Alice couldn’t believe what she was hearing.
‘School know we’re missing!’ Fergus announced. ‘It was on the radio! They described us and everything.’
‘The police are looking for us,’ Jesse explained. ‘They know we’re here, I mean on Lumm. They’re asking for witnesses.’
‘They called me white and ginger with dental braces!’
‘To be fair …’ Jesse trailed off, quelled by Fergus’s indignant glare. ‘The point is, we’re already in trouble.’
‘So –’ Fergus beat a drum roll on the kitchen table – ‘we think, when the boats are working again, we might as well go on!’
‘What?’ Alice, dazed, stared from Fergus to Jesse and then back to Fergus. ‘But …’
‘We’d need disguises,’ Jesse said seriously. ‘And we’d need to think what to say to school, you know, when we got back. I don’t think they’d believe us if we just said we’d got lost, but we could maybe say we really wanted to see puffins.’
‘From now on,’ sighed Fergus, gazing fondly at Jesse, ‘I’m going to call you Captain Rebel.’
‘But Dad … it was meant to be today … I don’t know where … what if tomorrow’s too late?’
‘If he’s already on Nish, he won’t be able to leave,’ said Jesse. ‘And if he isn’t, the chances are he’ll guess you couldn’t go today, and he’ll go tomorrow too. Probably. I mean, we can’t know for sure …’
‘… but it’s worth a try!’ cried Fergus.
Alice’s mind was racing. School … Already in trouble … Barney, and the weather … It all made sense.
Sort of. I mean, it made sense to her. Except for one thing …
‘But why?’ she asked. ‘I left you. I turned off Jesse’s alarm!’
‘That was bad,’ Fergus admitted. ‘To be honest, we were furious. Especially Jesse. I didn’t give up the ******* Orienteering Challenge for Alice to **** *** and ******* leave us. That’s what you said, isn’t it, Jesse?’
Jesse, wishing Fergus weren’t quite so free with information, muttered something about the heat of the moment but that yes, he had been kind of cross.
‘Furious,’ Fergus corrected. ‘But never mind about that, because that’s all over, and we love you. Don’t we, Jesse?’
Jesse, blushing, mumbled that they did.
‘And so it’s decided!’ Fergus beamed. ‘We’re going to find your dad, and the castle, and the puffins!’
‘Like a quest,’ said Jesse, shyly.
Alice didn’t know what to say. She rubbed her eyes and sniffed and stared at the floor to stop herself crying again, then burst into tears anyway and wailed, ‘I can’t believe you’re doing this for me!’
Fergus laughed, and squeezed her affectionately. Jesse, overwhelmed by so much emotion, fled to the kitchen to make more tea.
*
Again, I’m not saying you would do the same thing. You, who I’m sure are a sensible person, would probably say, ‘Let’s not waste the police’s time on pursuing this adventure, especially when the outcome is so uncertain’ and also ‘Let’s be nice and put our school, our parents, our brothers, our aunt and everyone who cares about us out of their misery, worrying where we are, lost on a camping trip, during one of the worst storms in living memory.’
But this is not your story, and Alice, Fergus and Jesse had much more interesting things to think about. There was a father to find! A plan to mastermind! A whole new island to explore!
*
‘So, the disguises!’ Fergus said. ‘Should I shave my head? Can we take off my braces?’
‘You can wear a hat, Fergus.’ Alice, no longer crying, was rifling through a box of outdoor clothes in the utility room. ‘Look, here’s a beanie – we should all wear hats! And here are cagoules and jackets to wear instead of our orange school things. You’ll just have to keep your mouth shut to hide your braces.’ She grinned. ‘That might be the hardest thing.’
‘Rude,’ said Fergus.
‘How did they describe Jesse?’
‘Tall and mixed race,’ said Fergus. ‘So good luck with that. Perhaps he could pretend to be American. That would confuse people. Jesse, say something American.’
‘I am not going to do that.’
‘Jesse!’ begged Alice.
‘No!’
‘He’s not made for deceit and subterfuge after all,’ Fergus whispered. ‘Probably doesn’t even know what the words mean.’
‘I can hear you, Fergus,’ Jesse growled. ‘And I do know what deceit and subterfuge mean. They mean lying.’
‘Rules are rules.’ Fergus sighed. ‘You’re a rubbish criminal. Probably not even a very good explorer.’
Jesse glared at him.
‘HOWDY!’ he thundered. ‘HOW Y’ALL DOIN’ TODAY? IT SURE IS DIFFERENT HERE FROM OKLAHOMA!’
‘Oklahoma?’ said Alice.
‘Do you think real Americans would actually say that?’ Fergus grinned.
‘I SWEAR ONE DAY I’M GOING TO KILL YOU!’
‘No you won’t.’ Fergus jammed a pink fleecy hat over his head. ‘You love me. You love both of us. That’s why you’re doing this. That, and the exploring practice.’
*
We are nearly at the moment now when everything comes together – the children on their quest, the people chasing them, Barney, the police, the major. That troublesome parcel in Alice’s suitcase … You can see just by looking at your book that we are nearly there – wherever there may be.
But that’s all for tomorrow.
Today, Alice and Fergus and Jesse are going to raid Calva for more food. They are going to take books to read from its well-stocked shelves, and find a pack of playing cards, and Jesse is going to teach the others games he learned from his brothers. Later, when the rain stops, they are going to go to the beach and race along the surf, and chase each other with strands of seaweed washed up by the storm.
This evening, Fergus will perfect their disguises, and Jesse will write a conscientious list for the owners of Calva detailing everything they have taken, promising to reimburse food, to pay for electricity and to return clothes. Alice will curl up on the sofa and try to write an adventure about pirates and islands and maybe magical seals, but she will realise for the first time in her life that right now she is not that interested in making up a story.
Instead, she will sit happily by the fire, watching the flames dance and listening to the boys’ good-natured squabble, and she will think how strange it is that this stolen house, to which she came only yesterday and which she will leave again tomorrow, should feel like home.