But what now? Tamsyn looked around. The town seemed abandoned; there wasn’t even a light on in any window. The mother had to be somewhere nearby; surely there was no way that any mother would just leave such a tiny child to the mercy of the elements, was there?
‘Hello!’ she called out, shouting to try and make herself heard. ‘Hello, are you there? Hello? Call out if you can. I can help you!’
What if she too was caught beneath the branches of the fallen tree? Switching her phone to flashlight, Tamsyn did her best to look into the branches, and could see nothing. Buoy wasn’t bothered about the tree, either. He was standing at the gate waiting for her, his frame tiny and frail-looking because he was soaked to the skin.
The thought had struck Buoy before Tamsyn, it seemed – the baby had been abandoned. Wherever the baby’s mother was, she was more than likely not to be found in the churchyard, and Tamsyn knew she couldn’t stay there for very much longer before the rain would soak through her sweater and shirt too and the baby would get dangerously cold. She was about halfway between the pub and the hotel, and as there were people in the pub that she knew, people who would know what to do, Tamsyn make the snap decision to go back.
‘I’m taking your baby and going to get help,’ she shouted into the wind, just in case the mother was nearby. ‘I’ll take it to the Silent Man, where there are people who can help. I’m staying at the hotel. My name is Tamsyn Thorne! If you are there, if you can hear me, I will make sure your baby is safe, I promise. But please, please get help! And please come and find me. I’m sure it’s not as bad as you think it is!’
Tamsyn looked around her, at a scene that could have featured in some sort of disaster movie, and thought that perhaps it was just about as bad as it could possibly be, except that the baby was warm, dry-ish and wriggling in her arms. She had to move now.
‘Right,’ she said to the baby, reassured by Buoy’s steadfast presence at her side. ‘Now all we’ve got to do is get back to the pub, with only one free arm, and not get crushed like your Moses basket did …’ As she said the words, a nickname for the baby popped into her head. ‘Not a problem, little Mo, not a problem.’
‘I’ve got a baby!’ Tamsyn cried out as she entered the pub. She’d expected to find it as she’d left it, but instead it was mostly empty now except for Jed, Sue Montaigne and her own family.
‘Wow, you left terminally single and came back knocked up,’ Cordelia said. ‘Vicar, come quick, we’ve got a bona fide miracle!’
‘No, no …’ Tamsyn staggered in and sank down on a chair, Cordelia’s face changing when she saw the state her sister was in. ‘I m- m- mean, I found a baby, an actual baby in a Moses basket, in the churchyard.’ Shrugging her coat off, Tamsyn used her free arm to lift the hem of her jumper and her gathering audience gasped as she revealed her precious cargo.
‘I told you babies came from up jumpers,’ Jamie whispered to Joe.
‘It’s a real baby,’ Tamsyn repeated, just in case anyone was failing to believe their eyes. ‘It might have died if Buoy hadn’t heard it crying, and then, and then the tree came down and I thought it was crushed, but he saved it.’ Buoy, shuddering himself from the cold, was sitting at Tamsyn’s knee, continuing to protect her find. ‘And this arm’s gone numb, so could somebody please take it? It would be an awful shame if I dropped it now.’
‘Of course.’ It was her mother who broke the deadlock, stooping to scoop the infant into her arms, a fact that the baby didn’t seem at all pleased about, mewling as Laura held it against her shoulder.
‘Buoy, look at you,’ Alex stripped off her jumper and rubbed at the dog’s drenched fur. ‘We need towels. Eddie? We’ve got to get them all warm and dry.’
Eddie nodded. ‘I’m not sure how much longer we’ll be dry here. I’ve never seen waves like these, and what with the storm coming from both fronts, it’s looking bad out there.’
‘I’ll go out, see if anyone needs help with sandbags,’ Ruan said, grabbing his coat. ‘Are you OK, Tam?’
‘I don’t know. I found a baby, an actual baby,’ she repeated as shock kicked in. ‘In the rain.’ Tamsyn shook her arm vigorously before realising that she still had her jumper rucked up just under her bra, which was when she noticed that a police officer in full uniform was standing at the bar.
‘Oh, thank goodness,’ she said. ‘You need to call people, more police, doctors, ambulances, the coastguard. Mary Poppins. You need to call all of the people and get them right here, now. I found a baby!’
‘Sorry, young lady,’ the policeman said to her, not unkindly. ‘It is very unlikely that any of that is going to happen now. I was just here to evacuate the pub. The rivers have burst their banks top and bottom; the high tide’s swamping half the town and Poldore has been completely cut off. Me and the lads are down here to get everyone out from the harbour to the esplanade before it’s too late.’
