think if she knew what was happening outside. How would she feel if she knew the gruesome truth about their lives on the island? What would be her reaction when she found out that absolutely everyone lived for these shipwrecks? Caused them to happen, even. There was no other way to describe it—whenever an unknown ship arrived, doom was wished upon it by each and every one of them. Would she think they’d wished the same for the ship she and her family had been on? He would have to make sure she never found out about this. Birmington’s clock struck two, and the first winds of the impending dawn brought the high tide with them. The euphoria had now reached such a pitch that George feared Elizabeth would wake at any moment. He went downstairs to find out what was causing such a commotion. Peering through the darkness towards the bay, his suspicions were confirmed. The ship was going to risk it and defy danger. He noticed that the room lately occupied by tante was still empty. That didn’t surprise him. What did surprise him, however, was that Birmington’s door was open, the room flooded by the moonlight which shone through the window. The Reverend was nowhere to be seen. It was unbelievable. In Birmington’s case it was unforgivable. He’d never been able to overcome what everyone referred to as “his secret sin”—falling prey to the excitement that ran rife before a shipwreck. George chuckled to himself as he remembered the time that Birmington, in the middle of one of his fiery sermons in the pulpit, had seen long before anyone else, a schooner coming in from the south, run directly on the reef. In his excitement, he forgot where he was and what he was doing, and raising the Bible in the air he let out a whoop “A wreck! A wreck!” With one leap he cleared the pulpit railing and raced out into the yard, followed by the astounded congregation. 328
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hazel IMPRENTA OK 11may10 420p.indd 328
12/05/10 7:17