Chapters (39)
- Title Page
- Dedication
- Prologue
- One
- Two
- Three
- Four
- Five
- Six
- Seven
- Eight
- Nine
- Ten
- Eleven
- Twelve
- Thirteen
- Fourteen
- Fifteen
- Sixteen
- Seventeen
- Eighteen
- Nineteen
- Twenty
- Twenty-One
- Twenty-Two
- Twenty-Three
- Twenty-Four
- Twenty-Five
- Twenty-Six
- Twenty-Seven
- Twenty-Eight
- Twenty-Nine
- Thirty
- Thirty-One
- Thirty-Two
- Epilogue
- Author’s note
- Acknowledgements
- About the Author
‘This is horrible,’ Susan said. She was sharing one of the armchairs with Terry, sitting across his knee with them both swaddled in Anna’s quilt. ‘Like waiting for the end.’ Terry held her closer.
‘We’ll be all right,’ Anna said, sounding calmer than she felt. Why hadn’t she taken up Robert’s offer of a lift out of here yesterday? Why hadn’t she made Frank and Pat come with her, Terry and Susan too? ‘The Fishergirl’s Luck survived in 1953. In fact, that’s when Bren came up with the name.’
‘What do you mean?’ Pat asked.
‘Bren wrote about it in her recipe book. Here, I’ll read you what she said.’ Anna found her overnight bag amid the tumult and pulled out the old notebook. The others listened as she read out Bren’s account of baking all night in the stove that was now keeping them in fresh tea.
‘Well, I’ll be damned,’ said Frank.
‘That storm is what the Fishergirl’s Luck was born out of,’ Anna said. ‘And if it survived then, it can survive this, too.’
‘But the cliff didn’t come down in 1953,’ Susan said, her voice shaky. ‘Bren wasn’t facing being pushed off the sea wall by a landslide as well as the storm coming in from the sea. I don’t think—’
Her words were interrupted by a frantic hammering at the door. Anna leapt up and ran to it, expecting to see a bedraggled Douglas McKean shivering on her doorstep. She threw back the bolts they’d set against the wind and yanked it open.
‘Robert!’
‘Anna!’ He barrelled inside, his wet face furrowed with worry, grasping her arms with gloved hands. ‘Are you all right?’
The others appeared around them, all asking questions at once.
‘There’s no time,’ Robert said, still catching his breath from his battle with the wind. ‘We have to go, now. Is everyone here?’
‘All but Dougie McKean,’ Terry supplied. ‘Can’t get him to leave his nest.’
Robert glowered at that, then pulled Anna’s coat from the peg beside him and thrust it at her. ‘Everyone get down to the harbour. The lifeboat’s waiting but it won’t be able to hold at anchor for long. You have to go. I’ll get Dougie.’
‘No!’ Anna exclaimed. ‘You can’t—’
He grabbed her hand and held it. ‘I can’t leave him, Anna.’
‘I’ll come with you,’ Frank said, as the wind rattled the door. ‘Might take two to drag him out of there.’
‘No,’ Robbie said firmly, before Pat had a chance to. ‘And there’s no time to argue. You’re going.’ The second he began to open the door the wind found the gap and threw it wide to crash against the wall.