The Black Pearl

by Louise Cooper

  Rose sat down again. ‘Well, I’m glad he did smell it. If you’d gone to sea like you were going to…’ She shuddered. ‘Scary!’

  ‘Yeah.’ Paul ate another mouthful of lasagne. ‘Though quite a few of the boats are out.’ He frowned. ‘I hope they make it back to the harbour before this really blows up.’

  Lizzy, too, was staring at the window, but she said nothing. Kes had never told her what happened in the undersea world during a storm, so she could only imagine what it was like. The thought frightened her. Would Kes and Morvyr be all right? And what about the dolphins?

  ‘Lizzy, you’ve hardly eaten anything,’ said Mum. ‘Are you feeling OK?’

  ‘What? Oh – yes, I’m fine. Just not very hungry.’

  Dad smiled kindly. ‘Don’t worry, love; a storm doesn’t always mean thunder. Even if it does, you’re much less scared of thunder and lightning than you used to be, aren’t you?’

  Lizzy couldn’t tell him that it wasn’t thunder and lightning that worried her, so she just nodded.

  ‘You ought to go home before the rain starts, Paul,’ said Mum. ‘Or you’ll get soaked.’

  ‘Don’t be daft, Mum,’ said Rose. ‘He’s a fisherman. He’s used to it!’

  The chatter went on, but Lizzy wasn’t really listening. She made herself eat a few more mouthfuls, but the lasagne could have been made from cardboard and chalk for all she cared. Where are Kes and Morvyr? Will they be safe tonight?

  The wind was howling now. Some scraps of litter went flying madly down the street, and in the distance there was a rattle that sounded like a dustbin being blown over. As well as the wind Lizzy could hear the sea grumbling ominously. Then a first flurry of rain spattered against the window pane, and moments later the heavens opened.

  Paul said he should go, because he had to help his dad make sure their boat was securely moored. He was saying goodbye and thanks for the food, and Rose was arguing with Mum because she wanted to go to the harbour too and Mum said she wasn’t going anywhere in this weather and besides she’d only get in the way. Lizzy took no notice but stared out at the worsening storm. She had never seen such a downpour. Water streamed down the window in rivers, and the battering rain was bouncing off the road. The sky was the colour of a bruise, and though it wasn’t evening yet, it was getting darker and darker outside.

  Rose finally gave up arguing with Mum, and saw Paul off. Wind and rain came whirling into the house when she opened the front door, and as Paul hurried away down the hill with his jacket over his head she had to struggle to get the door shut again.

  ‘Ugh!’ she said as she came back to the sitting room. ‘Maybe I don’t want to go to the harbour after all.’

  ‘Your face and hair are wet already,’ Mum commented.

  ‘I know. This has come on so quickly, hasn’t it? It’s really weird.’

  ‘I was thinking that,’ said Dad. ‘I mean, I know we’re on the coast and the weather can change very fast, but it’s strange that the forecast didn’t even mention it. And it was glorious till a couple of hours ago. It doesn’t seem natural.’

  Lizzy shivered inwardly at that. She, too, thought there was something wrong. The storm had blown up so suddenly and so violently, as if some unknown force had deliberately caused it to happen. Kes had told her that Taran, the mermaid Queen, was very powerful. Could she be behind this? Could she conjure storms? And, if she could, why had she done it?

  Mum and Dad were clearing the table, while Rose had switched the TV on and was looking for the local news. Suddenly Lizzy wanted to escape to her room. She felt sick with tension and worry. If she stayed here with the rest of the family, someone would be sure to notice.

  ‘Can’t find any news,’ said Rose, ‘but there’s a really good movie on in a minute.’

  ‘Sounds fine to me,’ said Dad as he carried out a pile of plates. ‘In this weather, I can’t think of anything better.’

  ‘I… um… think I’ll go upstairs,’ Lizzy murmured. ‘I’ve got a few things to do on my computer.’

  The computer was always a good excuse. The others would think she was going to spend the evening playing games on it, and they wouldn’t ask any awkward questions. Rose said, ‘Boring! I’m going to watch the movie,’ but Lizzy didn’t answer. At the door she paused, looking back into the room. It all looked so normal…

  ‘See you later,’ she said.

