Sunday's Child (11 page)

Markus glanced up at the sky. “It's clouded over.”

You think? Talk about stating the obvious.
“Should we head back? Aunt Laurie said there was a storm coming.”

“Nah, we're fine. I'm not afraid of a little rain. We'll head further out. I know a great picnic spot by the lighthouse.”

“Are you sure?”

“Perfectly sure.” He smiled and headed further out into open sea.

Twenty minutes later, Hattie had to admit that Cal and Aunt Laurie were right. Rain pounded the deck, and crashed against the windows. She clung to the rail on the side of the cabin as the boat heaved over another huge wave. Her raincoat wasn't as waterproof as she'd thought. She had gotten drenched clearing the deck of furniture as Markus had asked, and her hair hung in rat's tails about her face. Even her cast iron stomach was more than a little unhappy now.

Markus spun the wheel, trying to bring the boat about to face into the waves, but the wind was too strong and tossed them violently to one side.

Hattie cried out involuntarily as she flew across the cabin, hitting the rail on the far wall.

Markus tried to regain control. Another gust of wind tossed them against a buoy with a resonating crash. He swore and tried to turn them away from it. The engines cut out, leaving the boat at the mercy of the wind and waves.

Hattie clutched her arm, gritting her teeth. Pain rocketed through her. She staggered to her feet.

“Hold this while I go below and check the engines. Just keep the compass pointing east if you can.”

“OK.” She staggered to the wheel and clung onto it, trying to use her good arm to hold it steady.

The waves grew in size as Markus headed below. With no engines there was no way she could control the boat one handed. It was all she could do to stay upright and keep the needle pointing east. The waves tugged the boat away from the buoy towards the open sea.

Markus came back up. “We're taking on water.” He looked out of the window. “Where's the coast gone?”

“That way. I can't hold her steady with one hand, sorry.” She gasped as her injured arm caught the wheel. “What do we do?”

“Call for help and hope they get here before we sink.” Markus grabbed the radio. “There are lifejackets under the seats. Put one on.”

Hattie pulled up the seats and tugged out two lifejackets. She struggled into one of them. She closed her eyes.
Please, help us. Don't let me drown. I'm not scared of dying, but drowning…

Markus fiddled with the radio. “Mayday. Mayday. This is the
Petunia Bay
calling Mayday.”

 

 

 

 

10

 

Cal grinned over his glass at Rob. “And you got away with it?”

Rob nodded. “Aye. Mara washed the same dish six times before she realized.”

“I love it. I'll have to try that on Jess one weekend.” He cut into the steak and mushroom pie, inhaling deeply. The food in this pub really was second to none. “Don't forget I have that press interview at two. I'll be back afterwards.”

Rob laughed. “My cousin the hero. Mr. RNLI himself. Maybe we should start selling signed photos of you in the office.”

“For the dart board, maybe.”

“Spoilsport.”

The pager went off. “Told you.” Cal put down his knife and fork. He pulled the pager from his belt and looked at it. “OK, got to go. See you later.”

“Stay safe.”

“I always do.”

Rob caught his arm. “I mean it, couz. We've lost entire crews out there before, but since Porthness last winter, I worry all the more. You're more than my cousin—”

Cal hugged him. “I promise I'll be back later.” He smiled and ran out into the storm. He leapt into his truck, with its sticker proudly bearing the RNLI flag with
lifeboat crew
on it and drove the short distance to the base. A thousand scenarios flooded his mind. Torrential rain hit the windscreen and even with wipers on full pelt, visibility was practically zero.

The wind buffeted the truck and he knew all too well the problems that faced them in open water.
Lord God, protect whoever it is out there until we can get to them. Protect us as we go out to help them and if it's Your will, bring us all home safely.

Parking in his usual space, he ran around the building. A flurry of activity met him. The tractors already had engines running and the Atlantic class boat, his boat, was already being prepped.

Tom stood there with clipboard in hand, checking in the crew as they arrived.

Cal glanced at the ten foot waves already building in the harbor, then turned to Tom. “Looks bad out there.”

