for land, and she hadn't seen any sign of an island anywhere near by. It was as if they were all, with the exception of Bryn, instinctively looking to Josh for reassurance.
'It does seem to be getting closer,' said Cassandra in a quavering voice. 'Is it going to overtake us?'
'We might get a bit wet,' Josh told her cheerfully, 'but once we get to that island we can sit it out.' He nodded at the iceboxes which contained their lunch. 'We've got food and drink, so we won't starve. We'll be fine.'
There was something incredibly reassuring about him, thought Bella. He wasn't the best-looking man on the boat, he certainly wasn't the best dresser, and he didn't have smart cars or the latest technology to flash around. But he was the one person you wanted with you in a situation like this. He was so calm, so solid, so safe. It was impossible to believe that he would let anything bad happen.
'You're doing a great job, Elvis,' he was encouraging the boy, who smiled nervously and tried to stop biting his lip and darting glances over his shoulder.
'Oh, yes, great!' said Bryn sarcastically. 'Personally, I'd save my compliments for someone who bothered to listen to the weather forecast! I'm going to have something to say to the hotel when we get back,' he huffed. 'The whole situation is outrageous. I shall demand my money back, and suggest that they use more professional people in future for any boat trips they organise.'
Elvis was looking stricken. As if he didn't have enough problems right now with a boatload of westerners and the mother of all storms rushing up behind him, he could obviously see his family's livelihood disappearing as well.
Bella glared at Bryn. 'If we get back, it'll be thanks to Elvis, not you,' she said clearly. Under cover of a smarter of hear-hears, she leant across to Bryn, who was sitting almost exactly opposite her. 'Now shut up about it,' she said through her teeth. 'He's just a boy, and he's scared.'
'He's not the only one!' said Cassandra.
They were all sitting tensely, leaning forward slightly as if to will the boat faster through the water. It was hard to believe that only a few minutes ago they had been talking and laughing and thinking about lunch. Now they waited in increasingly ominous silence for the storm to catch them.
When someone spotted an island in the distance, their spirits rose dramatically, but just as they were congratulating themselves on the narrowness of their escape, a tiny puff of wind lifted the oppressive heat.
Josh leapt for awning, as the puff was followed by another, and then another. 'Let's get this down!'
'But it's going to pour,' Bryn objected as the blackness loomed. 'We won't have any shelter.'
'If the wind catches this, it'll tip us over, and keeping dry will be the last of our problems,' said Josh.
Three of the other men had got up to help him untie the awning while Bryn sulked, but already those first delicate puffs of breeze had grown into a wind that was making the task more difficult. The canvas was flapping horribly, while the boat tilted in the choppy water and the men staggered on their feet as they wrestled with the knots. There were a few murmurs of distress, and Cassandra was not the only one looking suddenly white- faced.
Bella couldn't believe how suddenly the conditions had changed. One minute they had been puttering along in the flat calm and the next they were in the middle of a screaming gale. And the wind was just a foretaste of what was to come. Another second and the sun had been swallowed up by the boiling black clouds, and the rain hit them with the force of a ten-ton truck.
'Bella!' Josh had to bellow over the screaming wind and crashing rain. He had taken over the tiller from Elvis, who was frantically throwing water overboard with a ludicrously small plastic baler. 'Get everyone baling!'
Blinking through the water that streamed down her face, Bella gave Josh the thumbs up sign to show that she had understood.
How she was going to go about it was another matter. She looked around desperately before grabbing a mask from the muddle of snorkels and flippers and abandoned shoes which were already floating in the rainwater accumulating in the bottom of the boat and began baling. Not very effective, it had to be said, but it was better than nothing.
'I feel sick,' moaned Cassandra.
'Here.' Bella shoved the mask at her and groped around for another one. 'Help get rid of some of this water. You'll feel better if you've got something to do.'
Although what would
Aisling had seen what they were doing and was handing out masks on the other side. Even Bryn took one. Bella wasn't sure that was a good sign. Things must look really bad for him to come out of his sulk and follow Josh's advice.
Buffeted by waves on all sides and submerging under the deluge of water, the little boat seemed to be standing still in the water. It seemed a lifetime since they had stood on the sunny jetty that morning and pooh-poohed Josh's caution about life-jackets, a lifetime of bending and scooping and chucking the water from the bottom of the boat that filled up as quickly as they could try and empty it. The rain was relentless, hammering down on them while the wind shrieked and the sea surged, slopping waves over the side and tearing at her hair.
Bella's shoulders ached with baling, but she managed to get into a rhythm eventually which made it easier. What am I doing here? she wondered. I'm a city girl. I should be at my computer or in some bar, not stuck on a sinking boat in the middle of the Indian Ocean. I do text messages and buying shoes, not survival.
Someone near her was crying, but Bella couldn't see who it was and anyway, if she had to do survival, she was going to survive, and that meant keeping on baling rather than stopping to offer comfort. She felt oddly detached. The whole thing had happened so suddenly and was so overwhelming that it seemed vaguely surreal, but beneath her surface calm she was absolutely terrified.
Whenever fear threatened to become too much, she would fix her mind on Josh. She could hardly make him out through the lashing rain, but even an indistinct glimpse of his solid figure, holding onto the tiller with one hand and baling like everyone else with the other, was enough to reassure her. Josh was there and in control, and he wouldn't let anything happen to her.
It was like being trapped in a nightmare. Bella baled and baled and baled, and forgot what it was like to feel warm and dry and safe. She was in such a zombiefied state that a shout from Elvis barely penetrated her consciousness and it wasn't until Cassandra prodded her that she looked up to see the island.
After longing for the sight of land, it loomed terrifyingly close through the driving rain, The little boat was already perilously close to the rocks that fringed the island, but still they all cheered at the sight and redoubled their efforts to stop it sinking before they could reach the shore.
After some consultation with Elvis, Josh put on his shoes and made his way cautiously to the front of the boat.
'What are you doing?' Bella shouted over the sound of the wind and rain as he passed her.
'We can't risk running the boat onto the rocks or we might never get off again,' he shouted back. 'Elvis is going to get as close as he dares, and by then it should be shallow enough for me to get in and anchor it. I can pull the boat the rest of the way.'
'You're going to jump into the sea?' Bella was horrified. 'Josh, you can't! It's too dangerous.'
His hand rested briefly on her cheek. 'Don't worry, it'll be fine.'
Bella could hardly bear to watch as he disappeared overboard. The water was wild and the wind furious, tossing the boat around spitefully. How could he even stand, let alone manoeuvre them into the shore?
It was hard to see what was going on, but those at the front of the boat passed the message back down the line that Josh's feet had touched the bottom and that he was slowly but surely, dragging them through the rocks into the shore. The waves slapped him in the face and made him stagger, but when he was knee-deep he signalled to Elvis to cut the engine and drop the anchor.
They would all have to wade the rest of the way but they were so wet by that stage and so relieved to have reached land that no one objected, not even Bryn. Forming a chain, they passed the iceboxes, awning and various bags over their heads and then huddled together on the tiny beach.
If anything the storm seemed worse here, as if maddened by their attempt to escape its clutches. The palm trees bent almost to the ground before the force of the wind, which whipped their leaves savagely and tossed debris into the air, while the rain slashed down in a deafening torrent.
'Welcome to paradise!' Bella shouted above the tumult, and they all laughed rather hysterically.
Under the conditions, it was difficult to tell much about the island, but eventually it was decided to explore
