The House Beneath the Cliffs

by Sharon Gosling

  ‘Stay back!’ Anna shouted down to the boy.

  She made it to the ground and Robbie threw himself against her. Anna hugged him tightly and they held on to each other, crying.

  ‘I thought the waves would be okay but they weren’t and I couldn’t turn around to get back home,’ Robbie sobbed. ‘I brought the Silver Darling in here and anchored her but then a wave smashed her on the rocks and I was trapped. I dropped my phone! Dad always makes sure there’s a flare in the dinghy but it got washed away and every time I tried to climb the cliff it kept slipping and I was scared. I thought no one would ever find me. I didn’t – I didn’t – I didn’t know what to do.’

  ‘It’s all right,’ Anna said, still holding him close. ‘Frank will call someone. They’ll come and get us. It’s all right. Are you hurt? Did you bang your head?’

  ‘No,’ Robbie cried. ‘But I’m so cold!’

  Anna looked around and saw that Robbie had been sitting in what was probably the most sheltered part of the cove. ‘Come on,’ she said.

  Anna took off her coat and then sat down with her body between a large boulder and the cliff. She pulled the boy onto her lap. Robbie curled against her, his head beneath her chin, the wet hood of his jacket pressing into her throat. Anna tucked her coat under her feet, then pulled it over Robbie up to his chin. She wrapped her arms around him and felt him shivering against her.

  ‘It’s all right,’ she said. ‘Someone will be here soon. We’re going to be all right.’

  Her back and legs were cold, but gradually the boy stopped shivering. Anna didn’t want him to sleep and so tried to keep him talking.

  ‘Tell me about the bake sale,’ she said. ‘I haven’t seen you since we made the tarts.’

  ‘I sold them all!’ Robbie said, the pride clear in his voice, despite the tremor. ‘Every single one! They made £9.50!’

  ‘That’s amazing!’ Anna said. ‘Well done. I’m not surprised, though, they were delicious.’

  ‘You know the best bit, though?’ Robbie said, in a conspiratorial tone. ‘Queen Victoria had two of her buns left at the end of the day, even though they had icing on!’

  ‘Well,’ said Anna, smiling despite her discomfort. ‘That sounds to me as if she definitely didn’t win for once.’

  ‘No, she did not,’ the boy said emphatically. ‘And she was not happy. She’ll try even harder for the next one now. You’ll have to help me again.’

  ‘I’m always happy to help you,’ Anna said, and hugged him tighter, aware of how very true the words were.

  After that, Anna tried to ask him as many questions about dolphins as she could come up with. It was as much to distract herself as it was to keep Robbie awake. She couldn’t have left him on his own down here and there was no way Anna would have sent Frank down the cliff himself, but now her thoughts rotated around an unquenchable fear. What about the baby? Is it all right? What have I done?

  * * *

  Even with her chef’s internal clock, Anna had no idea how long they sat there. The wind dropped but the rain persisted, even as the clouds began to break overhead. It was the horn they heard first, a low bellow that echoed against the rock over their heads. Robbie moved against Anna, pushing himself up.

  ‘That’s the lifeboat!’ the boy shouted, as the sound came again. ‘That’s my dad!’

  The lifeboat ploughed into view, pushing through the wash as it turned towards the cove, Robert MacKenzie standing at its prow. As soon as it got close enough he was over the side and into the water, splashing towards them as if he were racing the waves to the shore. Robbie scrambled up and ran towards his dad. When Robert reached his son he collapsed to his knees in the wet sand, crushing the boy to him.

  ‘I’m sorry, Dad,’ Anna could hear Young Robbie saying against his dad’s shoulder. ‘I only wanted to make sure the dolphins were safe. I’m sorry.’

  ‘It’s all right,’ Robert told him, his cheek against his son’s hair, his face wet with rain and tears. ‘But what would I do without you? What would I do?’

  More of the lifeboat crew were on land now. One wrapped a blanket around Robbie’s shoulders, another held one out to Anna. As she reached the MacKenzies, Robert grabbed her hand and pulled her down to him, wrapping an arm around her so that he held her as tightly as he held his son. After a second he pulled back to frame Anna’s face with one hand.

