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• JAYNE SHARRATT
“What if she didn’t get out?” He said finally.
CHAPTER TENNic thought she was going to start crying. She felt too tired, and there was nobody to give her any sympathy, except Sam, who needed help more than she did.
She stood a moment, gripping her brother’s shoulder, trying to decide what to do. Then she heard a shout from back up the tunnel.
“Nic?” It was Max. She yelled back to him that she was there in relief. She heard him splashing towards her.
“The sea level’s rising,” she told him. “Did you find Holly?”
“No,” Max said. “We can’t do anymore.”
They started to make their way back to the door they had entered through, because they couldn’t think what else to do. Sam was leaning on Max again.
“It’s not far now,” he told him. “We just have to get ourselves to the highest point...” he was interrupted by Sam who tripped on something on the floor, clung to the nearest thing he could, and nearly sent them both flying.
“What?”
“Careful.”
“There’s something here,” Max said, bending down.
“Rocks?” Asked Nic.
“No, big and soft, and...something wrapped in sacks, I think...”
Nic and Sam were also on the floor beside him, so they all saw it when Max pulled back some of the sacking. They could just make out the form of a foot in a high heeled sandal.
“It’s a woman,” Max said, feeling his way to free her from the sacks.
Nic was on her feet, breathing hard. She spoke through the fingers she pressed against her mouth. “Don’t let it be dead, don’t let it be dead, please, please,” she repeated. “Don’t let it be dead.”
“Nic, please don’t start being weird,” Sam said.
Nic made a funny sound between a sob and a gasp, and stopped.
Max had found his way to the head of the woman. He pulled the sacks’ away from the upper part of her body and lowered his head to listen.
“She’s alive,” he said. “I can hear her breathing real slow. I guess they might have drugged her.”
They could just about make out the gleam of blonde hair in the dark. Nic gave a little gasp, pulling herself together. She moved her face closer. “I recognise her, I’m sure I do. I mean, I didn’t see her for long, but, it must be her, because she was with him before...this is Claudia, Holly’s step-mum.”
Max and Sam looked at each other. Nothing seemed to make sense, but they knew it
must somehow.
Max shook his head. “We can worry about it later I guess. We’ll have to get an arm each, Nic, to drag her up the last steps before the door with us.”
Nic nodded, and positioned herself to grasp Claudia’s arm. Sam hobbled and hopped behind them as best as he could, before collapsing against the door with exhaustion. They all slumped beside him, Max carefully propping Claudia as best he could first.
“Sam?”
He was leaning against Nic heavily. He didn’t respond. She shook him.
“I’m tired,” he complained, leaning his head again and closing his eyes.
They were all cold, and the sea was almost at their level. Waves rolled against the step below their feet.
Nic shook Sam again. “You’ve got to stay awake.”
“It’s important to keep him conscious,” Max said.
“I know that,” Nic snapped. She shook her brother again, and he stirred, mumbling something.
They were quiet a while.
“What shall we do?” Nic asked, finally.
“I don’t see we can do anything. We can only wait and hope Holly’ s gone to get help,” Max said.
Nic shook her head. She felt sure Holly must have escaped somehow, but she didn’t feel at all sure she would go and get help. She looked at Claudia, pale, bruised and unconscious. “Holly really doesn’t like Claudia, does she?” She said slowly.
“Holly couldn’t have done this,” Max said. “Could she?”
“No. I don’t know,” Nic said. “This is all her fault.”
“We can’t say that really,” Max said. “She didn’t know those men were going to leave us locked in here, or that there’d be a storm and the sea would rise...”
Saying it out loud, the reality began to sink in. They were locked in a cave with the waters rising, and no means of escape.
“We could try to swim for it,” Max suggested.
“With two unconscious people?”
“One of us could swim for help, and the other stay with Sam and Claudia.”
“The storm could throw us against the rocks. We don’t know what part of the coast we’re near, or how far it is from the village. By the time one of us got back here, it could be...too late.”
They both thought even that chance might be better than all of them just waiting where they were to drown.
“No. The tide will start going down, or the storm will die, soon. And Holly must have got out. She will send someone to get us,” Nic said. “She can’t want us to die. Can she?”
Max didn’t answer. He couldn’t think of one. His head hurt and he was too cold.
“What if she didn’t get out?” He said finally.
“She must’ve. Where is she, if she didn’t?”
“She could have fallen in the water.”
“We’d have seen her.”
“It’s dark. We might not.”
