Beatrice Page 24

  She climbed onto the edge of the boat. She could hear the crew calling her, but she did not pause to listen. She sprang into the air and dived into the sea.

  The water was waiting for her. She had not expected it to challenge her so. She floundered as the current pulled and twisted her limbs. The ocean filled her mouth, her lungs. A wave lifted her up, a last flash of day. It rolled her up in a tomb of foam.

  Then she went down.

  All the way.

  First published in Great Britain 2004 by Macmillan

  and simultaneously in Ireland by Tivoli, and imprint of Gill & Macmillan, Dublin

  This edition published 2005 by Pan Books

  This electronic edition published 2010 by Pan Books

  an imprint of Pan Macmillan, a division of Macmillan Publishers Limited

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  ISBN 978-0-330-52968-6 PDF

  ISBN 978-0-330-52967-9 EPUB

  Copyright © Noëlle Harrison 2004

  The right of Noëlle Harrison to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted by her in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

  ‘The Lost Girl’ by Ciaran Carson reproduced by kind permission of the author and The Gallery Press, Loughcrew, Oldcastle, County Meath, Ireland. From The New Estate and Other Poems (1998). ‘An Old Woman of the Roads’ by Padraic Colum.

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  A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

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