  ‘Sure.’ Rose wasn’t concentrating; she had plonked down on the sofa and was looking at the TV screen. Lizzy hesitated a moment longer, then hurried up the stairs.

  Chapter Five

  The storm worsened as the evening went on. There was no lightning or thunder, but the rain was torrential and a full gale was blowing. Though Lizzy tried her best to ignore it, it was impossible. Even when she played loud music through her headphones she couldn’t completely shut out the howl of the wind and the noise of the sea, which wasn’t merely grumbling now but roaring like a hundred angry lions. The lights kept dimming too, and every time it happened it made her jump.

  Rose went to bed early, and Mum and Dad weren’t far behind her. By half past ten the house was in darkness. Lizzy snuggled under her duvet, shutting her eyes and trying to make herself sleep. But she couldn’t. All she could think about was Kes and Morvyr.

  She did doze off eventually; at least she must have done, because when the deafening BANG came she jolted awake and shot upright in bed with a cry of fright. Whatever –?

  A second explosion made her scream again. It was a thunderbolt – it must have been! Then her door opened and Mum came in, switching the light on.

  ‘Lizzy, are you all right?’

  Lizzy turned to her, white-faced and terrified. ‘Oh, Mum! Have we been hit by lightning?’

  ‘No, love! The lifeboat’s been called out. That noise was the maroon rockets – they fire them from the station and they probably exploded right above us.’ Mum went to the window and lifted back the curtain. ‘There are lights going on in lots of houses. What an awful night for a rescue!’

  Lizzy was hugely relieved that it hadn’t been a thunderbolt, but her relief was quickly swamped by another fear: for the lifeboat crew, and for whoever was in danger out there on the sea.

  She scrambled out of bed and joined Mum at the window. Through the streaming glass they glimpsed two dark figures in waterproofs running past the house. This street was halfway up the cliffside hill; lights were coming on in the rows of houses below them, and over the rooftops Lizzy could see more lights blazing in the lifeboat station building. From the headland the beam of the lighthouse swung slowly in from the sea and over the scene. It made everything look unreal and nightmarish.

  Rose ran in then and crowded to the window too, elbowing Lizzy aside. ‘Is it a shout?’ she asked worriedly.

  ‘What?’ Lizzy was perplexed.

  ‘A shout – it’s what they call it when the lifeboat goes out. Paul told me. His dad’s in the crew. Oh, I hope he’ll be OK!’

  Another man raced past the window, and the headlights of a car rushed along the harbourside road. ‘I want to ring Paul!’ Rose said.

  ‘No, love, leave him,’ Mum told her. ‘He’s got enough to worry about; he won’t be able to talk to you now.’

  ‘But –’ Then Rose saw sense. ‘If anything awful happens…’ she finished in a small, scared voice.

  ‘They know what they’re doing,’ Mum soothed. ‘They’ll be all right. Don’t worry. Look, I don’t suppose anyone wants to go back to sleep, so why don’t I go downstairs and make us all some tea? Then we can listen to the local radio station, and we’ll hear if there’s any news.’

  She went out, but Rose and Lizzy stayed at the window. Neither of them said anything, but Rose put an arm round Lizzy’s shoulders. She seemed to be trying to comfort herself.

  The girls tried to locate the lifeboat at the end of its floating pontoon; They couldn’t make it out, and certainly didn’t hear the engines starting over the noise of the wind and rain, but they saw a dim glow inside the
cockpit, and the brighter white stern light. Moments later the lights began to move steadily as the boat set out for sea.

  ‘There they go.’ Rose didn’t sound like herself. ‘I wish there was something we could do to help.’

  Lizzy nodded. ‘Me too.’ She glanced at her sister. ‘Do you think Paul’s dad’s on board?’

  ‘I don’t know. Paul says it’s up to the captain – I mean, the coxswain. He picks the crew from whoever shows up. I sort of… hope Mr Treleaven didn’t get there in time.’

  From downstairs came the mumble of the radio, and Mr Baxter, wearing jeans and a sweatshirt, put his head round the door.

  ‘You girls all right?’ he asked.

  ‘We’re fine, Dad,’ Lizzy told him. ‘The lifeboat’s just gone. We saw it.’

  ‘Well, let’s wish them good luck. Coming for a cup of tea?’

