Bring Me Sunshine Page 18

  And the paint on his hands told him something about his own journey.

  Kit entered the room, no longer feeling the need to hover in the background. No longer wanting to hide. He stood near the centre of the room and looked around for Jenny. She wasn’t there. That was strange.

  He saw Vera Horsley chatting to the ship’s doctor and made his way towards her. Vera kept her finger on the pulse of the ship. She would know where Jenny was.

  ‘No, I haven’t seen her,’ Vera said when he asked. ‘I thought she might have been with you.’

  ‘I haven’t seen her since this afternoon. When she went …’ Kit’s voice trailed off as a terrible thought formed in the back of his brain.

  ‘She went where?’ Vera asked.

  ‘We were half way back down the headland. Some woman had lost her bracelet. Jenny went back to get it. She said she would take a later boat.’

  ‘You don’t think?’ Vera’s face froze.

  ‘No. That couldn’t happen,’ Kit said, wishing he felt as confident as he sounded. Once more he looked around the room, and immediately recognised the blonde woman leaning on the bar. It took him just a couple of seconds to reach her side.

  ‘Your bracelet,’ he asked without any pre-amble. ‘Have you got it back?’

  The woman looked a little annoyed as she answered. ‘No. I have not. And I think that is quite poor. That girl should have brought it back to me as soon as she came on board. I am of a mind to have strong words with the captain.’

  Kit had already tuned her out. He spotted Glen just coming through the door. Much as he did not want to contemplate the thought that Jenny might have been with Glen – it was still a better option than the other fear that was growing in his mind.

  Glen was alone.

  ‘Have you seen Jenny?’ Kit asked as he approached.

  ‘No. Not since this afternoon,’ Glen said. ‘Look, I don’t want to get caught in the middle of something here. If you and Jenny are … you know, that’s fine. I’ll back down.’

  Kit nodded curtly. ‘What I’m concerned about right now is where she is. I think maybe she got left behind.’

  ‘Left behind? Where?’

  ‘At that last landing. It doesn’t look like anyone has seen her since.’

  ‘That can’t happen,’ Glen said. ‘We swipe on and off the boat with our key cards. I saw her do it this morning. The log would show if she hadn’t swiped back in.’

  ‘Oh! No!’ The sound of Vera’s shaky voice caused both men to turn.

  ‘What is it?’ Kit asked.

  ‘I think … oh no. It’s all my fault.’

  Vera looked as if she might faint. Kit took her arms and guided her to a nearby seat.

  ‘Tell me,’ he said, crouching in front of her.

  ‘Jenny’s room key. I reset it.’

  ‘What do you mean, you reset it?’ Kit asked.

  ‘Well, we wanted to … I wanted to get into your room. You seemed to be stalking Jenny. I thought it was all right because you are … well, who you are. But I wasn’t sure. And I wanted Jenny to see …’ Vera’s voice trailed off.

  ‘What did you do to the key?’

  ‘I know a bit about room key systems, I researched them for a book last year. I reprogrammed her key to let her into your cabin as well as her own.’

  ‘But that wouldn’t stop it registering her on and off the ship. Would it?’

  Vera frowned. ‘It might. If I did something wrong.’

  ‘Let’s check her cabin,’ Glen said. ‘I’m staying in the staff quarters, so I can get us in there.’

  They took the stairs. When repeated banging on Jenny’s cabin door did not elicit a response, Kit felt his gut clench with a terrifying certainty.

  ‘We have to turn back. Now.’

  Banging on the door to the bridge did elicit a response, and within a couple of minutes, Kit had outlined his fears to Captain Haugen. The captain immediately called Karl Anders to the bridge. The pair had a hurried conversation while Kit stood by, trying to contain himself.

  ‘Thank you. We will take it from here,’ Captain Haugen assured him as Karl left the bridge at a brisk walk.

  ‘Are you turning back?’ Kit demanded to know.

  ‘First we will search the ship. She could be on board. If we don’t find her, then I will send a boat back for her.’

