Chapter 8 - part ii

[girlyswot]

'Hey!  Nick!'

One of the officers was standing and waving enthusiastically at her.  Hardly believing what she saw, she lifted a surprised hand in response.

'Giles?'

He climbed on board and gave her a great hug.  Suddenly, Nick found herself crying.

'M sorry.'

'Here.'  Giles handed her a clean handkerchief and waited for her to sort herself out.  'Okay?'

She nodded.

'Look, Captain Cornwell told me to invite you over for dinner.  These two will look after Windfall.  Are you up to it?'

She nodded.

'Come on then.'

Nicola pulled herself together and gave strict instructions to the amused midshipmen.  Giles handed her down into the lugger and turned her towards the ship.

'Shower first.  Clean clothes.  Then tell me.'  Nicola followed obediently, handing out her wet things to be dealt with.  She pulled on the gear that Giles had found for her, rolling up sleeves and trousers efficiently.  Running a comb through her hair she surveyed herself in the tiny mirror.  Thinner than she'd expected, freckled and tanned, nevertheless she was surprised that she was still recognisably Nicola.

 

'We've got half an hour before we're expected in Captain's quarters.  What's up?'

Nicola looked down at the floor, unsure where to begin.

'Come on.'  He came and sat beside her, squeezing her hand encouragingly.

Slowly, haltingly, hiding her face in his reassuringly broad shoulder, she told him.

He put his arm round her and let her cry again.

'Does anyone else know?'

She shook her head.  'Only the doctor in Australia.  I was going to phone Patrick but I couldn't.  I'll tell him later.  When I see him.'  Giles nodded.

'Look, we've got to go and chat up the senior officer.  You'd better wash again.  How would it be if I ask him whether you could stay on board tonight?'

'No!'  Nicola looked horrified.  'I couldn't, Giles.  Not leave Windfall all night.' 

He smiled.  'Okay.'

 

Captain Cornwell welcomed Nicola warmly to his quarters, bombarding her with questions about her voyage and regaling her with stories about her father as a young midshipman.  Giles was relieved to see that she was laughing and smiling, demanding all sorts of Naval detail, evidently having determined to enjoy this unexpectedly fulfilled ambition.  Briefly, she caught his eye and he winked at her.

'Well, young Nicola, I daresay you'll be itching to get back to your boat.  I wonder…'  He looked at her and then at Giles and then back at Nicola.  '…would you care for an escort tonight?  Shall I send this one back with you?'

Nicola went pink and Giles suddenly realised she was about to burst into tears again.

'I think she'd like that very much, sir.'  Nicola nodded gratefully.

A blushing young midshipman handed her a warm, freshly ironed pile which Nicola hardly recognised as her own clothes.  She thanked Captain Cornwell and scrambled down into the lugger again.

 

Giles had smuggled a bottle of brandy off the ship.  He and Nicola got quietly drunk, drinking straight from the bottle, not talking often.

'It'll be alright, you know?'

'Mmm.'

'D'you love him, Nick?'

She looked at him properly and answered carefully.  'He loves me.'

Giles raised an eyebrow at her.

'I don't know.'  She slumped against him.  'I thought so, when I left.  Then, when it happened, all I could think was that I wanted him to be there.  To put his arms round me and tell me what to do.  But now, I don't know, Giles.  I just think it's too hard.  Being on my own is easier.'

'Easier, but less fun.'

'Oh.  I hadn't thought of that.'

Eventually, Nick dragged herself up and went round, making Windfall secure for the night.  She offered Giles the bunk but he refused decisively.

'Not a chance, gel.  Me for Her Majesty's warm, dry two foot six every night.  Tonight I shall sleep under the stars.'  He tucked her up, removing the bottles and brushing her hair from her forehead.

 

She waved goodbye the next morning when the middies came to bear Giles off.  Her head was banging but at least her stomach had settled when she'd forced down his eggs and bacon.  The fresh bread felt like an indescribable luxury.  Reluctantly she set her sail, checked her course and watched him disappear over the horizon.

 

*****

 

Kay had a gin and tonic which she carried with Rowan's half-pint and a bag of nuts across to their quiet corner.

'There.  Well, cheers.'

