The Weekend Escape, page 5
‘Don’t open a window,’ Bobbie said. ‘We’ll never get warm.’
‘It’s fine,’ Juliet said, annoyed. ‘Everything’s going to be fine.’
Lyndsey didn’t know what she was basing that on. She glanced at Amanda, who’d lapsed into a doze. Things were going wrong so quickly. Not for the first time, Lyndsey wished she’d had the heart to tell Juliet no when she’d suggested this stupid adventure.
You wanted to be here, she reminded herself. After being antisocial and ducking her friends for so long, she’d been grateful just for an invitation. You missed your friends. You missed being part of a group, missed having a purpose.
Lyndsey looked around the dingy bunkhouse. This was certainly an adventure. Just not the one she’d been hoping for.
Chapter Five
FRIDAY
2:00pm
Despite assorted grumblings, Juliet made a hot drink for everyone, on the basis that, even if it didn’t improve the situation, it wouldn’t make it any worse.
Lyndsey climbed up onto a top bunk and cradled the tin mug between her palms. Since there were only four bunkbeds, she and Sonia had opted to take two of the top bunks, leaving the lower ones for the others. Val in particular hated climbing ladders. ‘I’m okay with stairs,’ she said, ‘but ladders were designed by people with no concept of how hips work.’ Being on the top bunk was kinda fun, Lyndsey thought. She’d never been in one before. It was a novelty, and it made her feel like a kid again.
Hauling her rucksack up onto her bunk had been less fun. She dumped the heavy bag at the end of the mattress and sat cross-legged, holding her coffee in one hand while she dragged stuff out of her bag with the other. All her borrowed climbing gear was packed at the top, because for some reason rucksacks were easier to carry if they were lighter at the bottom, but it meant she had to make a pile of ropes on her bed before she could get out her sleeping bag.
Under normal circumstances, they would’ve already found a place to stash all the climbing gear, keeping it ready for when they went out again that afternoon. But, with Amanda’s accident, they weren’t going anywhere. Lyndsey looked at the big heap of ropes and harnesses on her bed – all of which she’d had to borrow, along with her sleeping bag, since there was no way she could’ve afforded to buy it all, even at the discount prices that Bobbie had found for her. Lyndsey had had to borrow money just to get a decent jacket and walking boots suitable for that weekend. And now, just like that, all the gear was pointless. They wouldn’t get a chance to use even half of it.
With a grunt of annoyance, she pulled a bottle out of her bag. Each one was wrapped in a protective T-shirt. It took her a couple of tries to find the bottle of Baileys. She’d brought only one mug, and it was currently filled with strong black coffee. After only a moment’s thought, she broke the seal of the bottle and tipped a decent measure into her hot drink. Irish coffee for lunch, how civilised.
The weather grew steadily worse. By now, fat raindrops bounced off the windows like sprays of machine-gun fire, and the wind rattled the front door. Despite this, Sonia went out every half hour to check how the warden was getting on with the radio. Lyndsey wasn’t sure if Sonia volunteered for this because she hated being cooped up, or because she was using her time outside to stress-smoke without anyone hassling her.
Juliet was equally on edge. After she’d made and drunk her cup of herbal tea, she and Sonia went back to the lighthouse to pick up the bags they’d left there, and to make sure the door to the lighthouse was padlocked and secure. When they returned, with nothing else to occupy her time, Juliet sat at the table in the kitchen, poring over a folded A4 sheet of paper she’d taken from her pocket. Even without looking, Lyndsey knew what it was – the itinerary that Juliet had emailed to them all last week. It was a breakdown of all the activities they were scheduled to do on this three-day weekend adventure. Abseiling, climbing, coasteering, more climbing … practically every hour was accounted for. Juliet chewed her lower lip as she read and reread the typed words. Lyndsey knew she was stewing over the time they were losing.
Lyndsey didn’t know and didn’t care exactly what activity they were missing that afternoon. She hadn’t bothered to print out the itinerary … which would’ve necessitated a trip to the public library, because who on earth owned their own printer? In fact, she’d barely glanced at it at all. She knew Juliet would’ve spent days or even weeks planning the perfect use of their time. She was never the sort to leave hours unfilled. The last time Lyndsey had gone away with her was for Juliet’s hen do, and that’d been micromanaged to death as well.
