A Summer at Sea

by Katie Fforde

  ‘I used to help Auntie Becca with the bread sometimes,’ said Kate, not looking too unhappy with her options.

  ‘In which case you’re probably better at it than I am,’ said Emily.

  ‘I can’t knit, though,’ Kate added.

  ‘We’ll teach you, if you like,’ said Maisie.

  ‘Would you like that, sweetie?’ asked Alasdair, looking slightly less worried.

  ‘It’s better than sitting in the car waiting for you,’ she said.

  Alasdair almost smiled. ‘Thank you so much. I was going to leave her with Rebecca but her boys are both off somewhere and she was planning to rest.’

  ‘I’m fed up with boys anyway,’ said Kate. ‘Why are they always so noisy?’

  ‘Girls can be noisy too,’ said Alasdair.

  ‘Different sort of noisy,’ said Emily. ‘So, Kate, shall we do a bit of knitting while my bread proves and then get down and dirty with the dough? Sorry,’ she added as three pairs of eyes regarded her with suspicion. ‘Too many cookery shows on TV, I expect. It’s affected my language.’

  ‘Will you be all right with Emily and Maisie then?’ Alasdair asked his daughter.

  ‘I’ll be just fine, Daddy,’ she replied, patiently offering her father the reassurance he needed.

  He kissed the top of his daughter’s head and then was gone.

  ‘Now then, Kate,’ said Maisie, ‘you come and sit by me here. I’ve just been looking at some knitting Emily did. Do you think it’s as good as mine?’

  Kate took her time deciding. ‘I can’t tell the difference, really.’

  ‘Oh, thanks, Kate!’ said Emily. ‘That is an amazing compliment.’

  ‘I must admit I can see a little difference myself,’ said Maisie, almost reluctantly. ‘But they’re perfectly alike enough given they’re not going to be seen side by side.’

  ‘I’m flattered! Now, shall I pop to my cabin and get some bigger needles and some thicker wool for Kate? Otherwise it takes a long time to get a result,’ she explained to the little girl.

  ‘I’ll take a peek at the bread while you do that,’ said Kate.

  Emily met Billie in the cabin. She was stuffing things into a rucksack. ‘Hello,’ said Emily. ‘Planning to run away from home?’

  ‘No! I’m just going on this walk, with Drew – and everybody. Is that such a big deal?’

  ‘No,’ said Emily, aware she had to tackle Billie’s attitude before it became too entrenched. ‘But do you think, when you come back, you could be a bit more co-operative? We should be able to work together, we’re both sensible and intelligent women.’ Emily didn’t quite believe this but hoped she might encourage Billie’s good nature by saying it.

  Billie stopped.

  ‘The thing is, Billie, if you don’t help me a bit more James will fire you. If you put up with working with me you can stay and still see Drew, quite a lot. If you don’t pull your weight you won’t see him until the end of the season. And he might not think that highly of you if you get yourself sacked.’

  ‘OK,’ said Billie, not quite managing not to sound sulky.

  ‘Thank you. I’d really appreciate that. I know I can learn a lot from you and I’d like the opportunity.’

  Emily watched Billie climb the ladder out of their cabin aware she had given the younger woman something to think about.

  ‘OK, Kate. Have you got a teddy or something you’d like to knit a scarf for?’ asked Emily, getting ready to cast on some stitches. ‘Or would you just like to learn to knit but not worry about knitting anything particular?’

  ‘I do have a teddy.’

  ‘And would he appreciate a red scarf? Or I’ve got these other colours.’ Emily pulled her different balls of wool out for Kate to see.

  ‘Or you could have a stripy scarf,’ suggested Maisie. ‘I’ve got these colours but it’s thinner wool. More appropriate for a smaller creature – say a teddy.’

  ‘But chunky is fun and it’s quicker,’ said Emily.

  ‘Oh, do him a chunky one first,’ suggested Maisie, ‘and then, when you’re a bit better at it, do another one on smaller needles.’

  ‘Cool! Yes, let’s have a chunky stripy scarf and then if I’m good at it, I’ll do another one.’ Kate was keen.

  ‘Red to start?’ said Emily, but very shortly she handed back the needles to Maisie. ‘OK, I reckon you’re more used to teaching knitting than I am.’

  Kate was quick to pick it up and by the time Emily’s dough was ready to knock back the knitters had gone on to the first change of colour.