“There's no way that a chopper can reach them in this. Everyone else is in now and kitting up.”

Cal nodded and ran into the crew changing room. Phil, Sam, and Trevor were almost ready. “Afternoon.”

“Hey, Cal.”

Sam, one of the local doctors, grinned. “You really know how to avoid having your photo taken, huh?”

He stripped quickly. “Yep. The paper can wait. Never would be a good time for the interview.”

“You know that isn't going to happen. This will just make the interview more exciting. I bet he's outside now, snapping away, taking pictures of the boat and the tractor and the shore crew. He'll want to know details of this rescue, too. What it's really like out there in the wind and rain and so on.”

“That's an easy one. It's rather wet and windy.” Cal zipped his bunny suit and pulled on his dry suit. “How are we doing?”

“Two minutes before we beat our record,” Sam said.

“Easy.” Cal pulled on his life jacket and grabbed his helmet. “Let's go.”

The others followed him out. As helmsman, the boat was his, but he never pulled rank. If he needed to do something, he did it. They were more than a team, they were a family, and they always had each other's backs. He turned on his radio. “OK, Tom. What have we got?”

“The
Petunia Bay,
a cabin cruiser, lost both engines. And she's taking on water after colliding with a buoy. She's now adrift in the shipping lane. Porthness are sending the all-weather boat as back up, but it'll take them a while to get down here.”

Cal listened as they ran into the storm and climbed up into the boat. Once they were seated, the tractor started down the shingle beach into the water. The waves crashed far higher than usual, rain poured, and the wind rocked them in the safety of the cage. He checked the dials in front of him. Everything on and working. “Green across the board. Did you guys catch all that?”

“When will they ever learn to check the weather?” Trevor asked.

“Wish I knew. But we have a job to do.” He raised a hand so the tractor knew they were ready.

As soon as the tractor stopped, Cal opened the throttle and took them out into the water. The waves were worse than they appeared as the small boat powered its way through them. The wind tossed them as much as the waves towered over them.

Cal kept one eye on the radar and the other on the water. “I'm heading for their last known position, but they could be anywhere.”

“Unless he had the sense to drop anchor. That would at least slow them somewhat.”

Cal shrugged. “Maybe, though it wouldn't do them much good in this.” He aimed the boat between the waves as much as he could. Not that it made much difference. It was going to be worse the further away from the shore they got.

And it was.

The twelve foot waves towered above them, doing their best to swamp and overturn the little lifeboat as it cut through the water towards the last known position of the
Petunia Bay.
He watched the radar, but nothing was showing.

“Where is she?” Sam called. “I can't see anything.”

“If she was taking on water, she could have gone down. Or capsized anyway.” Trevor twisted in his seat.

“Flare,” Phil yelled. “Seven o'clock.”

Cal turned the boat and headed into the heart of the storm, keeping the bow of the boat into the breaking waves. Visibility was down to five feet.

“There's another flare,” Sam yelled. “But doesn't look the same direction.”

“Radar's got something.” Cal squinted at the screen.

“There. Two o'clock, there's a light.”

Cal aimed the boat at the faint light he could see between the towering waves. As he grew closer he could see the hull of the boat with a figure clinging to it. “Phil, toss the rope to him. If he catches it, bring him in that way. If not rope up and go get him.” He touched the mic button. “Penry base this is
Ray of Hope.
Found the
Petunia Bay
. We will need assistance to tow the capsized boat out of shipping lane. One in the water.”

“Roger that, Cal. Will send out the RHIB.”

Cal brought the boat around, bringing it in closer to the wrecked cruiser. He watched the figure on the boat catch the rope. Then he brought the lifeboat right alongside the upturned hull.

Phil and Sam grabbed the man and pulled him into the safety of the lifeboat.

“Is there anyone else with you?” Sam asked.

“Harriet. Where is she? Did you pick her up, too?”

Hattie's out here?
A stab of fear filling him, Cal turned in his seat, hoping he was wrong. The soaked figure was as unmistakable as his clipped posh accent. He wanted to berate the man for being stupid, but now wasn't the time. “Where did you last see her, Markus?”

