‘What is it?’ asked Lucy, looking up in alarm.
The woman didn’t seem at all surprised to see the two children clambering up out of the walled gulley. Instead she almost seemed to be expecting them.
‘It’s that lady from the funeral’ said Paul.
‘What are you doing there?’ Lucy asked her. The woman smiled.
‘Oh, I used to live here’ she replied, glancing down at the town below them again. ‘I don’t get to come back here very often. I just thought I’d come and have a look at the old place.’ Lucy frowned. ‘I used to play in these gullies when I was young just like you two’ the woman went on.
‘My dad recognised you at the funeral yesterday’ replied Lucy distrustfully. ‘He said he saw you at the hospital where I was only a few days before that. What’s going on?’ The woman looked back and levelled her gaze at Lucy again.
‘Well Lucy, it’s true’ she replied. ‘I have been keeping my eye on you from afar. She paused and wiped a snowflake from her face. ‘And I had been hoping to bump into you’ she added.
‘I don’t understand’ exclaimed Lucy, becoming increasingly agitated. ‘Who are you?’
‘Well you see’ replied the woman, pausing a moment. ‘I’m an old friend of your mother.’
‘You, you what?’ asked Lucy, barely knowing what to say. Paul looked at the woman, and then back at Lucy again uncertainly.
‘My name’s Rachel. Rachel Greenwood. I met Megan down here years ago when she was just a girl and I was barely a few years older. We have been in touch ever since till…. well, you know.’ Lucy stood there, rooted to the spot, staring at the woman in front of her, waiting for her to go on. The woman glanced up at the sky. Snow was tumbling down towards them in a grey swirl.
‘Look, we can’t speak here. Maybe you’d like to walk into town and have a cup of tea with me’ she went on. Lucy shook her head.
‘I can’t. Mary’s picking me up in half an hour. But… I’ll make it into town tomorrow’ Lucy replied. ‘I can say I’ve got some Christmas shopping or something to do.’
‘Well I’ll be in the Arts Café at midday’ said Rachel Greenwood. ‘I do hope you can join me’. She started to turn to walk back up through the orchard to the main road. ‘By the way, did you get it?’ she asked.
‘Get what?’
‘The book, the Flora and Fauna of the Cornish Coast’ Rachel Greenwood replied. ‘It was Megan’s, your mother’s I mean. I thought you should have it back. I thought it might be useful’. Lucy nodded.
‘Yes, yes I did’
‘Good, I’m glad’ Rachel Greenwood smiled. ‘See you tomorrow I hope.’
Ten minutes later Lucy was standing in the car park behind the harbour waiting for Mary to pick her up and take her back to the farm. The cold was creeping into her bones but she looked around her in wonder as the hard lines of the buildings were softened by snow. The snow had already turned to slush beneath her feet, but the top of each car around her had a neat white blanket and the great flakes were still fluttering down unhurriedly.
Lucy felt disturbed in a way that she could not fully understand by the appearance of Rachel Greenwood up in the abandoned orchard. She was usually immediately attracted by anyone who helped her understand her mother better. But it was weird that Rachel Greenwood should turn up at the hospital, Thelma’s funeral and then in the old orchard where she and Paul just happened to be. What was it that this woman wanted?
‘Looks like we’re in for a white Christmas!’ said Mary as Lucy pulled the car door closed. ‘And I need to get back to the farm and get my livestock inside. This is no weather to be stuck in a field.’
‘Do you think it will settle?’ asked Lucy as Mary ground through the gears on the way up the hill out of town.
‘Looks like it’ answered Mary. ‘It doesn’t normally get that cold down here, but I reckon this Christmas might be an exception. Talking of which, have you done your Christmas shopping yet? There’s only two shopping days to go.’
Lucy sat up with a start. What with being in hospital and then coming down to Cornwall for Thelma’s funeral she’d completely forgotten about Christmas shopping.
‘I’d better do it tomorrow’ she replied, thinking of her appointment with Rachel Greenwood.
‘That’s if we’re not completely snowed in at the farm by then’ joked Mary. As she drove the car slipped slightly from the icy slush under the wheels. ‘And I’ll need to put chains on these tyres as well while I’m at it.