“No. She’s gone to get help.” Nic decided her only hope was to believe in Holly. She pushed to the back of her mind all her doubts.
The waves had reached their feet. “If we stand up we won’t get so wet,” Nic said, pulling Sam to his feet and shaking him.
“Stop,” he moaned, falling back against the side of the rock.
“Please stay awake, Sam,” Nic said. “Just lean there, while I help with Claudia.”
Max and Nic tried to lift Claudia.
“She’s a dead weight,” Max said.
“Not dead,” Nic corrected.
There was a rocky alcove by the door which was a little higher than the top step.
“If we could just put her in there,” Max said. “She at least might stay a bit dryer. We can’t hold her up for long.”
Nic agreed and after a struggle they managed it.
“I think the sea level isn’t rising so fast now,” Nic said when she had got her breath back.
They were ankle deep now.
“Maybe,” Max agreed.
As he said it a larger wave than usual crashed through the cave entrance. They were soaked to the waist with cold salty water, and had to clutch at the rocks to keep their balance.
Sam woke up yelling.
The sea sank back a little, but the water level was now above their knees.
“What if we tried shouting?” Max asked.
“Who would hear us?”
They knew it was no good, but began to yell for help, and hammer at the solid wooden door.
“Stop! I think I heard something,” Max said.
They listened, the waves were about their waists now, and lifting them off the ground. They couldn’t hear anything.
“You imagined it,” Nic said.
“No,” Sam exclaimed suddenly. “I’m sure, there’s someone coming...”
“Max? Nicola? Are you there?” A voice shouted above the torrent of waves, from the other side of the thick door. “Sam?”
They shouted back, tears rolling down their faces.
“Stand back, I’ve got an axe for the door.”
In a moment splinters of wood went flying through, and the blade of an axe emerged through the door. There were more crashes and bangs of metal on wood, and finally, as the waters continued to rise, the door was removed from it’s hinges. The door fell in against the weight of the water, and Max, Sam and Nic were washed through into the passage. Fire men were waiting to catch them and carry them off exhausted. The man with the axe waded in to get Claudia, and there was a stretcher and medics to carry her back up to the surface.
In the kitchen of Tempest Hall Mr and Mrs Reynolds were waiting. When they saw Nic and Sam they threw their arms around them.
“What have you been doing?” their Mum sobbed, without expecting a reply.
Mrs Tempest was there too. “Max! Oh, dear,” she said, and hugged him.
The Medics from the second ambulance examined them all, while they began to get warm and dry. The first ambulance had left straight away, with Claudia on a stretcher, and her husband who had been waiting on the surface.
It was dark outside by now.
“Not much wrong with this little lot,” said the Medic. “Nothing a good nights sleep won’t sort out. I’ve bandaged the lad’s ankle, just a sprain, should heal up nicely.”
They left, and a police man came in.
“Holly?” Nic asked. “Did Holly tell you we were down there? Where is she?”
“Holly? Who’s Holly?” The policeman was puzzled. “No, what happened is, when you came into the police station and said about these men hanging about, we thought about some other tip-offs, smuggling-wise, we’d had, and thought it might tie in. So’s I was sent along here to call in and ‘ave a scout around, so to speak. Found Mrs Tempest here in a terrible taking when I got here. Seems she saw you kids disappear into the old chapel, and didn’t see you come out again. So we found the secret passage there.’
“But, but...” Max began.
“I’ve just heard that these Smugglers have been arrested by the Coastal Police boat,” the officer continued. “ ‘Course, I don’t know what you were doing down in that cave, but it’s a very good thing for Mrs Denver you were there. If it weren’t for you she could’ve drowned. One of the smugglers, it seems, wanted her to go away with him, only she refused, but she knew too much by then to just let her go, so he was going to drug her and leave her to her fate as far as I can see.”
“But Holly!” Max interrupted. “If she’s not here, she must still be down there. You’ve got to get the rescue people back, and send them to look for her.”
The officer was startled. “I was only told about three children as needed rescuin’. If there’s anyone else down in them caves it’s too late, I should think, the water was right up.”
“But Holly!” Nic sobbed.
“It’s quite all right, Officer,” Mrs Tempest interrupted, with a great deal of dignity. “There were only three children who went down the secret passage. There’s no need to go back in to the caves at all. They’re all quite safe.”
The officer looked relieved, nodded, and left quickly.
Max and Nic stared at Mrs Tempest in confusion.
“I don’t understand..”
“No, no, I’m sure you don’t,” Mrs Tempest said, vague again. “It’s all terribly sad, of course, but it will all become clear in the end.”
