‘Ally, what is it? Are you ill again?’
Theo was quickly by my side, his arms supporting me as I shook my head miserably.
‘No, really, I’m fine. I just . . . I just . . .’
And then I sat down in the grass and bawled my eyes out like a little girl. I told him about the moped accident and how I was missing my father so very badly and how sorry I was that he was seeing me upset again.
‘Ally, it’s you who needs to forgive me. This is my fault. Of course you’re exhausted from the race and the trauma of your father’s death. You do such a great impression of being tough that I, the man who likes to pride himself on being the ultimate reader of people, have failed you. Now, I’m going to phone a friend, and get him to come up here by car and collect us immediately.’
Too tired to argue, I sat on the grass and watched Theo stand up and make a call on his mobile. The sun was now being subsumed by the sea beneath us, and as I calmed down, I decided that Theo was right. The view was indeed stunning.
Ten minutes later, with Theo following behind on the moped, I was being driven sedately down the hill in an extraordinarily old Volvo by an equally old man who Theo briefly introduced as Kreon. Halfway down, the car turned right and proceeded along another dusty, bumpy road, seeming to lead to nowhere again. But this time, when we reached the end of the track, I saw the welcoming lights of a beautiful house perched right on the edge of a cliff.
‘Make yourself at home, sweetheart,’ said Theo as he led me into a spacious entrance hall and a middle-aged, dark-eyed woman appeared and embraced him warmly, murmuring endearments in Greek. ‘Irene here is our housekeeper,’ he explained. ‘She’ll show you to your room and run you a bath. I’m going down to the port with Kreon to get our stuff from the boat.’
The bath turned out to sit on a terrace, which was carved – like the rest of the house – into the jagged rocks that plunged steeply down the cliff and into the foaming sea. Having luxuriated in a frothing pool of scented water, I climbed out and padded into the gorgeous airy bedroom. Then I went to explore and found myself in a stylishly furnished sitting room, which led onto a huge main terrace with a spectacular view and an infinity pool that an Olympic competitor would not have sniffed at. I concluded that this house was a little like Atlantis, but suspended in the air.
Soon after, wrapped in a soft cotton robe that I’d found on the bed, I sat down in one of the comfortably upholstered chairs on the terrace. Irene appeared with a bottle of white wine in a cooler and two glasses.
‘Thank you.’
I sipped my drink as I gazed out into the star-studded darkness, appreciating the luxury of the surroundings after several days of sailing. I also knew now that when I took Theo home to Atlantis, he would be completely at ease there. So many times in the past, when I’d taken a friend from boarding school home to stay, or for a sailing trip on the Titan, I’d seen how their gregarious personalities were quashed under their awe of how we lived. And then they would leave, and when I’d next see them, I’d feel what I now guessed was animosity emanating from them, and the friendship would never be quite the same again.
Thankfully, there’d be none of those problems with Theo. His family obviously lived as well as mine did. I chuckled at the thought that both of us spent at least three-quarters of our lives lying on hard bunks in airless cabins, feeling lucky if the one cramped shower cubicle produced even a trickle of water – be it hot or cold.
I felt a hand on my shoulder and then a kiss on my cheek.
‘Hello, my love. Are you feeling better?’
‘Yes, much, thanks. Nothing quite like a hot bath after a few days of racing.’
‘No, there isn’t,’ Theo agreed as he poured himself a glass of wine from the bottle and sat down opposite me. ‘I’m about to do the same. And once again, Ally, please forgive me. I know I can be very single-minded when I’m on a mission. I just really wanted to show you my new house.’
‘Really, it’s fine. I’m sure that when it’s finished it will be wonderful.’
‘Not as wonderful as this one, obviously, but at least it will be mine. And sometimes,’ he said with a shrug, ‘that’s all that matters, isn’t it?’
‘To be honest, I’ve never thought about having a home of my own. I’m away competing so much that getting a place seems rather pointless when I can simply go back to Atlantis. And we sailors earn so little that I couldn’t afford much at all.’
