by Holly Martin
She gave the bottle a shake and shook her head.
‘Well, shall we go back to the cottage and have a proper look at it?’ Nix said. ‘Dexter will be wondering where we are.’
She nodded keenly.
He grabbed the torch and between them they blew out all the candles, then he took her hand and led her back upstairs and out of the house.
‘I can’t believe this place,’ Lyra said, obviously in awe, as they walked back up the hill towards the fence. He liked that she was still holding his hand. She turned back to look at the little house. ‘It’s like a little moment in history, preserved forever.’
‘That’s why I haven’t touched it. I want to keep it that way. I kind of hope the museum are as interested in it as you are.’
‘I’m sure they will be.’
They climbed over the fence and hurried back inside her cottage, Dexter greeting them like they’d been gone for hours.
Lyra went straight to the kitchen and placed the rolled-up paper very carefully on the table.
‘You ready?’
He nodded.
She took a deep breath and then gently broke the seal, spreading the piece of paper out on the table in front of them.
She gasped and Nix grinned at her reaction.
The piece of paper was most definitely a hand-drawn map.
Chapter Fourteen
Lyra stared at the map, hardly daring to believe her eyes. ‘This looks so new, as if it was only written yesterday.’
She ran her fingers over the torn yellowy page. The paper itself had clearly aged but the ink looked as fresh as a daisy.
‘I guess that’s because the bottle was airtight,’ Nix said. ‘It kept it in perfect condition.’
‘Yeah, maybe,’ Lyra said. It almost felt too easy that people had been looking for the missing treasure for years and now they had found the map after five minutes of looking. Still, she was too intrigued to question the whys. She supposed someone had to get lucky with the search eventually.
She studied the map and Nix leaned over next to her to look too, his delicious citrusy scent washing over her.
‘This looks like a bridge,’ Lyra said, trying to focus on the map and not his wonderful proximity. ‘There aren’t too many of those on the island.’
‘There’s one on my land, right at the far end before Crystal Stream enters the hotel land.’
‘There’s one near the village too, near where the stream meets the beach,’ Lyra said. ‘And a small brick one at the back of the school.’
‘What about the causeway from the island to the mainland, would that count as a bridge?’ Nix said.
Lyra thought about it. ‘I don’t think so. There are no railings on the causeway, and the bridge in the map looks quite small, whereas the causeway is fairly long. Also, we have what looks like a stream on the map, not the sea.’
‘OK, let’s leave the causeway for now. The brick one at the back of the school doesn’t look like this drawing either, this looks like a wooden bridge with a railing.’
‘So that narrows it down to two,’ Lyra said. ‘Look here, this looks like a waterfall.’
‘Well that could be Ruby Falls, which is at the back of the hotel land. If it is then it could be pointing to the bridge that’s on my land.’
‘There’s also a small falls near the one in the village.’
‘Ah, OK, what other clues have we got?’ Nix said.
‘There’s this little drawing over here but that doesn’t seem to relate to anything.’
‘Looks like a close-up of the bridge. There’s a cross on this part of the railings, maybe that’s where the treasure is hidden.’
‘OK, well, I guess we can check both bridges out,’ Lyra said. ‘Wait, this is a compass sign over here.’
‘That’s pretty standard on maps, so people can orientate themselves accordingly.’
‘But they’ve circled the E. So does that mean the bridge is in the east of the island?’
Nix fished his phone out of his pocket and brought up the satellite image showing the island. ‘Well, my bridge is definitely in the eastern side of the island. And I guess it makes sense, that the fisherman would hide the treasure on land that he owned.’
‘Come on then, let’s go and look,’ Lyra said.
‘What, now?’
‘Of course now,’ she said, excitedly.
‘That treasure has sat there for hundreds of years, I think one more night won’t hurt.’
‘Tell you what, I’ll put the lasagne together now and then we can leave it to cook while we have a look at your bridge. It will only take ten minutes to walk down there and the lasagne should be nearly ready by the time we come back.’
‘OK, can I help you with the lasagne?’
‘You can chop some mushrooms.’
They worked alongside each other for a few minutes as she mixed the mince with the bolognese sauce and he chopped the mushrooms and grated the cheese. It was nice to have some company in her home again. It had been a while since she’d had that. Her brothers and sisters had left the family home as soon as they were able and it had just been her for many years, until the house had to be sold. Nix was easy company and she could talk to him comfortably. Then there was also the added bonus of being insanely attracted to him. He had beautiful eyes and a lovely smile and she had a hard time watching his hands and not remembering the way he’d touched her when they’d been in bed together.
She spent a few minutes layering the lasagne together and sprinkling on the grated cheese before putting it in the oven and setting it on a low heat, just in case the treasure hunt took a bit longer than she anticipated.
They walked back out of the house again and Dexter followed them this time. When they got to the fence, Nix lifted Dexter over to the other side and then helped Lyra climb it. He immediately took her hand as they started walking through the field. She looked up at him with one eyebrow raised.
‘It’s just a bit uneven underfoot, that’s all,’ Nix said, innocently.
‘So you need me to lean on,’ Lyra said.
