by Faith Hogan
‘Christ. So if he’s in there, how do we get him out?’
‘Chances are if you saw him going in, he’s still there. He could walk about that place for days and never come to the end of it. The rescue boys have heat sensor equipment, they’ll find him easily enough when they arrive, but that could be quite a while.’ Colin looked in his rear-view mirror. The sun was orange on the sea beneath them. Over the last few evenings, darkness had been settling a little earlier. ‘I reckon we have about two good hours of light.’ In the distance, Kate heard the chopping sound of helicopter blades cut through the evening sky. Colin pulled the jeep up to the edge of the forest. Already, some of the other locals were there waiting with flashlights and rescue gear.
‘Groups of two?’ Colin asked one of the older men.
‘Aye, twos, but no more than a couple of yards distance between us.’ He looked towards a youngster tying blue rope around one of the larger trees. ‘We don’t have much time before it’s dark, so the faster we get moving, the more chance we have of finding him.’
‘That’s our central line,’ Colin looked at her. ‘We keep that in our sights, otherwise, we could end up getting lost too. You stick with me, yeah?’ he said, pulling a heavy jacket on. Kate had no intention of moving too far away from him.
As they set into the forest, the sun was turning mellow orange reddening the late evening sky. ‘We have a couple of hours before it’s actually dark, but in here, it’s dark anyway, with night, it’ll be pitch.’
They seemed to walk for ages in silence. Occasionally, she would hear one of the men call out, but there was no sign of Todd. Far from the picturesque landscape she’d imagined, the forest was a spongy undergrowth that felt like it might swallow anything up in its hollow belly.
‘So, that’s it between you and Todd Riggs, eh?’ Colin said. He’d been busy the last few weeks, so it felt like there was a cooling off in their friendship – he put it down to fencing and getting his farm set up for the winter months, but now she wondered.
‘How do you mean?’
‘Oh, come on, Kate, he’s still in love with you, you must see that.’ Colin did not look at her, instead he stared determinedly ahead, moving slowly and purposefully.
‘I certainly don’t see that at all. I had hoped we’d be friends, but maybe I was wrong about that.’
‘Like you and me?’ He looked at her now, the fizzing current that had passed between them in the beginning had softened into what she hoped would be a true and long friendship.
‘Yes, like you and I.’
‘Hmph. I’m not sure your Todd Riggs has the same idea.’
‘He’s not my Todd Riggs.’
‘Well, he’s certainly not Claudia Dey’s anymore.’
‘Colin, not that it’s any of your business, but…’ She saw something in the distance, an outline, something that moved, only slightly, and then it was gone again. They were moving in what appeared to be a straight line, if it was a badger he would have time to get away. If it was Todd? She hoped it would be Todd. God if anything happened to him, the thought struck her from nowhere. She pushed it quickly from her mind. Looked at Colin, she wasn’t sure what she wanted to say, but she knew she sounded a lot crosser than she should. ‘It’s nobody’s business but Todd’s.’
‘How would you feel if he doesn’t come out of this okay?’
‘I’m not having this conversation.’ But, there was a heavy feeling cutting into her, a foreboding sense of incompleteness.
‘Good.’ Colin went silent and between them Kate could feel a rising air of something much stronger than discontent, maybe it was the sound of their friendship crumbling.
‘What does it matter, anyway?’ she looked at him now, caught her breath; he looked so wretched. She was not so sure herself how she felt about Todd. Not now, not standing here on the edge of a mountain, where he could be dead or alive with Colin Lyons beside her.
Then she saw the movement again, like a quiver, but of course, it must be so much more because it was a distance away. She moved forward, began to run, her heart thumping in her chest with fear as much as hope.
‘Come back, Kate.’ Colin’s voice roared behind her. But she kept moving, towards that indistinct shape. She could sense the panic rise as Colin called her back again, but she ran on, not out of sight, not so far she would get lost.
She stopped within a couple of feet of the shape. Somehow, up close, it looked lifeless now, and she realized that what she’d seen was his rucksack, snagged and hanging, bending branches ever so slightly, so it moved rhythmically on the stale air. She wanted to cry, she had feared the worst when she saw its swinging shape in the darkness.
