The Shiver Stone (15 page)

The sun was setting in a sky of great pink and red streaks that turned the trees to silhouettes.

And there, against the scarlet, stood the massive stone. Beside it, sitting on the cliff edge was Emma Carr. In her arms she cradled Tia.

I drew a sharp breath and barred Tristan with my arm. ‘If she sees you…' I whispered. He understood and drew back into the trees.

I moved as silently as I could. I knew I had to get her attention without frightening her. If she dropped Tia…

As I grew closer, I could hear that she was singing a sad song. She was rocking Tia like a baby and, thankfully, Tia seemed to be enjoying it.

Whether I stepped on a twig, or whether Tia smelled my scent, I don't know. But her ears suddenly pricked up and she struggled upright.

Emma tightened her grip on the little dog and turned to face me.

I felt my throat tighten with fear and my heart beat like never before. I smiled. ‘I don't believe it,' I said, ‘you've found her again.'

It was never going to work and it didn't.

‘Get away from me.'

To my horror I saw that she was struggling to stand up, still holding on to Tia. She was so close to the edge that the movement loosened several stones and they rattled over the top and disappeared from view.

‘I'm sorry about your pony, Emma.' I kept walking very, very slowly towards her.

She looked startled. ‘What do you know about White Cloud?'

‘I … I … know he died.'

‘How do you know?'

I wasn't sure how to answer her; if I told her Kemble was here it would make things worse.

I tried a different tack. ‘You don't want to hurt Tia. She's never harmed anyone. It's not her fault White Cloud died.' I could hear the tremble in my voice.

Emma was still very, very close to the edge of the cliff. Tia was making little whimpering sounds, wriggling to get to me.

Emma began to cry. ‘You don't know what it was like. White Cloud was everything to me. They killed him. They terrified him with their fireworks and he bolted. I was in a coma for weeks and, when I came around, my father told me he was dead. That his legs were so badly broken and he was in so much pain they had to shoot him – my beautiful White Cloud.'

She was sobbing hysterically now and I was crying too. But all the time I'd inched closer and closer.

From the corner of my eye I saw Jago, Kemble and Tristan moving like ghosts in the gloom of the trees as they closed in on us.

A lone seagull screeched. The sea crashed its waves onto the rocks far below.

‘Please let me take Tia, Emma. Please let me have her.' I held out my arms.

She backed away from me until she was teetering on the very edge. She clutched Tia tightly to her chest.

I leaned my hand against the Shiver Stone, trying to draw courage from its magic. I was distracted for only an instant, but in that instant it happened.

Tia fought for her freedom and she fell.

Life went into slow motion as I saw her tumble from Emma's arms and disappear over the cliff.

The scream that echoed in my head was my own as I ran and leapt and dived off after her.

Down and down and the wind rushed hard and loud and down and down, the world a blur until the hit. An icy shock of dark green sea and the scrape and sting of bottom rocks and up and up again.

I surfaced, gasping, struggling for air. The swell was strong and the waves lifted me and forced me towards the cliff base. I searched desperately for Tia and, at last, several metres away, I spotted her tiny head, no bigger than a slick, black tennis ball.

Her eyes were wild with fear, the whites shining like marbles. Eight strong strokes and I was beside her. In her terror she tried to climb onto my head and I struggled to hold her.

Swimming with only one arm, grasping Tia with the other, I made for the rocks. The tide was full in and I knew I didn't have the strength to battle the sea for any distance; especially around the headland where the currant made swimming treacherous.

My saturated clothes dragged at my body, but I managed on the third try to haul us out onto the rocks. I collapsed full length, panting with exhaustion. Tia, looking bedraggled and tinier than ever, shivered with shock and cold. I held her close trying to warm her little body with my own. But I had no heat to offer her and we shook, huddled together, as the waves bashed the rocks around us.

My stomach was stinging and lifting my t-shirt I saw the criss-cross streaks of blood. I'd dived so deeply I'd grazed myself on the rocks at the bottom.

I was scared and tired and sore and not sure what to do next. I'd saved Tia from the water but how could I get us back home? We were cut off by the sea and there was no way I could climb back up the full height of steep cliff face to the Shiver Stone.

As I stared up, I saw several people looking down at me. They seemed like shadows in the growing darkness, but the shouts were real enough. They were pointing out to sea and, with a thrill of relief, I saw the bright orange blob of the Tenby inshore lifeboat.

Over the crash and splash of sea I heard the engine throb. It sounded beautiful.

I was worried about Tia – she'd stopped shivering and was limp in my arms. I cuddled her tight, rubbing her tiny body to keep her warm.

‘They're coming, Tia. We'll be okay, girl. Don't give up now, please.'

Every second of that wait seemed like forever. But, at last, the boat and the three yellow-clad men were in clear view. I could hear cheers and shouts coming from the cliff top high above me.

They expertly manoeuvered the lifeboat into the gulley between the boulders and, as it bobbed and bucked on the swell of the tide, hauled us aboard.

‘Here, my darling,' one man said, ‘let's put this around you.' I felt the warmth of the blanket and quickly wrapped Tia in its folds, holding her close and trying to breathe warm air onto her face.

With a clatter the engine roared into life again and we headed away from the cliff.

‘Aren't you Dai Thomas's daughter?' one of them said. I nodded, my teeth chattering with cold. It was Becca's Uncle Bryce.