“But...did Holly really not follow us into the passage?” Nic demanded. “Did you really see only three of us go in?”
“I’m afraid I didn’t see you go into the chapel,” Mrs Tempest said.
“You said you did...so how did you know that was where we had gone?”
“Well, your friend told me. The child. Like you said. Holly.”
“So why did you tell the police you saw where we went?” Max asked.
“I just think he’d understand that better, don’t you?”
“So Holly, she is still here, then, somewhere?” Nic asked confused they weren't looking for her.
“Well, yes, I expect she is here, somewhere. Now why don’t you tell me all about what you’ve been doing this last week?”
Max and Nic looked at each other.
“I think that would be a very good idea,” Mr Reynolds said. He had been feeling confused. “Perhaps you could begin somewhere near the beginning.”
“We found a secret room,” Nic began.
“Oh, yes,” Mrs Tempest said. “The tower room.”
“You know it?”
“Of course, I have lived here a long time. The stairs are behind the wall where the French books are.”
“French books?” Max asked.
“Yes, the books old James Tempest rescued from the Monasteries in France when he was a spy there during the revolution. Beautiful old manuscripts, written and painted by monks. The family thought it was a disgraceful thing for a gentleman to be a spy, but they kept his books safe for him. Your grandfather, Max, had a go at cataloguing them once.”
“You know it sounds as if they could be very valuable, Mrs Tempest,” Mr Reynolds said.
Mrs Tempest smiled. “Well, we always did call them the family treasure trove,” she said. “Quite a secret, of course.” Mr and Mrs Reynolds stood on the doorstep of the converted farmhouse where they had been told the Denver family lived.
“Now, you will make it quite clear how concerned we are about Holly’s influence over our children, won’t you, dear?” Ms Reynolds said. “They quite obviously let the child run wild.”
“I’m not at all sure she has been a bad influence on our children,” Mr Reynolds whispered after he had knocked on the door. “Sam and Nic have been almost bearable to live with these last few days, since their little adventure.”
“Little adventure? In case you’ve forgotten our children could have died in that cave, because this Holly girl filled their heads full of nonsense.”
The door was opened before any more could be said. Jack Denver was stood holding his son, Casper.
“Hello, can I help you?”
“Oh, hi. We’re Nicola and Sam Reynold’s parents,” Mr Reynolds said, extending a hand.
“Oh. Hi.” Jack Denver shook the hand with his free one, and then waved them inside. “Do come in.”
He showed them into the living room. On the mantelpiece there was a picture of a laughing Holly.
“I’d really like to thank your kids a lot,” Jack said. “I’ve been meaning to come over. If it wasn’t for them Claudia could have died. I’m just very grateful that someone was looking after her that night.”
Mr Denver, it’s very good of you to say so,” Mrs Reynolds said. “But we’ve really come over to talk about your daughter.”
“My daughter?” Jack Denver looked blank.
“That is,” Mr Reynolds cut in swiftly, “We thought we should introduce ourselves, since we’re new in the area, and our kids seem to be spending so much time together. I thought you’d like to know where she was all the time. Holly’s a great kid...”
“I think there must have been some misunderstanding,” Mr Denver was looking at the photograph on the mantelpiece. Tears welled in her eyes and her voice took on a faraway tone. “My daughter Holly died two years ago.”On the secret beach Nic, Sam and Max waited for Holly.
“I don’t understand. Your gran said she saw her, so where is she? Why doesn’t she come and find us?” Nic asked.
They looked at each other. Max and Nic thought about all the things about Holly which didn’t quite add up. They wondered, but didn’t dare to say the ideas which swam through their minds out loud.
“She will come here,” Max said, with certainty. “We believed she’d get us help when we were in the cave, didn’t we? And she did. So she’ll meet us here.”
They were there again the next day.
“What was the story she was telling you?” Nic asked her brother. “About the wicked step-mother?”
Sam shook his head. “She wasn’t wicked really. She was nice and the princess died. But the step-mother had a baby and they all lived happily ever after.”
It was a hot day again. Nic shivered.
They waited for Holly on the beach until evening.
© Jayne Sharratt 2001
THE END
Back To Chapters ONE,TWO, THREE, FOUR, FIVE, SIX, SEVEN, EIGHT, NINE ,TEN
If you like what you read, say so. email: jayneasharratt at yahoo.co.uk
Congratulations from Hackwriters to Jayne for finishing this wonderful story. We hope it brings pleasure to all those who have read.
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