Don’t mention that holiday, Lyndsey reminded herself. Like everything else associated with Juliet’s marriage, which had imploded so spectacularly last month, the hen party was a tainted memory, and Juliet wouldn’t thank her for bringing it up.
Poor thing. Juliet had had a rotten year so far, and now this trip – which she’d spent so long planning – had gone wrong really fast. She’d always talked about bringing the group here to Shell Island, but every year something got in the way. For some reason, she’d been particularly strident about it this year, and finally she’d got everyone to commit to the three-day trip … only to see it fall apart on the very first morning.
The worst of it was, there was nothing any of them could do. Their only option was to look after Amanda and pray the radio would be fixed soon.
Lyndsey’s eyes wandered to Amanda. Talk about bad luck. Lyndsey hadn’t seen Amanda in person for ten years, since the summer they’d finished Sixth Form together. Amanda’s family had moved away not long afterwards. It’d been a real shock to hear she was coming this weekend, especially given that she hadn’t attended any of the other major events, like Juliet’s wedding or hen weekend. Lyndsey wondered what exactly Juliet had said to finally bring Amanda back into the group.
It felt like the worst possible luck for them all to be reunited, only for this to happen. Lyndsey had really been looking forward to a chance to chat with Amanda. Maybe find out what she’d been up to in the last decade. Now it looked like they wouldn’t get that chance, not this weekend.
At least Amanda was sleeping. Whatever tablets Val had given her had done the trick. Maybe Amanda would be lucky, and wake up with bruises and nothing more. Lyndsey studied her sleeping face. Amanda had always been thin, but it’d become more pronounced over the years. She had the sort of delicate bone structure you’d see in magazine photos of supermodels.
In her head, Lyndsey replayed the sickening moment when Amanda had hit the ground. It was pure luck Amanda hadn’t been seriously injured, or worse. The rope could’ve snapped at any time. What if it’d broken as soon as she’d put her weight on it, when she was 150 feet up in the air?
Or, what if it had snapped when she, herself, was climbing down? She tried not to think about that. It gave her a horrible sense of … relief, which was an awful thing to think because it was tantamount to admitting she was happy it’d happened to Amanda instead of her.
Will the police need to get involved?
The thought hadn’t occurred to her. But if Sonia was right, if someone had tampered with the rope…
‘Do you hear that?’ Bobbie asked suddenly.
Lyndsey looked over the edge of her bunk. She’d thought Bobbie was napping, but she was half sitting up, her eyes wide as she listened.
‘Hear what?’ Lyndsey asked.
‘It sounds like … someone screaming.’
The hairs rose on Lyndsey’s neck. She tilted her head to listen. ‘It’s just the wind, Bobs.’
‘No, I can hear…’ Bobbie’s forehead scrunched into a frown. ‘No. Maybe not. Sorry.’ She shook her head and lay back down on her bunk.
Val, who was sitting at the kitchen table, tapping away at her laptop, stretched her back and said, ‘Right, sun’s past the yardarm, or at least I assume it is, wherever it’s hiding behind the clouds. Shall we have a drink?’
‘I’m not sure that’s a good idea,’ Juliet said.
‘Why not? It’s not like any of us are a designated driver today.’
Juliet chewed her lip and glanced at the itinerary in her hands. ‘But what if—?’
‘I’m not suggesting we get too trolleyed to talk to the rescue crew when they turn up. Just a little dram to ease our nerves. God knows we need it.’
Juliet looked unhappy, but she couldn’t think of any sensible objection. There was no way the group was doing any climbing that afternoon. Regardless of what the itinerary said.
Val went to her bunk and opened her rucksack. After a brief rummage, she came up with a bottle of gin and another of tonic.
‘Here we go,’ she said. ‘A touch of civilisation.’
Lyndsey had been keeping her mug topped up. It’d stopped being Irish coffee some time ago and started just being Irish. When she shoogled the bottle, it sounded about two-thirds full.
Lyndsey smiled down at Bobbie. ‘Hey, I brought Baileys,’ she said. ‘You fancy a drink?’
After a moment’s thought, Bobbie smiled. ‘Go on then. Just a small one. Thank you.’