They turned up onto the coast road that led towards the farm. Out here the snow was settling in the middle of the road and on the verge. Only two sets of darker tracks showed that cars were getting through and the snow still showed no sign of easing off. The fields to the left and the right of them looked crisp and white.
As they approached a dip a sleek car approached from the other direction, driving more slowly than usual as a result of adverse weather conditions. Just as they got close the other car seemed to lose control and slid slowly into the middle of the road in front of them. For a moment Lucy thought that she and Mary would crash into it but the car slid across so slowly that Mary had time to apply the brakes and come to a stop.
‘You okay?’ called Mary to the other driver, winding down the Land-Rover’s window. The man in the car nodded and made a wave in thanks before heading off up the road again, even more cautiously than before.
Nothing really happened, but the incident drew Lucy’s mind irresistibly to the thought of Mum’s last journey in a car the night that she died. She wondered what Mum had been thinking in the moments before her car had veered off the road and crashed that wet and windy night less than two years ago. She hoped they were happy thoughts. Mary put the Land-Rover into gear and moved on up the road again. They didn’t see any other vehicles before they turned off down the lane to the farm.
When they pulled into the farm yard they could see that Darren and Dad had been busy getting the livestock in under cover. A mass of hoof marks showed where the cows and sheep had come in through the gate and into the cowsheds and the barn. Dad was forking out fodder for the sheep. He was wearing an old -jacket of Darren’s and his face was red with cold. He waved at Lucy and she could see that he looked happy.
‘This is what I call winter!’ he exclaimed as she climbed out of the car. ‘And I’ll tell you what; doing physical work like this is a darned-sight more rewarding than tapping figures into a computer.’ Lucy wondered whether to tell Dad about her encounter with Rachel Greenwood, but something told her he wouldn’t like to hear about it. It’d be better not to say anything for the time being. Just then Bethany came out of one of the cowsheds.
‘We’re all going inside for a hot toddy’ she said, smiling. ‘Do you want to join us?’
Later Dad and Lucy sat companionably on the sofa in the farmhouse nursing their empty mugs in their laps. Mary and Darren had gone back to look after the livestock and Bethany had popped over to the studio.
‘How are you feeling now Luce, all warmed up?’ asked Dad. Lucy nodded. ‘It’s terrible that Thelma should pass away’ Dad went on, ‘but I am glad to be able to come down here again. Now that I’ve lost my job there’s nothing much to rush back for after all.’ He sighed and stared down into the bottom of his empty mug.
‘I used to worry about what might happen to you when we came down here’ he continued. ‘But I think we’re over that aren’t we? I think you’ve moved on?’
Lucy didn’t say anything but turned rigid with a mixture of anger and fear. She remembered lying in the hospital bed after they’d rescued Star-Gazer and being told by Dad that her gift would just fade away. She hadn’t believed him at the time but now it looked as if he and Thelma were right. If it hadn’t been for her time with Spirit after she’d been knocked out at that swimming pool, perhaps Lucy would have given up hope already. Instead she was desperate to speak to Rachel Greenwood and go back to the old mine workings. Lucy got up.
‘I’ve got to get some stuff sorted out�
� she replied stiffly, avoiding the questions that Dad asked her. She wasn’t going to give him the satisfaction of thinking that he was right. At the door she remembered the car sliding across the road that afternoon and turned back to look at Dad.
‘Dad. Do you think that Mum was happy that night in the car. The night that she died I mean.’ Dad didn’t answer immediately and seemed to struggle with his conflicting thoughts before he answered.
‘I hope so Luce’ he replied hesitantly. He seemed about to say something more, but then he faltered. ‘I hope so.’
Out in the farmyard, Bethany was making her way back to the farmhouse from her studio. It was too cold to live in the studio in this weather and she had retreated instead to a spare room with Mary and Darren.
‘Listen Bethany, can I speak to you for a moment, in private I mean’ said Lucy.
‘Sure Kiddo’ Bethany replied. ‘Let’s go and look at the sheep for a moment.’ Inside the barn smelled of wet wool and the sheep stood packed in tight next to each other, bleating and baa-ing loudly.
