Read The Storm Sister (The Seven Sisters #2) for Free Online Page B

don’t know.’
    ‘Are you absolutely sure?’
    ‘Yes! CeCe was the only one brave enough to actually say the words. But I still don’t understand how it’s possible . . . it was only yesterday when we saw Pa’s
boat.’
    ‘I’m afraid I can’t offer an explanation for that, my darling. Here, the best thing you can do is ring home immediately,’ he said, sliding my mobile back to me across the
seat.
    ‘I . . .
can
’t
.’
    ‘I understand. Would you like me to do it? If you give me the number, I—’
    ‘
NO!
’ I shouted at him. ‘No, I just need to get home. Now!’ I stood up then, looking around me helplessly and then up to the skies, as if a helicopter might
appear overhead and carry me to the place I so urgently needed to be.
    ‘Listen, let me go on the internet and then make a few calls. Back in a bit.’
    Theo disappeared up to the bridge as I sat, catatonic with shock.
    My father . . . Pa Salt . . . dead?! I let out an outraged laugh at the ridiculousness of the idea. He was indestructible, omnipotent,
alive
. . .
    ‘Please, no!’ I shivered suddenly and felt my hands and feet tingling as though I was in the snowy Alps, rather than on a boat in the Aegean sun.
    ‘Okay,’ Theo said as he returned from the bridge. ‘You’ll miss the two forty flight from Naxos to Athens, so we’re going to have to get there by boat. There’s
a flight from Athens to Geneva first thing tomorrow morning. I’ve booked you on it as there were only a few seats left.’
    ‘So I can’t get home today?’
    ‘Ally, it’s already one thirty, and it’s a long way to Athens by boat, let alone flying to Geneva. I reckon if we do top speed most of the way, with a stop at Naxos for fuel,
we can make it into the harbour by sunset tonight. Even I don’t fancy taking this into a port as crowded as Piraeus in the dark.’
    ‘Of course,’ I replied dully, wondering how on earth I would cope with the endless in-between hours of the journey home.
    ‘Right, I’ll go and start her up,’ Theo said. ‘Want to come and sit with me?’
    ‘In a while.’
    Five minutes later, as I heard the rhythmic hydraulic clank of the anchor being raised and the soft hum of the engines purring into life, I stood up and walked to the stern, where I leant on the
railings. I watched as we began to move away from the island, which I’d thought of last night as Nirvana but now would always be the place where I’d heard about my father’s death.
As the boat began to pick up speed, I felt nauseated with shock and guilt. For the past few days, I’d been totally and utterly selfish. I had thought only of
me
, and my happiness at
finding Theo.
    And while I had been making love, lying with Theo’s arms around me, my father had been lying somewhere dying. How could I
ever
forgive myself for that?
     

    Theo was as good as his word, and we arrived at Piraeus harbour in Athens at sunset. During the agonising journey, I lay across his lap on the bridge, as one of his hands
gently stroked my hair and the other steered us safely across a choppy sea. Once in our berth, Theo went down to the galley and prepared some pasta, which he then spoon-fed me as if I was a
child.
    ‘Coming down to sleep?’ he asked me and I could see he was exhausted from the concentration of the past few hours. ‘We have to be up at four tomorrow to make your
flight.’
    I agreed, knowing he’d insist on staying up with me if I refused to go to bed. Steeling myself for a long, sleepless night, I let Theo lead me below, where he helped me into bed and
wrapped his warm arms around me, cradling me to him.
    ‘If it’s any consolation, Ally, I love you. I don’t just “think” I do any more, I
know.
’
    I stared into the darkness and, having not shed a tear since the news, I found my eyes suddenly wet.
    ‘And I promise I’m not just saying it to make you feel better. I’d have told you tonight anyway,’ he added.
    ‘I love you too,’ I