Chapter Fifteen

"So that the monotonous fall of the waves on the beach, which for the most part beat a measured and soothing tattoo to her thoughts, seemed consolingly to repeat over and over again."

Virginia Woolf

My memory of the rest of that impossible night is vague, just flashes of the night sky, the relentless swish and battering of waves and the constant pressure beneath me. I drifted in and out of consciousness, succumbing to fatigue, my mind snatching precious minutes of sleep. 

The dolphin eventually relinquished my body and allowed the tide to carry me to shore. In a daze, I believed I tried to spy my saviour in the dark. A raspy ‘thank you’ crawled from my lips and whispered across the hushing waves. I lay in the shallows half aware I was now ashore. The wet sand beneath me felt strange, the solid foundation of land warring with the phantom sensation of the moving sea still undulating below me. Utterly spent, I coasted into unconsciousness, a dreamless dark blankness of exhaustion of mind and body. 

The gentle shushing of waves woke me gently. Had I fallen asleep on the beach? I still felt very tired. I licked my cracked lips. I needed a drink. My face stung. I’d gotten sunburnt, foolish of me to fall asleep in this heat. I drifted out of consciousness again.

The shrill shrieks of cruising seagulls roused me suddenly. I jerked half awake. My head pounded, fiery aches resounding around my skull. I peeled open one eye, the other felt heavy and swollen. Bright light seared my pupil and I hastily squeezed my eye shut. My shoulders and calves burned, my face throbbed and I could feel the sand crusted on my skin. I tried to swallow but my mouth and throat were ash. Moving was impossible. Faraway muffled voices floated over to me, garbled, intelligible words.

“Jenny!”
Gabriel, I thought, though his voice sounded like I was submerged in water.
“Jenny!”
Hurried, sinking footfalls approached then a spray of sand rained over me. Someone dropped to their knees. I felt a gentle pressure at my throat.
“She’s alive!” Gabriel shouted. “Call an ambulance!”
I felt his hands skim over my arms, abdomen and legs. Hair was smoothed off my face, a thumb caressed my cheek.
“Jenny,” Gabriel said so softly. “Jenny, can you hear me?”
I remembered now, George forcing me into the car, tying me up in the shack and then dragging me into the dinghy.
“Jenny?”
Hearing his voice, the concern and comfort within it, a sob wracked through me. It erupted in a dry, hacking cough. Gabriel cradled my shoulders, raising me a little.
“Easy,” he soothed. “You’re OK, you’re safe.”
He pressed his lips to my forehead.
“I thought I was too late,” he swallowed, resting his head gently against mine.
I breathed in his scent, the most delicious narcotic and wanted to sink into the comforting warmth of his body. 

Gabriel lifted me carefully into his arms, nestling my head beneath his chin and carried me away. This time I fell swiftly and deeply into oblivion. I have no recollection of being handed over to paramedics and sped away in an ambulance, no recollection of the drip being inserted into my arm. But I remember the warmth of a hand in mine, the brush of calloused skin and repeatedly squeezing my fingers. 

It was early evening when I woke again, laying propped up in a hospital bed, the drip still trickling into my vein. Most of my pain had disappeared but my joints felt stiff and a lethargy still hung over me. I had a private room, a white, clinical affair with its own adjoining bathroom. I smelt the familiar disinfectant and stale odour that always repelled me in hospitals. Nausea swirled in my stomach so I was grateful for an open window and the delicate breeze skipping over me. 

Gabriel was dozing in a chair next to the bed, his head leaning to one side, but his hand still clasped mine. The rush of warmth and feeling in my chest could not be denied. I wanted to reach out and touch him, feel his skin, curl my fingers in his hair. I flexed my fingers in his grasp and he stirred immediately and turned. Sleep vanished from his eyes in an instant. He straightened and smiled at me.

“Hey there.” He lifted my hand to his lips and kissed it. “How do you feel?”
“Like a zombie,” I wheezed.
A flicker of a smile on his face.
“Can I have some water?” I croaked.
“Of course.”
He poured me a cup from a jug on the bedside table and held it to my lips. I drank slowly though I had the thirst of a hundred deserts. I gingerly touched my face and felt the puffiness of my swollen lip, cheek and eye.
“I must look like a hideous troll,” I lisped.
Gabriel shook his head, not a hint of amusement in his expression.
“Do I have a black eye?”
He nodded.
“A real shiner?”
He nodded again, his jaw clenching.
“Do Sofia and Luca…”
“Yes,” he interrupted. “They’re in the waiting room outside. We’ve been taking turns to sit with you. Do you want me to fetch them?”
He was half out of the chair.
“Soon, not yet.”
He sat back down.
“Do you remember what happened?” he asked, tentatively.
“Yes, all of it,” I replied. “It was George.”
“Yes, we guessed,” Gabriel growled.
“We?”
“Me and Inspetorre Giannetti.”
“Has he been arrested?”
“No, but they’re looking for him. But don’t worry about him, you need to rest.”
I drank more water and looked searchingly at him.
“How did you find me?”
He held my gaze for a moment.
“Well, I’d been searching the whole island for you, all the places Sofia said you had been in the chance you could have gone there. The bay was the last place I went to and there you were, laying on the beach.”
“The bay? Your bay?”
“Yes.”
“The dolphin took me there?”
“What?”
I explained to him how the dolphin had come to my rescue, after my escape from George. He stared incredulously at me, speechless.
“I don’t know what would have happened to me without its help,” I said, terrified at the thought of the different outcome to my predicament.
“That’s incredible,” he breathed.

The door opened and Sofia poked her head in. She exclaimed when she saw me awake. She rushed to the bed, tears already standing in her eyes. She threw her arms around me.
“Don’t ever scare me like that again,” she demanded, squeezing the air from my lungs.
Gabriel fetched Luca and then discreetly slipped down the corridor. I felt his absence immediately, the feel of his hand in mine lingering.

Sofia and Luca told me their version of my disappearance, how Gabriel had called them wondering if I’d gone home. Then when the panic erupted and the frantic phone calls and searching began. I listened quietly, managing to eat a pot of strawberry jelly and deciding it was my new favourite food.
“When Gabriel called us this morning to tell us he’d found you, I almost collapsed,” said Sofia. “I was expecting bad news. I couldn’t believe it.”
Luca had not stopped smiling and was nodding along though he understood very little what Sofia was saying. I let Sofia chat away, feeling a little normalcy returning. I sank back against the pillows and closed my eyes. 

I knew I had to face a visit from Inspetorre Giannetti soon. He would want my statement and I would have to relive the last twenty four hours. But for now, I wanted to sleep and then hopefully when I woke up I could have a nice cup of tea.