  ‘Are you all right?’ he asked. ‘Tell me you’re not hurt.’

  Anna smiled through tears. ‘I’m okay,’ she said. ‘I’m okay.’

  Robert studied her face before brushing his thumb against her bottom lip. Then he pulled her against him again, his face in her damp hair. Anna felt Young Robbie snake one arm around her waist, the three of them holding each other on that wet, cold shore.

  ‘Thank you,’ said Robert MacKenzie, into her ear. ‘Thank you.’

  * * *

  At the hospital, they had to explain that no, Anna wasn’t Robbie’s mother; no, she wasn’t his stepmother, either. Perhaps that was when she should have told Robert about the baby, but he was so relieved to have Robbie back unharmed that she couldn’t bear to put her worries on his shoulders.

  ‘I’m pregnant,’ she told the doctor who came to the small, sterile cubicle to check her over. ‘I’m due to have my first scan this week. I’m afraid that—’ Anna couldn’t say the words, couldn’t vocalize her fear.

  The doctor nodded her understanding with a brief, efficient smile. ‘Okay, well, let’s do the scan now, shall we? Is there anyone you want to call?’

  For a split second, Anna found herself thinking of Robert MacKenzie. She could still feel his thumb brushing over her lip.

  ‘Yes,’ she said. ‘I need to call the father.’

  Anna asked one of the nurses to tell the MacKenzies that she had gone home. She waited for Liam in the maternity wing, listening to the cry of new lives not long into the world. How strange it was, she thought, that she could want something so badly that three months ago had not even occurred to her could exist.

  ‘The baby seems fine,’ said the sonographer, as she and Liam stared at the pulsing black-and-white image on the screen. ‘Good heart rate, no sign that there’s anything to be worried about. Would you like a picture?’

  ‘Yes,’ Anna tried to say, and realized that her voice was hoarse from the lump that had formed in her throat. Looking at an image of the tiny form on the screen was humbling in a way she had never before experienced. Hi, baby, she thought, light-headed with relief. Hi there. I’m your mum. We’re going to have so much fun together, you and I. And I promise never to put you in danger like that again.

  Liam took her hand and Anna looked up at him.

  ‘I’m going to be a dad,’ Liam said, his voice cracking. ‘Just look at that little thing!’

  Anna laughed and squeezed his hand, glad that he was there.

  Afterwards, they found a café for some lunch, quietly absorbing the morning’s events. Outside, the sun had broken through the clouds and shone on puddles left by the rain.

  ‘Are you going to tell your folks now?’ Anna asked.

  Liam shrugged. ‘I’m not sure whether to do that straight away or when I get home,’ he said. ‘It’s not long until I go now.’

  Anna nodded, sipping her tea and wondering if he would bring up the idea of her going with him again. From his face it looked as if he wanted to, but was reluctant.

  ‘Are you planning to start telling people?’ he asked, instead.

  ‘A couple of people already know,’ Anna said. ‘I can wait until you’ve gone to tell everyone else though, if you like.’

  He looked out of the window. The sky was darkening again, a brusque wind buffeting the street. ‘I wouldn’t ask you to do that. They’re going to think what they think, whenever you tell them.’ Liam looked at her and smiled slightly. ‘Although if any of them can change your mind about coming with me…’

  Anna shifted uncomfortably. ‘Liam…’

  ‘I know, I know.’ He tilted his he
ad to one side. ‘It’s amazing, what’s been happening with the lunch club. Everyone’s talking about it. It seems to me that you could really be going places – but how’s that going to fit in with raising a baby on your own?’

  Anna shrugged. ‘Women have done it before. I’ll work it out.’

  He took a mouthful of his coffee. ‘Maybe I should come back and visit.’

  She laid a hand on his arm. ‘Of course you should.’

  ‘I can tell you now that my mum’s going to want to come.’

  Anna smiled. ‘That’s okay.’

  ‘And when the baby’s old enough, you can come and visit New Zealand, too.’

  ‘And in between, there’s the Internet. Right?’

  Liam nodded.

  ‘I’m not going to pretend you’re not part of our baby’s life, Liam,’ Anna said. ‘We have to find a way to make it work for us, that’s all. The three of us.’