‘Tia,' I breathed, ‘Tia.' I tried to feel for her heartbeat but my hands were numb with cold.

‘She just dived off the Shiver Stone after that little dog,' one of the men said.

There was a gasp of admiration in the boat.

Another shook his head sadly and whispered to his friend, ‘All for nothing by the look of it. The dog's in a bad way. '

‘No,' I shouted. ‘No! Tia, Tia.' I hugged her tiny body in panic and water dribbled from her mouth.

As I held her to me, her eyelids fluttered and a tiny pink tongue came out and licked my nose.

‘Well, I'll be…' said the lifeboat man. He turned away, but not before I saw the tears in his eyes.

Tenby harbour grew closer and closer. I saw a group of people had gathered to welcome us in. They were clapping and cheering. Dad burst forward, splashing through the water, and to my total embarrassment, lifted me, still cradling Tia, off the boat.

There was a vet for Tia and a waiting ambulance for me. I kicked up such a fuss when they tried to take her from me that they allowed Tia and the vet to travel to the hospital with Dad and me. It was a short drive, but by the time we got there, Tia had perked up big time.

As soon as I warmed up I was fine. The doctor, and it was Dr Dylan again, made a fuss about the grazes on my stomach, but after he'd treated them, he gave in and let me go home.

Tristan had agreed that Tia should stay with me that night. He'd pick her up the next day.

‘To hell with Mrs Jenkins,' Dad said, as he tucked Tia and me up in bed together.

CHAPTER

16

We had a lot of visitors the next day, but when Linette told me who was first in line it was a bit of a shock.

‘Emma Carr?' she said. Her eyebrows shot up so high they nearly disappeared into her red hair.

‘I think it's a good idea,' Dad said. ‘Kemble will be with her. That's if you want to see her, Carys?'

I did. There was something I needed to ask.

When she arrived, Jago, Tia and I were tucking into Dad's beans and cheese on toast.

She came in looking terrified, small and very, very pale.

‘I don't know what to say. Sorry isn't anywhere near enough. When I saw you dive off I … I thought I'd killed you … and Tia.' She burst into violent sobbing.

Kemble gradually calmed her down but she was in no state to carry on and, after she gave me an awkward hug, they left.

‘She's going back to his clinic in Bristol with him,' Dad said. ‘She'll get the help she needs. Tristan doesn't want to bring any charges – she pulled Jago out of the sea, after all.'

When Dad went indoors, Jago muttered, ‘You pushed me in.'

‘Oh, give it a rest, will you.'

After Emma Carr had left, I realised I hadn't asked my question. ‘Were you going to throw Tia off that cliff?' Then I thought, maybe she doesn't know herself.

Throughout that day, in bits and pieces, I found out what happened at the Shiver Stone when I did my crazy dive.

Kemble held it together enough to grab Emma back from the edge. She was hysterical and screaming. He thought it was a real possibility that she would leap off herself.

Tristan and Jago were terrified to look over, expecting to see my mangled body floating on the waves.

‘He was crying,' Tristan said, nodding at his son.

‘Was not,' Jago said quickly.

It was Dad who called the Tenby lifeboat out – he saw it all. Just after we left the flat, in our frantic rush to get to the Shiver Stone, Dad arrived back from his search for Tia.

‘I told him what was happening and he raced off like a crazy man,' Linette said. ‘He said he came out of the trees just in time to see you disappear over the cliff. Kemble, Tristan and Jago had a real fight on their hands to stop him diving after you.'

Dad was still very quiet, upset by the whole thing. I tried to cheer him up.

‘You're just mad because I've beaten your record by diving off the Shiver Stone when I'm twelve, not thirteen.'

‘I thought I'd lost you, Carys,' Dad said. ‘I can't laugh about this – not yet anyway.'

But when Linette pointed out that Tia had beaten us both, because she wasn't even two yet, we did get a smile.

‘I think he'd like to ground you for a year,' Linette said, ‘but I told him having Carys around all day, every day? That's a harsh punishment for us!'

Hug arrived with a whole box full of Hug's Happy Honey. She insisted on apologising all over again.

‘You see he…' She gave Tristan a friendly pat on the back, which launched him forward with a jolt and spilt his coffee. ‘…he may not be the bravest of the bunch but he is a good man.'

I think this was for Jago's benefit.

‘He did send flowers while you were in hospital, and got me to ring ten times a day,' she boomed at Polly.

Tristan said, ‘I went to visit you too, but chickened out at the last minute. I knew you must already be angry with me.'

‘I am,' Polly said.

Another thing I found out was that it wasn't Emma trying to break in to steal Tia from the shed that night. It was Linette, checking to make sure that I was there and that I was all right.

It was two days later and we were squished together on our balcony – me, Dad, Linette, and Jago, Polly, Tristan and Tia. Not a world full of Mrs Jenkinses could make us shut Tia in the shed again. Anyway, when she'd heard the story, and everyone in Carreg had heard at least one version of the story, Mrs Jenkins apologised. She even bought biscuits for Tia. So I told her I was sorry for calling her an old bat.

Tristan looked awkward, shy. ‘I'm moving back to Bristol to be nearer Jago. I've got a load of commissions since your video of me was shown on TV so I'll need a bigger studio too.'