“Where did you hear that word?” she asks carefully.
“On Lòn Haven. Everyone said the wildlings lived in the Longing. I think they were hiding in the cave.”
Clover’s telling the truth. Luna stares, her mind racing. “Which cave?” she says. “Do you mean Witches Hide?” The name comes rushing to her, a memory unloosening without her forcing it.
Clover cocks her head. “The what?’
Luna doubts herself. That was what it was called, wasn’t it? Witches Hide. Maybe she just made it up. “Witches Hide. That’s the name of the cave. Tell me about this cave, Clover.”
“Well, first of, there were no witches in there. So whoever named it is stupid.”
“You went inside this cave?”
Clover nods, and she seems wary to reveal this. “Yes. But only because I thought Saffy might be there. And I wanted to find her.”
Clover tells her it was dark. Nighttime. She went inside the Longing at night, looking for Saffy. She’d seen Saffy go inside there at night sometimes and she thought she might have been there. But she wasn’t. And then Clover found a hole in the floor and fell down, and when she stood up she saw she was in a cave.
Luna’s mouth runs dry. She remembers this cave. She remembers falling down a long drop into it.
“And then what happened?”
“I ran through the cave, trying to find Saffy. But she wasn’t there.” She looks crestfallen.
“And did you climb back up the long tunnel?”
Clover shakes her head. “I found another way, where the sea was. I jumped into the water.”
“So there was no one in the cave with you?” Luna asks. “No one who . . . hurt you?”
Clover shakes her head. She must have forgotten, Luna thinks. The terrible wound on Clover’s hip didn’t get there by itself. Someone had to have hurt her.
“Do you remember what happened after you went in the water?”
Clover starts to look worried again. “I had to swim. But when I was on the beach again I couldn’t find Mummy. I thought she must have driven away because the car was gone. And I must have fallen asleep because I woke up and it was daytime. I walked for a long time and then the man came and took me to the hospital.”
Luna considers this. I woke up.
So Clover had amnesia. She’s forgotten—or blocked out—the bit in between entering the cave and being found by the farmer who took her to the hospital in Inverness.
“And . . . the ouchie on your hip. You don’t remember who did that to you?”
Clover pulls up her nightgown to look at her wound, as though she’d forgotten it was there.
“No,” she sighs. “I really don’t know how I got that.”
II
It is decided—Luna will take Clover to Lòn Haven. Taking her to Coventry isn’t an option. She’ll go to Lòn Haven, to the place they had once stayed, to find her mother. If she isn’t found, then she has no other choice but to call Eilidh in Inverness and explain the situation.
At Cromarty they drive onto the ferry, watch the mainland of Scotland slip away from them, and gradually, the triangular shape of Lòn Haven shading in the horizon.
Luna feels a wave of vomit threaten. She’s already had to pull over at the side of the dock and throw up. She never, ever thought she’d return to Lòn Haven, and even now, she feels caught in a fever dream. The only thing stopping her from turning around is the mad kicking that the baby has launched into, squirming away as if to signal he’s still there. She feels the eyes of the ticket collector on her as she takes Clover to use the bathroom. He’d studied her credit card a moment too long when she passed it over to buy the ticket, and then he’d stared at Clover. She’d tried to tell herself that she was just being paranoid. But when she’d returned to the car, she’d spotted him again on the deck. He had his phone held up as though he was taking a photograph.