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Ben regarded his last sausage and passed it on to Radulf.
‘But I don’t think Phillipa and her new husband are eating anyone just yet. Come my revolution, maybe. What do you want to do today?’
Ben poured himself some more tea. ‘I don’t know. I can’t think about anything else.’
Yesss.
Aleksey put his reading glasses on, which he knew always made him look more mature. ‘We must wait until—’
‘We could go down, just for the day, to the main island. Poke around, get a feel for the place.’
‘How—?’
‘One hour. Flights from Exeter…’
Aleksey checked his watch. ‘We would have to stay one night as well…?’
Ben’s grin of accord illuminated Aleksey’s entire world.
* * *
By the time they’d sorted dogs, daughter, and other things that occasionally had to be thought about, it all had to be rearranged because, obviously, Tim and Squeezy utterly refused to be left as dog-sitters again and kept out of the fun once theIsland Situationhad been explained to them. Sarah ended up having both dogs as well as Molly, something she seemed entirely happy to do.
Aleksey booked four seats of the aircraft and two rooms in the best hotel he could find on St Mary’s, and they set off just after tea.
Ben spent the drive to Exeter airport updating the other two on what little they knew about the island, explaining they weren’t actually buyingSt Mary’s(a place which had a population of nearly two thousand people), a mistake that had utterly bewildered Tim when he’d first heard of the plan, and generally winding up the excitement for everyone.
Squeezy, in a lull in the conversation, muttered to no one in particular, ‘Tricky thing, owning islands.’
Ben glanced behind him. Aleksey immediately interjected, ‘Don’t ask,’ which made them all laugh, but Squeezy continued with his train of thought unprompted anyway. ‘Island of Dr Moreau? Very unfortunate business.’
‘I am not going to become a megalomaniac creating hybrid beings.’ Aleksey glanced at Ben. ‘It’s a book.’
‘Nah, boss. I see you more as theLord of the Flies.’
At Ben’s look of increasing puzzlement, Aleksey murmured, ‘Also a book.’
‘Yeah, with those glasses and your waistline, you could be Piggy, boss.’
‘You think so, Roger?’ Aleksey smirked. He liked shutting the moron up. The peace didn’t last long.
‘But, no, seriously, we could go all feral. Naked and the like, and dance around fires. Hunt and fish. No bloody…anything. Utterchaos.’ Squeezy didn’t say that final word with the fear or approbation anyone would have reasonably expected him to.
Tim’s censorious glare was so loud Aleksey and Ben glanced at each other at the same time and grinned. Tim leaned between the seats to defend himself. ‘I cannot for the life of me see why a small archipel—’
‘We’re not using that word, thank you, professor.’
Tim reared back a little, derailed from his argument. ‘Why on earth can’t we say ar—?’
‘No.’ This was uttered with a raised finger.
Ben explained dryly, ‘It’s another book, apparently. He didn’t like it.’
‘Oh, well, all right. Well, I was only to going to say that if this island is like the famous one down there with the gardens, it will be superb. And notferalat all. It’s been described as an absolute paradise actually.’
Aleksey mulled all this over on their drive to the airport.
Paradise or chaos.
