’t true. The worst bit would be when her shoulders went under the surface. She remembered days of paddling on the beach at Bardsea, with her friends daring each other to go out further and further, each squealing at the cold, emerging goose-fleshed and shivering to be wrapped in sandy blankets. The sea had been a benign friend on those days. It’d been cold, sure, but not scary.
Now, Lyndsey was scared. The water dragged at her like a hundred insistent hands. It flared out her shorts and top around her body. She tugged down her shirt to stop it riding up past her waist. You’re worried about modesty at a time like this?
Well, sure, she argued with herself. What would your mother say? Her mum had always taught her to wear matching bra and panties, in case she got hit by a bus. What if you get swept out to sea and the coastguards have to fish your drowned body out of the water and you’re wearing your Pikachu pyjama shorts and that’s the photo everyone sees at the inquest?
A laugh stuck in her throat and almost choked her.
Don’t think about drowning, idiot.
Lyndsey took another small step, then another, then her foot encountered empty water instead of a rock. For an instant, she teetered off-balance.
She tried to twist around to grab the rope, but missed. A wave crashed into her and shoved her over.
Lyndsey gasped as the rocks disappeared from under her feet. The life ring around her middle was suddenly pushed up under her armpits. If it hadn’t been there, she would’ve been dunked under the waves. She kicked frantically like a toddler dropped into the deep end for the first time.
‘Hold on!’ Juliet shouted from the shore.
A sharp undertow tried to drag Lyndsey out of the life ring. She clung on with both arms. As the rope went taut, the last of her breath was squeezed from her chest. She gasped. Panic prevented her from filling her lungs.
Ahead of her, the concrete tower with the light on top loomed up, as big as a lighthouse from that angle. She’d been dragged way off course already. It was terrifying how strong the current was. She couldn’t even think about trying to swim to the tower. It took all of her effort just to stay above water, even with the help of the life ring.
‘Pull her back!’ someone yelled. The words were all but swallowed by the roar of the waves.
The current spun her around like a dance partner and dragged her legs out in front of her. Lyndsey struggled to pull herself up higher onto the life ring. Her hands could barely keep hold. She felt herself slipping. Her shoulders were below the waves now, the chill water surging up around her chin. She would’ve screamed if she’d had any breath.
She was pulled this way and that by the competing currents. It felt like they were squabbling over which of them would be first to drag her under.
Another wave battered her. Lyndsey’s right hand slipped. The life ring tipped up vertically in the water. She managed a frantic gasp of air before she was pulled below the surface.
Under the waves was all confusion and noise. Lyndsey kicked out blindly, expecting to find solid rocks somewhere beneath her feet, but encountering nothing except empty water. Somehow, she’d kept hold of the life ring in her left hand.
Just as she managed to get her other hand back onto the float, she felt a jolt through her waist and she knew, she knew that the rope had snapped, just like the rope had snapped on Amanda the day before—
Or Juliet and Sonia have let go.
The current swept her away and Lyndsey had no choice but to be taken. She fought her way back to the surface, managing a single gasping breath before she went under again. In that instant she saw nothing but the grey-black clouds overhead. She couldn’t see the shore. She didn’t even know which direction she was supposed to swim in. As the waves battered her, she clung onto the life ring with both hands. A detached part of her brain knew that, once the tide swept her clear of the Sound and the rocks, she would need the life ring to stay afloat. All her other instincts were screaming at her to let go and use both arms to keep herself above the water.
Lyndsey grabbed another gasp of breath but she was pulled down again, further than before, so deep that she kicked a rock at the bottom of the channel. The impact jolted pain through her toes. But she got her other foot underneath herself and kicked off against the stone.
She popped to the surface like a cork, gasping, dragging the life ring tight to her chest. She kicked again and for the second time bruised her toes against something solid. There were rocks under her feet. Hastily, she fought to scramble up on top of them. Waves kept lifting her off. She coughed and spluttered as she tried to shake water out of her eyes.
In front of her was a dark mass of land. She hadn’t been swept out to sea. Somehow, she’d made it back to the rocks. Lyndsey kicked herself closer to safety. She raised her head to try and guess where she was. Had she been pulled around the coast? If so, she was still in trouble, because the limestone cliffs there rose sheer and slick for a hundred feet up from the water. In her current state there was no way she could even think about scaling them.
Something on the headland snagged her vision. A flash of light green against the dark landscape. Lyndsey had only an instant to take it in before another wave shoved her sideways and she lost her precarious balance on the submerged rocks. Saltwater stung her eyes as she went under again.
When she resurfaced, she heard someone shouting. She couldn’t make out the words, but she recognised Juliet’s voice. Hope flared inside Lyndsey. Maybe she hadn’t been swept too far away.
Another wave shoved her towards the shore. No, not a wave – she was being dragged forcibly to the rocks. She blinked saltwater out of her eyes. The rope attached to her waist was taut. At the far end of it, all three of her friends were hauling with all their strength. They hadn’t let her go.
Lyndsey’s knees banged against the unseen rocks. She was suddenly in much shallower water and could stagger upright.
‘Heave!’ Juliet was yelling. ‘Heave!’
Lyndsey felt like a fish on the end of a line as she was hauled bodily onto the rocks. The surf sucked around her legs as if taunting her for her narrow escape.
As soon as she was able, she let go of the life ring and used her hands to scramble up over the rocks. Juliet let go of the rope and came bounding towards her, her boots skidding on patches of seaweed. She grabbed Lyndsey by both arms.
‘Are you all right? Are you okay?’
Lyndsey tried to answer but found she couldn’t speak. Cold and shock had robbed her of her words.
‘We’ve got you,’ Juliet said. ‘You’re all right.’
Lyndsey would’ve liked to collapse right there, face down in the seaweed, with her feet still in the freezing water. She was shaking almost too much to stand. Juliet supported her as she took the first stumbling steps back onto dry land.
Sonia ran to them and bundled Val’s huge bath towel around Lyndsey’s shoulders. The warm, dry fabric made Lyndsey realised she was chilled through to the bone. Her whole body was shaking. She couldn’t seem to catch her breath.
‘Holy shit, you scared us,’ Sonia said. ‘When you went under like that…’
Lyndsey relived that moment of panic, when she’d been ducked beneath the surf and she’d thought for a terrible instant that her friends had let go of the rope. She lifted her head to blink away sudden tears. Her smarting eyes automatically went to the headland above the harbour, where she’d glimpsed that flash of green. Even during her panic, she’d been sure of what she was seeing – a person who was wearing a light green dress, with no regard to the freezing weather, standing on the rocks and watching as Lyndsey fought against the tide.
‘Sit her down,’ Juliet said. ‘Somewhere sheltered, out of the wind.’
‘We’ve got to get her back to the bunkhouse,’ Sonia said. ‘She’s turning blue.’
‘What do you propose we do? Carry her? She can’t walk in this state.’
Lyndsey wanted to tell them to stop talking over her like she wasn’t there, but a coughing fit overtook her. She let Juliet ease her down into a sitting position against the stone building next to the harbour. Lyndsey put her head down between her knees until she stopped coughing. Her mouth tasted thick with salt.
When she straightened up, Val put a plastic mug of hot tea into her hands. ‘Don’t spill it on yourself,’ she warned. ‘It’s hot.’
