Fairytale Beginnings (27 page)

‘
C
AMERON
!’ Milly screamed, scrambling quickly to his side. She shook him, and tapped him lightly round the face but he didn’t wake up. ‘Shit, shit, shit.’

She looked around, desperate for some solution. She had to get help. Waves crashed onto the rocks inside the entrance, the large pool getting bigger and bigger and the narrow path quickly filling with water. Within a few minutes the area where Cameron was lying would be covered. If she ran back up the tunnel now, she could call for help, but would it reach him in time? Would she be able to get back to him before the tide came in? If there was a lifeboat station nearby, they could come and get him before he was washed out to sea. But if there wasn’t then that would be useless. Phoning the ambulance and the fire brigade would be equally hopeless as neither would be able to get to him. Maybe someone from the village could help. Igor had a boat, could she get to him in time? She looked at the waves inching closer and knew there wasn’t a moment to lose. She was the only help he had. She grabbed hold of his T-shirt and started trying to drag him towards the tunnel entrance. If she could just pull him to safety, then she could get an ambulance after that. He didn’t move and she didn’t know whether it was because he was wedged between the rocks or because he was so heavy. She grabbed an arm and pulled with all her strength. He didn’t move at all. She knelt down next to him, tapping him round the face again.

‘Cameron, please wake up, please.’ She eyed the water that was lapping at his feet and felt a sob burst from her throat. ‘You have to wake up, I broke the curse, remember. I’m your soul mate, we’re supposed to be together.’

He didn’t move.

She stood up and looked around desperately. Water was already trickling over the edges of the entrance to their tunnel, the narrow path almost completely under water. It was coming in so quickly. She pulled again on his arm, using every ounce of strength she had, but she couldn’t move him an inch.

The water was already lapping over his hips now, soaking his clothes.

She quickly scooted round to his head and carefully lifted it onto her lap. She watched as the water sloshed over his stomach, his chest, and started filling up the tunnel, blocking their escape. The water crept over his neck and she leaned his head up, hoping she wasn’t doing more damage. It touched his chin and she managed to shift herself further under him so he was half sitting up. Water swirled around them both, soaking their clothes, the cold biting into their skin.

Sophia suddenly appeared on the shelf and she pointed into the crevice. If she had found the treasure, Milly couldn’t care less.

Milly’s tears mixed with salt water as she cried at the hopelessness of it. She glanced at her star bracelet and wished harder than ever that he would survive this.

She stroked his face. ‘Please wake up, you can’t die on me. I love you. Please wake up.’ She kissed him on the gash on the side of his head. ‘I love you.’ She kissed his nose. ‘I love you.’ She kissed his lips and felt his lips move under hers, his hand weakly holding the back of her neck.

She pulled back, tears of relief and joy blinding her. ‘You’re awake.’

‘From this slumber, you shall wake, when true love's kiss, the spell shall break.’

Despite everything, Milly couldn’t help but laugh, wiping away her tears. ‘Can you stand?’

Cameron looked around blearily and then realised the danger they were in. He sat up but was clearly still feeling the effects of the bang to the head. She pushed him from behind. With a bit of an effort from him and a lot of effort from her, she managed to get him to his feet. He was now up to his knees in water.

The entrance to the tunnel they had come through was completely submerged, and waves continued to crash against the cave entrance.

‘We could swim out,’ Cameron suggested, holding his head. ‘The cove can’t be too far from here, if we can get to the rope ladder we’ll be ok.’

‘It’s too rough, we’ll get thrown into the rocks.’

Milly glanced up at Sophia on the shelf, still pointing into the crevice. There was only one option; to put their trust in a ghost and hope that the daylight that was filling the end of the crevice might lead to another way out.

Cameron seemed to have the same idea and they both sloshed through the water to the shelf. She helped to get Cameron up onto it and then clambered up herself. Cameron stood up and staggered into the cave wall.

‘Come on,’ she guided him to the entrance to the crevice, but it was very quickly obvious that Cameron was too big to get through.

‘You go, I’ll be fine out here,’ Cameron muttered, pushing her in.

‘No way, the gap is wider at the bottom, just get down on your hands and knees and crawl through.’

Cameron dropped to his knees, he was so woozy he could hardly hold his head up. She walked ahead of him as he slowly crawled behind, following her. The crevice ended in a small chamber that was lit up by a shaft of sunlight from a crack further up the cliff face. There was no way out. But it was dry in here and maybe the tide wouldn’t make it this far.

Cameron made it to the chamber and sat against the wall, closing his eyes.

Milly knelt next to him, holding his face. ‘Hey, can you try to stay awake for a little while?’

He opened his eyes and looked at her.

She snuggled into his side and he put his arm around her. ‘Did you really wake up when I kissed you?’

He smiled. ‘No, I woke up to hearing you tell me you loved me, over and over again.’

She blushed and he closed his eyes again. She had to keep him awake. ‘Cameron. I do love you. I should have said it before, but I was scared. I’ve been in love before and it always ended badly, I didn’t want to trust that a happy ending was possible with you. And the hardest thing was I loved you more than anyone I’ve ever been with and so I had so much more to lose. Cameron look at me.’

He opened his eyes. ‘Go on, I’m listening.’

‘And I want to stay married to you and stay here and raise a family with you, or, if you get fed up with the hotel or you continue writing shit books and make no money at all, you can move into my flat. It’s right on the beach and we can walk Gregory along it every day and you can write and I’ll look after you, make you nice cooked breakfasts every day and we can have hot sex every night.’

‘I like the sound of that.’

Milly rested her head on his shoulder for a moment and as she looked across the chamber she could see a small chest tucked behind some rocks.

