She looked up at the stars; how odd that mariners had needed these tiny specks of light to find their way. Marina closed her eyes and felt that she could just as easily follow that strange, tugging feeling of the currents beneath the waves. But where would they take her?
Perhaps to her mother’s country, wherever that unknown place might be.
She turned her head to catch a sound. What was it? It was coming from behind the lifeboat. A sob. A sniff. Someone cleared their throat.
It is almost impossible to stand where you are and listen to someone struggle with unhappiness, and so Marina went towards the noise.
‘Hello?’ she said, before stepping behind the lifeboat. ‘Don’t be alarmed.’ It is also hard to intrude on someone else’s unhappiness. ‘Do you need anything? A glass of water? I could fetch you something to eat?’
A second’s silence and then a voice replied, ‘No need.’
‘Do you feel unwell?’
‘No, I’m quite well.’ Another sniff.
‘Are you sure?’
Jones was bent over the side of the boat. He turned away, embarrassed.
‘I’m sorry,’ Marina said. ‘It’s just that I heard you.’
‘What are you doing, creeping around on deck after it’s time to be in your bed? Listening to people? It’s not right!’ He sounded defiant, but his voice broke at the end and he hunched his shoulders, trying to stifle another sob. ‘Oh, I never thought it would be like this,’ he whispered to himself. ‘I thought I would be so happy at sea . . .’
Marina gave him a few moments to get control of himself. A final sniff and he turned to her, blinking.
‘I’m fine now,’ he said, attempting a smile. ‘It’s my first trip away from home, see. My first time at sea. I’ve never been further than Merthyr Tydfil before . . . That’s in Wales,’ he added, as he saw Marina’s confusion. And then he laughed at himself. ‘Do you miss home?’
‘Oh, no!’
‘I suppose it helps that your mother’s not around.’
‘How would you know that?’
‘Brown said you’ve no mother.’
‘She left us . . .’
‘Left you? Where did she go? Oh!’ He put his hand to his mouth. ‘You mean she . . .’
‘My father said she went home . . .’ Marina explained. ‘She was very ill and the London air was not good for her.’
He nodded as if he understood. ‘It’s just that my mam died last year.’ He sniffed again and turned away. ‘Sometimes I forget that she’s died. And the day seems normal. And then I remember that I’ll never see her again, and the sadness and the missing her just comes over me. Like a wave.’
‘I was very young when my mother left.’
‘So you don’t miss her?’
‘I don’t know. Perhaps. I can’t remember very much about her, you see, so I don’t know if I can miss what I can’t remember.’
‘I get worried that I’m forgetting things about my mam. Since I got on the Sea Witch, I can’t remember her voice. I’d always been able to hear her before. The way she said “Owen” when I came in the house. It was such a kind voice. Everything she said to me just made me feel loved. But now I can’t hear her. I can’t catch her tone. Oh, I wish I hadn’t left home,’ he whispered.
‘I’ve never heard my mother’s voice,’ Marina said, looking out at the sea. ‘She couldn’t speak, you see.’
Jones looked as if he were trying to smile. ‘I wonder what she’d say to you if she saw you now. Dressed in those oilskins.’
‘I think she’d say I looked quite wonderful.’ Marina laughed.
What would Edward think of Jones, she thought? Would he think the boy would make a good friend? But already Edward seemed a person from another time, or a character out of a book. Not quite real.
‘We should get some sleep. You don’t want to catch cold,’ Jones said, but he was the one shivering, not Marina. She could have stayed on deck all night.
Blowing on his hands, Jones moved away. Marina took one last look at the waves. They seemed so solid, so impenetrable, as if she only had to step on to the water and she could walk wherever she wanted. But where would that be? Where would she go if she had the freedom of the oceans?
Male voices drifted towards them. The speakers came closer, until they stood on the other side of the lifeboat. It felt awkward to climb out from their hiding place now, so Marina and Jones agreed with an exchanged glance to stay where they were.
‘Who is this Trenchard, anyway?’ they heard Perkins ask.
‘Seemed to get his orders last minute,’ Brown replied.
‘I don’t like the look of him. He’s surly. Gives you a look as if he’d rather spit on you.’
‘He’s a good worker, though. So what if he doesn’t say much?’
‘But what’s he thinking?’ Perkins asked.
‘Leave him be. You’ll never know what any man is thinking. And it’s probably best you don’t.’
‘I still don’t like it, Brown. We’re in an old fishing boat fitted with the engine of a gunboat. We’re going north when there’s a war about to break out. And to that cursed island. We thought we’d never get off it the last time we was there. I’ve got a funny feeling about this mission.’
‘Well, you can keep your funny feelings to yourself and get on with your work. The Commander knows what he’s doing, and that’s good enough for me.’
‘But what is he doing?’
‘There’s some signals equipment – a sonar transmitter or something – that’s been left up on Pechorin Island. Needs mending before the war starts. That’s what I heard the Commander tell Finchin.’
‘That blasted island. That’s where I nearly lost my finger from frostbite. That winter was
