Probably not but I reckoned it got the gist. It chittered and jerked its head to the right. Whatever that meant.

‘Something’s up there,’ I said softly to Lou. ‘Can you go have a look?’

She edged away. I got the impression that she was glad to have a reason to put some distance between us. I shrugged at the otter; I wasn’t being that weird, was I? The otter seemed to agree with Lou, however. It blinked at me warily and backed down to the river, obviously keen to leave. I inclined my head and let it go. If I’d felt fresher, I’d have been tempted to persuade it to pull us all along with some of its otter buddies.

Lou wasn’t long. She emerged from behind a tree and scratched her head. ‘There’s a boat tethered there.’

I clapped my hands. ‘Brilliant.’

‘We can’t take it, Ivy. That would be stealing.’

‘We’re only borrowing it.’

She shook her head. ‘It has a small motor. And there are keys still in the engine. Whoever it belongs to, they’re probably coming back. They’re going to need it.’

Huh. I tilted my head and listened. There was no one else near here; if there had been, the producers would have already shooed them away. I glanced at the cameraman, whose lens was still trained on my face, and considered.

‘It’s a set-up.’

Lou squinted at me. ‘Pardon?’

‘We’re in the middle of nowhere. What are the chances that there just happens to be a boat right next to the river that leads us to a camp? And that there are keys in the engine?’ I shook my head. ‘It’s too convenient. They’re setting us up. The producers, I mean.’

‘Do you really think they’d do that?’

I rolled my eyes at her. This was ‘reality’ television. Of course they would.

‘If that’s the case, then we have to leave it.’

‘Nope.’ I grinned. ‘If that’s the case then we absolutely have to take it. They’re trying to make television. We need to give the viewers something to shout about.’

‘We can’t steal it!’

I patted her on the back. ‘I told you. We’re just borrowing it.’

‘But…’

‘Don’t worry, Lou. If anyone complains, I’ll take the blame. We can be home and dry in less than an hour if we do this.’

Well, not exactly home as such. But at least somewhere I could finally get some real rest. If there wasn’t a nice fluffy pillow at this campsite, heads were going to roll.

***

Our meandering amble was rather pleasant. I wouldn’t call it peaceful, since Harriet had begun to snore with such force that the entire structure of the little boat shuddered. The noise she made was akin to a twenty-decibel drill, and I was still irritated that both she and Mike were sleeping while I had to stay awake. All the same, there was immense satisfaction in being on our way and probably far ahead of the other two teams.