Ruby Boat, Topaz Sea

Chapter 13.

The image of Haddy Langland's face vanishing in her blowing hair haunted Ford long before he fell asleep. He dreamed of spectral storms and his death in them. Yet, as happens in dreams, he remained somehow spectacularly active and alive, rushing headlong across vast plains.

He awoke early, aware of heavy winds. Striding past Mrs. MacKenzie's prepared breakfast table, Ford swirled his overcoat on and headed for the headlands, up through the foggy, damp meadows with their nodding flowers, through the blowing, bending woods.

On the headlands he might as well have been blind - nothing but fog, moving past him with seemingly purposeful speed. Tuning his wits and directional sense as finely as possible, he managed to think and step his way to the north sheepfold. It was deserted. The small fire patch still held faint warmth. Ford set off south, now moving with the fog, as swiftly as he could given the occasional stone or boulder that needed dodging.

After some minutes of long strides, he paused to lean against a large stone. She's long gone, he thought. And what exactly did I expect to say to her, anyway? This is insane. He stared out into an impenetrable, dull sea-glare of vapor, hearing the distant rumble of waves far below.

Haddy came upon him suddenly in the streaming fog around the seaward end of the large stone. Several sheep also materialized and Shadrach dashed past, all heading in the same direction he had been going. How had he passed them? Ford felt suddenly hot with embarrassment. What was he doing here?

After a moment of looking at him, Haddy leaned against the stone.

'I hope I didn't startle you,' Ford said.

'A little.'

'I don't really know why I'm out here.' He shrugged, suddenly exasperated with himself. 'It felt as if something was happening. Strangest feeling. Strange dreams last night. I just had to come out and see.'

He paused, stealing a glance at Haddy. 'I'll admit also that I thought I might run into you.'

Haddy was looking up into the moving mists.

'Spirits take shape in this,' she said.

'What?'

She made a loud whistle that Ford thought had pierced his eardrum.

'What was that for?'

'I told Shadrach we were stopping.'

'I must have passed you in the fog somehow,' Ford said, and felt foolish again at the implied pursuit. But it is, after all, my land, he thought, defending against no attack.

'It's about to lift,' Haddy said after a moment. 'We might as well wait.' Ford couldn't tell if her 'we' included him.

The wind strengthened. The light around them went from gray to silver and then all at once became clear, hard. Fog rolled away ahead of them. The sea remained shrouded but the headland blew clean, presenting an aspect both mournful and bracing.

Haddy watched the fog retreat down the coast, then closed her eyes. Ford found himself held by the nearness of her face, the astonishing blondness of her hair and eyebrows and lashes, her freckled youthfulness. Even four feet away she really did look fourteen. He felt breathless, at a loss. Sheep strayed idly here and there on the slope. Suddenly there came a bark, then a torrent of barking - Shadrach streaked down from the ridge toward the edge of the cliff as Haddy jerked forward from the stone.

'Wales!' she shouted, running.

'What are you doing?' Ford called. The wind had suddenly grown appallingly strong. Ford saw a solitary sheep far out on the wind-flattened grass of a jut on the cliffs, struggling on its knees against the blast. Ford recalled Mr. Stuart telling him that cars had been blown off the cliffs not far from there - cars rented by tourists who didn't listen to or believe the warnings. Now Haddy was scampering out onto a dangerously exposed part of the precipice as wind increased to gale.

Ford ran after her, shouting. The wind quickly seized him and pushed him sideways. He tripped on a rock, fell, and was frightened by the sudden jolting view of an enormous sky violent with low clouds and wind. Haddy made good headway by presenting as little surface to the gale as possible and grabbing rocks and outcroppings and clumps of grass as she moved. Imitating her, keeping his large frame as low as he could, Ford painstakingly followed.

'Wales, don't move!' Haddy yelled.