‘Todd. Todd are you here?’ she called out, moved forward and felt the forest floor move slightly beneath her feet. Brogan’s Drop – she looked down, it was dark and deep. ‘Todd, are you down there?’ She looked behind, could make out the luminous glow of the men’s jackets moving towards her. She listened hard, just for a few seconds, then she heard him. Low and short of breath.
‘Kate? Is that you? Kate?’
‘I’m here. Todd, I’m right here, there’s a whole search party here, looking for you, hold tight.’ Her voice sounded strange here in the darkness, a mixture of fear and relief and that uneasy realization that maybe she was worrying about someone who didn’t really exist. After all, what was there between them anymore, she had no claim on him and no right to feel so worried that he was safe.
‘My leg, Kate. I think…’
‘Is it broken?’ she bit her lip, thinking how on earth they’d get him out of here if he’d broken his leg.
‘I… I don’t know.’
‘He’s over here. Colin,’ Kate shouted back at the advancing jackets, the men otherwise invisible apart from the waving flashlights before them. ‘It’s okay, Todd. You’re going to be okay now.’ When she turned to Colin she couldn’t keep the worry from her voice. ‘He may have a broken leg.’
‘Christ,’ Colin said as he stood on the edge of the drop beside her. ‘He really couldn’t have picked a better spot.’ He was being sarcastic and Kate thought it didn’t suit him. ‘Your leg, mate, do you think you can walk on it?’ he shouted down, but cast his eyes to heaven.
‘I… I’m not sure. I’ll try.’ Todd groaned, and Kate suspected that he was trying to stand.
‘We can assume climbing is out of the question, so?’ Colin looked at one of the other men. ‘He sounds like he can hardly stand on it. Jimmy,’ Colin looked at a youngster that Kate had only ever seen in the Weavers, ‘have you brought your gear?
‘Take it easy, Todd, you’ll be out of there in a few minutes.’ Kate sounded more confident than she felt.
‘We have an experienced climber here, Todd. We should be able to get you out of there quickly. Can you stand on that leg?’
‘Yeah, yeah, I’m standing now, I have a feeling it was…’ he muttered something. ‘I’m fine.’
‘Cramps,’ one of the older men guffawed and stopped abruptly when Kate threw him a dirty look.
‘I’m fine, if I knew where I was going, I could probably climb out of here.’ Todd’s voice was echoic, as though he was looking upwards and about him.
‘Okay, mate. We’re throwing down a rope.’ Jimmy moved to the edge of the drop. ‘I’ve secured it here, so it’s quite safe, but once you start to climb, we’ll put a bit of tension on it our end. Kate here will be our eyes and ears, so she’s going to be the one you’re talking to. All right?’ He threw down a thick rope, spangled with small flashing red lights spaced out along its length. ‘If you think you’re not up for the climb don’t even try it. We can think of something else.’ He turned to Kate, and said, quietly, ‘Mightn’t be as dignified, but we’d bring him up in the commode chair.’ He pointed over to where the men had carried a fold-out chair.
‘No, I’m good to climb. I have the rope and I’m tying it round my waist.’ Todd’s voice sounded stronger now.
‘It’s not a long climb, more like a reall
y steep hill walk and only a short one at that,’ Colin said as he grabbed the rope to help the men apply a little pulling power to it. ‘From down there, to him though, it probably seems like climbing Kilimanjaro.’
‘You okay, Todd?’ she shouted down towards the bottom of the drop. Then she saw the tension on the rope and knew he had started to climb before she heard him fall back down again. ‘It’s okay, take your time.’ She winced every time she heard his body thump against the hard rocks and wet roots, his occasional groan giving affirmation that he was in pain and that made her wince all the more.
His climb up seemed to take forever, but at least it was straightforward. The men pulled him over the last mound when he reached the top, tired, dishevelled, his clothes ripped. Kate hardly noticed. She was too relieved; he was okay and suddenly she realized just how important that was to her.
