Page 77 of Second Chance Summer
Lily let this outpouring settle. ‘It’s none of my business.’
Morven scoffed, ‘You could have fooled me. You’re out here hounding me.’
‘I’m not hounding you. I’m here because I care what happens to you.’
Morven laughed and Lily braced herself for anothertirade but instead the girl said: ‘You’d better come under here before you get too wet. The roof’s barely there.’
‘I don’t think I could possibly get any wetter, but thank you.’
Morven sat down, knees tucked to her chest, under the hearth. With some difficulty, Lily squeezed in at the opposite side, relieved to be out of the rain – and ecstatic to have found Morven safe and well.
‘You’re going to tell Sam and Auntie Elspeth where I am, aren’t you?’
‘I don’t have a choice. They’re going out of their minds with worry.’
‘Yeah …’
Lily thought of the radio in her pocket and went to pull it out.
Morven shrieked, ‘Don’t call them or I’ll run away!’
Yet she couldn’t go anywhere, Lily thought, but saw the panicked terror in Morven’s face and kept her hands in view.
‘OK, I’ll hold off calling for a minute, but Ihaveto let them know you’re safe. They’re so worried.’
‘Just a minute more,’ Morven said, her voice pleading.
‘How did you get over here?’ Lily asked.
‘Damon brought me in his brother’s boat before dawn. I met him at the quayside. His brother didn’t realise I hadn’t told anyone I was coming.’
Lily resisted the urge to scream. ‘That sounds dangerous.’
‘Not for us! Damon was practically born in a boat. I could pilot an RIB over here if I had my own. Sam won’t let me usetheHydraor even practise. He says he’s afraid something will happen to me. It won’t. This proves it.’
‘Yeah. I can see that. But why didn’t you stay in one of the cottages? Sam said you had a key.’
‘Because I washiding,’ she said as if Lily was stupid. ‘And it wasn’t raining when I first got here. And anyway, I forgot the key, didn’t I?’
Lily saw the rucksack and camping lantern tucked in a niche under the hearth.
‘Looks like you thought of everything else,’ she said.
‘I did. I can survive without anyone’s help. I might just take off and leave. I’ll hitch, find a job on the mainland or in London. You started without going to uni.’
‘Yes,but,’ Lily said carefully, ‘I had a lot of help and support.’
‘Your parents, you mean?’ Morven said contemptuously, picking up a pebble.
‘Yes, and I’m sure you would too. You must tell Sam – without blaming him – how you feel and what you want to do.’
‘He’s too busy … and that’s the thing!’ She tossed the pebble across the empty room, hitting the far wall. ‘I don’t know what I want to do.’
‘Don’t know, or are worried it’ll all go wrong if you try?’
‘It would.’
‘Why?’ Lily asked. ‘Tell me what the “it” is that would all go wrong?’
