‘Yes,’ said Sandra, disapprovingly, ‘and your father and I have no idea why you’ve come all the way out here. We could easily have let down one of the hotel guests and
told them there was a problem with the room. I hate to think of you out here on your own.’
Fiona looked at Sandra and winked. ‘Ah well, Mother, I’m hoping not to be on my own all Christmas.’
Kate was in the garden, putting the wee-soaked cloth in the bin, when she realized. Inside the cottage was
the
Fiona: the one who’d been in a relationship with Roderick; the one
who’d left the island to be a journalist; the one from whom he’d split up and who’d put him off women altogether. She felt a little pang of disappointment, realizing that Roderick
was obviously as shallow as most of the men she’d met, and that he’d fallen for Fiona’s brittle blonde looks. The fact that she had no personality, and a mouth like a cat’s
bum, seemed to have passed him by.
Kate was still smiling to herself at that thought when she returned to the cottage kitchen to retrieve her bag.
‘Look what they’ve left: that bloody rock-hard bread from Paine’s the baker,’ Fiona was complaining as Kate walked in. ‘What the hell is wrong with good old
Mother’s Pride?’
Rather than get into a disagreement, Kate grabbed her bag and, after making her goodbyes, left the cottage. The sun was low in the sky, but there was just time, she decided, to take a quick look
down at the beach and check the seals. She pulled on her wellies and grabbed her binoculars from the car, before marching off, muttering to herself about Lady Muck, and her badly behaved dog peeing
on her furniture.
The beach was deserted. Kate scanned the whole stretch of rocky sand for signs of the seals, but there were none. Blossom’s rampage around the beach had clearly disturbed them. Without the
seals, the beach seemed bleak and empty. Kate walked down towards the shoreline, scanning for any signs of the familiar faces poking out of the sea, but there was nothing. She sat down on a rocky
outcrop, deciding to watch the sunset. Bloody Fiona was vile, she thought, and God knows what Roderick ever saw in her – besides, obviously, the swishy blonde hair, the slim perfect figure,
the immaculate clothes and the aura of entitlement. She reached down to the side of the rock, aiming for a stone to throw in the water. Her hand touched something furry and icy cold and she leapt
up, screaming.
She peered over the side of the rock. Lying there, not moving, was a seal pup. It looked at her and tried to roll over, but only managed to flap its flippers feebly.
Disaster! She remembered Roderick’s first rule: never touch a seal. Only he hadn’t mentioned anything about accidental seal-groping. Kate leaned over the side of the rock, this time
being careful not to get in the pup’s eyeline. Its skin looked too big and its eyes were dull and lifeless.
She ran up the beach, cursing herself for leaving her phone in the car. Blooming island life, thought Kate: a year ago I’d have had that phone fired up and ready to go in my jeans
pocket.
She was rummaging desperately through the detritus in the footwell of her car when she heard Roderick’s voice.
‘Looking for something?’ He sounded faintly amused.
‘My phone. But you’re here now – are you psychic? I’m impressed.’
Roderick looked at her with a curious expression. ‘I said I was going to come out and check on the seals after bloody Sandra let her bloody dog loose on the beach.’
‘Not Sandra’s dog,’ said Kate, unthinking. Roderick snapped her a quick look, but said nothing.
‘Whatever. Have you been down to the shore?’
‘They’re gone – well, all of them but one, a pup. I found it by mistake. I assume its mother has gone fishing or something, but I’m scared she’ll be put off by my
smell on her baby.’
‘I don’t think so. Can you show me where it is?’
Kate took Roderick down to the shore, leading him to the rocks, where the seal pup was still lying on its side. It looked up at him through huge brown eyes, but made no attempt to move. Even to
Kate’s inexpert eye it looked dreadful.
‘Hello, little one,’ said Roderick, in a gentle voice. ‘Let’s have a look at you.’
He pulled on some gloves and softly ran his hands down the pup’s sides. ‘This pup is dehydrated, I’d say, and hasn’t fed for a few days. You remember I said that newborn
pups need thousands of calories a day? It doesn’t take long before starvation takes effect.’
Kate found her eyes were filling with tears, but she batted them away. ‘Poor little chick.’
‘Yep, and now we need to work out what to do.’
‘You can’t leave it here – it’s so cold at night,’ pleaded Kate. ‘Can’t we take it back to the house?’
