“Let’s go,” Brandon said. “The others should be there soon and Lara won’t wait for anyone.”
Penelope left her knitting on the table and followed them outside. Sam took her hand as they walked and opened the door for her.
She wasn’t sure what to make of the old-fashioned gallantry. They’d gone from a kiss to this overnight. He’d declared his intentions to Ceiveon and Penelope had yet to decide how she felt. The whole point of moving to Retribution Bay was to figure herself out, stop working so hard, stop blaming herself for what happened to Emelia, and relax. Should she add a relationship, or whatever this was, to her list of wants?
She had to admit Sam had an easy-natured charm that Gerard never had. And his kisses set her alight, but she conceded it might simply be the excitement which came along with a new relationship. He was good-looking and a protector, and those characteristics spoke to her instinctual needs. And to top it all off, he was so very nice.
She’d be foolish to ignore this opportunity because it didn’t fit with her timing, and she was tired of being foolish.
The drive to the gulf was through Ridge land and the track was bumpy. It took half an hour before Penelope spotted five people on horseback ahead of them. Brandon slowed as he drove past and Penelope waved at Lara, who waved frantically back. The car drove over a small hill and the ocean spread out before them. Mangroves to the left and a large island directly in front.
“That’s Retribution Island,” Sam said. “It’s where the Retribution and the Dutch ship wrecked.”
It didn’t look too far away, but it would take time to ferry things back and forth if you only had a makeshift raft like the survivors had.
She got out. Nearby, the riders were dismounting and tying the horses to a hitching post. Lara unsaddled hers in record time and threw the saddle over the post before dashing towards Sam. “Hey, Sam!”
Sam opened his arms and picked her up, swinging her around. “Hey, La La.”
She squealed in delight.
Seems as if Sam had a way with all women.
“Where are we searching first?” he asked her.
“It can’t be far from the shore,” Lara said. “They would have buried him above the high tide mark and the Retribution was wrecked on this side of the island, so I reckon between the track and the mangroves.”
Penelope was impressed with her reasoning. It made perfect sense.
Sam held Penelope’s hand, and they followed Lara over to the mangroves. A metal plaque was nearby. “What’s that?”
“It lists all the passengers on the Retribution when it crashed,” Lara said. “We don’t know who put it there though.”
Maybe it was more than a marker. “Could it have replaced a gravestone?”
“The journal says they buried him behind the small sand dunes,” Lara replied.
“The sand might have moved since then,” Penelope replied.
Lara’s eyes almost bugged out of her head. “Really?” She raced over and dropped to her knees, and started digging.
Penelope moved closer to the plaque. A lot of names were listed on it, more than the people Lilian had mentioned in her journal. She took a photo. She’d compare it to the journal later.
“Hey, La La, not so fast,” Sam said. “If it is a grave, you need to be careful. The body could be a mess.”
She screwed up her nose. “Won’t it be bones?”
He shrugged. “I don’t know. We should clear the sand away carefully. Brandon brought some shovels.”
While the others watched Lara dig, Penelope examined the coastline. Her knowledge of sand movement was limited, but she knew about sea levels. The sea had risen about twenty centimetres since the body was buried and so it was possible the dunes had shifted at least that much, pushed back or eroded by the waves.
If she was burying a body in this area, she’d do so at least a metre away from the back of the dunes, but any wooden cross would have blown away decades ago.
Georgie joined her. “What are you looking for?”
She explained her theory. “If the plaque didn’t replace the gravestone, there’s still a lot of ground to dig.”
Georgie lowered her voice. “This is an exercise to humour Lara. Darcy’s already told her she can’t dig up the entire area, not without a reason, so today all we’re searching for are any traces of what could be a gravestone.”
