It was a bit of a rushed day, but we got the nature reserves in, complete with a sighting of a kingfisher. An Island tour was completed by car, with just a few tick-box moments, such as a ride on the Alum Bay chairlift and a stop at the top of St Catherine’s Down. Rita was bouncing about happily, and her English was just about good enough to ask how big the Island was. That, oddly, was something I knew, thanks to a friend who had cycled the thing for his 50th birthday.

“There is a cycle route all the way round the edge, and it is a little over one hundred kilometres long”

Rita looked towards the stack of DVDs as the film ended, and it was clear that she wanted to watch the next one, but the clock was most definitely against her. Pablo spoke softly to her, and she simply nodded, before rising and coming round to face us both. A hug and a kiss for her father, the same for me, and she was off to bed, while I was still settled against him, afraid of breaking the spell. As the hall door closed, he almost whispered my name.

I found my arm moving under its own steam, and it slipped around his waist to return the hug.

“I am so glad. She looks happy, my friend”

“Caroline, I think she is. She was very unhealthy in the hospital, very sick. The surgeon… I nearly had no daughter, so now I must treasure her, treasure each day. Now, I think, with the cold weather here, she should choose a hat, one with many colours. Please, while I see to my girl”

His arm had stayed over my shoulders, and as he pulled away, his other hand squeezed my own as it sat on his waist, and then he pulled away and started the serious business of hat selection. Priorities, indeed. Once we had sorted her headwear, I led them back to the bus station, pointing out the railway station across the road for their future trips to London.

“Caroline?”

“Yes, Nicole?”

“The children have gone for more drinks. How do you feel?”

“Shattered! Er, very tired”

“He is a handsome man, no?”

“Um, I suppose so, yes”

“Please be careful. This meal tonight, it was a generous thing, but do not dream too much. He has the puces, the cards for the pictures. Take time before another meeting, yes?”

I was late for breakfast, so missed my friends. A quick inquiry at reception and they sent an e-mail to the address Yves had given me; I wondered if it was purely external links, outside Cuba, that were unreliable. Never mind; when I returned from my day face-down in the sea, I had a reply, and an appointment the next morning, which gave me the excuse I needed for an early night, just as Nicole was sorting her footwear out. By early night, I mean some more beer in the other venue, where a soprano of rather more than decent quality was working her way through some opera standards.

“Arse, bollocks, shit and cack!”

Jen wanted to throw the laptop out of the window at that point. Whichever site she tried, it was the same answer. She had even resorted to the two last resorts of Google Maps and the Good Beer Guide, but they all returned the same answer: no room at the inn.

CHAPTER 20
As we made our way through the traffic for the road back to the hills, Dad was chatting over his shoulder, eyes still on the road.

“So how was it then? Steph stay sane?”

Alys looked sharply at me, so I let her answer.

“Did you know who else was going to be there, Mr Hiatt?”

He nodded, still without turning.

“You mean her friend Annie, don’t you?”

“Yes. And no, not really. The girl. Shan”

CHAPTER 18
What could I do but hold her? Eventually, she slipped off, well before I did, which was probably because I was so worried. I managed some sleep, Alys warm beside me, and it wasn’t until I saw and felt the warmth of sunlight through the tent that I realised I had actually slept for more than a few minutes. It was indeed sunny, the rain having ceased in the night, and it was surprisingly warm; when I struggled out for an urgent toilet run, some of the tents around us were actually steaming as they dried.

CHAPTER 17
I couldn’t help giggling at her swearing, remembering Steph’s use of the same word, as well as its eruption from my own lips. I looked out over Annie’s shoulder, and yes, it was raining again.

“Annie?”

“Aye?”

“Practice session, you said. What do you mean?”

“Oh, something Steph says hooked her first time she came here. There’s a big session on the last night, aye? The festival, or people who work with them, they do a tune book, and organise some confidence-builders. Helps include people who might feel a little nervous, and the first one is at four. What do you play?”

WESTERN WAYS 3
Jim’s third stripe had only come through a fortnight before, but that stripe was all the runner needed to see.

“Boss says he’s going to throw the towel in, Sarge. Stand ready to disable weapons and break cover, but at his command only”

Dinger Bell was the first to speak, as always.

“Fucking Nora, why?”

The runner shrugged.

“Sent a few lads out on a shufty, and they say the Krauts have got round the back of us with some of their armoured cars. No way round them. Pass it on, Sarge; I’ve got to go”

CHAPTER 16
“Got everything? Last chance!”

Dad was shutting the car’s boot as he spoke, so I just nodded and joined Alys in the back seat, her bag already in the back along with our sleeping bags. Dad slipped into the front passenger seat, clicking on his seat belt before turning to us as Mam pulled away.

CHAPTER 1

The weather had stayed dry for a few days, so Natasha didn’t have to worry quite so much about the dry cough Jim had developed. They had managed to find a few shrivelled roots in one of the burnt-out farm sheds they had passed three days ago, and there was still a little remnant of the black bread and sausage the four Soviet soldiers on horseback had given them the day before that.