‘Absolutely not. The first thing we need to do is call Seal Rescue and tell them what’s happened.’ He patted his pockets, hopefully. ‘Can I borrow your phone? I think
I’ve left mine back at the house.’
He tapped a number from memory into the keypad.
‘Reception’s hopeless on this side of the island.’ He looked at the phone, irritably. ‘Mark, it’s Roddy. I’ve got a grey here, probably no more than a week
old, maybe two – it’s dehydrated, I’d say it hasn’t fed for a while . . . ’
He paused, eyes closed and concentrating, while the person on the other end of the line spoke. Kate stuffed her hands in her pockets before she could reach out and run her fingers through
Roddy’s hair, which was ruffling in the wind.
‘Right, that’s fine. Yep, I know it’s not exactly standard procedure, but I’m worried about this one making it through the night. Okay, we’ll take it from
here.’
Roderick switched off the phone, then took a couple of photographs of the seal. ‘I need to text these to Mark, so he can see what we’re dealing with.’
‘What happens now?’ Kate asked, as Roderick handed her back the mobile, having sent the messages.
‘Mark works at the Seal Sanctuary on the mainland. I’ve had to take abandoned pups over to him before. They do a wonderful job, caring for them, bringing them on and then releasing
them back into the wild when they’re ready. Usually we’d watch an abandoned pup from a distance for a day or so, before we made any decisions about what to do. But I don’t think
this little one will last another day, and I think that, given what happened yesterday, there’s no chance the mum is coming back.’
Kate took a sharp intake of breath. ‘That bloody dog.’
‘Never mind the dog,’ said Roderick with feeling. ‘The owner’s even worse. Come with me.’
He turned, stalking up the beach at speed. Kate marched along beside him. ‘So what happens now?’
‘We’ll get it off the island and to the sanctuary. Judging by the look of it, I’d say it’s only a week or so old – you can still see the dried-up umbilical cord.
But its eyes are dull. I’m worried we might be too late.’
Kate dug her fingernails into her palms to stop the tears that were threatening to escape. Roderick leaned into the back of his Land Rover, pulling out what looked like an Ikea shopping bag, but
fluorescent orange instead of the familiar blue.
‘We need to get the pup in here, and get down to the ferry – if get a move on, we’ll catch the four o’clock.’
Together they ran back down the beach, scrambling across the rocks to the pup’s hiding place. The light was failing rapidly, darkness creeping across the sky.
‘Hold the bag open – now, this might be a bit of a struggle.’
Kate looked at the seal pup, which was lying passively beside the rocks, and looked back at Roderick, one eyebrow raised.
‘A struggle?’
‘Watch.’
He moved stealthily, gloved hands reaching down to grab the pup. As he did so, the seal flipped over with a sudden last burst of defiance, yowling and snapping. With practised ease, Roderick
scooped the pup across and into the open bag.
‘Feisty little thing.’ His eyes met Kate’s and he smiled: the first genuine smile Kate had seen from him in weeks. ‘You take that handle, I’ll take this one. The
bag is deep, to stop the pup from getting out.’
‘They can’t jump, can they?’
‘You’ll be amazed what an angry seal can do. I’ve rescued a few injured ones from this beach who’ve not been happy. And, believe me, you don’t want to find out what
a seal bite feels like.’
‘Ouch!’
He smiled ruefully. ‘Let’s just say I’ve been there, and it’s not pleasant.’
They reached the top of the beach, where Roderick’s Land Rover was pulled in on the grass verge. Kate looked up the hill at the cottages, where the light was glowing gently through the
windows. A furl of smoke twisted gently from the chimney. Following her gaze, Roderick looked up at the cottage.
‘That’s Sandra’s car. What’s she doing there?’ He was trying with one hand to release his car keys from the back of his jeans. The seal bag was wriggling
impatiently.
‘Our first visitor is Fiona Gilfillan. I assumed you knew?’ said Kate.
Roderick closed his eyes and groaned. ‘You are joking?’ He opened his eyes and looked at Kate, hopefully. ‘You’re not. You’re telling me that Fiona and Sandra are
sitting up there in our cottage?’
Kate’s stomach did an Olympic-sized back-flip.
Our
cottage.
‘They are. Large as life and twice as—’ Kate stopped herself. By no stretch of the imagination could the polished, glamorous Fiona be called ugly.
‘Ah. This day gets better and better.’ Roderick flicked open the back door, pulling out a cat basket. ‘Right then, little one, let’s decant you into this.’