‘Before long it’ll be lambing season’ observed Bethany, leaning on the wooden fencing, ‘and then Mary and Darren will be up all hours delivering lambs night after night.’ She turned to Lucy. ‘So, what’s up then Kiddo?’
‘Well I don’t want to tell Dad’ Lucy started hesitantly, ‘but we met this lady today, me and Paul that is. She, well, it was her that Dad saw looking at my bed in the hospital and who was at Thelma’s funeral yesterday.’ Bethany looked at her niece, concern written across her face.
‘Her name’s Rachel, Rachel Greenwood’ said Lucy, ‘and she said she knew Mum.’
‘Rachel!’ exclaimed Bethany. ‘Can it really be her? I haven’t heard that name in years, let alone seen her!’
‘So you know her then?’ asked Lucy curiously.
‘Yes, well it was when I was still young. We were down here in Cornwall one summer. Megan was about thirteen I guess, and she was befriended by Rachel. She was a few years older and must have been at university at the time. They used to go round together in a beat up old Citroen. In fact it was that summer that she…, that she seemed to be losing her gift with dolphins. Then something happened… Rachel Greenwood, what a surprise!’ Bethany smiled, lost in her own thoughts for a few moments.
‘Did you know that they stayed friends?’
‘What? No, I had no idea.’
‘And why would she have been there at the hospital watching me, then at Thelma’s funeral too’ asked Lucy. Bethany shook her head.
‘Beats me’ she said, frowning a little as she thought.
‘The thing is’ Lucy went on, ‘that I’ve agreed to meet her tomorrow at a café in town. I need to ask her stuff you see. I need to find out about her and Mum.’
‘Yes of course’ replied Bethany. She looked out of the barn door. ‘That’s if we can get out at all by tomorrow. The rate this snow is falling, we’re going to be completely snowed in.’
‘You’ve got to help me’ said Lucy imploringly. ‘I thought maybe you could come with me.’ Bethany smiled again.
‘We’ll see what we can do.’
Later on, when it was dark and Lucy and her Dad had gone back to the holiday cottage for the night, Bethany stood in the hallway, with the telephone receiver in her hand speaking in a low voice.
‘Nate?’ she said. ‘I’m so sorry to trouble you at a time like this. It’s just that there was someone at Thelma’s funeral that I’d like to catch up with.’ Nate said something and Bethany smiled.
‘Rachel Greenwood…yes, yes that’s right? So she’s an academic at Exeter University is she? But why did she know Thelma? … Oh, oh I see. So Thelma helped her with her research into Dolphin-Children. Thanks Nate, thanks.’ They spoke for a couple more minutes before Bethany returned the phone to its cradle. Bethany stood there quietly for a while, before walking back into the farmhouse kitchen. Despite the fact that it was dark, Bethany could see that the snow lay heavily upon the ground and that it was still coming down. Quite how she would get Lucy into town the next day she wasn’t sure, but she was determined that she would.
‘How can you have discovered where the Three Green Caves are?’ asked Dancer incredulously, hearing Spirit’s excited announcement. ‘We’ve searched all along the coast for miles and never found them. Now you wake up and say you have?’
‘I can’t explain it’ Spirit replied. ‘I had this dream. It was so vivid and wonderful. I was in the caves. There was this eerie green light and these crystal formations. Then I swam out of the cave through this narrow tunnel and I found myself in the sea again. But I recognised the place where I came out. That’s how I know where the caves are!’
‘But it was just a dream’ replied Dancer. It probably didn’t mean anything.’
‘Well I’ve got to find out’ answered Spirit. ‘And the place I dreamt about is not so far from here. We can just go and take a look.’ Dancer looked around her, just as Star-Gazer swam up next to them both.
‘Let’s all take a look’ said Star-Gazer, looking at her son curiously. ‘Sometimes you have to listen to where the spirit leads you. That is what we did when we named you.’ Star-Gazer exchanged glances with Storm, who had just glided up to join them.
‘Yes’ said Storm quietly. ‘You lead. We will follow you Spirit.’
The sea was choppy and grey as they swam along through the wintery, cold waters. Spirit felt proud that he was leading the pod, but was painfully aware of the dolphins following behind him. What if all he did was take them to a wall of rock?
