The Sound of Whales (17 page)

CHAPTER 30

‘
T
his is spectacular,' Sarah said as they walked along the cliff path. She was looking out across the water as it glittered in the sunlight. ‘You should have brought me up here earlier.'

‘Usually I'm trying to stop the wind blowing me over the edge.'

Hayley felt sick. This was a big act of betrayal and she had barely convinced herself she was doing the right thing.

Jonah wasn't in his cave so they had climbed up here. Ahead was the castle, its stones glowing in ruined majesty. Perched on the cliff, spotlit by the sun, it was like a picture from a fairy tale and if a dragon had flown from the hole in the roof, it wouldn't have seemed fanciful.

‘Impressive,' Sarah said as they approached.

‘It's creepy.'

‘That's what I like about it.'

As they reached the old walls Hayley moved cautiously to the entrance and peered inside. After the bright sunlight it took a few moments for her eyes to adjust. There was a damp smell to the place and a shadowy gloom that made the heart beat a little faster. The walls were rough stone, the floor just rubble and hard, packed earth. The grandeur of torches and tapestries and ornate fireplaces was long gone. Now it was cobwebs and bird nests and moss.

Hayley edged deeper into the ruin. ‘Jonah?'

The sound startled a bird that flittered noisily out through the roof space and made her jump.

‘Are you OK, honey?' asked her mom from the doorway.

‘Yes, fine.' Hayley took a breath to settle her nerves. ‘Jonah,' she called again, this time bolder. ‘It's Hayley. Are you here?' She moved further into the room. The centre of the building was brighter than the shadowy edges, light creeping down from above.

‘You promised you would tell no one,' came a voice from the walls.

Hayley heard her mother give a yelp of fright.

‘My mom can help you, Jonah.'

Jonah stayed silent and hidden.

‘Jonah, my name is Sarah Risso. I'm Hayley's mom. It's only her and I, no one else is here.' They waited for a reply but when none came Sarah pressed on. ‘I'm a writer and I am writing a book about people on a journey. About people searching for a better life. About people far from home. I'm writing a book about you.'

Another moment and then suddenly Jonah was there, as if a shadow became solid and walked. This time both Hayley and her mom jumped in fright.

‘Let us talk outside where it is light,' he said.

Hayley led the way out into the sunlight and the African seemed like a man released from a dungeon after many years. He looked exhausted and dirty and troubled. He blinked in the light and took deep breaths that seemed to take a great deal of effort.

‘I'm sorry if I broke your trust,' Hayley said.

‘You are only a child,' he said. ‘I have forgotten that. Fraser is only a boy.'

Sarah was looking at the man in wonder, as if she had only half believed her daughter and was now amazed that a large, dishevelled man stood before her. ‘I will protect your identity,' she said. ‘And I know people who can help.'

‘I only need to get to London, that is all.'

‘Can I ask why?'

The African contemplated this for a moment, perhaps not sure himself any longer.

‘I will tell you my story,' he said at last. ‘The world needs to know why we risk so much and come so far. And in return, when I get to London, you can help me find someone.'

Sarah nodded. ‘All right,' she said.

Jonah moved to a low wall beside the ancient keep and sat on top of the ragged stones. Sarah took a seat beside him and Hayley sat on the grass, the sun on her face. She had been in the castle only a minute yet the warmth and the light felt like unexpected gifts. Jonah had been living in the dark for days now and she understood the weariness that seemed to cling to him tighter than Fraser's ill-fitting sweatshirt.

‘I have a brother in London who I have not seen for many, many years. I pray that he is still alive. I have to find him and help him. In what way I do not yet know. That is why I am here.'

Hayley asked, ‘Why did you not get on a plane and fly here?'

‘I tried', said Jonah. ‘But the British government refused me a visa to enter the country. They said I would not return. So I have come
 . . .
' Jonah gave a grim smile. ‘By less orthodox means.'

‘So what now?' Sarah asked.

‘Now I wait. Fraser has a plan.'

Hayley saw her mother suddenly look uneasy and shake her head slightly. ‘Fraser is just a boy. You said so yourself.'

‘Yes, but he has a plan and no one else does.'

‘And what about the people who brought you here?'

‘I wish them to think I drowned.'

Sarah looked at her watch, took out her phone and swiped a couple of times, sat thinking for a moment, then put her phone away.

‘Sit tight for now, Jonah,' she said. ‘I will try to help. Do not do anything impulsive and don't let Fraser talk you into anything rash. Let
me
try to help.'

For a moment Jonah said nothing, rubbed his stubble-covered chin with his hand. He gave the slightest of shrugs and said, ‘OK.'

Hayley peered into the man's eyes and thought she recognized a look. It was the one her dad gave when telling her only what he thought she wanted to hear. Was Jonah simply humouring her mom or did he really trust her? Why would he trust any of them? Hayley thought,
He was right not to trust me
.

