Chapter 14: Wiped

"The south shore," I said.

Duncan nodded.

The south shore was the pups' swimming beach. The elders' cottages. The meadow where we held the summer games.

The path where my heat had folded me in half.

"When did you sign it?"

He didn't answer.

"When, Duncan?"

"The Wednesday."

"The day I was at Coldwater."

"Yes."

"And on the Thursday you stood up at breakfast and swore only my pups would be your heirs."

"I meant it."

"You'd already sold the shore for hers."

Behind me, the quay had gone so quiet I could hear the lorry's engine ticking.

Duncan's hand was still pressed to his ribs. His knuckles were white.

"Come back with me," he said. "Tell the elders yourself. They'll listen to you. They never listen to me."

"No. You tell them. Tonight, before Clive does. Every word of it."

"Mischa."

"Go home, Duncan."

He stood at the gate a moment longer.

Then he got back in the Range Rover and reversed all the way up the hill, because there was nowhere at the top to turn round.

It took him four goes.

Nobody on the quay laughed out loud. It was a near thing.

Jago lived in the last cottage at the top of the cove, with a blue door and a crooked chimney.

I'd never been inside.

That evening he knocked on the cellar door and said, "You've not eaten anything but that pasty. Come and be fed."

"Can you cook?"

"Define cook."

His kitchen was small and clean, with a table by the window and a dog bed with no dog in it.

He grilled two mackerel and set fire to one of them.

"That one's mine," he said, flapping a tea towel at the smoke alarm.

"You do this a lot?"

"I live on my aunt's chips. Cooking's for show-offs."

I ate the good fish. He ate the burnt one and pretended it was meant to be like that.

Then I rang the old Luna and put her on speaker in the middle of the table.

She answered on the second ring.

Keep reading free with an account. Start The Eclipsed Life of Luna Mischa from Chapter 1, then sign up free to read the rest of this chapter.