Page 83 of A Summer Scandal

He bumped his thumb across her knuckles as he spoke, soothing. ‘I didn’t think anyone could make me feel the way you do,’ he said. ‘Like a man again. Being around you is like lying on a beach in summertime, Violet. You make me warm all the way down to my bones, and you make me laugh, and that night in the sea … God, you’re so fucking beautiful Vi. I can’t get the image out of my head of you, of us.’

Violet closed her eyes, because she knew what had happened as a result of that night, that they’d created a child together. Then she opened them again because there was a sudden bang, and a whoosh, and then a rainbow sky full of fireworks illuminated the whole pier, making everyone whoop and clap and stop what they were doing to watch the show.

Cal moved closer, his arm warm around Violet’s shoulders, and she allowed herself that one final moment with him, because this would be her last night here as a resident of Swallow Beach. Come tomorrow, she was going to pack up the Traveller and hit the road.

As the fireworks reached their spectacular finale, she turned her head to look at him, drinking him in. She didn’t stop him when he brushed the back of his hand along her jaw, or when he lowered his head and kissed her slowly, drenched in emotion.

‘Please don’t go,’ he whispered.

Violet moved into the warmth and heat of his arms. ‘I have to, Cal.’

‘No onehasto do anything,’ he whispered, cradling her.

‘Ihave to,’ she said. She didn’t believe that the pier was cursed, but she did believe that her grandmother had paid the ultimate price for loving a married man, and that it was her duty to learn from Monica’s mistakes. She wouldn’t stay and let the place and its people eat her alive too. She couldn’t, because she had more than just herself to consider.

‘Why?’ he said, his dark, agonised eyes searching hers.

‘Because I’m pregnant,’ she whispered, and he stared at her, utterly still as the enormity of her words sank in.

‘I …’ he started, but his words were drowned out by the sudden shock of the hundreds of light bulbs strung along the pier all firing at the same time. But they didn’t blaze with light.

They exploded into fireballs.

CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE

Everyone panicked. Flames licked hot and fast down both sides of Swallow Beach Pier, confusion and screams, people in red-carpet dresses and dinner suits shouting and scrambling towards dry land.

Cal grabbed Violet, pulling her up onto her feet.

‘Go!’ he shouted, almost shoving her in the direction of the surge towards the gates. ‘Get to safety, I’ll make sure everyone gets out of the birdcage and be right behind you.’

‘No,’ she shouted, her heart banging, tears streaking her cheeks. ‘I’m not going anywhere until I know everyone else is safe! This is my pier, my responsibility!’

He shook his head, his hands on her shoulders. ‘Fucking go, Violet,’ he said roughly. ‘I swear, if anything happens to you, I’ll never forgive myself.’

All around them people shoved and streamed, calling out the names of those they were desperate to find.

‘Violet, Cal, thank God!’ Keris appeared beside them, hand in hand with Barty, barefoot and her dress streaked with black soot. ‘We need to get off here right now,’ she said, fast and urgent, grabbing Violet by the hand. ‘Come on.’

‘Take her with you,’ Cal said. ‘Don’t let her go, Keris.’ He looked at Violet one last time, and then threw himself against the direction of the crowd to check the birdcage.

‘It was the lights,’ Barty shouted. ‘Electrical fault.’

Somewhere behind them, someone screamed above the noise, high-pitched and terrified.

‘Charlie! Charlie!’

Vi knew it was Lucy desperately searching for her son, and shook Keris off, shouting, ‘Get Barty off here, Keris!’ before she turned and fled.

‘Lucy! Lucy!’ she shouted, staring wildly around the orange-illuminated faces moving all around her, their expressions masks of alarm and panic. A wild-eyed man in a dinner suit scrambled over the railings, ripping his jacket, taking his chances by jumping into the sea. Another followed his lead, filling Violet’s head with the haunting thought of her gran tumbling into the cold water below and washing up on the morning tide. This was unbearable. She didn’t stand a chance of finding Lucy, so ducked her head down, covering her mouth as she ran for it towards the birdcage. Maybe she could find Charlie herself.

At the other end of the pier, people were reaching the gates and finding to their horror that they had been closed and padlocked. They were trapped; rats on a sinking ship, and a mad desperate struggle began of people clawing and shouting to get the attention of passersby. Keris screamed at the top of her voice, aware that Barty was probably the eldest person on the pier that evening and the most likely to suffer from smoke inhalation. A man appeared from the darkness on the other side, standing still, staring at her.

‘Get help!’ she yelled. ‘Call the fire brigade, call the police, there’s more than a hundred people trapped on here!’

He didn’t move, and then he smiled, a rictus, horror-movie grin as he held something up in front of his face. A key.

As Vi reached the birdcage, Beau came flying out the door with someone over his shoulder.

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