Lyndsey reached down, and Bobbie passed up her mug. None of them had bothered to bring actual drinking glasses, and there weren’t any in the kitchen. Lyndsey poured a rough measure of alcohol into Bobbie’s mug, then a far more substantial slug into her own. Bobbie sat up and drained her water bottle before accepting the drink.
A few minutes later, Sonia returned from her latest visit to the warden’s house. ‘Radio’s still fucked,’ she announced as she shrugged off her damp jacket. ‘Hey, did you start drinking without me?’
‘Not at all,’ Val said, topping up her glass. ‘It’s your imagination.’
Sonia grunted. ‘Get my imagination to pour me a decent drink, will you?’ She pulled off her double-bobble hat. Her black hair was worn in a cute, trim bob, which looked great on her but didn’t seem very practical for a climbing trip, in Lyndsey’s opinion. Either very short or slightly longer hair, which could be tied up out of the way, was better. ‘And a towel.’
From the kitchen, Juliet said, ‘I’m making food. Pasta and red sauce.’
‘Peachy.’ Sonia grabbed the towel that Lyndsey flung at her from the top bunk. ‘What’re you drinking, Lynds?’
‘Baileys.’
‘Urgh. Creamy nonsense.’ Sonia wrapped the towel around her head. ‘Let me see what I’ve got in my magic bag.’
Lyndsey smiled. She was glad everyone had stopped sniping at each other. There’d been a lot of tension in the bunkhouse. Maybe once they had all had a proper drink, they’d start to unwind. Lyndsey was already feeling less stressed. She topped up her drink. Normally she didn’t drink Baileys either, but she’d packed it because it was Bobbie’s favourite. After all the help Bobbie had given her to prepare for this trip, Lyndsey was keen to repay her in any way she could.
Should’ve brought something cheaper. Lyndsey glanced down at Bobbie, who’d taken only the smallest sip of her drink, and felt a brief flare of irritation. It wasn’t like Lyndsey could afford to waste money on brand-name booze. For the price of this one bottle of Baileys, she could’ve bought three reasonable bottles of wine, or a decent one of vodka. But no, she’d gone for the pricey option, to score points with Bobbie.
Money had always been an issue for Lyndsey. Even before the start of this year, it’d been bad. When they went out as a group – usually her, Bobbie, and Juliet, sometimes with Val as well – she was the one who drank beer instead of cocktails, who insisted on paying her dinner bill separately so she could budget exactly. It annoyed her that she couldn’t keep up with the others, who always had cash on hand. Juliet, in particular, had scored a promotion last year and always had money to burn. Lyndsey guessed it was easy to get promoted when your dad ran the company.
Even though this weekend was a budget-option for the rest of the group, it’d still cost more than Lyndsey could sensibly afford, especially when she factored in the hidden costs, like those pricey walking boots. There’s no way she could’ve come if Bobbie hadn’t stepped in. Bobbie’s husband owned an online store that sold outdoor sportswear, and Bobbie worked for him as an administrative assistant, so she’d been able to source a load of end-of-line clothing and equipment at cut prices.
When it’d become clear that Lyndsey’s budget still wouldn’t cover even half the stuff, Bobbie had offered to lend her the money. They’d both promised to keep quiet about the arrangement. Lyndsey wasn’t keen for her other friends to think she was a scrounger; Bobbie was happy for her husband to stay unaware of the loan. Apparently, he kept a tight hold of the purse-strings in their house.
Since then, Bobbie had gone back and forth on whether she was definitely coming on this weekend or not. She was always adamant, however, that Lyndsey should go, regardless. Lyndsey had agreed to that promise easily enough. After all, she’d spent so much cash on the deposit, the equipment, the train ticket to Ravenswater – all non-refundable – that it caused Lyndsey almost physical pain to think of cancelling and wasting all that money. She’d been too invested not to go.
Lyndsey took a swig of her drink. Her mood had soured. Right at that moment, she had no idea how she was going to pay Bobbie back. It was money Lyndsey simply didn’t have. And she’d squandered it on this trip, to come to this dreary island and sit around in a damp, poorly heated bunkhouse, with a bunch of people she’d not spent any significant amount of time with in years. Everyone was being weird with each other because, if she was being honest, none of them properly knew each other anymore.