‘Is this something you make a habit of?’ asked Kate, watching as he deftly slid the furry contents of the seal bag into the cat carrier and closed the door.
‘Seal-rescuing – just another service I provide.’ He reached into his pocket, pulling out his wallet, and flipped it open, pulling out a card. ‘Roderick Maxwell,
certified Marine Mammal Medic, at your service.’
‘You’re a vet?’ Kate was astounded.
‘No, I’m not a vet. I’m a qualified Medic – the British Divers’ Marine Life Rescue organization trains members of the public. Our job is to look out for stranded
mammals and do what we can for them.’
‘So not just seals then?’
‘No, we’re trained to help with beached whales, porpoises, dolphins and seals,’ said Roderick, throwing her the empty seal bag. ‘Let’s go.’
‘My car – won’t they wonder why I’ve left it sitting on the road?’
‘Sandra and Fiona, no,’ he said shortly. ‘They’re too wrapped up in themselves to notice anything. Why don’t you ring Murdo up at the hotel, let him
know?’
‘Too late.’ Kate pointed at the two women speed-walking down the lane from the cottages. ‘I think we’ve been spotted.’
‘Roddy! You dark horse, were you coming out here to surprise me?’
Fiona was at the window of the car, tapping it with perfectly manicured scarlet nails. Roderick sighed and pressed a button, so that the window opened fully. ‘Fiona.’
‘You came all the way out here to welcome me, and I thought you were still sulking.’
‘I’m not sulking,’ said Roderick, his voice measured and patient. ‘Look, Fiona, we have to get going. Your mother let that lunatic dog of yours loose on the beach and it
caused the seals to stampede.’
Fiona leaned inside the window, kissing Roderick on the cheek. ‘That naughty dog. Sweet of you to give me a puppy, Roddy, but I’m not really the dog-training type.’ She looked
up, catching sight of Kate for the first time. ‘Oh.’ Her nose wrinkled slightly. ‘I see. Have I been replaced already?’
‘Of course not,’ said Roderick, rather too emphatically for Kate’s liking. Was she such a hideous prospect? ‘Kate works for me – and she’s helped rescue this
seal pup. Now we must go: we have to catch the four o’clock ferry.’
‘You must come up to the hotel for drinks,’ Fiona was saying, but Roderick had already started the engine and was driving away, leaving her mouthing furiously.
They sat in silence all the way to the ferry. Roderick drove on to the boat, grim-faced. The seal pup had stopped crying for its mother, which was a relief, because Kate was
worried that the eerie, child-like noise was going to arouse suspicions on the boat about their motives.
‘Is it breathing?’ Kate was too scared to look closely.
‘It’s fine.’ Roderick closed the door of the carrier. ‘We’ll be there in forty minutes, and Mark is waiting for us with everything it needs. Now we need to get you
sorted out.’
‘Me?’ Kate was baffled. Roderick shut the door and locked the Land Rover.
‘Your lips are blue.’ He looked at her face, placing his scarf around her neck. ‘You’ve been out in the cold for so long, your hands are blocks of ice.’ He took
both of her hands and cupped them inside his. They were burning hot. Kate had been so wrapped up in rescuing the seal that she hadn’t noticed she’d spent the best part of an hour
standing on a remote beach with the Atlantic wind whipping in on her.
‘Shall we get a cup of tea?’
‘I think that would be an idea,’ said Roderick, gently letting go of her frozen hands.
It felt strange being on the ferry with him. He ushered her into a corner, next to a radiator, and disappeared, returning a couple of minutes later with a pot of tea and a couple of warm fleece
blankets.
‘Where did you get those from?’ Kate nursed the hot teacup, feeling warmth slowly seeping back into her bones. It was amazing how cold that island could be.
‘Aha. It’s all about who you know,’ Roderick tapped his nose. ‘I’ve been here fifteen years, remember – there’s not a ferry worker I don’t know by
name. And believe me, when you’ve been stuck out here on the sea for six hours because it’s too rough to dock, you need blankets to keep the cold off.’
Kate pulled the blanket closer around her shoulders. ‘It’s amazing, really, isn’t it? Most of us consider ourselves island dwellers, just by virtue of living in Britain. But we
have no idea what it’s really like.’
‘Ah, but we’re the lucky ones,’ said Roderick.
‘Thank you for travelling with Caledonian MacBrayne. The ferry will be docking shortly. Please make your way back to your vehicle.’
Kate had fallen asleep, lulled by the repetitive hum of the boat’s engine.