Spontaneously, Kate threw her arms around him and, for a flash, it felt normal, as though she should be in his arms because they were… what? She realized too late and pulled herself awkwardly back.
‘I…’ he started to say and she saw her own confusion mirrored in his eyes. ‘It’s… thank you,’ he said in a blanket of silence, where Kate could hear nothing beyond the two of them. Then he moved a little away from her, embarrassed at their sudden intimacy and perhaps at finding himself in need of rescue at all, particularly by Colin and Kate. ‘Thanks to all of you, I think the drinks are going to be on me for a very long time. I’m glad to be out of that,’ he looked beyond the slope he had just climbed up with their help.
‘You can thank Kate there that you’re out of here tonight,’ one of the older men said. ‘She was the one who raised the alarm and she was the one who saw your rucksack.’
‘So, this time it’s thank you,’ he said quietly to her and she could see in his eyes that there were a million things that could be said, but the time for saying them was over. He shook her hand instead. It sealed the awkward silence between them.
The walk back to the edge of the forest seemed much shorter than the walk in. Perhaps it was the fact that Kate was no longer afraid that they were too late. She walked between Todd and Colin and the silence was heavy, but she was still flooded with relief.
Colin left them off at the castle and waited until Todd went inside.
‘So, where to now?’ Kate needed a strong drink and to sit for an hour making small talk to create some sense of what had just occurred.
‘Well, I’m going home.’ Colin started up the engine. ‘You need to ring the hotel, let the Hartleys know he’s all right and decide if you want to sit at his bedside for the foreseeable.’
‘I really don’t see why you’re so angry, Colin,’ Kate muttered as she rang Iris to tell her that they’d found Todd.
‘No, I don’t suppose you do, Kate.’ He jumped into the jeep and thundered back towards his cottage, leaving her standing alone in the evening darkness.
*
The divorce petition was probably the fastest ever moved through the Irish legal system.
‘I can’t believe he’s agreeing to everything,’ Rita said when Kate explained some of the jargon to her. She was thrilled that it had arrived. She could keep the house and sign whatever needed to be signed to extricate her from Duncan’s dodgy business deals. She did not know where he was staying. One too many nasty phone calls after she threw him out of the house and she took the phone off the hook after she warned him that if he came near the house she’d set Barry on him. Every time she came across a forgotten sock or a memento from their lives together she happily consigned them to the rubbish or recycling heap.
‘Well, not everything, but yes, he’s being more generous than I expected and he’s agreed to say that you’ve been separated for three years, if he didn’t do that you were stuck with him for the foreseeable.’
‘He’s afraid of you,’ Rita said as she looked down through the document that had arrived with the post before she left for the bathhouse. ‘He thinks you’re going to clean him out in fees if he doesn’t get it over with quickly,’ she smiled.
‘And the house isn’t too quiet without him?’ Kate thought Rita looked happier than she had ever since the first time they met. Although that did not mean she wasn’t lonely, or grieving for the death of her marriage.
‘Lonely? For Duncan? You must be joking. Barry and I are happy as pigs in muck. I can cook, eat, clean what I like, and when I like. If I wake in the middle of the night, I can turn on the light and read until morning if I fancy it and eat biscuits in bed too, what’s to miss?’
‘Sure, you’re not protesting too much, it’s a long time to share a home with someone not to miss them?’ Kate had seen enough marriages break up to know that there was always some grieving afterwards.
‘You know what they say; I’d miss an earache if it suddenly disappeared after years too. I’m sure, you probably think I’m a cold fish, but I’ve done my crying for almost a decade. Seeing him leaving, for that last time, taking his horrible car out the driveway, it was like a weight being lifted, as though I could breathe properly for the first time in years.’ She signed the pages with a flourish and blew out a sigh of relief. ‘We should probably have champagne?’
‘Not yet, I believe in waiting until all the ink is dry and the last “T” is crossed.’ Kate folded the documents into three. They could go in the return post, once she read over them one more time. ‘Anyway, I thought you preferred tea?’