‘Hence me buying a goat barn,’ Theo agreed. ‘But equally, I suppose there’s no point in denying that both of us have always had a safety net to catch us if we fall. Personally, I’d prefer to starve than go cap in hand to my father for money. Privilege comes with a price, don’t you think?’
‘Maybe, yes, but I doubt anyone would feel sorry for either of us.’
‘I’m not suggesting we deserve sympathy, Ally, but despite this materialistic modern world believing the opposite, I don’t think money can solve every problem. Take my father, for example. He invented a chip to go inside computers that made him a multi-millionaire by the age of thirty-five, the same age as I am now. Throughout my childhood, he loved telling me how he’d had to struggle when he was younger and how I should realise how lucky I was. Of course, his experience wasn’t – and isn’t – mine, because I was brought up with money. It’s almost like a full circle: my father had nothing and was inspired to make what he could of his life, whereas I’ve ostensibly had everything, yet he’s made me feel guilty for having it. So I’ve spent my life trying to get by without his help, being permanently broke and feeling I’ve never lived up to his expectations. Was it similar for you?’ he asked me.
‘No, although we were definitely taught the value of money. Pa Salt always said that we were born to be ourselves, and could only strive to be the best we could possibly be. I always felt he was very proud of me, especially when it came to the sailing. I suppose it helped because it was a joint passion. Although he did say something quite strange in the letter he left me. He inferred that I hadn’t continued with my music career because I’d wanted to please him by becoming a professional sailor.’
‘And is that true?’
‘Not really. I loved both, but the opportunities for sailing were presented to me and I took them. Life happens like that, doesn’t it?’
‘Yup,’ Theo agreed. ‘Interestingly, I’m a complete mix of my parents. My father’s flair for the technical, and my mother’s love for sailing.’
‘Well, as I’m adopted, I have absolutely no idea what’s in my genes. My upbringing was all about nurture, not nature.’
‘Then wouldn’t it be fascinating for you to find out if your genes have played a part in your life so far? Maybe one day you should use your father’s clues and find out where you came from. It would be an amazing anthropological study.’
‘I’m sure it would,’ I said, stifling a yawn, ‘but I’m too tired to think about it. And you smell of goat. It’s high time you went for your bath.’
‘You’re right. On my way, I’ll tell Irene to put supper on the table and I’ll be back down in ten.’ Theo kissed me on the nose and left the terrace.
8
Having calmed down from the initial passionate rush that had characterised the beginning of our relationship, during the lazy few days on ‘Somewhere’, Theo and I took time to get to know each other properly. I found myself confiding things in him that I’d never told another human being. Tiny, unimportant details to anyone else, but which meant so much to me. Theo’s attention never wavered as he listened, his green eyes upon me with that intense gaze of his. Somehow he managed to make me feel more cherished than I’d ever felt in my life. He was especially interested in Pa Salt and my sisters – ‘the luxury orphanage’, as he’d termed our existence at Atlantis.
One sultry morning, when the air was so still that both Theo and I had remarked that a thunderstorm must be imminent, he came to join me on the daybed which sat in the shade on the terrace.
‘Where have you been
?’ I asked him as he sat down.
‘Sadly, I’ve been having a very dull conference call with our Fastnet sponsor, the team manager and the owner of the Tigress. And while they discussed semantics, I was doodling.’
‘Were you?’
‘Yes. Did you ever try making anagrams out of your name or writing it backwards when you were younger? I did, and it spelt something ridiculous,’ he said with a smile. ‘“Oeht”.’
‘Of course I did and it’s equally silly. Mine is “Ylla”.’
‘Did you ever make anagrams of your surname?’
‘No,’ I said, wondering where this was leading.
‘Okay. Well, I love playing around with words and just now, when I was bored stupid during the conference call, I was fiddling with yours.’
‘And?’
‘Okay, so I know I’m anal and love a mystery, but I also know a little about Greek mythology, having studied classics at Oxford and lived here every summer since I was a child,’ Theo explained. ‘Can I show you what I found?’
