In his dizzy state he seemed to lose consciousness. Or was he going mad? That might make it easier. But doing things the easy way wasn’t his style either.
Yet the madness was already creeping over him, giving him the illusion of lights in the distance. It was impossible but he saw them, streaming out over the water, turning this way and that as though searching. Then the beam fell on him, blinding him, and a cry split the darkness.
‘There he is!’
The universe seemed to whirl. Vaguely, he sensed the boat approaching, ploughing through the waves. Another few seconds-
But it seemed that a malign fate was intent on destroying him even now. A wave, bigger than the others, reared up, sweeping him with it, up-then down back into the abyss-up-down-then away from the boat to a place where he would never be found. A yell of fear and rage broke from him at being defeated at the last moment.
Then he felt a hand clasp his, the fingers tightening with fierce determination, drawing him closer. The waves fought back but the hand refused to yield to them. Suddenly he realised that two men were in the water with him, and were loading him onto a stretcher. Gradually the stretcher began to rise, taking him clear of the sea, lifting him to safety.
From somewhere a man’s voice said, ‘OK, I’ve got him. You can let go, Harry.’
And a woman replied, “No way. This one’s mine.’
Harry! That voice-
Shocked, he opened his eyes and saw Harriet’s face.
‘You,’ he whispered hoarsely.
Harriet was there, leaning close to ask, ‘Was there anyone else with you-anyone we still need to look for?’
‘No,’ he gasped. ‘I was alone.’
‘Good. Then we can go back. There’ll be an ambulance to take you to hospital.’
‘No, I must go home-my children-I’ve got to call them. Wait-’ he grasped her ‘-my cellphone went into the water. Let me use yours.’
‘I don’t have it here.’
‘Then I must call them from home.’
‘But the hospital will have-’
‘Not the hospital,’ he said stubbornly.
‘Gee, you’re an infuriating man!’ she exclaimed.
‘Yes, well, you should have left me in the water, shouldn’t you?’ he choked. ‘You had the right idea the first time.’
A coughing fit overtook him. Between them, Harriet and Walter got him under cover, and she stayed with him for the rest of the journey. He slumped in the seat, his eyes closed, on the verge of collapse. Watching him, Harriet was glad she hadn’t needed to answer his last remark. She wouldn’t have known how.
At the lifeboat station she helped him ashore, and there was another argument.
‘No hospital,’ he insisted. ‘I’m going home.’
‘Then I’ll take you,’ she said. ‘Walter-’
‘Don’t worry, I’ll do the report. You keep him safe.’
Darius was about to say that he would drive himself when he remembered that his car was a mile away. Besides, there was no arguing with this bossy woman.
Somehow, he stumbled into her car and sat with his eyes closed for the journey.
‘How did you manage to find me?’ he murmured. ‘I thought I was a goner.’
‘Kate raised the alarm. She said you left suddenly after you talked about the wind farm. Later, she went out and bumped into an old man she knows who works on the shore. He said he’d seen you leaving in your motorboat. When you didn’t return she tried to call you on your cellphone, but it was dead so she alerted the lifeboat station.’
Kate was waiting at the door when they arrived. Darius managed to stand up long enough to hug her.
‘Thank you,’ he said hoarsely. ‘I owe you my life.’
‘As long as you’re safe,’ Kate insisted. ‘Just come in and get warm.’
In the hall, he made straight for the phone.
‘Get changed,’ Harriet said urgently. ‘You’re soaking.’
‘No, I’ve got to call them first. They’ll be waiting.’ He’d been dialling as he spoke and now he said, ‘Mary? Yes, I know it’s late. I’m sorry, I got held up.’
From where she was standing, Harriet could hear a woman’s sharp voice on the other end, faint but clear.
‘You always get held up. The children went to bed crying because you didn’t keep your word, and that’s it. Enough is enough.’
‘Mary, listen-’
‘I’m not going to let you hurt them by putting them last again-’
‘It’s not like that-don’t hang up-’
Harriet couldn’t stand it any more. She snatched the phone from his hand and spoke loudly. ‘Mrs Falcon, please listen to me.’
‘Oh, you’re the girlfriend, I suppose?’
‘No, I’m not Mr Falcon’s girlfriend. I’m a member of the lifeboat crew that’s just taken him from the sea, barely in time to save his life.’
‘Oh, please, do you expect me to believe that?’
Harriet exploded with rage. ‘Yes, I do expect you to believe it because it’s true. If we’d got there just a few minutes later it would have been too late. You’re lucky he’s here and not at the bottom of the ocean.’ She handed the phone to Darius, who was staring as though he’d just seen an apparition. ‘Tell her,’ she commanded.
Dazed, he took the receiver and spoke into it. ‘Mary? Are you still there?-yes, it’s true what she said.’
A sense of propriety made Harriet back away in the direction of the kitchen but an overwhelming curiosity made her leave the door open just enough to eavesdrop.
‘Please fetch them,’ she heard him say. ‘Oh, they’ve come downstairs? Let me talk to them. Frankie-is that you? I’m sorry about the delay-I fell in the water but they pulled me out-I’m fine now. Put Mark on, let me try and talk to both of you at once.’
His tone had changed, becoming warm and caressing in a way Harriet wouldn’t have believed possible. Now she backed into the kitchen and shut the door, gratefully accepting a cup of tea from Kate.
‘He’ll go down with pneumonia if he doesn’t get changed soon,’ Kate observed worriedly.
‘Then we’ll have to be very firm with him,’ Harriet said.
‘Like you were just now.’ Kate’s tone was admiring. ‘He didn’t know what had hit him.’
‘I suppose he’ll be cross with me, but it can’t be helped.’
‘As long as we keep him safe,’ Kate agreed.
Harriet look at her curiously. ‘You sound as though you really care. But he can’t be very easy to work for.’
‘I’ll take him rather than the last fellow any day. Rancing just vanished, leaving me here for weeks. He never got in touch, never paid me-’
‘Didn’t pay you?’ Harriet echoed, aghast. ‘The lousy so-and-so. How did you live?’
‘I had a little saved, but I had to spend it all. I couldn’t contact him. Nothing. Then Mr Falcon walked in and said the place was his. I was still living here because I’ve got nowhere else to go. I thought he’d throw me out and bring in an army of posh servants, but he said he wanted me to stay and he paid me for all the weeks after Rancing left.’
‘He-paid you? But-’
‘I know. He didn’t have to. He didn’t owe me and I couldn’t believe it when he handed me the cash.’
Harriet stared, feeling as though the world had suddenly turned upside down. This couldn’t be true. Darius was a villain. That had been a settled fact in her mind. Until tonight-
‘Why didn’t you tell anyone?’ she asked.
‘Because he said not to. He’d be good and mad if he knew I’d told you now, so you’ll keep quiet, won’t you?’
‘Of course. I’m not even quite convinced.’
‘No, he said you wouldn’t be.’
‘He said what?’
‘Not at the time, but last night when I was making his supper, I mentioned it, asked if I could tell people, and he said that you especially must never know because you enjoyed seeing him as the devil and he didn’t want to spoil your fun.’