  Rose was still staring out of the window, though the lifeboat’s lights had faded into the murky darkness. ‘Come on,’ Lizzy said to her. ‘There’s nothing else to see now.’

  Rose hesitated, then nodded and followed her downstairs.

  The Baxters drank their tea, then they all went back to bed. Lizzy managed to sleep for a while, but woke as it was starting to get light. It was half past five. The rain had stopped, though the wind still blew gustily. After the uproar of the storm the world seemed astonishingly quiet. Then she heard the sound of a diesel engine approaching.

  She scrambled out of bed and reached the window in time to see an ambulance drive along the harbour road. It was heading for the lifeboat station – Lizzy’s heart skipped, and she ran across to Rose’s room. Rose was awake, and when Lizzy told her about the ambulance, her eyes widened with alarm.

  ‘Quick, let’s go back – I want to look out from your window!’

  The two girls hurried to Lizzy’s room, and Rose flung the window open, letting in a whirling gust of wind. Leaning precariously out, she peered towards the lifeboat station.

  ‘I can’t see where the ambulance went… Oh! Lizzy, the lifeboat’s back! I can just make out the orange top and that radar thing!’

  Lizzy squeezed in to look too, and saw a bright splash of colour amid the dull greys of the morning. ‘Whoo!’ she said. ‘What a relief – bet you’re glad!’

  ‘You bet I am – but what about the ambulance? Someone must be hurt! What if –’

  ‘It’s probably the people they rescued. Rose, be careful – you’ll fall out of the window!’

  There were noises on the landing, and Mum and Dad appeared, looking sleepy-eyed.

  ‘They’re back, they’re safe!’ Rose told them. ‘But an ambulance just went past – Mum, I want to go to the lifeboat station and see what’s happened!’ She saw Mum hesitate and added, ‘Please – it’s light now, and the rain’s stopped!’

  ‘We-ell…’

  ‘Tell you what,’ said Dad. ‘Give it half an hour – time for the ambulance crew to do what they have to – and then you can go. But you mustn’t get in anyone’s way, all right?’

  ‘Of course I won’t! I’ll get dressed.’ Rose ran out of the room. Dad called, ‘Not now, Rose! In half an hour!’ but she didn’t answer.

  Rose was jumping with impatience by the time half an hour had passed and she could leave for the lifeboat station. Lizzy went with her. Mum and Dad had been reluctant to let her, but Rose chimed in on Lizzy’s side and at last they gave way.

  ‘I’m glad you came,’ Rose said as they hurried along the street, heads down against the wind. ‘If Paul’s not there, I don’t know anyone else, and if I have to just stand there out of the way with no one to talk to, I think I’ll explode!’

  There was a small crowd around the lifeboat station. The ambulance had gone, but the coastguards were there, and a police car, and the harbour master and several fishermen. The lifeboat itself was back at its mooring, tilting and swaying with the swell,and beyond the harbour the sea was a mass of tumbling white horses.

  Rose saw Paul standing by the wall of the station building, and ran to him. ‘Paul! Did your dad go out? Is he all right?’

  Paul smiled broadly. ‘He’s fine. Some of them were a bit seasick, though.’

  ‘What happened? We saw the ambulance from Lizzy’s window.’

  ‘It was for the guys they rescued. They’re the crew of a French fishing trawler; they lost their rudder, then started taking on water. The trawler sank, but the lifeboat got everyone off.’

  Rose let out her breath in a huge, huffing sigh. ‘It must have been really hairy! So who got hurt?’

  ‘They’ve taken all the crew to hospital, of course, just to check them out. But apparently one guy fell overboard. They got him out of the water but he’s unconscious and they don’t know how bad he is yet.’ Paul frowned. ‘There was something a bit weird about it…’

  Lizzy felt a sudden inward shiver that she couldn’t explain. ‘What do you mean, weird?’ she asked.

  ‘Nobody on the lifeboat can speak much French, so they weren’t exactly sure what the trawlermen said, but it looks as if no one really knows anything about this guy.’

  ‘What, he was a new crew member, you mean?’ asked Rose.

  ‘I suppose so. But Dad said they didn’t even know his name. And that’s not the only thing. When he went overboard, no one saw it happen. But, when the lifeboat got a line to the trawler, a whole lot of dolphins suddenly appeared and started jumping around, like they were trying to attract attention. They were making a huge fuss, so the cox turned the searchlight on them, and there in the middle of them was this French guy!’

