Page 34 of Dauntless

I saw the hesitation in Eddie’s expression, but then he was backing away toward the kitchen door.

“I didn’t take it, Eddie,” I said, swallowing painfully around the lump in his throat.“I wouldn’t.Ilikeyou.”

Eddie pressed his lips together in a thin line, and for a moment I thought I’d got through to him.Then he lifted his chin and shook his head.“I need to think, okay?I need to think, Joe, and I can’t do that here.I have to go.”

“Eddie—”

Eddie walked out.

Hiccup bounded happily out of the kitchen door after him, and was back a few minutes later, staring at me with her head on an angle.

“No, we’re not going with him,” I told her, my voice cracking.“We’re staying here.”

I knelt on the floor and began to clean up the items from the medical chest.

“We’re staying here.”

* * *

Iclimbed the lighthouse stairs to the catwalk, then walked around the lee side so that I could see the way into the village.Eddie’s red jacket and orange backpack were already nothing more than a distant flash of colour against the patchwork of green hues that made up the island.I watched him until he vanished from the windswept hillside into the first copse of pine trees that dotted the way.I didn’t wait to see him pop out the other side of the trees amongst the sandstone cottages of the village, taking my heart with him.

It was Dauntless Island.It wasn’t like he could get lost.

I climbed down the stairs again and then, whistling for Hiccup, made my way to the ocean-side of the point and headed down the steep, twisting track.Eddie’s yellow tent was where I’d left it the night I’d retrieved his belongings.The tent was flat and battered.Water ran off it in streams when I picked it up.

Hiccup crunched a pinecone while I folded the tent up as best I could.I carried it back up to the top of the point and left it at the base of the lighthouse.

I wanted to either chase after Eddie or go to bed and wallow in misery for a few hours, but neither of those options was helpful.I’d neglected the vegetable garden for a few days now, so I worked there instead, punishing the weeds like it was their fault my day had gone so sideways so quickly.

I couldn’t remember the last time we’d had a theft on Dauntless Island.Well, before Eddie’s arrival had shaken everything up.People on Dauntless left their doors unlocked, because you never knew when a neighbour might need to drop in for something.Mavis didn’t even lock the shop at night, and I wasn’t the only one who’d ever taken advantage of that by slipping in to help myself to a necessity or two, leaving a note and the money behind.

So anyone could have come up to the cottage last night, either during the Saturday night celebrations, or later when we’d been sleeping, and got into the kitchen.It didn’t explain how they’d got into the medical chest though.I kept that locked, because that was in the rules, and if I broke them and the Royal Flying Doctor Service found out, I’d lose my authorisation.I kept the chest locked because I was told to, not because I’d ever thought anyone would steal from it.

I sighed and ripped another weed out of the hard-packed clay soil.

“You’re the only person who has a key,”Eddie had said, and it was technically true, but also…

Eddie had only seen me open the box with the keys I kept on my belt.He didn’t know the spare key hung on a hook on the side of the fridge.

I closed my eyes for a moment and tried to think of who might.

God.

I couldn’t think of a time I’d grabbed that key instead, but it must have happened once or twice, right?If I’d been caught without my work clothes on, too early in the morning or too late at night.

Someone must have noticed and remembered.

Except how did they know the diary was in the medical chest to begin with?

I groaned, closing my eyes against the bright sunlight.

Young Harry Barnes must have seen the diary yesterday morning.And he’d had all of Saturday night to tell literally everybody.Whoever had attacked Eddie for the diary in the first place must have overheard him.

I leaned back on my knees, lifting my face to the sun and stretching out the kinks in my spine.

Yeah.Young Harry Barnes must have talked about seeing the diary in the medical chest, and someone else must have remembered where I kept the spare key.

I wished the pieces had fallen into place a little earlier.Before Eddie had accused me of stealing the diary.

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