*
The Talbot ladies greeted Julie warmly and when she told them she thought she had discovered the culprit they insisted she join them for lunch in the penthouse while she told them all about it.
'So you'll get your ring back,' she finished.
Mary laughed. 'That trumpery thing. I shall be glad not to have to tote it about any more. You didn't think it was valuable, did you?' she asked, seeing the puzzlement in Julie's eyes. 'None of our jewellery is real, just good copies. We couldn't risk anything valuable being stolen, and perhaps not recovered.'
'Though you could trust Robert to find it,' Bea put in.
'Dear boy. He's my nephew,' Mary explained. 'We came with him in order to try and find this thief who has been making a nuisance of herself for several months. I'm not really as scatty as I seem, leaving my purse and that dreadful ring all over the place. We were trying to tempt the thief.'
Julie swallowed hard.
'I see,' she said, though there were a hundred questions she wanted to ask these amazing ladies. 'You believe me then? Will you help me to persuade the Captain?'
'There's no need. Robert apparently overheard your conversation with Cathy, and he did some research on the Internet. I haven't a clue how, but apparently he found out things about her that convinced the Captain, and she has confessed.'
Julie breathed a sigh of relief. She didn't have to try and convince anyone of the girl's guilt.
'Robert is your nephew?' she asked, latching on to this other surprise.
'Yes, and we are so proud of him. Once we suggested we might help, he thought up all sorts of traps we could lay, but none of them worked until the ring was stolen.'
'How did they find it in my case? Did they search everyone's cabins? It must have taken a lot of time, surely there couldn't have been enough just while we were on that trip to Marrakech?'
'Robert has a device, a tracker, I think he calls it, and the other part of it was attached to that ring. When he got near the ring it bleeped, so all they had to do was poke it into cabins until it gave a signal,' Mary explained. 'He can tell you all about it later if you are interested in these things. I just about understand they work, not how!'
Julie had been thinking back to some of the things which had puzzled her during this cruise.
'You lost something in Gibraltar,' she said. 'It fell over the gangway rail. You had such a lot of shopping.'
'Oh, that,' Bea said, laughing. 'It was to imply we were so wealthy we could afford to lose things. To tempt the thief. I had a designer bag prepared with a couple of old dresses, it didn't contain anything new. I hope if one of the men on the quay fished it out he wasn't too disappointed. As for the rest, I'm taking the opportunity to shop for my trousseau. How old fashioned that sounds, but when I get married I want lots of madly beautiful clothes.'
'You're getting married?' Julie asked.
For a moment her heart almost stopped. They were cousins, but cousins could marry. Surely Robert was not going to marry this girl? But why not? She was beautiful, and lively. Then Bea spoke again.
'Jonathan, my fiancé, will be meeting us at Malaga. He's got a villa further along the coast, and we're staying there for a couple of weeks, to recover from the exhaustion of playing these parts. Perhaps, one day, you'll come and visit me there?'
Julie gulped. 'I'd like that,' she managed. 'Now, perhaps I'd better go and do my packing. We have to put the cases outside the cabins tonight, I understand.'
They didn't try to detain her, and she spent the rest of the afternoon folding and re-folding her clothes. She wondered where Susan was, but didn't feel ready to go up to the shop in case Cathy was still there. What would they do to her? Did they have prison cells on cruise ships?
*
Susan didn't appear till it was almost time to go down for dinner. She was bubbling over with excitement.
'Guess what, it was Cathy all the time, she put that ring in your case, and she's confessed. And apparently she has a record, she's been in prison!'
'How do you know?'
'The Captain sent for me and asked if I was willing to take over the management of the shop. He had to explain why. They will buy the stock, that's what we've been doing all afternoon, calculating what it's worth, and I will be employed by the cruise line. It won't be a franchise any more. I couldn't afford that, anyway, there's thousands of pounds tied up in the shop.'
'How – how wonderful!' Julie said, pleased for her sister. 'But Cathy was a friend. Aren't you shocked?'
'Huh! What sort of friend would try and lay the blame on my sister? Let's go and get a drink, and celebrate.'
Everyone on the table had heard rumours, and Robert told them briefly what had happened. Susan was congratulated on her good fortune in being promoted, and both sisters on being freed from suspicion. James ordered champagne, and Laura said they must all come and visit them some time.
'When you next get back to England, Susan, make Julie bring you. And you, Bill, I think you were under suspicion for a time, from what Robert says, just because you were at that drinks party.'
*
As they left the dining room, planning to go to the theatre for the final show, Robert slipped his arm round Julie's waist and steered her towards the door opening onto the deck.
'Come outside with me for a few minutes, I have some things to ask you,' he said.
'There are lots of questions I want to ask you,' she said. 'You didn't explain the half of it in there. I've been talking to your aunt and cousin.'
'I know, they told me. I only missed you there by a few minutes. But here is a better place.'
He led her, his arm still around her, to the stern of the ship where they leaned over the rail and watched the silvery wake spreading out behind it.
'How did you get involved in detective work?' she asked.
'I work for the shipping line.'
'As a gentleman host? But – I thought you said the ships didn't employ hosts on a permanent basis?'
'No, that's not my job. My company owns freighters and container ships, but we are expanding into cruise ships. I have been learning the ropes, you might say, seeing how everything is organised. It's only on this cruise I've been a host. I've been steward, barman, waiter, even a chef, during the past few months, trying to judge the sort of people we need to employ in order to have an efficient operation. But for this job, trying to find out who was stealing from passengers, I had to be closer to them, so being a host gave me that opportunity.'