“Didn't you find her yet?”

“We barely found you. Where did you last see her?”
Oh, God, keep her safe out here.

“Before we capsized. The boat flipped over so fast. When I came up she was gone.”

Trevor turned the searchlight on the water around them.

“Sam, check Markus over.” Cal yelled, fear twisting his gut.

“I'm fine. Harriet was hurt before she went into the water. She hit her arm on something, and couldn't use it.”

“You're being checked over regardless. Trevor, rope up in case you need to go in. If she's hurt she won't be able to hold onto the rope.”

“Aye, aye.”

Did he imagine a faint call for help carried on the wind? “Aim that light over to the right.” The search light caught sight of something yellow floating on the waves in the distance. Cal turned the boat around on a dime.
Please let it be her.

“There!” Sam yelled.

Cal nodded and accelerated the boat towards the small yellow shape the light picked out. He came in close to the figure and Trevor dived over the side into the maelstrom. Waves crashed over and around them, spray threatening the stability of the boat.

Trevor reached the figure in a few short strokes and grabbed her.

“Haul them in,” Cal yelled.

Phil and Sam hauled on the line as Cal held the lifeboat as steady as the storm would let him. A huge wave broke over them. Four attempts later and they still weren't on board.

Another wave picked up the lifeboat, tossing them on top of the figures in the water.

Cal immediately cut the engines. He wasn't going to risk the people in the water being cut to shreds. “You still got them?”

“Yes,” Sam said, the lifeline tight in his grasp.

Cal leaned over the side. “Anyone see them?”

Trevor came up the other side of the boat, still holding Hattie tightly. “Take her.”

Cal reached out and grabbed her, pulling her into the boat.

Phil pulled Trevor onboard. “Got them. Go, go, go.”

Cal restarted the engines, praying the lifeline wasn't caught up in them. “Are they all right?”

“Sam's checking them now.”

“Markus, is there anyone else?”

He shook his head. “No. It was just the two of us.”

Cal turned the boat and headed back towards the shore. “Penry lifeboat station this is
Ray of Hope.
Two survivors located and retrieved. Request ambulance standing by for our return. Conditions prohibit the harbor. Making for your location.”

“Roger, Cal. Bert is on his way to your position now in the RHIB to tow the cabin cruiser back.”

“Tell Laurie one of the injured is Hattie.”

The boat dropped off the top of a huge wave, water cascading down on top of them. Hattie screamed from somewhere behind him. Torn between doing his job and needing to make sure she was all right, Cal prayed hard as he headed the boat back to the protection of the lifeboat station.

Docking backwards on the tractor wasn't easy under normal flat calm training circumstances. But tonight was nigh on impossible. It took five minutes he didn't have to line up and reverse the lifeboat onto the trailer, but finally the tractor began to back out of the water and onto the relative safety of the beach.

Blue lights flashed in the pouring rain and the paramedics stood by the boat house ready to retrieve Hattie and Markus as soon as the tractor reached them.

He turned in his seat. “Hattie, are you all right?”

“Just cold,” she said quietly, her face white against the bright yellow of her lifejacket. She clutched her arm in its makeshift sling tightly.

He didn't believe her for a second. He reached down to her, pushing her soaked hair from her face. “No you're not.”

“I am now,” she said. “Because you saved me. Your doctor doesn't think it's broken, just bruised. But he wants it x-rayed to make sure.”

He held her gaze. “What are you doing tomorrow night?”

“Nothing,” she looked confused. “Why?”

“Have dinner with me.” He ignored the scowl on Markus's face.

She smiled. “I'd like that. Thank you.”

“I'll pick you up at seven.” He glanced up, seeing Laurie by the base with Tom and Dick, the DLA, standing alongside her. “Markus, are you hurt?”

“I'm fine.”

“Almost there, then the paramedics will take you both to hospital to get you checked over.”

The tractor came to a stop and Cal rose. He gently helped Hattie to her feet. “Let's get you out of here first.”