********************
Location: Yeast of Bodmin
Radio station: NBC Radio
Track playing: ‘All By Myself’ by Celine Dion
Miles travelled: feels like a million
Miles until Captain Poldark: still 4
‘Are you sure you’re OK?’ Ray asked, pouring them another strong cup of tea.
Lisa nodded, ‘I am. Can’t say the same for my car. Or your poor face.’
‘I’m OK,’ Ray said, briefly touching his taped-up nose. ‘He just threw a lucky punch …’
‘Mate,’ Abby said, ‘your car died a hero’s death.’
‘I think it’s more critically injured,’ Ray said. ‘I think it’s mostly on the surface. She’ll be on the road again in a few days maybe. In the meantime we’re in Bodmin. Kirsty’s with her aunt. Social services and the police are taking care of that scumbag. And it’s only four in the afternoon. Shall we go and find Captain Poldark?’
‘How?’ Lisa said. ‘No car? A bus maybe, but you never know what kind of nutters you might meet on a bus …’
‘You might meet us, for starters,’ Abby said.
Ray held up a set of keys.
‘Alison lent me her van, said it was the least she could do,’ Ray said, holding up a set of keys and nodding at a battered old Jeep. ‘Come on, people. This mission is not over.’
‘Copy that,’ Abby said.
‘Well, maybe it’s not too late,’ Lisa said, with a faint smile. ‘We’ll never know unless we try.’
The crew were still there, sorting things out after a day of filming that had begun at dawn. But the lights in the trailers were out and the word was that the cast had left about half an hour earlier. A small crowd of onlookers were still gathered, wrapped in blankets, with flasks of tea. They watched as the crew took down the lighting and packed away the catering. But any chance of finding Captain Poldark here had gone.
‘We were soooo close,’ Abby said. ‘It’s like I can still smell his sweat in the air.’
She inhaled deeply, and Ray and Lisa exchanged a look.
‘We’ve got to see all this,’ Lisa said. ‘This is quite exciting.’
‘This is like turning up at Glastonbury when everyone else has gone home,’ Abby said.
‘Well, this isn’t the only location,’ Ray said. ‘They’re filming again tomorrow, and the day after that. I was chatting to one of the riggers. She used to be in my regiment. We didn’t find Captain Poldark today, but we will find him tomorrow. I promise.’
Lisa smiled and walked away from the little crowd of spectators, feeling a sudden need to be alone. The landscape unfolded before her and she stood, with the wind in her hair, looking out at miles and miles of heather trembling in the breeze. The thought struck her that for so long now, she had felt lonely, terrified, lost and trapped. And yet now, she knew she was OK. More than that, she knew that she could be alone and she would be OK. And she knew something else too … she could be with other people and still be OK.
‘What’s a pretty maid like ’ee be doing out ’ere?’
Lisa turned round to find Ray in his full Captain Poldark costume, with the scar on the right side of his face this time. He still looked ridiculous.
‘Oh my word,’ she said, chuckling. ‘What are you doing?’
‘Well, I knew you wanted to find Captain Poldark out here tonight, and I knew you were let down so I thought at the very least I’d give you a laugh.’
Lisa smiled and took a step closer to him.
‘Do you know what?’ she said. ‘I’m not let down at all. Because I found him. I found Captain Poldark. Or at least the spirit of him. I found him here, in the wind and the land. And here. In my heart. I was flipping hard as nails today. I was brave. I was Captain Poldark. I don’t need an imaginary hero to keep me safe, and make me feel OK about the world. I just need me. I am Captain Poldark.’
Ray looked deep into Lisa’s eyes. For one dizzying moment she thought he might kiss her, and she thought she might like it. Then he checked himself, as Abby sniffed loudly near to them.
‘I think you’ll find that I’m Captain Poldark,’ he said, smiling.
‘Er, no,’ Abby said, as she joined them, shouting into the wind. ‘I’m Captain Poldark!’
‘Actually,’ Ray said suddenly, ‘I think you’ll find that’s his job.’
Lisa and Abby looked to where he was pointing. A brooding, familiar figure appeared over the ridge, sweat sheening his bronzed skin.
‘Um, hello,’ Lisa said.
‘All right, mate,’ Ray called.
‘Please may I lick you?’ Abby said.
Captain Poldark, or Aidan Turner, raised his three-cornered hat in greeting before striding away across the moor to the crew who were waiting for him.
‘That is one very gorgeous and talented Aidan Turner,’ Lisa whispered under her breath, ‘but I am Captain Poldark.’
She began to laugh and once she started, she couldn’t stop.