‘I don’t suppose anyone brought a knife, did they?’ Juliet asked from the kitchen.
‘Um, no?’ Sonia said.
Val said, ‘Left mine in my other pants, sorry.’
‘I can’t find a single decent blade in this kitchen.’ Juliet pulled out the cutlery drawer and rifled through the contents. ‘I don’t know how they expect us to – aha!’ She snatched up a black-handled knife from the back of the drawer. ‘Right, we have one sharp knife. Huzzah.’
‘Why’re you even cooking right now?’ Sonia asked. ‘It’s the middle of the afternoon.’
‘And none of us had lunch. Plus – ’ She threw a look at the others. ‘It’s apparently gin-o’clock, so we need something to line our stomachs.’
‘In my defence,’ Val said, ‘it’s always gin-o’clock somewhere.’
Sonia hauled herself up onto her top bunk, lugging her rucksack with her. None of the group had properly unpacked yet. It was like they were in limbo, waiting to find out what would happen with the coastguard. Lyndsey had mentally written off the weekend already. When the coastguard took Amanda to hospital, Lyndsey figured that the rest of them would go with her. An all-expenses-paid helicopter ride back to the mainland, perhaps.
But now, watching Sonia wrestle her sleeping bag out of her rucksack, Lyndsey suddenly wondered if she’d get out of this weekend so easily.
‘Is the warden any closer to getting the radio fixed?’ Lyndsey asked Sonia.
‘Honestly? I don’t have a clue. She keeps talking about transistors and receptors and doppleganger-fruitloops or some other made-up thing. As far as I can see, the damn thing’s getting more broken, not less.’
‘So, we might be stuck here till tomorrow?’
‘We’re not stuck here,’ Juliet said from the kitchen. It was impossible to have a conversation in that building without everyone hearing. ‘We’ve booked and paid for this place. You should be happy we’ve got a roof over our heads.’
As if in response, more pellets of rain struck the windows. The sky had gone an ugly, thunderous colour.
‘But what if we can’t contact the mainland?’ Lyndsey asked. Her gaze strayed to Amanda who was sleeping restlessly. ‘What’ll we do then?’
‘We’ll think of something.’ Juliet tipped two tins of chopped tomatoes into the sauce mix. The smell of frying onion and garlic awoke Lyndsey’s stomach. ‘It’s not like we’re on the moon, for goodness’ sake. We’re barely two kilometres offshore. In an absolute pinch, we could probably shout loud enough for folks to hear us.’ She paused to brush her bangs out of her face. ‘Anyway, maybe we won’t need to call the coastguard. Amanda’s ankle might just be bruised. When she wakes up, we’ll see how she’s feeling. It might not be that bad after all.’
‘And it might be worse,’ Sonia muttered, but she said it so quietly that only Lyndsey heard her.
Chapter Six
FRIDAY
3:40pm
‘Should we wake Amanda?’
Juliet shook her head. ‘Let her sleep. The longer she’s resting and pain-free, the better she’ll feel. We’ll save her some food.’
She set the plates down on the kitchen table. Val, Bobbie, and Lyndsey had taken the seats. Juliet insisted she was fine to eat off her lap, sitting perched on the edge of her bunk. Sonia, still cocooned in a nest of blankets up on her bunk and busy putting a dent into the bottle of vodka she’d brought, was making a slow move to join them for dinner. She had, therefore, forfeited her chance to sit on an actual chair.
The meal that Juliet had cooked – pasta with tomato-ish sauce – was passable, although kind of bland. Juliet was perpetually on some kind of health kick, refusing to add seasoning to her cooking, and using wholewheat pasta, which had taken ages to cook on the double-hob camping stove. She’d already made some pointed remarks about everyone else’s diets. Lyndsey couldn’t comment though, since her own supply of food that she’d brought was mostly crisps and biscuits, with some instant noodles thrown in for variety.
None of the group complained either. It was comforting to have a hot meal. And, although no one admitted it, it did feel good to line their stomachs. Lyndsey already felt fuzzier than she should’ve. She made a mental note to space out her drinks better. Usually, she kept a better eye on everyone else, and paced her drinks to theirs.
‘This is like Brownie Guides, isn’t it?’ Val said, as she speared pasta onto her fork. ‘We ought to have a singsong or tell ghost stories.’