‘I think the sky might turn to snow’ observed Summer.
‘I hope that young Spirit knows where he’s taking us’ muttered Chaser.
Soon the granite cliffs loomed up in front of them. At first Spirit could not find his bearings, but then he seemed to instinctively know which way to go. Spirit paused and broke the surface of the water to look around him.
‘This is it, this is the place’ he said, excitement infecting his voice. There at the top of the cliff were some gorse bushes obscuring a lip of overhanging rock and seagulls wheeling in the sky. The sight seemed both new and familiar to him, almost as though he was looking at the scene through the eyes of another. ‘This way!’ he said, diving again beneath the surface of the sea. One by one the members of the pod dived again to follow him.
The sea under the cliff was murky with particles that floated in clouds in the turbulent water. Strands of seaweed swayed this way and that in the eddies and currents.
‘So where are these caves then Spirit?’ called out Chaser sceptically.
‘Be patient’ replied Storm. ‘Let him focus.’
Spirit examined the wall of rock beneath the surface of the water carefully. It was covered in thick, impenetrable black-green bladder-weed that entirely carpeted the granite. He could see nothing that suggested the opening to a cave.
‘You know’, said Dancer to Star-Gazer in a concerned tone, ‘that we must have passed this spot at least two or three times when we were searching for the entrance to the caves before. There can’t possibly be anything here.’ They all watched Spirit search the submerged cliff face, at first calmly, but then with increased agitation.
‘Spirit’ called Storm. ‘Stop a moment. You are searching with your eyes, but I believe that you need to use all your senses.’
Spirit drew back and observed the wall in front of him. Storm was right, his eyes told him nothing. He tried to use his clicking echo-location to see through the bladder-weed to the rock behind it. There were half a dozen spots where there could be something behind the weed. Then he let his mind free itself.
Suddenly, with a great convulsion of his tail flukes, Spirit powered forward, straight at a particular patch of the cliff.
‘Watch our Spirit!’ called Star-Gazer in alarm. It seemed to the others that he would strike his beak and head against the wall of rock. Instead he quite simply disappeared.
‘Where’s he gone?’ cried out Moonlight in alarm. Dancer imme
diately darted forward to where her friend had disappeared.
‘Look!’ she exclaimed. ‘There’s an opening.’ Sure enough, behind the slimy bladder-weed there was a smooth round hole in the rock. It was worn down by the thousands of years that the sea had pounded against the hard granite. It was barely wide enough for a dolphin to pass through and was absolutely black. There was no sign of Spirit in there at all.
‘I’m going after him!’ Before anyone else in the pod could respond, Dancer turned and with a flick of her tail, she too disappeared into the solid wall of rock.
It was dark and tight in the tunnel and at some points there was barely enough room for Dancer to squeeze through. She became scared that she would get stuck there and continued on cautiously, with small flicks of her tail flukes to propel herself forward. Eventually the tight passage opened up into a great subterranean space.
‘Spirit, Spirit!’ she called.
‘I’m here’ he replied, and they touched fins briefly in greeting.
‘This place is amazing’ said Dancer, full of awe as she looked around her. The great cave was shaped like a huge whale and was filled with an eerie green phosphorescent glow that seemed to emanate from the crystalline rocks that covered the cave.
‘I know, it’s beautiful isn’t it?’ replied Spirit quietly.
‘But how did you come to dream of this place?’ asked Dancer, still gazing around her.
‘I don’t know’ Spirit replied. ‘I just did somehow.’ They spent a few more moments looking in wonder at the ancient cave. ‘Come on’ said Spirit. The two young dolphins swam round the cave slowly, admiring its structure.
‘What could have made this?’ asked Dancer.
‘Not humans, that’s for sure’ replied Spirit. ‘This place is as old as time itself.’ At the far end of the cave, there was a natural archway that led to something beyond.
‘What’s through there?’ asked Dancer. Spirit did not need to answer, because with a flick of his tail, he had passed through the archway and then Dancer followed him. The second cave was smaller than the first, but had a similar shape and was still iridescent and green. It had more sparkles of light shimmering on the walls than the first, larger cave and Dancer could see that above the surface of the water there was a sort of platform.
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