‘If you insist,’ I said as he handed me a piece of paper with a few words scribbled on it.
‘You see what D’Aplièse spells?’
‘Pleiades.’ I spoke the word he’d written below my surname, which apparently Theo had conjured out of ‘D’Aplièse’.
‘Yes. And you recognise that word?’
‘It certainly sounds familiar,’ I granted him grudgingly.
‘Ally, it’s the Greek name of the star cluster which contains the Seven Sisters.’
‘So? What are you saying?’ I looked at him, feeling irrationally defensive.
‘Just that it’s a pretty big coincidence that you and your sisters are all called after the seven, or should I say six’ – Theo checked himself – ‘famous stars, and that your surname is an anagram of “Pleiades”. Was that your father’s surname too?’
I could feel heat burning in my cheeks as I searched my memory to see if I could remember anyone ever calling Pa ‘Mr D’Aplièse’. Our household staff and those on the Titan called him ‘sir’, apart from Marina, who’d refer to him as ‘Pa Salt’, as us girls did, or ‘your father’. I tried to think if I’d ever seen a surname written on any mail that arrived for him, but I could only remember official-looking envelopes and deliveries which would be addressed in the name of one of Pa’s many companies.
‘Probably,’ I replied eventually.
‘Sorry, Ally.’ Theo had read my discomfort. ‘I was just trying to find out if he simply invented a surname for all you girls, or whether it was his name too. Anyway, darling, lots of people change their name by deed poll. It’s very cute actually. You are “Alcyone Pleiades”. And as for the nickname “Pa Salt”, I—’
‘Enough, Theo!’
‘Sorry, it’s just fascinating to me. I’m convinced there was far more to your father than met the eye.’
I excused myself then and went inside the house, feeling uncomfortable that Theo had seen something so intimate about my family – even though it was just letters he’d played with – that me and my sisters had never noticed before. Or if they had, it had never been openly discussed between us.
When I returned to the terrace, Theo followed my lead and said no more about it. Over lunch he told me more about his own parents and their acrimonious divorce. He’d been shuttled constantly between his mother in England, and America for holidays with his father. Being Theo, he related the whole story almost in the third person – analytically, as though it was little to do with him – but I could feel his underlying tension and subconscious anger. It sounded to me as if Theo had never given his father a chance, out of loyalty to his mother. However, I didn’t feel confident enough just yet to say so, but felt in time that I would.
In bed that night, still unsettled by the revelation of my surname, I couldn’t sleep. If our surname was an anagram made up by Pa because of his obsession with the stars and the mythology of The Seven Sisters, then who were we?
And more importantly, who had he been?
The awful truth was, I knew now that I could never find out.
The following day, I borrowed Theo’s laptop and looked up The Seven Sisters of the Pleiades. Even though Pa had talked to all of us about the stars, and Maia in particular had spent a lot of time with him in his domed observatory perched atop Atlantis, I had never taken much of an interest. Any information Pa had passed on to me was of the technical variety when we were out sailing together. He’d done his best to show me how to use the stars to navigate on the sea and had told me that The Seven Sisters had famously been used by sailors to guide them for thousands of years. Eventually, I closed the computer down, thinking that whatever the reasons behind Pa’s naming of us all, it was simply another mystery that would never be revealed. And pursuing it would only unsettle me further.
I put all this to Theo over lunch, and he agreed with me.
‘I apologise, Ally, really. I should never have mentioned it. What’s important is the present, and the future. And whoever your father was, all I care about is that he did something right by scooping you up as a baby. And although there’s more I’ve discovered that I’m itching to tell you . . .’ He eyed me speculatively.
‘Theo!’
‘Okay, okay,’ he agreed. ‘I understand it’s not for now.’
It wasn’t, although later that afternoon – and perhaps just as Theo had intended – I took out Pa’s letter from the back of my diary where I’d secreted it and reread it. Maybe, I thought, one day I should go and follow the trail he had left for me. And at the very least, find the book he’d mentioned, that was sitting on a shelf in his study at Atlantis . . .