It was then that Tamsyn burst into uncontrollable tears.
‘Moses basket.’ Sergeant Jeff Dangerfield wrote down everything Tamsyn told him, as Eddie, Lucy and Rosie packed the pub up around them, carrying what they could to the first floor with the help of Jed, Alex and Cordelia. Alex’s mum had left with Lucy’s keys as well as her own, as they lived virtually next door to each other, in the hope of being able to move their most precious items to safety.
‘Remember, save the dresses first,’ Alex called after her as she headed into the night in a silver padded raincoat. ‘Oh, and take care!’
‘Any sign of the mother?’ Sergeant Dangerfield looked around him, clearly nervous that it was taking so long to move these people on.
‘No, I looked for as long as I could,’ Tamsyn said, huddled in a blanket and now wearing two of Lucy’s thickest jumpers and a pair of Lucy’s jeans, which hung off her even when secured with a belt. The baby, also wrapped in a dry blanket, was back in the crook of her arm, the only place it seemed to be peaceful, its eyes closed resolutely as if it simply didn’t want to know what was going on. Now Tamsyn had a chance to look at it properly, she could see that – young as it was – it had been cared for by someone. It was dressed in a tiny white vest under a white buttoned-up Babygro, and a little soft red cardigan and matching hat were keeping it warm under a sort of furry all-in-one affair that had ears like a teddy. Whoever had left the child had done their best to ensure that it was warm enough, which it would have been on any other June night. Perhaps they had left before the rain had really started to set in, or left the basket in a place of safety, unaware that the water was going to rise enough to flood the shelter of the church porch and wash the baby away. Whatever had happened, Tamsyn just had to look at the tiny teddy-shaped buttons to know that the person who had done them up could never mean this child any harm.
She watched the closed little face for a moment longer as everyone else bustled around them, preparing for what, she wasn’t sure. What a way to meet the world! Soon the poor scrap would be getting hungry, if it wasn’t already. And it couldn’t stay in her arms for ever, even if, as far as it was concerned, that was the beginning and end of existence.
‘We can’t stay here much longer,’ Sergeant Dangerfield told them, putting the notepad away. ‘I’ll radio St Austell to tell them about the baby, but now we need to get everyone to safety. I’ve still got other houses to get to. I need to get people to higher ground … I was thinking, the hotel.’
‘Castle House,’ Sue Montaigne said. ‘It’s high enough and strong enough not to be washed away by a bit of water, and we have the empty moat, which should go a long way to making sure the flood doesn’t breach our defences. And it’s big enough to take in as many as we need to.’
Ruan came back inside from the storm. ‘I’ll help you round people up,’ he told Sergeant Dangerfield. ‘It’s really bad out there. You’re going to need help moving the elderly and the sick. We can collect dinghies, waterproofs.’
‘I’ll help too,’ Alex said.
‘No,’ Ruan said. ‘You’ll be needed up at Castle House, and I think Buoy needs you too; look at him. He’s made the trip once. I’m not sure his gammy leg can do it again.’
‘Are you using my insane love for a dog to stop me from doing something that you consider to be too dangerous for a woman?’ Alex asked him.
‘No,’ Ruan told her gently. ‘I’m using it to stop the woman I love breaking her leg or worse in the days before our wedding.’
‘On this one occasion I will concede,’ Alex nodded, looking at Buoy, whose head was on Tamsyn’s knee, as he felt duty-bound to stay close to his charge. ‘Hopefully Skipper will pull me up the hill on his lead.’
‘I can help you, Ruan,’ Jed volunteered.
‘Vicar, the thing is, we need someone to get this lot up to Castle House safely,’ the sergeant said. ‘And I know you are more than up to the job.’
A look passed between the two men that Tamsyn couldn’t identify.
‘Honestly,’ Sue said. ‘We’re women, not poor helpless creatures that can’t manage a bit of rain.’
‘Ms Montaigne, I promise you that I have never in all my years of knowing you ever thought of you as a poor, helpless creature,’ the sergeant said. ‘However, that baby there is very vulnerable, and it’s as bad out there as I’ve ever seen it. Worse. People get killed in storms like these. I think we’ll be lucky if we don’t lose someone tonight. Time is running out before the water is under the door, and I happen to know that the vicar here has the sort of training that is going to help you manage the trip.’