'I see,' Julie said slowly. He must be high up in the company to be doing such an important task, for she had seen that the whole comfort of the passengers depended on the quality of staff employed.
'So can we meet back home?' he asked.
'Is England your home?'
Julie knew she was prevaricating, was frightened of commitment. On the one hand she would miss his company, but she didn't want to become too involved, of giving him the wrong impression.
'My home is in England. Only a few miles from your house, in fact.'
'How – I suppose you looked at the ship's records!'
'I did. Now, how about answering my question? Can we meet occasionally? For a meal, friendship, nothing more threatening.'
Julie took a deep breath. She liked him, he was pleasant company, but would he keep it that way, or would he be like Steven, and expect too much of her?
'Can I tell you later?'
'Sure. There's no hurry.'
They talked of other things, and Robert amused her with stories of the crazy things that happened aboard cruise ships, most of which were never seen by the passengers.
'I don't want to pressure you,' he said at last, 'but I know I want to see much more of you, Julie. I hope you meant what you said. Could you, one day, love me as I love you?'
She was startled, but found a thrill somewhere deep inside her. She didn't want to lose him, so she had to be brave.
'How – we've only known one another for a couple of weeks.'
&
nbsp; 'That's long enough. I was attracted to you on the plane. You looked sad, somehow, and I wanted to kiss away the worry and the strain I could see. I know why, now, but I'm willing to wait until you're ready for me.'
Julie took a deep breath and turned towards him. She had to let go of the past. 'I didn't know, until you were hurt. I thought I couldn't face another relationship, not yet, probably not for years, but when I thought I might have lost you, it was different. And when I thought you might believe I was a thief, I was devastated.'
'Can you love me?'
She took a deep breath, then nodded. He pulled her into his arms, tilting her chin so that he could kiss her lips.
'If you knew how badly I've wanted to do this,' he murmured softly into her hair when he finally let her go. 'Can I hope that one day you'll be ready to marry me?'
'I think I'm ready now,' she said, surprised at herself, and the utter certainty she felt.
'I'm not after your money,' he said, laughter in his voice. 'I wasn't quite honest with you, the shipping company belongs to my family, so I don't need a rich widow. And I have never been married, though I was once engaged.'
'What happened?' she asked, for his voice had softened.
'She was killed in a train crash, six years ago, just before we were to have married. I never found another woman I wanted to spend the rest of my life with, until I met you.'
It was some time later before they went back indoors, into the bar where Susan and Mrs Laurey were sitting with the Tomkins and the Talbots.
'Where have you been?' Susan demanded. 'You weren't in the cabin. I wanted you to celebrate with us.'
Robert had beckoned the waiter and quietly ordered bottles of champagne. Julie looked at him in sudden trepidation. This was such a big step, and a holiday romance at that, but when he smiled at her she knew everything would be all right.
'Drink to us,' he said as the waiter poured the champagne into flutes. 'Julie and I hope you'll come to our wedding, as soon as we can arrange it.'
The cries of astonishment and delight attracted the attention of the other people in the bar, and as they raised their glasses Julie caught a glimpse of Steven, a look of fury on his face, swinging round and pushing his way out of the bar. She didn't have to think of him any more. That was all finished with. Robert she loved, and could trust, and she was impatient for the cruise to end, so that they could begin their life together.
###
THE END
Marina Oliver has written over 60 novels, and has converted most of them to Ebooks. Others have been or are being published as Ebooks by other publishers.
For the latest information please see Marina's web site:
http://www.marina-oliver.net.
More Ebooks by Marina Oliver:
A QUESTION OF LOVE
BY
MARINA OLIVER
Pippa, an American, wants to prove to her protective family that she can stand on her own feet. She is reluctant to return to the States after a few months in England and do as they and her father's partner expect, marry the partner's son Frank.
Defying Frank, she accepts a job in Minorca as secretarial assistant to a former film star who is planning to write his memoirs. These promise to be explosive, and both his last wife and his nephew Juan try to persuade him to abandon the idea.
***
CHANCE-MET STRANGER
BY
MARINA OLIVER
Janie Tempest's idyllic cottage, left to her by her godmother, is being demolished to make way for a new industrial park, and at the last minute the removal company can't do the job of moving her large items.
Luckily the men dealing with her neighbour's move are willing to help.
The handsome Manuel asks her out for dinner, and then becomehttp://www.chrisboliver.webspace.virginmedia.com/Marina/contemp.htm#islandquests involved in her feckless sister's latest disaster.
To make things even worse, Brian, the step-nephew of her godmother produces a will leaving the cottage to him.
***
ISLAND QUEST
BY
MARINA OLIVER
Ros Farleigh needs to find her half-brother. Tim Preston, nineteen and on his own for the first time as he works his way round the Mediterranean, playing the drums in hotel bands, vanished three months earlier leaving his precious drums behind.
Always a regular correspondent, his last letter was full of mysterious hints of danger, surprises, and secrets. His last few postcards from Majorca had been marked, indicating isolated coves and unidentified buildings.
Ros is staying at the Castilla hotel from which Tim vanished, where she encounters Lorenzo y Carreira, dark, arrogantly Spanish, talented guitarist, and too handsome for his own good.
Sparks fly. Tim had mentioned going sailing with Lorenzo, and he might be able to help.
Ros begins to learn some puzzling facts.
***
Lucky for Love Page 10