Rocky Island Read Free Page A

got used to the task. When he returned, supper was on the table. They ate one-handed, holding hands, and without washing dishes, were back in bed an hour later. As Allison had predicted, Rocky Island was an ideal spot for a honeymoon.
    For some reason that he couldn’t have explained, even had he cared to do so, these thoughts of five years of joyful marriage and satisfactory work as a lighthouse keeper were occupying Toby’s mind as he tramped along his daily walk on the path around the island.

CHAPTER TWO
    When he returned to the house, Toby saw that Allison was doing laundry. He poured himself a cup of coffee and walking up behind her, gave her a one-armed hug. The noise of the washer had hidden the sound of his coming and the unexpected hug caused her to jump so that he almost spilled his coffee. She took his cup, then snuggled herself into him to hug him back and raise her head for a kiss. Toby could tell when she pressed herself against him that she was not wearing a bra, her signal that her monthly period was over.
    “Storm coming,” he said. “You may not have time to get that wash dry outside.”
    “Well, I’ll begin outside and finish it inside. Have you heard the forecast?”
    “Nope. Just finished my tour and noticed the calm sea and the colour of the sky. I’m just going in to get the forecast now. Stormy weather is a good time for staying inside and making love.”
    He grinned and gave her a squeeze.
    “I think so, too, but first things first. Go away and let me finish this wash or it won’t get done because I’ll be busy with something else.”
    Toby laughed and went to the room they had fixed up as an office and used the satellite telephone to call the Marine weather office in Halifax. The report was not good. The forecaster said that Rocky Island would likely have winds of seventy to eighty knots, gale force winds, and high seas during the twelve to eighteen hours starting about two o’clock or soon after that.
    “Any shipping in the area?” inquired Toby.
    “Just the local fishermen. Search and Rescue is trying to notify them all, but there’s a couple not responding to the radio calls. No large commercial shipping reported within fifty miles of you.”
    Toby thanked the forecaster and went back to his wife. “Hey, Allie, the forecaster says the storm will begin about two this afternoon. I’m going down to check on the generator and the windmill. If you get your wash out right way, it might get at least partly dry. It’s nine-thirty now.”
    “Take this basket then and hang up what’s in it on your way. That’ll help.”
    After hanging up the clothes from the basket on the clothesline, Toby went to the windmill and pulled open the steel door to the box that gave bad weather protection to the huge gears installed to turn the generating turbine. He pulled the lever that put the big sails into a neutral free wheeling selection so the winds would just turn them without causing them the extra pressure of pulling against the generator. Then he started up the diesel and let it run for ten minutes until he was satisfied that it would be okay when called on later in the day.
    On his return to the house, he picked up the laundry basket on the way. Before going inside, he walked around the building, making sure that everything was battened down for the bad weather. Inside, he went to the office and entered in the day’s log all the preparations he had made for the storm and turned on the marine radio and scanner, turning up the volume so that he would hear any messages that might pertain to vessels in his area. When the satellite phone rang, the call was from the Transport Department in Yarmouth. The Officer in Charge wanted to make sure that he was aware of the storm and to remind him that the helicopter would be delayed on its regular flight to Rocky Island the next day if it was called on for search and rescue operations.
    The first rain began to fall shortly before one-thirty. Toby went out