  ‘It could be too late by then,’ Kit was shouting, but he couldn’t stop himself. ‘It’s freezing out there on the ice. And she could be hurt. She’ll think we’ve left her. She could do something stupid … like … like try to walk to McMurdo. If she does that we’ll never …’

  ‘Mr Walker. We will find her. I’ve already told a seaman to prepare my tender to launch. Karl will call in a few minutes, and then the boat will be away.’

  ‘I’m going too.’

  The captain shook his head. ‘I can’t allow that. As a passenger, your safety is paramount. I cannot allow you to leave the ship now.’

  ‘I have to go back.’

  ‘No. Sorry.’

  Kit saw that the captain was not going to be moved on this. He turned on his heel and stormed off the bridge, Glen was close behind. As soon as the heavy door slammed shut behind them, Kit turned to Glen.

  ‘Do you know where that tender boat is?’

  ‘Deck six. Port side. They’ll be prepping it now,’ Glen said.

  ‘I have get to get on board,’ Kit said. ‘And you are going to help me.’

  Glen seemed to hesitate for a second, but only for a second. ‘All right. Go get your heavy weather gear. Meet me on deck six.’

  Unlike the inflatables, the tender boat had a solid hull, and a covered cabin. The seamen were busy preparing it for launch when Kit and Glen approached. One of the seaman made as if to stop them coming too close. Glen shouldered his way between the seaman and Kit.

  ‘You can’t go …’ the seaman started to say.

  Kit ignored him. He brushed quickly past before anyone else could try to stop him and swung himself on board. A few seconds later, Karl Anders joined him, his face a mask of anger and anxiety.

  ‘You have to get off this boat,’ Karl said.

  ‘That’s not going to happen,’ Kit told him firmly. ‘I am coming with you.’

  ‘No. You’re not. I need to focus on finding Jenny. You’ll only slow us down.’

  ‘I won’t. You’re the one slowing us down – standing here and arguing. Let’s get underway.’

  ‘The captain’s orders …’

  ‘I don’t give a damn about the captain’s orders. It’s Jenny I care about.’

  Kit held the expedition leader’s gaze. After a few tense seconds, Karl seemed to realise that Kit was not going to back down.

  ‘If I let you stay, I need you to swear to me that you will follow my orders. I will not have you putting Jenny’s life even more at risk.’

  ‘I would never do that,’ Kit said firmly.

  ‘All right.’ Karl still didn’t look happy but turned away to order the seamen to proceed.

  It seemed to take an eternity to launch the boat. Kit stayed well out of the crew’s way. He was glad to see the doctor come on board, but at the same time, his presence made Kit even more fearful for Jenny.

  The boat was lowered into the water with a resounding splash. As soon as the ropes were free, the seaman at the controls sent it powering away from the Cape Adare, which had come to a standstill. Conversation would have been difficult over the roar of the motor, but Kit wasn’t in the mood to talk.

  In the back of his head, the same words were pounding over and over like the tolling of a church bell.

  Not again. Please, God. Not again.

  Chapter Twenty-Two

  Jenny was so cold. She lay in the darkness, shivering. Her head hurt so badly, she could barely breathe. She wondered if she was going to die – and thought that really, dying wouldn’t be too bad if it stopped the man with the hammer in her head.

  She opened her eyes. Her nose was pressed into something
red and white. She winced as she moved her head just enough to realise she was lying on ice … and appeared to be bleeding. Slowly she tried to move one limb at a time. She eventually succeeded, which suggested that nothing was broken. It took an age for her to push herself into a sitting position. Once or twice, the world spun around her, but she managed to hold on to it.

  She leaned against a large boulder and tried to steady her breathing. She raised one hand to gently touch her pounding forehead. Her fingertips came away bloody. Slowly she looked around. She remembered picking up that dratted bracelet. She remembered setting out for the landing site. Then … she slipped?

