Page 27 of Dauntless

Eddie’s expression was unreadable as he traced the name again.

“Leave it for now,” I said.“Let’s go outside and talk.Then in about twenty minutes Mavis will hand out the plates and cups, and we’ll descend back here like locusts.”

Eddie flashed me a nervous smile.“Right.Talk.I can do that.”

I squeezed his shoulder.“You’ll be fine.Come on.”

Outside we ran into Fisher Harry Finch, Little Harry Finch, and Young Harry Barnes.

“Fisher Harry,” I said, nodding at them.“Little Harry, Young Harry.”

“You made it,” Young Harry Barnes said, a grin breaking through his bushy white beard.“You’d have been missed otherwise, Red Joe.”He looked at Eddie.“Mr.Hawthorne, it’s good to see you again.”

“It’s Eddie,” Eddie said.“Good to see you too.”

Eddie relaxed the longer we talked, but he still stuck to me like a barnacle as we worked our way through the islanders.

“Nasty business,” Verity Corporal said, gesturing to Eddie’s head when they were introduced.

“Nasty,” Mavis Coldwell agreed happily, popping up behind her.

Eddie took a step closer to me.

“Do you need a hand with the cups and plates, Mavis?”I asked pointedly, and she shot me a narrow look before going to get them ready.

Verity Barnes, talking with Verity Corporal, hid a smile behind her hand.

“How do youdoit?”Eddie asked, wide-eyed as he followed me back into the church when it was time to eat.“Everyone has the same name!”

“It’s just the way it is,” I said.“It’s the way it’s always been here.It’ll all make sense after you have a few drinks.”

“Really?It might makelesssense then.”

“Well, shall we try it and see?”

Eddie huffed out a laugh.“That sounds like a plan, Red Joe.”

Eddie did loosen up with a few drinks inside him and talked with some of the island’s teenagers about Sydney and university.Distance Education only went up to Year 10, so most of the kids on the island went to boarding school for their final two years of high school, if not before then, and some stayed on for university or for job opportunities they didn’t get on Dauntless.Some kids, like Little Harry Finch, stayed on the island after they’d finished Year 10 and would probably never leave, but the lure of civilisation was too strong for many of them.

I thought of Amy, and wondered if she’d come back like she’d always said she would.It was an easy promise to make, I knew from experience, before you saw what the mainland had to offer.

I watched as Eddie talked to the kids.He was animated and cheerful, his cheeks ruddy from the cold, but also possibly from his second cup of Sarah Hooper’s rum.It packed more of a punch than whoever it was that had hit Eddie over the head on Thursday night.

I looked around the crowd too, checking to see that nobody was staring daggers at Eddie for the crime of being a Hawthorne.I saw curious glances mostly—although once, I did see John Coldwell glaring at Eddie with blatant contempt.It appeared that most of the islanders were keeping their distance from Eddie, apart from the youngsters.People were wary and speculative, but not downright hostile.

It was the best I could have hoped for really.

“You brought a Hawthorne here?”Nipper Will Harper asked, eyebrows raised.

I snorted.“What the hell else was I supposed to do with him?Lock him in the lighthouse?”

Nipper Will leaned against the wall and folded his muscular arms across his chest.He looked nothing like the skinny kid who’d been my best friend since before I could remember.Years of hauling full nets would do that.We’d been best friends forever, but these days it felt like that was through habit more than practice.We hardly saw each other except for the weekly shindig in the old church.Will worked long hours on his boat, theAdeline.He spent more time on the water than on the island.“Young Harry Barnes is telling the whole island this bloke’s staying with you.”

I shrugged.

Nipper Will’s expression was unreadable as his gaze bored into me, and then a corner of his mouth twitched.“And Mavis has opinions.”

“I’ve heard them.”

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