'Cheers.'  Rowan waited, eying her sister across her pint, recognising the signs of nerves as Karen twisted a strand of hair in one hand and aimlessly stared at an old map of Dorset on the wall.

'Look, Ro.  I know you've never got on with Edwin…'  Rowan waited, since denial was futile.  'But does that really mean we can't ever be friends again?  It's been pretty miserable, hasn't it?  I mean, Mum's never said, but just things I've picked up, you must be fairly on your own on the farm.  And I've been lonely too.'

'Lonely?  In your madhouse?'

'Yes, I know it sounds mad but…  The children aren't exactly intelligent company.  And Edwin's busy with work and the farm logs and…  Well sometimes I just need another friend.  Couldn't we patch things up?'

'I don't know.  It all seems so long ago.  We never quarrelled, did we?'  Rowan sounded as though she genuinely couldn’t remember.

'Not exactly.  You just made it fairly abundantly clear that you thought I'd behaved in the lowest way possible, marrying Edwin and foisting him and the children on Mum without any warning.  And then practically throwing Mrs Tranter out of the cottage.'

'Yes, well.  I'm not sure I want to take any of that back.'

'No.'  Karen took a sip of her drink.  'You were probably right.  But just at the time I couldn't see any other way.  I was so frightened of losing him, Ro.'

'And now?  Are you glad you did it?  Are you happy, Kay?'  There was a cool detachment in her voice that made Karen detest her at that moment.

'Yes.  Yes, I'm glad I married him.  And yes, he makes me happy.  But…'

'But?'

'But I see more clearly now why you were all so concerned.  I do have regrets about Oxford.  I do wonder what on earth I'll do when the children leave home.  And I suppose it needn't have all happened in such an almighty rush.  I don't think it would have fallen apart if we'd waited until the summer.'

'He's never hit you, has he Kay?'

'No!  What on earth makes you say that?'  She was genuinely horrified.

Rowan shrugged.  'Sorry.  It was just that thing with Binks.  I wondered sometimes, when you looked a bit miserable whether…  Only it never seemed like I could ask.'

'No.'  Karen started pushing her glass around the table, organising the mats symmetrically.

'So what will you do when the kids go?  Won't you have infants of your own?'

'Edwin says not, if I don't mind.'

'Oh.'

Karen bristled.  'Not like that.  Just we'd have to move.  And money's tight as it is.  And I'm not specially the broody type.  You know that.'

'True.  Why don't you start studying again?'

'Oxford?  But how?'  She sounded resigned, as if she'd thought of this herself and rejected the possibility.

'Not Oxford, I shouldn't think.  But couldn't you do Open University?  You know, TV programmes at three in the morning and summer schools and all that sort of thing.  You'd manage.'

'Yes, I suppose.  Maybe.  I'll see what Edwin thinks.'  She caught sight of Rowan's face.  'No, you're right.  I'll send off for the stuff and see what I think.'

'Good girl.  Tell me something, Kay.'  She paused and fiddled with a pistachio nut for a while, wondering how on earth to begin.  'How long did it take?  For you to decide you wanted to marry Edwin?'

'About an hour and a half.  Why?'  Karen's eyes sparkled, remembering those first delicious, scary moments of falling in love.  'You've met someone, haven't you?  Mum never said.'

'Mum doesn't know.  I don't know.  Maybe.'  She looked uncharacteristically hot and confused.  'Come on, I'll get you another drink.'

They stayed until closing time, sinking peacefully into neutral topics of family interest.

'You'll have to get a move on anyway,' said Karen as they walked back up the lane towards Tranters Cottage.

'A move on?'

'With your fellow.  Gin'll be married soon, and Nick, looks like, practically as soon as she's on dry land again.  Two younger sisters gone and you'll be an old maid.'

Rowan nudged her, hard.

Karen continued.  'Patrick looks more and more like a lovesick calf every time one sees him.  I only hope she hasn't lost her heart to some outlandish chap from the southern oceans.'

'Navy boy, more like.'

'Could be right.  Let's do this again some time, yes?'

'Yes, sure.'

But as Rowan walked the rest of her way home, she found her thoughts were not of mended sisterly relationships but of future possible non-fraternal ones.

 

Comments

[jen-c-w.livejournal.com]

ooooh, gin marriage? Soon we hear about it? Devestatingly handsome and can handle her beautifully I hope?