I had been feeling guilty about tricking Mrs Baron, but now, in this strange, still moment, I knew that Mags and I had done the right thing. How could we have gone to Wales and left our Pa here? How could we have abandoned our lighthouse? I thought about what Mrs Baron had said – that the Castle could be a target for bombers or saboteurs. Something tugged at my mind like a fish caught on a line. Saboteurs? I thought of the dark reflection in the kitchen window, the figure I thought I had seen darting behind the standing stone. What if someone was lurking around the lighthouse, waiting for us to leave so that they could break in? What if they wanted to set fire to the lighthouse, just like the village hall? I imagined it burning down like a giant candle.

And then a terrible thought struck me hard.

I had forgotten to lock the main door to the lighthouse. Mags had reminded me, and I had said I would do it, but I had forgotten.

I thought about Pa’s service room full of papers and records, logbooks and shipping charts, and I thought about the telephone with the direct line to the Admiralty. Then I thought about that flashing light I had seen on the north cliff before the bomber crashed – someone had been trying to signal to the enemy . . . And I had left our huge lantern unguarded.

I tried to steady my breathing, looking down at the sea. There was the Wyrm – barely visible beneath the choppy waves and the churned-up sea foam. I could just make it out – a squirming, squid-like sea dragon with the dark shapes of swallowed things lurking in its pale stomach. A cold surge of nausea rolled through my body. The more I thought about it, the more certain I was that someone had been there up amongst the stones, watching me, watching the lighthouse. I tortured myself, imagining the lighthouse being used as a beacon for German bombers. I pictured the white cliffs reduced to a pile of chalky rubble . . . And it would all be my fault.

I had to go back.

I glanced at my sister – fast asleep now. She would be angry if I woke her to say I’d forgotten to lock the lighthouse door after all. If I could just nip back there quickly, she would never even know that I had gone . . .

Chapter 34

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