  Moving slowly to prevent her head falling from her shoulders, as it felt likely to do, she looked upwards. She was lying at the bottom of a steep slope. There were scuff marks in the ice. She must have fallen and hit … probably the same rock she was now leaning against. She turned her head even further – and felt a stab of sheer terror. She wasn’t at the bottom of the slope. She was nearer the top. Had she not hit this boulder, she would have kept sliding until … She looked at the freezing sea far below and shuddered.

  The cold was seeping into her body. She could feel it sapping her energy. If she didn’t start moving soon, she never would. But if she tried to climb that slope – and slipped again. This time she might not be so lucky. She probably shouldn’t try to climb back up without help.

  How long had she been here? The light was definitely lower than when she turned back up the headland. The sky had the pink and golden tinge of the lowering sun. She wasn’t sure what time she had fallen – so she had no real idea how long she had been unconscious on the ice. Why had no one come? Her crewmates. Karl. Kit …

  She shook her head slowly with indecision. The pain was bearable, but just. She had to make a decision. Should she try to climb back up to the path along the crest of the ridge or should she wait for help?

  If help was coming, it was taking its own sweet time.

  The longer she stayed there, the colder and weaker she would become. There really was no choice.

  Very slowly and carefully, Jenny raised herself onto her knees. The world spun sickeningly. She waited until it stopped. There was no way she was going to be able to get to her feet, far less stay on them long enough to walk out of here. If she even tried to stand up, she would fall into that freezing ocean. She knew that as certainly as she knew that if she stayed here, she would freeze. She felt despair begin to take her.

  ‘Jenny. You would fight. You’d never give up. You’d never leave someone you loved.’

  Kit’s voice echoed in her head.

  ‘Never.’ She spoke the word as firmly to the empty sky as she had to Kit that night on the deck of the ship. She had promised him that she would never give up. And she wouldn’t. Because just maybe that insignificant kiss, that unforgettable kiss had meant as much to him as it had to her.

  If she couldn’t walk, she would crawl.

  When she had set out on this foolhardy venture, she had been wearing gloves. She remembered taking them off as she picked up the bracelet. She dug in her pockets and praise be to the god of fools and lovers, she found them. She pulled them on, put her hands onto the ice and eased her weight forward. She shuffled a few inches, then waited for the world to stop spinning. A few more inches, and another wait. The slope was steep, but she was going to be able to do this. It was just going to take a year. Maybe two.

  She shuffled forward another few inches, taking great care not to slip. One slip and it would all be over.

  Something dark and red dropped onto the ice in front of her face. Her head was bleeding, which explained why the world was spinning again. She waited for the laws of physics to regain control of her universe and shuffled another few inches up the steep slope.

  Her breath was coming in short hard gasps, but she kept moving. The pain in her head brought tears to her eyes, but she kept on moving.

  ‘Jenny. You would fight. You’d never give up. You’d never leave someone you loved.’

  ‘I won’t give up,’ she whispered. ‘Kit … Do you hear me? I won’t.’

  The ice was slippery. She had to fight for every inch. Sometimes the ice won and she would slide back a few inches. But each time, she heard Kit’s voice in her head.

  She would not give up.

  Her body was drenched with sweat. She was shivering with the cold. Her will was still strong, but her body was failing. She risked a glance up. The crest of the ridge seemed a million miles away. But she could hear Kit’s voice – calling her forwards.

  ‘Jenny!’ How she wished that voice was real, not just a construct of her feverish mind.

  ‘Kit!’ Her voice was little more than a croak from her parched throat.

  She must be dying. Going to heaven, because he was there. Reaching out his hands to her. Lifting her from the ice and folding her into the warmth of his arms. His face was the last thing she saw before the darkness took her.

  Letting her go was almost beyond him, but the doctor’s words rang true. Slowly Kit lowered Jenny’s still form to the ground. But he couldn’t totally let go. He kept her head cradled in his lap. He raised one hand as if to touch her face, but the doctor gently pushed it away, and leaned forward to examine Jenny’s head wound.

