Read The Sound of Whales for Free Online

up. ‘You.’
    â€˜Are you trying to kill me?’
    If the first impression he had made earlier was lame, the second might be classed as criminal assault. Fraser held up his hands. ‘Sorry, I thought you were Dunny.’
    â€˜Do I look like a small, weird Scottish boy?’
    â€˜Less of the weird, he is my brother.’
    â€˜Well, I’m not him.’
    They sat on the grass, both frowning, Hayley looking at the castle and Fraser at the ocean.
    â€˜Have you seen him?’ Fraser asked.
    â€˜I saw him earlier today but not recently.’
    â€˜He’s around here somewhere. Probably watching us and laughing.’
    â€˜What is this place?’
    â€˜It’s an old castle.’
    â€˜Well I get that, but is it real?’
    â€˜Of course it’s real. This isn’t Hogwarts.’
    â€˜It’s a bit of a ruin.’
    â€˜That’s because it’s old.’
    â€˜How old?’
    â€˜Auld, sae very auld,’ he said, putting on a Highland burr. ‘I dinnae ken exactly.’
    From her quizzical look it was clear that she hadn’t understood.
    â€˜I don’t know exactly,’ he said by way of translation.
    â€˜It’s your accent.’
    She was still proving difficult to like. ‘It’s not my accent you can’t understand, it’s my dialect.’
    â€˜OK, whatever.’
    Fraser thought to himself, I’ve just been whatevered by an American girl . A bit of him was outraged, a bit of him thought it was pretty cool.
    â€˜So why are you sneaking around an old ruined castle?’ she asked. ‘I saw you.’
    â€˜Why do you care?’
    â€˜It’s very strange, that’s all.’
    â€˜And who made you the judge of all things strange?’
    â€˜I’m surrounded by it, it’s hard to miss.’
    He snorted. She was implying that he was as strange as his brother.
    â€˜It’s just a game Dunny and I play. A kind of hide-and-seek.’
    â€˜Well, I found him last night, so it would seem I’m better at it than you.’ The girl looked behind her, along the path to the lip of the cliff. ‘He was standing over there, on the edge, in the storm.’
    â€˜Aye, I heard. My mum and dad were out looking for him as well.’
    â€˜At least one of us got to stay in bed.’
    Fraser didn’t want the girl thinking he was safely tucked under the duvet while everyone else was out in the storm. ‘Everyone thinks I was in bed, but  . . . ’ He shook his head.
    â€˜Where were you?’
    He pointed towards the ocean. ‘Out there.’
    â€˜Swimming?’
    â€˜No, I was on Ben McCaig’s boat.’
    â€˜Who is Ben McCaig?’
    â€˜You met him this morning on the beach. By the dead whale.’
    â€˜Why were you on his boat?’
    â€˜We were trying to find a pod of pilot whales.’
    â€˜In the middle of a storm?’
    â€˜Aye. It seems a bit daft now.’
    â€˜And your mom and dad thought you were in bed?’
    Fraser suddenly panicked. He had divulged information to a girl he didn’t know and didn’t like. ‘You can’t tell anyone.’
    â€˜Who would I tell?’
    â€˜My mum. Your mum.’
    â€˜I don’t know your mom and I’ve kept bigger secrets than that from mine. Much bigger than stupid sailing stories, believe me.’
    â€˜Well, my mum doesn’t need to know there were two of us out in the storm last night.’
    The girl gave a rueful laugh. ‘There were five of us out in the storm: your family and me. We all got wet.’
    â€˜Six, actually.’
    â€˜Ben the whale man.’
    Fraser had forgotten about Ben. ‘Seven.’
    â€˜Who else?’
    He looked in the direction of the sea, so different now from a day ago. He had a burden to share, a story to tell that none believed and it seemed important that someone else heard, even if it was an infuriating American girl. There was