The next morning was the final of our time on the island, so I made sure to set a personal alarm to wake me up just before dawn. When it finally went off, I grumbled a minute, before remembering my plan and forcing myself out of bed.
I turned toward Elva and shook her gently, rousing her.
“Mommy?” she asked, peeking open one eye.
“Would you like to watch the sunrise, honey?”
That woke her up right away. “Yeah!”
I shushed her gently. “Let’s not wake Nicholas,” I said.
“I’m already awake,” he said from his air mattress on the ground.
I had tried to tell him late last night, after we had very diligently cleaned up after ourselves and finally came upstairs to sleep, that he didn’t have to guard us now, with Ronan in jail and Bridget under supervision.
But Nicholas would not be talked
