Tapestry of Fear Read Online Free Page A

leaning heavily against the bonnet. Then we saw it, shrouded in deep darkness, laying low in the water, rocking and plunging just inside the arms of the bay.
    â€œThat’s it!” Luis’s voice was exultant. “They’ve come!”
    â€œBut they are not coming any nearer.” Jose said grimly.
    I felt my throat tighten as he dropped his jacket to the ground and kicked off his shoes.
    â€œMy dear boy!” Miss Daventry said, the wind tugging at her straw hat, blowing wisps of hair across her face. “ Surely you can’t swim so far out in a sea like this? Not with an injured shoulder!”
    â€œThere is no choice. The boat is waiting for us and it is not coming any nearer to the shore. If anything should happen before I get back, do not wait for me, take Luis immediately back to the cottage, understand?”
    â€œYes, but …” she broke off in alarm. “Alison! What on earth are you doing?”
    â€œI’m going with Jose. As you said, he can’t swim out alone in a sea like this.”
    Jose did not hear me, he was already sprinting down to the sea. Heedless of Miss Daventry’s protests I raced after him, my dress and sandals lying scattered at her feet. He was already waist deep, and then, as the icy cold of the water numbed my feet and legs, he disappeared amongst the waves, his arm rising ghostlike in the darkness as he struck out towards the boat. The silky water submerged me and then I was swimming steadily after him, shaking my hair out of my eyes as I tried to keep him in sight. The wind was blowing in strong gusts now and the waves grew higher, a holacaust of tumbling water, the foam crashing over my head drowning me for whole seconds at a time. Jose’s voice sounded thinly over the roar of the sea.
    â€œWhat the hell.…”
    I swam up to him. “I’m all right.” I yelled. “ Keep going!”
    He blasphemed viciously and then turned, heading once more straight out to sea. Another five minutes and I was beginning to wonder if my rash impulse had been justified. If Jose were in difficulty I had no strength left to do anything about it. He was treading water now, staring into the night.
    â€œWhere the devil has it gone to?” he gasped.
    Breathlessly I swam beside him, all around us the sea swelled and heaved and far back in the distance I could see the faint silver line where the waves were crashing on the shore. It looked far, far away.…
    We were too low in the water to see clearly. If they would only flash their lights again, anything to give us an indication of which way we should go … but the inky blackness that enveloped us remained impenetrable.
    The solid mass of the rock stacks showed where the curve of the bay ended and the open ocean began. We were now parallel with them and the roar of the sea filled the night air, loud in my ears, drowning all other sounds.…
    Jose shouted. “The boat was inside the arms of the bay. We must have passed it.”
    I blinked the foam from my eyes, nodding in agreement, deeply thankful that he had no intention of swimming any further out into the vastness of the indifferent sea. Hanging there in the black water I was experiencing fear, real fear, for the first time. I wondered which way the currents were running, if they would be against us as we swam back.… I pushed the thought away from me, struggling to remain calm.…
    Jose took a deep breath and plunged away to the east. I swam after him, wondering if he had seen the boat, if it was near.
    Suddenly there came a new sound, the distant throb of an engine. Jose was treading water now, gasping for breath. As I joined him I could see the black shadow of the boat low in the water, bobbing silently at anchor not twenty yards away from us, and I could hear the engines coming nearer.
    The sea boiled around us, a raging mass of surging water, tossing us backwards and forwards, sucking us down into its limitless