‘Training?’ Sue turned her gimlet eye on Jed. ‘What haven’t you told us, Vicar?’
‘I used to be a boy scout,’ Jed told her.
‘Look, if we are going to go, can we go?’ Tamsyn said. ‘The baby needs food, a nappy and a place to lie down, like a bed. Can you put a baby in a bed, or maybe a drawer … a manger?’
Just at that moment, the lights snapped out.
‘Right, that seals it.’ The sergeant crossed to the window and peered out. ‘The whole town is out. The storm must have bought the power lines down, which is dangerous in itself. I’d better get out there and, Vicar, I’m relying on you to keep these ladies – and the baby – safe.’
‘Oh, for goodness’ sake,’ Sue said, and although Tamsyn couldn’t see her, she thought she was most likely rolling her eyes. ‘Castle House has its own petrol-run generator – it’s as old as the hills but has never let us down yet, and we’ve plenty of firewood. I’m sure I’ve still got some newborn clothes somewhere. The only thing we will need to find is formula and nappies.’ Sue thought for a moment. ‘The Perkinses have just had a baby, and Elaine was poorly so couldn’t breastfeed, so I’m sure they will have some we can borrow. I will go and collect some – no arguments, Sergeant, I think you’ll find I can take care of myself. The Reverend can take this lot up to Castle House – the portcullis isn’t locked. Rory, you get the urns out from the cellar, start tea – and there twenty loaves of bread in the freezer and a ton of jam in the pantry – we can feast like kings tonight!’
‘Were you preparing for the apocalypse?’ Cordelia, nanny to the Montaigne children, asked her boss.
‘You clearly have no idea how much my children eat,’ Sue said. ‘Now, chop, chop – I think you’ll find that’s water seeping under the door. Toodle-pip!’
Sue clapped her hands together, her eyes glowing happily.
‘Ms Montaigne …’
‘No point in trying to stop her, Sergeant,’ Rory said. ‘She’s got that look in her eye. I’ll venture it’s the same one her relative had during the Spanish Raid in 1595.’
‘Oh, my pub,’ Rosie said, looking at the water that was gradually seeping into the carpet. ‘Oh Eddie, this is bad. It’s really bad.’
‘It’s all right, love.’ Eddie held his wife, kissing her. ‘Come on. We can worry about the pub once we know we’ve got all our people safe, OK? Whatever happens here can be fixed, in time.’
‘Right,’ Jed said as the group began to don extra coats and jumpers. ‘If everyone does exactly as I tell them, we will make it. I promise you.’
And Tamsyn didn’t know why, but she believed him. She might not believe in God, but the vicar seemed like exactly the sort of person it was sensible to put your faith in.
‘Stay close behind me,’ Jed told them, as the shock of the cold and the rain that instantly drenched the small party made Tamsyn want to head back into the pub, even though she knew it was a bad idea. Her instinct was to hide away, to find a safe spot, a bed, maybe, and crawl under it, but that was the worst thing she could do, especially with a tiny life strapped to her chest by a scarf in a makeshift sling.
‘Stick close to the buildings. There seems to be quite a current now. The water’s really coming down.’
‘And up,’ Cordelia said, glancing over her shoulder. When Tamsyn followed her gaze, she could see that seawater now covered the square.
‘Right,’ Jed nodded briskly. ‘We are going to do this as quickly as we can: no talking, no deviating. Keep your eyes peeled; there’s bound to be debris, possibly falling tiles, trees, shop signs. You are each responsible for keeping an eye on the person ahead of and behind you. Keep a tight grip on the boys. Smaller ones don’t do so well in fast currents. If you need help, shout out. Let’s go.’
Tamsyn was surprised by the genuine fear that coursed through her body as she began to follow Jed against the flow of the water that was tumbling down the narrow maze of steep streets, white-water rapids coursing through the town at devastating speed. It was as if the town she had grown up in had vanished entirely, lost in an alien nightmare version. Tree branches, plants and bits of fence tumbled past them at speed, and the downward drag of the water tugged at her legs, giving her the feeling that she could easily pitch backwards at any moment. Just as they neared the church, almost at the top of the hill, a terrifying metallic roar seared through the air and a car juddered into view at speed. Jed covered Tamsyn’s body with his, pressing her and the baby back against the wall of a cottage, as the car veered dangerously close to the huddled group.
‘Mummy, I’m scared,’ Jamie said, clinging onto Keira, along with his brother. Keira did her best to look calm, although Tamsyn could see the anxiety wrought in her face.