‘Cameron, look!’ She pointed, but as she looked up at him his eyes were closed again, his head leaning back against the wall. She reached up and grabbed his face, his eyes shot open. ‘Look, a chest, it might be Uncle Boris’s.’

Cameron peered across the chamber, but it was quite obvious that he was having trouble seeing anything.

‘Shall I get it?’

He nodded, though clearly he wasn’t bothered by it.

She clambered over to the rocks and lifted the chest, surprised by how light it was. She came back and sat next to Cameron, placing it on his lap.

He weakly lifted the clasp and opened the lid. Inside, the red lined interior was filled with jewels of different colours that sparkled in the sunlight. Gleaming rubies, sapphires, emeralds and diamonds shone from inside the chest and sent a rainbow of colours around the dusty chamber.

Cameron peered at them and Milly did too, the moment of wonder and amazement quickly fading. She wasn’t an expert on jewels but they all looked like they were made from glass. They were too big, too neat and polished. If these were real they would be worth millions but there was no way that they were. Had Uncle Boris been carrying around a chest of fake jewels all these years and didn’t know? Had someone switched the real jewels for fake ones at some point? Or had he always known they were fake and just used them to show off to people about his wealth? But if that was the case, then why go to such great lengths to hide them? Unless his madness and paranoia had eventually led him to believe his fake jewels were real.

Milly chanced a glance at Cameron, wondering if he had spotted their worthlessness too and was disappointed.

‘I don’t think these are real, Milly, I’m sorry.’ He looked at her, sadly.

‘I know, but why are you sorry?’

‘I know how much you wanted to find them.’

‘For you, to help you and the castle.’

He smiled and moved the box off his lap.

‘There might be one in there that’s worth something,’ Milly said.

‘Your glass is always half full, isn’t it?’ Cameron said, fondly.

‘You never know, if just one of these jewels is the real deal then that would solve all your financial problems for the rest of your life.’

Cameron leaned against the rock and closed his eyes. She pulled his face back to look at her. ‘You have to stay awake, do you hear me?’

‘I’m really tired, baby.’

‘I know.’ She reached up and kissed him, feeling his mouth respond instantly to hers. His kisses were soft and sleepy and she felt his head getting heavy.

‘Hey,’ she tapped his face lightly and he opened his eyes. ‘What can I do to keep you awake?’

‘Hot sex.’

‘I don’t think you’re in any fit state for that.’

‘Probably not,’ he mumbled, his eyes fluttering closed.

She grabbed his face again and he looked at her. ‘If you stay awake, I promise that when we get back to the castle and you’re feeling better I will give you the best blow job of your life.’

His eyes widened and then he burst out laughing. ‘I’m going to hold you to that, Mrs Heartstone.’

M
illy came back
down the crevice to the chamber. ‘The tide has started to go out. I reckon it’s still a few feet deep out there but it’s probably shallow enough for us to get back to the tunnel.’

Cameron nodded sleepily and she struggled to get him up. She had employed every tool in her arsenal to keep him awake over the last hour or two, including flashing her tits, though he hadn’t seemed as appreciative of that as he had been on previous occasions.

He bent to pick the chest up.

‘Just leave it, we can come back for it another day.’

‘We’re not coming back here again, I’m not risking your life on these rocks, we’ll take it now.’

‘Well let me take it then, it’s quite light.’

Cameron nodded. He crawled out onto the shelf and she passed him the chest to hold while she slid off into the swirling waters below. The current was still strong but they only had a few feet to traverse to get back into the tunnel. She turned to help him down into the cave but as he slid down next to her he stumbled and the chest flew out of his hands, smashing open on the rocks and spilling the jewels into the murky water.

‘No!’ Cameron moaned, fumbling around in the water to try to find the missing jewels.

‘Leave it Cameron, they’re worthless.’

‘We don’t know that,’ he sank to his knees, trying desperately to find them.

She grabbed his hands and stopped him. ‘Please. I am really scared that you might have done some serious damage with that blow to the head. I want to get you checked out by a doctor or the hospital. I would rather have you safe than have a million jewels. Please, stop looking. If we are meant to find them, they’ll still be here when we come back.’

He stared at her for a moment and then reluctantly conceded. He stood up and with his arm firmly round her shoulders she negotiated their path over the rocks and towards the tunnel. There was still a lot of water in the part before the steps, but it was passable even if it meant they’d be wading up to their waist to get out.

Every step back up the tunnel was slow and laborious and Milly couldn’t help but panic over the damage that might have been done to his head.

With Cameron leaning on her heavily, they moved back into the dungeons, along the corridor and up the stairs towards the banquet hall and finally into Cameron’s kitchen.

Olivia quickly hung up the phone as they came in, going pale at their bedraggled state.

‘What happened?’

‘He fell on some rocks and knocked himself out.’

Olivia immediately went into panic mode. ‘We need to call someone, who should I call, your publisher or your agent?’

‘How about an ambulance?’ Milly asked, pointedly.

Cameron groaned as he sat down. ‘No don’t, I’m fine. Nothing a few paracetamols won’t cure.’

Milly stubbornly grabbed her mobile phone and called one anyway, ignoring the glares from Cameron. Finishing the call, she put the phone down and looked back at him. Olivia was still panicking.

‘I have papers I need you to sign,’ Olivia came over and pushed a document in front of Cameron and tried to force a pen into his hand. Cameron looked at the pen in confusion before Milly snatched it out of his fingers.

‘Let’s get you into some dry clothes before the ambulance comes.’

She helped Cameron to his feet and he sighed theatrically as if she was making a fuss out of nothing. She led him to his room as Olivia hovered around them.

‘Don’t let him sleep, it’s very important that he stays awake,’ she said.