  ‘I wish I was going to be here longer, if only to make sure you look after yourself,’ Liam said. ‘What with all this restaurant stuff, I was already worried you were working too hard. And now – Anna, climbing down a cliff?’

  She sipped her tea. ‘I couldn’t leave Robbie there on his own. I couldn’t. And everything’s fine, isn’t it? I’ll never do anything like that again. One daring rescue in a lifetime is enough. Don’t worry, Liam. Besides, once I tell Pat and Frank I suspect I’ll have two pairs of eyes watching out for me very closely.’

  Liam drove her back to Crovie and lit her a fire before leaving her curled up on the sofa beneath a blanket. Anna lay in the warm, one hand against her belly, thinking over everything that had happened. Most of all, she found herself thinking of Robert MacKenzie. After the night that she’d looked after Young Robbie, she’d pulled back, and Robert had done the same. There had been no more invitations to join dolphin patrol. She wondered whether this was because they hadn’t been out as much because of the storms, or if it had more to do with a deliberate withdrawal on the part of the elder MacKenzie in the wake of her obvious discomfort that night. He must have known how busy she was – Anna was sure there was no one on this coast who didn’t know about the flurry of activity that had overtaken sleepy Crovie thanks to her. But he hadn’t called, except for that one time to thank her for making meals for Douglas McKean. She hadn’t called him, either, of course. Why would she?

  Anna wondered what he would think when he found out about the baby. Something in her became unsettled as she thought of how that conversation would go. Would he be awkward? Would she? She thought back to that afternoon of harvesting razor clams together, back to that carefree day they’d had on Fraser and Emma’s boat. She realized, not for the first time, but with a sense that the knowledge meant more than she had previously thought, that she missed him. She missed them.

  There was a knock at the door.

  ‘Come in,’ Anna called, unearthing herself from the blankets. She expected it to be Pat or Frank checking on her, but as she stood up she found herself looking at Robert MacKenzie, and had to take a sudden breath around the skipped beat of her heart.

  In his hands he was carrying the plates she’d used for Douglas McKean’s dinner the day before. It seemed months ago now, not twenty-four hours. Robert smiled as he saw her.

  ‘Hey,’ he said softly. ‘Long time no see.’

  ‘How’s Robbie?’

  ‘He’s fine,’ he said. ‘Thanks to you. I left him with Barbara. I don’t think she’ll ever let him out of her sight again. I didn’t want to let him out of mine, either, but I had to come over to check on Douglas and see the new damage to the house. Last night’s storm caused another slip.’ Robert shook his head. ‘Anna, seeing it like that and knowing what you did – for Robbie, for me… What you risked in going down that cliff. I can’t—’

  ‘Please. It was nothing,’ she said, cutting him off. ‘Anyone would have done the same. I’m just glad he’s safe.’

  There was a pause, in which they did no more than look at each other, and Anna felt the enormity of something looming on the periphery, like a cliff towering behind her.

  ‘There’s something I should—’

  ‘I was thinking that maybe—’

  They both stopped, Anna with a slightly nervous laugh and Robert with a smile. ‘Sorry,’ he said. ‘Go on.’

  Anna shook her head. The momentary impulse to tell him about the baby had gone. ‘No. Really, you go. What were you going to say?’

  ‘I was thinking that I should go out there and get some more razor clams for you,’ he said. ‘Rhona’s still raving about that meal you made for her with the last lot. And it’s free food, isn’t it? What with the lunch club taking off the way it has – you’ve got to make a bit of profit somewhere, eh?’

  She smiled. ‘That would be really kind of you, but you don’t have to do that. I won’t have time to come with you, and—’

  ‘Consider it a very minor repayment,’ he said, cutting her off. ‘For me dragging you into the middle of my crazy little family.’

  I like being in the middle of your crazy little family.

  She only just stopped the thought becoming words. Anna realized he was still holding the dishes and reached for them to cover her internal confusion. Their fingers tangled together as they juggled the plates and Anna found herself thinking that she liked the feel of them: the coarse skin of his fingertips, roughened by work.

  ‘Hope Douglas liked his dinner,’ she said, looking anywhere but his face.