As we neared the end of our time together, I felt as though Theo had become part of me. When I repeated this phrase to myself, I could hardly believe it was me saying it. And yet, even though it was a romantic notion, I really did feel as though he was my twin soul. With him, I felt complete.
And I only realised how scary this newfound status might be when, in his normal calm way, he discussed the logistics of leaving ‘Somewhere’ – which I now knew to be the island of Anafi – and heading back to reality.
‘Firstly, I have to go and visit my mum in London. Then I’ll pick up the Tigress from Southampton and sail her over to the Isle of Wight. At least that will give me a chance to get the feel of her. What about you, darling?’
‘I should go home for a bit too,’ I said. ‘Ma does a very good job of sounding okay, but without Maia there, or Pa, I feel I should be with her.’
‘So, I’ve been looking up flights. Why don’t we sail to Athens together on the Neptune at the weekend, then you take a flight to Geneva? I looked online and there’s availability on a lunchtime flight, which leaves around the same time as mine to London.’
‘Great. Thanks,’ I replied brusquely, suddenly feeling horribly vulnerable – scared of being without him and of what our future would bring. Or even if there would be one after ‘Somewhere’.
‘Ally, what’s the matter?’
‘Nothing. I’ve had a lot of sun today and I should go and get an early night.’ I stood up and made to leave the terrace, but he caught my hand before I could.
‘We haven’t finished the rest of the conversation, so please sit down.’ Planting me back firmly in the chair, he kissed me on the lips. ‘Obviously, we need to discuss plans for way beyond our flight home. For example, the Fastnet. I’ve been thinking about it a lot since we’ve been here, and I want to make a suggestion.’
‘Go ahead,’ I said, sounding contrary even to myself. These weren’t the kind of ‘plans’ I was interested in hearing about just now.
‘I want you to come and train with the crew. However, if I feel weather conditions are too dangerous to have you aboard for the actual race, or if you begin the race but I tell you at some point that you’re going ashore, you have to swear you’ll obey my orders.’
With effort, I nodded. ‘Aye, aye, skipper.’
‘Don’t be facetious, Ally. I�
�m serious. I’ve told you before that I couldn’t live with myself if anything happened to you.’
‘Isn’t it my decision to make?’
‘No. As your skipper, let alone your lover, it’s mine.’
‘So I’m not allowed to stop you if I think it’s too dangerous to sail?’
‘Of course not!’ Theo shook his head in frustration. ‘It’s me who will make the decision. For better, for worse.’
‘What if it’s “for worse” and I know it is?’
‘Then you’ll tell me, and I’ll hear your warning, but ultimately, I’ll decide.’
‘So why can’t I? It’s not fair, I—’
‘Ally, this is getting ridiculous. We’re going round in circles, and besides, I’m sure none of this will happen. All I’m trying to say to you is that you have to listen to me, okay?’
‘Okay,’ I agreed sullenly. This was the nearest the two of us had come to an argument and with so little time left in this perfect place, I was loathe to let the situation deteriorate further.
‘And more importantly’ – I saw Theo’s eyes soften as he reached out a hand towards me and stroked my face with his fingers – ‘let’s not forget there’s a whole future beyond the Fastnet. Really, this has been the best few weeks of my life, despite all the trauma. Darling Ally, you know it’s not my style to descend into romantic verbosity, but it would be great to work out a way that we could always be together. What do you think?’
‘Sounds good to me,’ I mumbled, unable to switch from ‘extremely irritated’ to ‘let’s spend our life together’ within the space of a few seconds. I almost glanced over to the papers Theo had with him to see if ‘Discuss future with Ally’ was noted on the schedule.
‘And old-fashioned as it seems, I know I won’t ever find another you. So given that neither of us are spring chickens and we’ve both been round the block, I’m just telling you that I am sure. And I’d be over the moon to marry you tomorrow. You?’
The Storm Sister Page 9