Free Wreckers Island (romantic suspense) by L K Harcourt

over
to the shore and buy some powerful torches and loads more batteries, and
anything else we need, then how about we go out for a celebration at the pub in
Porthlevnack? There’s a wonderful old inn where smugglers and wreckers used to
gather – and as we’ve just discovered treasure from a shipwreck, I think it
would be the perfect place to celebrate.
    ‘There’s no need to go back down the tunnel
this evening, is there?’
    ‘No,’ said John, looking at the sun in the
western sky. ‘In fact, if we are going ashore to get some better torches, which
is a good idea, I would sooner we did leave it until tomorrow. I don’t fancy
heading below ground with the light fading – even though it will be dark down
there anyway.’
    The others agreed. It was somehow important
to feel that it was bright daylight outside before revisiting an old, musty
undersea tunnel.
    ‘The only thing is, I’m not sure if I can
afford to go out for a restaurant meal or anything,’ said Emma, nervously.
    ‘Emma, don’t be daft – we can all afford it
now, can’t we Dan? Surely that treasure belongs to us as the finders?’ said
Louise.
    ‘Yes,’ he said, ‘at least half of it should.
We can certainly afford the finest food and drink the village has to offer – as
a deserved celebration, I would say. We’ll have to put it on the Visa card for
now of course!’
    ‘What about lights on the boat if it’s dark
when we come back?’ enquired Emma.
    ‘We’ll use the torches we’re about to buy,’
pointed out Louise. ‘They don’t have to be red and green for port and
starboard, not on a little boat like this and we’re not going far.’
    ‘So to put it another way, Emma, stop
worrying!’ said Dan. ‘You’ll not only be able to afford a very good meal
tonight, but you’ll be able to finish the rest of your course without ever
having to worry about money again. This will transform your life.’
    Dan looked at Emma with the tenderness which
comes from genuine affection, and to his delight it was reciprocated. Emma
flung her arms round him and hugged him tight.
    ‘It’s thanks to you, you’re wonderful Dan.
Thank you so much.’
    ‘Hey give Louise some credit too,’ said
John, grinning, ‘it’s thanks to her that we’re here in the first place.’
    ‘That’s quite true,’ conceded Emma. ‘But none
of us would have had a clue about that treasure without Dan’s hard work.’
    ‘Quite so,’ said Louise, ‘I totally agree
with you. Dan’s an absolute hero. Thanks to him we’re rich, rich, yippee!’ she
shouted in delight, jumping from rock to rock.
    ‘Louise, calm down, sounds carry easily over
water,’ cautioned John.
    Dan looked across the now tranquil sea. ‘It’s
wonderful, incredible news, but please let us not forget that this bay is the
graveyard of those sailors who drowned – to whom we owe our good fortune.’
    His soft, grey eyes were fixed on the watery
depths and he did not notice the way Emma winced at Louise’s ebullient
rejoicing, nor the glance of admiration and appreciation she reserved for him.
     

Chapter VIII
     
    The four of them went to their bedrooms in the lighthouse to
get changed – they had got dusty and mucky that day, clambering into cellars,
outbuildings, tunnels, caves and crevices. Not a bad achievement considering
the weather had been too bad to allow them off their tiny island.
    As the girls applied make-up and dug out
reasonably smart clothing to wear, in the bedroom the other side of the staircase,
John and Dan were sprawled out on their mattresses.
    ‘Oh mate, what a day, what a blooming day.
If I had read an account of what we have done in one of your many books I
wouldn’t have believed it,’ declared John with a shake of his head. ‘You are
one amazing swot to be able to translate that stuff in the first place. I would
have fallen at the first hurdle.’
    ‘Not really,’ replied Dan, modestly. ‘If it
had been in French, any of us could have done it. You ought