‘I'll come back later when I know more,' Sarah said.

‘It is a beautiful day,' Jonah said. ‘I will sit in the sun and think of my brother.'

‘Don't get caught.'

‘It is not a worry. I have my lookout.'

Jonah looked behind him at the castle and Hayley followed his gaze up to a rectangular hole in the wall that was once a window. For a second there was a face there, then it was gone and just black emptiness remained. But she knew who she had seen.

‘He follows me sometimes or I see him watching. He never comes close but he will warn me if someone approaches. He is a very good shell thrower.'

‘Dunny is everywhere,' Hayley said.

Jonah laughed and offered his empty hands. ‘And nowhere all at once.'

She scanned the castle walls but there was no sign of Dunny. Or his brother. They were just boys, she reminded herself. And she was just a girl. Her mom could do things, could sort things that were beyond her and the Dunbar boys. That's what she would tell Fraser when he learnt of her treachery. She pictured his broken face and hoped she was back in America before that ever happened.

CHAPTER 31

F
rom his vantage point high on a collapsing wall Fraser watched the receding figures of Hayley and her mum. He waited until they were out of sight before he carefully climbed down, dislodging a large stone in the process that tumbled to the ground and broke into pieces.

‘Are you still throwing rocks?' Jonah asked from below.

‘Sorry,' Fraser said, jumping down. He looked at the smashed stone, looked at many more scattered across the floor, wondered how much of the castle he and Dunny had destroyed in their playing through the years.

‘We have to go,' he said.

Jonah didn't move, tried to smile but it was more a grimace. ‘The girl's mother said she could help.'

‘No.' This was
his
adventure, it was he who would end it. ‘They're not to be trusted.'

Fraser had returned from the marina and headed straight for the castle. He had spotted Sarah Risso from a distance, talking with Jonah, had feared policemen and coastguards and customs men, but there had only been Hayley. He had sneaked into the castle from the rear, had listened from the shadows as Jonah told his tale. He had also heard Sarah Risso promise to help and had bristled at such impudence. Where was she when the man was half naked and needing to be clothed, half starved and needing to be fed, half caught and needing to be hidden? Jonah was his to save.

‘The lady suggested I wait here,' Jonah said.

‘Aye, well, the lady is probably away to fetch a policeman.'

‘Would she do that?'

‘How do we know?'

‘
Hayley
would not do that.'

‘Hayley is a traitor and a turncoat,' Fraser spat. ‘She told her mum about you when she promised she wouldn't. Her word means nothing now.'

The scale of Hayley's betrayal filled Fraser with a raging despair. There had been several occasions when he had badly wanted to tell his dad – when he first discovered Jonah, when he found the dead body, when he was pulled half drowned from the ocean – but he had always resisted, for his new friend's sake. Now Hayley had told her mum, just like that. He was done now with American girls and their soft lips and broken promises. He would do this alone.

Kind of alone.

‘Dunny, come on,' he shouted. ‘I know you're here and I know you can hear me, so show yourself. Now!'

Fraser heard a scraping in the shadows, a shifting of stones, and he knew that Dunny was climbing out of whatever hole he was hiding in. When he appeared, silhouetted in the doorway, some of the anger and frustration Fraser felt towards Dunny began to crumble like the old stones that surrounded them. His brother was the one person he could trust.

‘Let's go, Dunny. We need to get Jonah somewhere safe.'

Fraser turned to Jonah.

‘You can bide tonight in Ben McCaig's boat, you'll be safe there, and tomorrow he'll take you to the mainland. Then it's a bus to Inverness and the train to London.'

‘The lady was going to help me find my brother,' Jonah said.

‘She can still do that, once you're safe in London.'

Fraser started to walk fast along the cliff path, checked that Jonah was following. This was going to work, he was going to make it happen, just as he had promised days before when he first encountered a shipwrecked man in a cave.

Something whacked off the back of his neck and sent him stumbling on to his knees. He clutched his neck and felt it sting, looked at the ground and saw a scallop shell lying there. He turned. Behind him Dunny was standing, his arms by his side, his face scrunched up, trying, it seemed, not to cry.

Fraser lifted himself to his feet, rubbed his neck and checked his fingers for blood but there was none. ‘What the hell are you playing at, Dunny?'

His brother gave a vigorous shake of his head.

Fraser moved at speed back down the trail, past an astonished Jonah. ‘What is your problem, Dunny?' His brother gave a look of such pleading despair and shook his head again. ‘Speak to me, Dunny.' He took a hold of Dunny's shoulder and shook it. Fraser was tired of the silence and the shells and the sorrow. ‘Enough of this
nonsense
. You can speak fine, you just choose not to. If there is something bothering you, then tell me what it is. I want to hear it. From your lips. In words.'

