It’s beautiful, he says.
Yes.
And peaceful.
She smiles; I think it is miraculous.
They stand together in the kitchen, taking turns to make the food that reminds them of the people in their lives. François makes pain au chocolat; Róisín makes boiled eggs and soldiers; together they make a tagine, cracking cinnamon sticks before throwing them into the pot, filling the base with the spiced sweet smell of lamb and apricots – food to share. And then they start to invent; new dishes made of ingredients they take turns to pick from the cupboards, combinations they would never have thought of on their own but, in this kitchen, as the snow falls, everything seems possible.
And then in the night, they are woken by silence. The snowstorm has passed and the world is quiet.
Wrap up warm, he says, looping a scarf around her shoulders, we could freeze to death out there.
We won’t freeze, she says, pulling his bobble hat down over his ears. The comet will protect us.
And she is right, in a way; they don’t feel the cold as they step outside and gasp at the sky, filled with hundreds of shooting stars, golden in the moonlight.
What’s happening? he asks.
Her hands are held out as if she is trying to catch the stars, as if they will fall to the ground like dancing confetti to rest on her palms and in her hair, and he understands that the comet has broken under the pull of gravity, after all the distance it has travelled, it has burst apart to shower the world in light and settle in the winter’s ice.
I thought it would go on forever, she says, orbiting the sun, glancing at the Earth, never getting to rest.
There are plenty of other comets to do that, François says, because he thinks that she will miss the endlessness of a comet’s journey. He looks over to her, to see if he’s said the right thing, but Róisín just smiles, because the sky is filled with sparkling pieces of light and she knows that now, given some time, they will find a way home.
Acknowledgements
A HUGE AND HEARTFELT thank you goes to: Terry Karten, Gregg Kulick, Christina Polizoto, Jillian Verrillo, Katie O’Callaghan, Allyssa Kasoff, the sales reps and everyone at Harper; Alison Hennessey, Kathy Fry, Sarah-Jane Forder and everyone at Harvill Secker; Cathryn Summerhayes, Siobhan O’Neill and the team at WME; Caitrin Armstrong, Claire Marchant-Collier and Scottish Book Trust; all the people who offered feedback and encouragement while I wrote this book, including Margaret Callaghan, Kirsty Logan, Nick Brooks, Katy McAulay, Jane Alexander, Viccy Adams, Maria Di Mario, Gill Tasker and Anna Power; my family, Mum, Dad, Ally, Steve and Granny, for their unconditional support; the ghosts, of course; and finally, to Michael, with love.
About the Author
HELEN SEDGWICK is a writer, editor, and former research physicist. She won a Scottish Book Trust New Writers Award, and her writing has been published internationally and broadcast on BBC Radio 4. She has performed at the Edinburgh International Book Festival, the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, and Glasgow’s Aye Write. She grew up in London and now lives in the Scottish highlands with her partner, photographer Michael Gallacher.
Credits
Cover design by Gregg Kulick
Cover photographs: © Captain Scott / Getty Images (tent); © Science & Society Picture Library / Getty Images (comet tail and background); © Photos 12 / Alamy (landscape); © World History Archive / Alamy (comet); courtesy of the Mariners’ Museum (figures); © GelatoPlus / Getty Images (frame)
Copyright
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, organizations, or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
THE COMET SEEKERS. Copyright © 2016 by Helen Sedgwick Limited. All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the nonexclusive, nontransferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, decompiled, reverse-engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins e-books.
Originally published in Great Britain in 2016 by Harvill Secker.
FIRST U.S. EDITION
* * *
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Sedgwick, Helen, 1978- author.
Title: The comet seekers: a novel / Helen Sedgwick.
Description: First edition. | New York : Harper, 2016. | “Originally published in Great Britain in 2016 by Harvill Secker”—Verso title page.
Identifiers: LCCN 2016008606| ISBN 9780062448767 (hardback) | ISBN 9780062448781 (ebook)
Subjects: LCSH: Astronomers—Fiction. | Comets—Fiction. | Giacobini-Zinner comet—Fiction. | Antarctica—Fiction. | Psychological fiction. | BISAC: FICTION / Literary. | FICTION / Sagas. | GSAFD: Love stories.
Classification: LCC PS3619.E342 C66 2016 | DDC 813/.6—dc23 LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2016008606
* * *
EPub Edition October 2016 ISBN 9780062448781
16 17 18 19 20 OFF / RRD 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
About the Publisher
Australia
HarperCollins Publishers Australia Pty. Ltd.
Level 13, 201 Elizabeth Street
Sydney, NSW 2000, Australia
www.harpercollins.com.au
Canada
HarperCollins Canada
2 Bloor Street East - 20th Floor
Toronto, ON M4W 1A8, Canada
www.harpercollins.ca
New Zealand
HarperCollins Publishers New Zealand
Unit D1, 63 Apollo Drive
Rosedale 0632
Auckland, New Zealand
www.harpercollins.co.nz
United Kingdom
HarperCollins Publishers Ltd.
1 London Bridge Street
London SE1 9GF, UK
www.harpercollins.co.uk
United States
HarperCollins Publishers Inc.
195 Broadway
New York, NY 10007
www.harpercollins.com
The Comet Seekers Page 26