He grinned. ‘That’s exactly right.’
Dexter ran on ahead, sniffing at everything, but he didn’t stray too far. The sun was making its final descent across the plum sky, but it would still be a while before it was completely dark.
They walked on in silence for a time but it was companionable and easy between them.
‘Why is Jewel Island so significant to you?’ Lyra asked after a few minutes. ‘Enough that you tattooed the co-ordinates on your arm?’
He was quiet for a while. ‘I suppose it’s lots of little things really. It’s always been a special place. Holidays here when I was little were always fun. Good things happened here – I met my wife here and later we got engaged here. It feels like a lucky place. I had my very first kiss here too, when I was much younger.’
‘With your wife?’
‘No, long before that. I was twelve. We were just hanging around with a group of other kids and we started playing spin the bottle. I was dared to kiss this girl; I didn’t even catch her name. She was nervous, shaking like a leaf. I probably wasn’t much better. I took my hoodie off and wrapped it round her and then I kissed her and for a few seconds it was just the most perfect kiss.’
Lyra felt herself go cold with shock because she knew what was coming next. She remembered that kiss like it was yesterday because it had been her first kiss too, but also because of what happened next. Her cheeks burned with shame at the memory of it.
‘And then she sneezed over you,’ Lyra said, quietly.
Nix stopped dead, turning to look at her, his eyes wide in shock. ‘Lyra,’ his voice was a whisper. ‘You were my first kiss?’
‘I think you’re missing the bigger picture here, I sneezed over you.’ She remembered running away, crying with embarrassment and praying she would never meet the boy ever again. And now here they were, twenty-odd years later. God, she should never have mentioned it. She could have laughed along
with him when he’d got to the punchline and he’d never have known it was her. ‘Why are you not more grossed out about this? You should be running away from me, not staring at me with awe.’
‘I’m not disgusted by something that happened nearly twenty years ago when you were a child. And last week’s kiss was so wonderful, I think you’ve more than made up for it.’ He touched his lips as if remembering what it was like to kiss her and she felt her cheeks flame red. ‘That kiss was not like anything I’ve ever experienced before and the sex…’ He cleared his throat as if realising this wasn’t an appropriate conversation for two people who had agreed to be friends the night before. ‘But don’t you think it’s significant?’ Nix said.
‘That my first-ever kiss ended with me sneezing over your face? I was so traumatised by it, I didn’t kiss another boy for years after that.’
‘It’s a bit of a coincidence that we were each other’s first kiss and then years later we meet again for the first time and we end up in bed together.’
‘Strictly speaking, the first time we met after… the big sneeze… was at the job interview six weeks ago.’
‘And that’s a pretty big coincidence too. We met, we spent an incredible night together, and the following week we start a new job together. Don’t you think it was fate, that we were supposed to meet?’ Nix said.
‘You honestly think fate or destiny or cupid looked down on us twenty years ago and said, I know, I’ll make her sneeze on him, then they’ll live happily ever after?’
He laughed. ‘I’m sure they didn’t plan for that.’
‘God, no one could plan for that. What did you think of me?’
‘Well, mostly I was worried about you, you ran off crying.’
She felt a pang in her heart. ‘You were a gentleman even back then,’ she said, softly.
‘I’m no gentleman. If I was, I certainly wouldn’t have pinned you to the bed and made love to you within hours of meeting you.’
‘I wouldn’t judge yourself so harshly, I was certainly more than willing. Christ, if we ever get together and get married and people ask how we met, you’ll be telling everyone how I sneezed on you.’
‘I’ll tell people that us meeting was written in the stars.’
Lyra let out a huff of frustration. ‘You sound like my mum.’
She turned and walked down the hill towards the bridge.
Nix caught up with her. She couldn’t deny that she was a little freaked out by this revelation.
‘Us sharing our first kiss is nothing more than a very weird coincidence,’ Lyra said.
She sighed. In her heart she wanted to believe that it was significant that they’d shared their first kiss all those years before, that, for a few precious seconds, it had been the perfect kiss before she’d ruined it all. But her mum was a big believer of fate and destiny and she didn’t want to end up like her.
They walked on in silence for a while, Dexter blundering through the long grass.
‘There is another reason Jewel Island is special to me,’ Nix said after a while, apparently wanting to clear the air.
‘Another moment of destiny?’
He was quiet for a moment. ‘I suppose… As I told you over lunch, a few years ago I was very sick. I had a rare form of leukaemia.’
She stopped to look at him, the world suddenly fading away. Nothing else seemed to matter any more, not her mum’s behaviour casting a shadow over everything in Lyra’s life, not their fateful first kiss, not the lost treasure. This was important. When he’d mentioned that he’d been sick, she’d suspected it might be something like this but hoped it wasn’t. She had been touched by cancer in her life too; she knew what it was like to go through that.
‘I needed a bone marrow transplant. I’d been waiting a while and was here for the weekend when I got the call to say there was a compatible donor.’
She felt relief rush through her, which was silly. Nix was standing there in front of her obviously very healthy. But she knew what it was like to get that call.