‘Oh, I’m a new woman now,’ Rita laughed, ‘when Duncan is paying, it’s champagne all the way. Wait until I get that cheque over to the dogs’ home, then we’ll be hitting the strawberry cheesecake with gusto.’
30
Robert, 1957
‘Busy spot you have here, son,’ Ernest Hartley said as he walked towards the stove and held his hands out before the soft dying heat. ‘I could have sworn I saw Iris making her way along this path earlier?’
‘You’re out late, father?’ Robert said calmly, he knew that with the way his father spoke these days, the goings-on from tonight would fade from his memory very fast. ‘Shall I make some tea for us?’
‘No, that won’t be necessary.’ Ernest Hartley took down the bottle of brandy from the shelf beside the stove where Robert had left it earlier. He poured a measure silently, the only noise an angry thump when he heavily left the bottle back on the shelf. Ernest Hartley was not to be trifled with when he was like this. Robert had noticed it for a few months now, perhaps even a year. There were times when his father seemed like a different man, as though someone had rewired him so his patience narrowed. His temper rose quickly over things that wouldn’t have bothered him before. ‘Robert, you have let us down. Your mother expects more from you than this.’
‘And you, father, what do you expect?’ Robert watched as one tear made its way silently from his father’s faded eyes.
‘I know what you’re like, Robert. Always have,’ he shook his head sadly. ‘I suppose, I wanted more for Archie, he deserves better than leftovers.’ He held out a letter and placed it on the table between them. Robert went to take it up, but his father put his hand across it. ‘Archie loves that girl, Robert, you knew that. Archie loves her, and God knows, we didn’t think he’d ever meet anyone with a bit of pluck to them and there you go, he’s met the girl of his dreams and you managed to whip her out from under his nose.’ He nodded towards the envelope and Robert noticed it had a French stamp and was postmarked Paris.
‘From her sister?’ Robert asked.
‘No, I should think that’s the last person she’d want to hear from. I’m in two minds what to do about this,’ he rubbed his temple with those long tapered hands, as though he might rub away some of the worry that creased his forehead. ‘Look, all I will say is, that letter tells you more about the girl than even you have managed to learn and let me tell you, she’s made of hard stuff. Maybe even tougher than she realizes herself. Perhaps we should just get rid of this tonight and let that be an end to the whole business.’ Ernest swallowed the co
ntents of his glass and Robert thought sometimes he trembled on the edge of complete madness, and then other times he surprised him with his astonishing logic. He looked about the bathhouse. ‘You’re happy here, aren’t you? Happy with how we’ve set you up?’
‘I am very grateful for the bathhouse, father, you know that, and I’m making a good go of it too.’ Robert knew that the place would be his officially in a matter of months. His parents agreed that on his next birthday he would become the legal owner. It had always been a mere formality, but tonight, the glint that lit his father’s eye made it seem suddenly less of a certainty.
‘Well then,’ his father said, taking down the bottle once more, ‘I think we can agree that if you want to continue here, you know what’s the right thing to do by your brother.’
‘I promise, father, I won’t see Iris again.’ There was no point lying to his father, they both knew, he was the only one who had always been able to see right through Robert’s lies.
‘Not just that,’ the brandy rattled a violent gasp from his father’s chest and he put the glass down with a final messy thud. ‘Robert, you’ll marry Gemma. You’ll announce it tomorrow.’ He held up his hand to still any protests from Robert. ‘You’ll announce your engagement to Gemma tomorrow and that will be the end of this sordid nonsense. Now, get me a cup of tea to settle my stomach after that brandy.’
As Robert went back towards the kitchen, he saw his father lift the letter from the table. He would give anything to read it. What secret did Iris have that made her stronger than any of them realized? It was a secret in Paris, he was sure of that. He placed the kettle on the gas stove, he would make a pot of tea for both of them, perhaps by the time it was drank, his father would have forgotten all about what had just happened. But Robert was shaken by it. The most important thing to him was the bathhouse; he had worked very hard to establish the business. He did not intend to lose it over a couple of nights of illicit passion. As for marrying Gemma – well, his father could forget about that too.