Fraser folded his arms and stood there on the path in the shadow of the castle, looking at Dunny, waiting. Dunny lifted his hands and squeezed his fingers into his palms, screwed up his face as if he was trying to force out a word, trying to express something important. His breaths were irregular, his dark eyes filled with tears now.

‘Tell me, Dunny.'

His brother's head dropped on to his chest, his arms fell to his sides, he stood there for a moment, defeated, and then he turned and ran.

‘Let's get going, Jonah,' Fraser said. He didn't have time to psychoanalyse his brother.

‘Dunny wants to tell you something, I think.'

‘Then all he has to do is open his mouth and speak.' Fraser sensed Jonah's disapproval. ‘There's an old wooden jetty on the other side of the cliffs. Ben said he can get his boat alongside. We can't go back to town, policemen are going door to door asking about Solomon, and the harbour master might be watching from his window.'

At the end of the clifftop there was no path down, just a series of steps and rocky crags.

‘It's a bit of a climb,' Fraser said.

‘Lesotho is mountain country. I can climb.'

Together they carefully made their way down the sandstone bluff, in some places clinging to the rock face by their fingertips and stretching a leg down to the next ridge. They helped each other, until they both jumped the last bit on to the sand.

Fraser wiped his forehead, sand grains sticking to sweat. ‘That was fun.'

‘I think you have a little Sotho in you. You are welcome in my tribe.'

‘I have one of those already. We call them “clans”.'

They walked along the beach and the fine white sand began to be pockmarked with pebbles and large slabs of red rock.

‘Look over there,' Fraser said, pointing to the top of the beach. ‘There's Ben's dinghy. It must have washed ashore.'

‘Can we use it?'

‘We don't need to. Ben and I can collect it later.'

As the coastline curved the last of the cliffs faded to flat. Around the bend of the beach was a wooden jetty, rotten and broken in places, with gaps between timbers that were covered in sea moss and barnacles. At the far end was the
Moby Dick
, bobbing gently in a calm sea. Ben was sitting in the stern with his legs over the side, leaning back, eyes closed, enjoying the sunshine.

‘There it is,' Fraser said. ‘Your ferry boat to freedom.'

‘I have been on one of those before,' Jonah said. ‘It did not end well.' He stared for a few seconds at the lobster boat. ‘This small boat does not seem to be in good condition.'

‘Aye, she's old. But wait until you see her ride a wave.'

‘I truly hope I do not have to.'

Fraser looked up and down the beach. They were doing this in broad daylight and anyone could have been watching, but it was a risk they had to take. No guts, no glory, he told himself.

Ben saw them coming and stood up to greet them. At the jetty Fraser went first, pulling himself up on to the old timbers. They creaked and the whole structure swayed slightly but he made it to the end and jumped the gap on to the boat. Jonah followed, arms stretched out like a tightrope walker. When he reached the boat Ben offered a hand and pulled him aboard.

‘You must be Jonah,' he said, shaking his hand.

‘I am.' Jonah bowed slightly. ‘And you are Ben and I thank you for your help.'

‘It's not a problem. I owe Fraser one, he introduced me to some orcas.'

‘I have seen the whales myself. There are many things about Scotland I will never forget and the whales are one of them. I would stay if I could, but now it is time to go.'

‘Are you berthing here tonight?' Fraser asked Ben.

‘No, I'll moor in the harbour as usual. If your friend stays below, it'll be fine. I'll take him to the mainland in the morning. I'll stick to the usual routine, sail about ten once the ferry's been.'

‘Can I come?'

‘Of course you can.'

Ben moved to the wheelhouse to start the engine and Fraser led Jonah through the deck hatch down to the cabin below. The small space was little more than a bunk and a narrow galley with an opening that led through to the engine. The wood of the cabin was warping, the metal struts were rusting and it smelt of fish, despite repeated scrubbing.

Jonah sat on the bed and Fraser sat on the floor. The engine began clanking and the boat began to move.

‘You have your train ticket and your money for the bus and food,' Fraser said, his voice loud against the pistons. ‘Is there anything else you need?'

‘You have supplied more than enough. I just need to get to London.'

Fraser knew it was just a short ride to the harbour, not like tomorrow, when they would have to cross the Sound of Whales and then sail back, one crewman lighter. Jonah's island story was drawing to a conclusion but there was still much that could go wrong. At least now he shared the burden with Ben McCaig, and Ben knew how to get out of a fierce storm or a tight fix.

They reached the harbour and the pitch of the engine changed and the boat slowed.

‘I'll see you in the morning,' Fraser said.

‘Thank you, my young friend.'

Fraser pushed open the cabin hatch and clambered on to the deck, had a look to see if anyone was watching but there was no one around and nothing moved. Sunday in Skulavaig. He sighed as he realized that after tomorrow his town, his island, his life returned to normal. Ben would still have his boat and Hayley would still be in the cottage, but the excitement would be over. Until, he hoped, the next storm blew in the next adventure.