CHAPTER 13
In the end, we had it at ours, because it was closer to the Bunkhouse, and there was a club booked in for the whole week and a bit of the holidays. It meant a little bit extra work for us, but the group did their own decorations, and actually did quite a decent clean-up job afterwards, although they could have done a better effort at separating the recycling. The thought was there, though.

The run-up to the holiday itself was fun, in its own way. The Woodruffs were down for a few days, which meant a mass visit to the folk club, and for once they chose to stay at the Bunkhouse rather than camp. I collared Steph about that choice, and she grinned.

CHAPTER 11
That holiday finally came to an end, after a few trips out in the car to see what Mr Edwards called his ‘Specials’, which were a trio of castles ranging from a really picturesque coastal ruin via a huge, square and intact monster of a place to the real destination, a tiny little thing perched on an outcrop on the island with the tidal road, where Alys and I roamed the dunes on the north coast as huge white birds plunged into the sea, wings folded back, and she photographed every flower she couldn’t name. Once again, I was content in her presence, not needing anything more from my life in those moments, but she was keen to talk in between each little burst of nature-naming.

“What are you doing when we get back, Enfys?”

“Helping Dad out till school starts again. It’s what I would be doing if I wasn’t here”

“And school?”

CHAPTER 10
We spent a boring time indeed on the M6 as far as Carlisle, and Alys and I ended up falling asleep together in the back seat. I woke up with a mouthful of her hair, which was even further from that Mills and Boon idea than ever. Joy.

Yes, actually: joy. Perhaps not the shouting and grinning sort, but a deep warmth that I felt in my bones. Breathing the same air, next to her, that was enough, even if it meant inhaling her hair.

We’d got it down to a fine art by then, even though it had to involve the Youth Hostel Association and two of their nicest buildings. Once Keith had finished work on the Friday, the Little Kat was loaded with tank bag and throwovers and once I had managed to settle my bum onto what passed for a pillion on a Suzuki GS550 Katana, I could let the shoulder straps out on the frame rucksack I was wearing, so that it sat on the tailpiece of the bike and I could actually straighten out my neck.

CHAPTER 8
School was ‘back to normal’ on Monday, and more of a crash landing than a bumpy one. The time with Alys had been more than I had dreamt could happen, and the Woodruffs had taken my climbing to similarly exotic heights, but it was now back to the mundane, apart from one important exception: I had my school subjects to select.

CHAPTER 6
Alys was back at the school gates on the Wednesday morning, looking apprehensive as she spotted me. I locked my bike up carefully before walking across to her.

“What’s up?”

She did her usual trick of looking around for attentive ears, then shook her head.

“Nothing really. I mean nothing now. Sort of”

“Is it what I said the other night?”

CHAPTER 4
It was one of two funny days we had in our pattern of lessons, where two hours of the afternoon were allocated to ‘special’ projects’, alternating week by week. The previous week had been set aside for the school orchestra, so I had spent it partly in trying to get a tune out of a harp, and partly trying to get the harp into tune. That afternoon’s ‘special’ was my alternate one, climbing. How could anyone live surrounded by rock, and not feel even the slightest of urges to try their hand on steeper ground?

CHAPTER 2
I hadn’t always lived in the rain, though. Mam and Dad were originally from Luton, of all places, and Dad was particularly scathing about the place.

“Enfys, love, if any god ever wanted to give this world an enema, that place is where he would stick the tube. Absolute shithole, it is. Only good thing about it is the M1 northbound slip road”

CHAPTER 106
We pulled off the motorway at last, the minibus feeling heavy as I started to handle bends rather than sweeping curves, turning right at a roundabout and then past the airport. There were three more roundabouts, and then a turning into a field by a tiny little river, tents scattered over the grass. I stepped out to stretch my back, Frank’s hands on my shoulders to massage the tension away, and the younger girls went looking for someone to talk to as Alun parked his own car and started dragging out his and Alicia’s kit.

CHAPTER 104
I spent the next few days in a mess of indecision. I was going to be married, it seemed, and I had no real idea of how that had happened beyond finding myself caught up in the news from England, about Diane’s friend and her own wedding.

Was it the right thing to do? Did I really want it for myself, or was I ticking boxes for Frank’s sake? What about the House, and the girls? I ended up doing what I normally did, and ran the whole thing past Rosie while sitting in that welcoming pub near Cowbridge.

CHAPTER 102
As the weeks dragged by in their usual seasonal misery, I found my worry about Diane’s resilience increasing steadily. She called me at home one evening, suggesting a meal out, and it took the verbal equivalent of a kick up her backside before she mentioned Frank.

We sparred a little, and in the end agreed that if it was just going to be her and her little boy, we could meet up at an Italian place near hers. I just knew that it would mean a grilling, so my devious mind pulled a favour from Charlie.