When Sam eventually walked into Sir Philip’s study, still wearing his naval volunteer’s uniform with its smart white collar, May momentarily forgot her anxiety. He came straight behind the desk and held his sister close. She was the first to speak. Somehow she already knew what he had come about, even before he produced the telegram from his pocket.
“It’s Mamma,” she said. He did not contradict her.
No one disturbed the brother and sister as they spent the afternoon alone together, trying to make sense of their tragedy. The telegram gave only the very basic details.
Regret to inform Sam and May Thomas. Edith Thomas drowned 21 March 1936, while swimming off Bathsheba Beach, Barbados, West Indies. R.I.P. Duncan Thomas
Over and over it all again and again they went, as if by imagining the exact circumstances and the exact manner and cause of their mother’s death the fact of it would seem real. May and Sam both knew the seductive beauty of Bathsheba Beach. It had been part of the landscape of their lives. They knew the easy temptation of racing out towards the water along its sandy expanse, always deserted (and for good reason). At one end of the beach there was a dramatic rock formation, a huge stone mass, the under-part whittled away by the remorseless pounding of the sea to form a sharply defined jaw. May and Sam had often risked leaving their towels on the rock just where the scrubby trees petered out, before running towards the spray that was thrown up high into the air when the colossal waves hit the shore. But the rule had always been never to go into the water itself. The riptides were deceptively powerful, carrying with them an undertow that was notoriously difficult to battle against. Years ago the locals had put up a huge red and white painted notice to warn strangers. But the sign had become part of the landscape of the beach and the urgency of the message had faded along with the paint of the letters. No one really noticed it anymore. In the absence of a witness, or any explanation from their father, they could only conclude that Edith Thomas must have been swept away in the strong current on the east coast of the island. Could their mother, who knew the power of those unpredictable waters so well, really have been so careless? Perhaps they would never know.
The talk turned briefly towards their father. What must he be feeling? His telegram, except for the one word of “regret,” had revealed nothing of his own state of mind. Would he now wish both children to return to the plantation? They would have to wait for a letter from him if they were to know more. For once May was relieved that there was no telephone at the plantation. The prohibitive expense of the installation had meant that urgent messages had instead been delivered on horseback or by May herself in the car.
Both of Edith’s children had their reasons for wanting to stay in England, but neither was quite prepared to share them with the other. Sam’s motives were more transparent. He was relishing a career in the navy that was already on the ascendant. In February, the government had approved a report calling for the expansion of the navy and Sam, until then a mere volunteer, had impressed the “high-ups” enough to have been selected as a permanent employee of the fleet. He was damned if he was going to be sent back to the confines of the sugary fields of Barbados.
Sam had never discussed with May or his mother the other reason he was enjoying his new life in England. It had to do with Duncan. There was something about his father that made him recoil. On countless occasions Sam had caught him staring at May in a way that unsettled him. And then there was the time when he had burst into his parents’ bedroom to see Duncan’s hand raised over his mother’s head, only for him to lower it as soon as Sam appeared. Although there were four members of the Thomas family Sam always felt there were only three. For some reason Duncan seemed like an outsider. He did not even look like Sam, who had inherited Edith’s blond hair. More curiously, May with her olive skin, did not look like either of their parents but her temperament confirmed conclusively enough for Sam that she