  ‘He did. Although I can’t help but think he must know where the food’s coming from. I wouldn’t shut up about you today. I made him listen to how you saved my son.’ He gave her a serious look. ‘How you saved me.’

  They parted on Robert’s promise to bring her a bucket of clams. Anna stood on the step of the Fishergirl’s Luck, watching him go, wondering if she could blame hormones for her current emotional tumult. When she turned back to the door, a figure at the end of the village caught her eye. He was swathed in the shadows from the cliff, watching.

  Douglas McKean.

  Anna’s heart sank. Not now, she thought. Please, not right now.

  The old man stared at her for a few more seconds. Then, very slowly, he lifted his cane and tapped it against his forehead in some kind of ungainly salute.

  A moment later he had shuffled away.

  * * *

  ‘Well, well, well,’ said Pat. ‘That’s a turn up for the books.’

  ‘Aye,’ said Frank. ‘Douglas McKean saying thank you? It’ll be cats and dogs living together next.’

  ‘I’m still not taking him his dinner myself,’ Anna warned them.

  Frank patted her hand. ‘Understood.’

  It was evening, and the day’s light had been swallowed by the cliff. They were all sitting at the kitchen table in the Weaver’s Nook – it had been a while since they’d had time to do that, and Anna missed it. Pat had insisted that Frank go for his own check-up after his escapade on the cliff, and as a result declared that he was now under official orders to take it easy.

  ‘How are you two doing?’ Anna asked.

  ‘Well, we could do with these storms taking a hike. We’ve never known a season like this, have we, Frank?’

  Frank shook his head.

  ‘Are your bookings down because of it?’

  They both laughed. ‘You must be joking!’ Pat said. ‘We could have filled this place three times over this week! Anna, you could open the Inn tomorrow and book the restaurant out for the next six months before you’d even tried.’

  ‘Then I’m sorry I’m giving you so much extra work.’

  ‘Don’t be daft, love,’ Frank said. ‘It’s the best summer we’ve had in years, workwise. Not your fault we’re getting on. Can’t fix that as easily as you have our business worries.’

  ‘To tell you the truth,’ Anna confessed, ‘I’m not sure what to do. I’m operating over capacity as it is, and people are becoming irate that there’s only six seats, but I can’t see how I can expand. The In
n is the only place in Crovie that would make that a possibility and unless I win the lottery, that’s not going to happen. And…’ She took a breath. ‘There’s another, bigger reason to be considering the future of the lunch club.’

  Pat eyed her. ‘Oh? This doesn’t have anything to do with Liam Harper, does it?’

  ‘What? How do you know that?’

  ‘Susan said she saw you having lunch with the lad in Fraserburgh earlier and figured you’d called him to pick you up from the hospital. We thought maybe that meant you two were back together again, and what with him about to head back home… Well.’ Pat sighed, unhappily. ‘You do keep saying you’re going to move on.’

  Anna bit her lip. Now that the moment had come, her stomach lurched with nerves.

  ‘That’s not why he came to get me from the hospital.’ She slipped her hand into her pocket and pulled out the envelope that contained the scan, pushing it across the table towards her friends. ‘This is why.’

  Pat gave her a quizzical look before picking up the envelope. When she saw what was inside, her eyes widened. She and Frank both stared at Anna in astonishment.

  ‘It was an accident,’ Anna told them. ‘But I’ve decided it’s a happy one. The baby’s due in January. And before you ask, everything’s fine. We’re fine.’

  ‘Oh!’ Pat leapt out of her chair and enveloped Anna in a hug. Anna laughed as Frank joined them, and for a second the three of them held on to each other. Anna found her face wet with tears. She was relieved beyond belief, both that they finally knew and that they had reacted so happily.

  Eventually Pat pulled back. ‘So…’ she said, as Frank sat down beside Anna. ‘Liam’s staying here, then? In the UK, with you?’

  ‘No. He’s still going home. He asked me to go with him, but I don’t want to.’

  Pat shook her head, taking Anna’s hand and squeezing it. ‘Brave,’ she said, her voice a little thick.

  ‘No, just determined,’ Anna said. ‘And a bit daft. Maybe more than a bit.’

  ‘But you’re still planning to move on?’ Pat asked. ‘You won’t stay here?’