‘I’ve never felt so much gratitude before. It’s highly likely that transplant saved my life. I knew it was a long road ahead and it might not work but I had almost given up on ever finding a match. This complete stranger had gone on the bone marrow registry and was prepared to undergo surgery, which would have been painful, simply because we were a match. It was an incredible feeling.’
She swallowed. She just wanted to hug him. ‘Did you ever meet the donor?’
He shook his head. ‘I was allowed to write to them and my letter would have been passed on. It’s up to the donor to get in touch if they want to. They never did. I have no idea what the donor’s name is. I was so grateful for what they did, I couldn’t even begin to describe what it meant to me.’
Lyra reached out, placing her hand on his cheek. ‘I’m grateful for them too.’
He stared at her, his eyes dark with a sudden intensity. He moved closer and she wondered if he was going to kiss her. Suddenly she really wanted him to. But he seemed to stop himself.
‘And you’re OK now?’ Lyra said, letting her hand drop.
He nodded. ‘It took many months of treatment but, yes, fighting fit. And so the tattoo is part of that. When Emily left me and died and I ran away from the rat race, I was anchorless. The one constant in my life was this place. As I said, good things happened to me here and having the island’s co-ordinates tattooed on my arm always gave me a place to come back to if I got lost.’
‘I like that.’
He stared at her; his eyes locked on her face. ‘And now it seems you’re part of that history too.’
She swallowed. She needed to create some space between them, make light of this sudden intensity. ‘So what you’re saying is you got a tattoo to remind you of when I sneezed on you?’
He laughed. ‘That’s exactly right.’
She paused, wondering if she should share her own brush with cancer. It had been a complicated, messy, upsetting affair, and not just because of the hideous disease that had attacked her sister so horribly. It was difficult to talk about, but Nix had been honest with her about his experience and she wanted him to know she understood what he’d gone through. She didn’t need to tell him the other details.
‘My sister, Kitty, had lymphoma.’
‘Oh god, I’m sorry,’ Nix said.
‘It’s OK, she’s OK now. It was a long time ago. She needed stem cell treatment but none of us was a match.’
His eyebrows rose. ‘There’s six of you and none of you were a match?’
‘No. Well, it turned out Kitty was my half-sister. Something we didn’t know when she got sick.’ Lyra waved her hand to dismiss it. ‘It’s complicated but, anyway, we had to wait to find a match from the register too. Although not as long as you, it seems – we were matched very quickly, just a few weeks, but every day of waiting was torture. I know what that gratitude feels like when you get the call. We’re all on the register now, to give back in the same way that Kitty’s donor did. I was called last year because I was a stem cell match for someone else and of course I did it.’
‘You donated your stem cells to a complete stranger?’
‘Yes, of course. If I can help someone who’s going through what we went through, of course I’m going to do it. It’s not a big deal and it’s not painful like removing the bone marrow can be, just a few days of feeling a bit rubbish.’
‘It’s a very big deal, Lyra. A really really bloody big deal.’
She shook her head. ‘No, don’t look at me like I’m some hero, I’m far from that.’
Nix stared at her. ‘On behalf of the person you helped, on behalf of everyone who has received a bone marrow or stell cell transplant, thank you.’
‘Oh no, it’s not—’
She stopped as he stepped forward, cupped her face and placed the softest of kisses on the corner of her mouth. It wasn’t a proper kiss and deliberately so, but the way his lips lingered on hers made her desperate for more.
He stepped back as if it hadn’t even happened and turned in the direction of the bridge. ‘Come on, we need to find this treasure before it gets dark.’
He carried on walking down the hill and she was left staring after him. Dexter, realising she wasn’t following, bounded up to her and bounced around her, encouraging her to come. She quickly ran after Nix, catching up with him. He didn’t say anything when she fell in at his side and she wondered if he felt he’d overstepped the line after they’d agreed to just be friends.
She slipped her hand into his and he looked down at her with a smile.
‘I don’t want you to fall over,’ Lyra said.
He grinned. ‘Thank you.’
She spotted the bridge up ahead, but the search for the jewels seemed a bit insignificant now after what she’d discovered. She and Nix were linked in so many ways. They were each other’s first kiss. And then to meet again years later and end up working together did feel like a ridiculous coincidence. But the fact that they had both been touched by very similar cancers and probably at similar times did feel significant somehow. Their connection ran a lot deeper than she’d originally thought.
They approached the bridge, a small unassuming little wooden thing that crossed a narrow part of the stream. It was hard to believe the bridge had hidden the lost treasure all these years.
‘OK, let’s have a look at the map,’ Nix said.
She pulled it out of her pocket and spread it out between them.
‘Do you think it’s buried under the bridge?’ he said.
‘No, I think what you said earlier was right. See how the railings each have two distinctive bigger posts on each side, with those acorns on the top? I think the treasure is hidden inside one of those four posts. Look on this close-up part of the map, the cross is on one of these posts.’
‘OK, you take those two posts and I’ll take these two,’ Nix said. ‘I guess we’re looking for a hole of some kind.’
Lyra moved to the far end of the bridge and started examining the posts, but there were no holes, no secret flaps or compartments. There was nothing unusual about the posts at all.