  As the doctor’s back blocked Jenny’s face from his gaze, Kit almost gave in to the despair washing over him. In his life, he had been privileged to love two very different but equally amazing women. He had lost one and the grief had nearly destroyed him. He couldn’t bear the thought of losing the other.

  ‘Help me,’ the doctor ordered. He took a large square of shiny plastic from his bag. ‘Wrap her in this. It will keep her warm.’

  Kit did as he was told. He held Jenny tightly as the doctor started to bandage her injured head. She moaned softly, and stirred in his arms.

  ‘Won’t give up …’ she mumbled. ‘Kit … I promised.’

  The she fell motionless again.

  ‘We need to get her back to the ship,’ the doctor said, rising to his feet. ‘As quickly as possible.’

  Karl stepped forward. The big man held out his arms to take Jenny, but Kit shook his head.

  ‘I’ll take her.’ He scrambled upright and gently lifted her into his arms. He cradled her against his chest, his heart almost stopped as he heard her shallow, ragged breathing.

  ‘It’s a long steep ridge,’ Karl said, gently placing his hand on Kit’s shoulder. ‘I’m here when you get tired. It will be faster and safer if we share the load.’

  Numbly, Kit shook his head and started walking down the treacherous ridgeline. He knew the need for haste, but measured each step as if he was walking on eggshells.

  As if he carried in his arms the most precious thing in the world.

  Because he did.

  Chapter Twenty-Three

  Kit hadn’t slept for more than twenty-four hours. He looked like hell. He was sitting beside Jenny’s bed, his body taut with tension. Watching him, Vera had the feeling he might implode at any moment. What a good thing William had suggested she drop by. She looked across the sick bay at the handsome doctor, and nodded.

  She had this.

  ‘How is she?’

  Kit didn’t take his eyes from the figure lying in the bed. Vera had a feeling he wouldn’t really see her even if he did look up.

  ‘She hasn’t woken up yet.’

  ‘And you haven’t slept have you?’

  ‘I want to be here when she wakes up.’

  ‘Kit, you are dead on your feet. Why don’t you go and get some sleep. I’ll stay with her.’

  ‘No,’ he said in a dull voice.

  Vera had raised four children, who would, if asked, say their mother had ‘the voice’. When the voice was employed, Vera’s orders were followed without question. And it didn’t just work on her family.

  ‘You’ll do her no good like this. Or yourself for that matter. You need to sleep.’

  She could see that he wanted to fight her, but he had nothin
g left.

  Jenny’s head was swathed in a clean white bandage. Kit lifted her hand to his lips for a long moment, then placed it gently back on the bed. He got slowly to his feet, swaying slightly with exhaustion as he did.

  ‘Go. Nothing is going to happen to her. I’ll look after her for you.’ Vera’s voice was firm, but gentler now.

  Kit nodded. ‘Just for an hour,’ he said in a voice hoarse with exhaustion.

  ‘Just for an hour,’ Vera agreed, knowing full well that once Kit lay down, his body would demand he sleep for a lot longer than an hour.

  He walked to the door, moving like an old man. He hesitated there, looking back towards the bed. The emotions on his face almost brought a tear to Vera’s eye. She composed a firm look and waved him out the door, not entirely sure that he would make it as far as his cabin before he collapsed.

  ‘Well done,’ William said as she settled herself into the chair. ‘I thought I was going to end up treating him as well.’

  ‘You should have slipped something into his coffee,’ Vera said.

  ‘Medical ethics,’ William responded with a smile. ‘They do get in the way sometimes.’

  Vera smiled. She did like this doctor. Then she turned her attention back to Jenny, who hadn’t stirred since Vera entered the room.

  ‘How is she? Really?’

  ‘Really? She’s exhausted. She has a cut on her head and probably concussion. She needs to rest and she’ll be fine.’

  ‘That’s good to know.’

  ‘I was just about to make some tea. Would you like some?’

  ‘Yes please.’

  As William disappeared, Vera leaned over to pat Jenny’s hand. The girl murmured something in her sleep that might have been Kit’s name. Vera held her hand until she settled again.