I shook my head, carefully balancing the net handle as I reached for the oilskin pouch holding my bread and cheese. “Thank you, but I packed my own lunch.”
“I never thought you’d come out here with me,” he remarked, a smile in his voice. He wasn’t the only one. In a few short weeks, I had gone from being a gossiped-about witch’s apprentice to a gossiped-about lass who went out fishing with the men. And, as before, I didn’t care.
I pulled a wedge of cheese from my sack. “That makes two of us.”
Da grinned. “Now it’s only a matter of time until you’re begging to try some fresh fish. One day we’ll catch something so delicious, you won’t be able to resist.”
“Not a chance, Da.” I held up the tart cheese and licked my lips. “Some things will never change.” Like Grayse’s love of every creature finned and feathered. Or my slowly mending friendship with Cat and Lugh, who both somehow understood that I wasn’t ready to talk about what happened, even though I’d never said as much.
The kipper tin hit the floor of the boat with a clatter, startling me. “We’ve got a bite!” Da sprang to his feet. “Help me reel ’er in!”
I threw down my net, unable to stop my heart from giving a hopeful leap. The only other time I had assisted Da with reeling in a line, there had been a baby shark on the end. Perhaps today, we’d see a dark, rounded fin and a pair of familiar cobalt eyes.
My heart sank as sharp, dusky gray fins and a white belly appeared. Together, with much groaning and swearing, Da and I heaved a thrashing shark onto the boat. It wasn’t more than three feet long, but it jerked hard enough to rock our vessel. Panting, I wiped my grimy fingers on my shirt and sat back to watch Da subdue the struggling creature.
“This is a handsome one. Should fetch a nice price.” Da glanced over his shoulder, a huge smile splitting his face. Without the serpent hunting in our waters, fish were once again plentiful. We caught so many crabs and lobsters that we’d been making weekly trips to Peel to sell our surplus in their larger market.
“Sounds like we’ll be able to buy some more cloth then. You ought to ask Mam to make you a new shirt.” Now that we could afford fine cloths, Mam had been sewing dresses and skirts. She even sold some at the market. She’d lost all desire to paint, but she wasn’t plagued by headaches and nightmares anymore.
“She should make a few more dresses for you girls first,” Da said at last. He poked his calloused fingers through a hole in the side of his shirt and wiggled them. “This has room for another hole or three.” I smiled as he bent over to check on the shark.
“By God! Look!” Da lifted something from beside the shark’s head.
Heart in my throat, I hurried to his side.
A glimmer of silver-pink flashed between Da’s fingers as he polished the object on his shirt. “This was in the shark’s mouth!” His gleeful expression warmed my insides, banishing thoughts of monsters.
“What—?” The question died in my throat as my trembling fingers closed around a massive pearl swirled with silver and pink.
“Keep it, bird. Consider it payment for being my first mate,” Da said. He must have mistaken my watery gaze for one of deep gratitude. I nodded my thanks, gripping the pearl. “Now, do you want to head to shore? Or see if our luck holds farther out?”
I shrugged, swallowing around a lump in my throat. Not long ago, I would have given anything to leave the Isle, with its brine and wind and blue-green waters, far behind. Now, I rode the waves like I truly belonged. Like there was a place for me here. Perhaps there had been all along. And now, some stubborn part of me, the same part that clung to a wild hope that Fynn had survived, vowed to stay put until I saw him again.
London and Paris and Dublin could wait.
After all, the sea had taken Fynn away, but the sea had also brought him to me. New treasures rolled in with the tide each morning, perfect ivory shells and starfish that, if left unclaimed, were pulled back into the water by nightfall. The ocean spat out some of the same shells day after day, never allowing them to travel far from the coast. Who was to say the changing tide and ever-shifting winds wouldn’t carry Fynn back to Port Coire today, tomorrow, or even six months from now?
Turning away from Da, I clutched the pearl against my pounding heart. The sight of it was slowly dredging something Fynn once told me to the surface of my memory, about glashtyns knowing places deep underwater where they might heal.
I brought the pearl to my lips, tasting salt.
And a promise.
I scanned the water again, seeing only the dolphins diving in and out of the blue. But that could change in an instant.
Pocketing the pearl, I grabbed a paddle and settled into place on my side of the boat, eyes on the horizon. “Let’s keep fishing.”