  Lizzy and Rose both stared at him in astonishment, then Lizzy whispered, ‘The dolphins were helping him?’

  ‘Looks like it. They found him and held him up till he was rescued.’

  ‘Wow!’ said Rose, awed. ‘I’ve heard stories about dolphins doing things like that, but… Wow!’ She looked at Lizzy. ‘Isn’t that amazing?’

  Lizzy was staring at the lifeboat. She wanted to ask, how many dolphins were there? Did one have a silver streak on its back? Above all, did they know, somehow, who the mysterious Frenchman was? But, if she asked, there would be too much to explain. So she just said:

  ‘Yes. Amazing…’

  Chapter Six

  By mid-morning the town was buzzing with the story of the rescue. Everyone seemed to have heard about the dolphins, and there were all kinds of rumours about who the man they had saved might be. Lizzy went to the beach, hoping that Arhans might appear, but there was no sign, and the lifeguards warned her not to go in the sea because of the rough waves and dangerous swell.

  Mum had been working at the hospital again, and when she came home late that afternoon she had more news of the French crew.

  ‘The man who was pulled out of the sea’s going to be all right,’ she told them. ‘But he really is a mystery man. Apparently the skipper said he isn’t one of their regular crew and all he knows about him is his name. But that’s odd too, because his name’s Kernewek which just means “Cornish” in the old Cornish language.’

  ‘Sounds as if he didn’t want them to know his real identity,’ said Dad.

  Rose grinned. ‘Maybe he’s committed a huge fraud or something, and he’s on the run from the French police.’

  ‘Maybe, though he doesn’t look the type,’ said Mum.

  ‘Oh, well, I expect our police may want to talk to him,’ said Dad. ‘Has he regained consciousness yet?’

  ‘Yes, but he’s not making much sense I was talking to the ward sister earlier, and she told me that he just keeps repeating the same thing over and over again. It’s a funny word; now, what was it…?’ Mum frowned, thinking. ‘Oh, yes: “Tegenn”. Something like that, anyway.’

  Dad shook his head. ‘Never heard anything like it before.’

  ‘Nor me,’ Rose added.

  No one was looking at Lizzy. But she felt as if her insides had suddenly frozen up and locked solid. Tegenn…

  It was the name that her real parents had given her when she was bor
n under the sea.

  By the following morning Lizzy was so pent-up that she thought she might snap in half. She was desperate to find out more about the stranger in the hospital, but she couldn’t question Mum without making her suspicious. Besides, Mum had already told the family what little she knew and, to make matters worse, she wasn’t working today. Short of going to the hospital herself – which was out of the question, of course – there was nothing Lizzy could do.

  She spent the day roaming the beach and the coast path, hoping that she would see the dolphins. She ached to tell Arhans what was happening, and to ask her what had happened on the night of the rescue. She was frantic, too, for any news of Kes and Morvyr. But none of the dolphins appeared. And, even if they had, Lizzy reminded herself miserably, she hadn’t learned their speech yet and wouldn’t understand much of what they told her. Though the thought was almost more than she could bear, she would just have to wait until Mum went back to work and brought home more news.

  But, when news did come, it wasn’t Mum who brought it. Rose had been out with Paul all afternoon, and arrived home just after tea. It was Lizzy’s turn to wash the dishes; Dad was drying for her and they both looked up as Rose came into the kitchen.

  ‘Hi, slaves,’ said Rose cheerfully.

  ‘Cheek!’ Dad flipped the tea towel at her. ‘Have a nice afternoon?’

  ‘Yeah, cool. Oh, by the way, something really random, you know that guy –’

  Mum came in from the garden at that moment. ‘What guy?’ she asked curiously. ‘What’s all this?’

  Dad grinned. ‘We were just about to find out. Sounds to me like Rose has got herself two boyfriends, instead of just one!’

  ‘Oh, shut up, Dad!’ Rose snorted. ‘I’ve been round at Paul’s, and something really cool’s happened. The guy from the trawler, who’s in hospital – he isn’t French, he’s from round here, and Paul’s dad knows him!’

  Lizzy froze with the soapy sponge in one hand and a plate in the other. Her face was a study in shock, but Rose didn’t notice.