And I’ve got exciting news.’ The muffled musical voice intruded on Ella’s dream. She squeezed open an eyelid, grateful when the brittle sunlight hitting her retinas didn’t appear to be accompanied by any pain, despite the definite thumping in her head. Flopping over onto her back, she squinted at the empty bed beside her, the rumpled sheets striped by the sunlight slanting through the shutters. And heard the thumping again. This time, though, it was definitely not in her head, but coming from the hut’s door, which shook on its hinges as the same musical voice from her dream, lilting with the lazy rhythms of a Bermuda native, shouted: ‘No use hiding, man. Henry told me you’d be here.’ Ella shot upright, clasping the bed’s thin sheet to her naked breasts, and swayed as several questions bombarded her at once. How long had she been asleep? Where were her clothes? Where was Coop? And who the heck was that woman banging on the door?
