Aftermath

doing? They’re making a huge mistake.”
    “We could try talking to them again,” Kieran suggested. “Maybe now they’ve had time to think they’ll see things differently.”
    “I doubt it.”
    The two men remained looking over the battlements for a while longer. Eventually increasing noises from around the courtyard distracted Kieran.
    “I’m going to see what’s going on down there, okay?”
    “Okay,” Jas said.
    Suddenly alone, Jas leaned against the wall, then sank down to the floor. He held his head in his hands and tried to make sense of the whirlpool of emotions he was feeling. He thought about everything he’d gone through to get to this point—that first morning when he’d lost his family, the time he’d spent with the others at the flats and the circumstances under which they’d been forced to leave, their nightmare incarceration at the besieged hotel …
    It was the weeks he’d spent trapped in the hotel which still troubled him most. Just the thought of those dark, endless hours was enough to bring a tidal wave of uncomfortably familiar feelings of helplessness, panic, and dread crashing over him. He’d found it almost impossible to deal with the cruel finality of their imprisonment there—the fact there wasn’t a damn thing he could do to help himself—e prospect of being backed into a corner like that again now terrified him. And despite all the assurances he’d heard over and over, that was how this island seemed. He’d be giving up control if he went there. He’d be trapped unless he could persuade Richard Lawrence to fly him back or find someone who could sail a boat back to the mainland. And travel to and from the island was inevitably going to get harder with time, not easier.
    Cheetham Castle wasn’t perfect. It was an ill-equipped, uncomfortable place, but that didn’t matter. It was just a staging point—a stepping stone, a shelter where they could weather the final days of this tumultuous storm—and it had served its purpose adequately. It would soon be time to move on, but not yet. And definitely not to Cormansey.
    Without thinking, Jas slipped his hand into his inside pocket and pulled out the wallet he’d carried with him constantly since before his nightmare had begun. In it was the last remaining photograph of his family. It had become increasingly ragged and dog-eared over time, more so recently because he seemed to be looking at it more than ever. He gazed deep into the last image of his wife’s beautiful brown eyes—still sparkling and intense in spite of the wear to the picture—and then, as he did whenever he felt his options were reducing, he asked her what she thought he should do.
    Tell me, Harj … do I stay or do I go?

 
     
    29
     
    Short winter days and long nights conspired against all of them. In Chadwick, Cooper and the others spent much of the rest of the day collecting additional supplies, mindful that more than ever, they needed to maximize the usefulness of their time on the mainland. Taking more people back would inevitably reduce the space they had available, but at the same time, the potential increase to the size of Cormansey’s population also meant they needed to take as much as possible. They unpacked and repacked the boats, discarding anything unnecessary and loading the bulk of the supplies onto the Summer Breeze , the slightly smaller of the two. Both of the boats could carry ten people each, maybe more at a push. Working on the assumption that Jas and his inner circle wouldn’t be leaving with them, and with four spare seats in the helicopter, they worked out that they should easily be able to fit all their passengers and their belongings on board the Duchess .
    They spent their third night on the mainland on the luxury cruiser again, as comfortable as before but, strangely, more subdued. Maybe the people back at the castle hadn’t shared their enthusiasm for island life? Donna was surprised. She thought a few of them would have turned up by now, at least.
    “They’ll be here,” Cooper said, seeming to read her thoughts. “You know what it’s like when you’re leaving somewhere,” he half joked. “There’s always more to sort out than you expect.”
    She smiled.
    “I know,” she said. “I just want to get going, that’s all. I want to go home.”
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    At the castle, Driver had moved his tired old bus for the first time in weeks. He drove it out into the center of the courtyard