  ‘Well done!’ said Emily. ‘You’re getting on brilliantly.’ Glancing at Maisie, she saw she was getting tired. ‘Are you up for some baking now?’

  ‘Oh yes! I fancy making focaccia.’

  ‘Kate!’ said Emily. ‘When I was your age I hadn’t even heard of focaccia. What’s wrong with fairy cakes? Or at least bread rolls.’

  ‘Boring,’ said Kate. ‘Women always want me to make fairy cakes.’

  Emily wondered what this meant, exactly. Who were these women? ‘Oh, OK, no fairy cakes, but I do have to make bread rolls so we’ll do that as well as focaccia. Have we got a recipe, I wonder? Otherwise we’re sunk.’

  Emily spread a cloth under the table to prevent the floor becoming covered with flour. She gave Kate the task of weighing out the ingredients, measuring the yeast and water. The little girl seemed advanced for her age in the matter of cooking, possibly because she lived alone with her father. Or possibly it was because of the mysterious ‘women’.

  While Kate was levelling off spoons and watching the scales so the exact amounts were reached, Emily prepared the evening meal. She had found and defrosted some venison the night before and was now trimming pieces of venison and cutting up vegetables for a casserole. She hoped it would be stew weather when everyone came back from their walk but in the Highlands, you couldn’t really tell. It was sunny now, but it could easily be raining by suppertime.

  Maisie had retired to her cabin for a rest but Emily found that Kate was useful and good company. She handled knives fairly safely and Emily felt reasonably confident that she could put Kate in charge of the carrots without blood being shed.

  Kate knew more about focaccia baking than Emily did. ‘I watched it on telly. You have to add all the water.’

  ‘OK,’ said Emily. ‘You’re the expert here.’

  Kate frowned. ‘I am only nine, you know.’

  ‘I know, but I haven’t watched focaccia on telly like you have, and just because you’re only nine, it doesn’t mean I know more than you do about everything.’

  Kate seemed to find this opinion rather startling.

  When the stew was simmering and the focaccia dough was rising and they’d cleared up as best they could, there was a lull in the proceedings.

  ‘So what would you like to do now?’ Emily asked Kate.

  ‘I don’t know,’ said the little girl. ‘What can I do? Have you got games on your phone?’

  ‘A few, but really, I think we should do something a bit more interesting than that.’ Emily had a think. ‘I could show you my room but I expect you’ve been there lots of times. You probably know the puffer better than I do.’

  ‘I haven’t been to your cabin often,’ said Kate, ‘because mostly I’m with Auntie Becca and her boys.’

  ‘OK,’ said Emily. ‘As Billie’s not here, we can go and look at where I sleep.’

  ‘It’s not very big,’ said Kate once they’d negotiated the ladder. ‘My room at home isn’t huge but it’s bigger than this and there’s only one of me.’

  ‘When I’m at home,’ said Emily, ‘I have a whole cottage to live in and I manage to fill all the space. But this is OK for now. I like the puffer.’

  ‘Do you like my daddy?’ asked Kate.

  Emily didn’t know how to respond to this. It was a bit loaded. ‘Well,’ she said. ‘I hardly know him but I’m sure he’s very nice.’

  ‘So you don’t want to marry him, then?’ Kate was fiddling with Emi
ly’s make-up bag now.

  Emily stopped herself saying that marrying Kate’s daddy was the last thing on earth she wanted to do – it would sound rude. ‘I’ve only met him a couple of times. We’ve hardly even spoken.’

  Admittedly it wasn’t only Alasdair’s fault, having been sworn to silence by Rebecca, but Emily did still blame him for this. There was such a thing as being too strong and too silent in Emily’s book.

  Kate unscrewed the mascara – something Emily hadn’t bothered with for a while – and pulled out the wand. ‘It’s just usually when ladies are nice to me it’s because they want to marry Dad.’

  ‘Really? Are you sure?’ Emily was horrified.

  ‘Oh yes,’ said Kate. She seemed to take it in her stride. ‘Auntie Becca says it’s because he’s so eligible but I’m not sure what that means.’

  ‘Didn’t Becca explain?’

  ‘Not really. She was a bit cross when I told her what they say. But not with me.’

  ‘I’m not surprised! Anyway, “eligible” means he’s got a good job – people think being a doctor is a good job – and so he probably has a nice house. And he hasn’t got a wife already.’

  ‘My mum died.’ Kate was now applying the mascara, using Emily’s tiny mirror.

  ‘I know, sweetheart. That’s very sad.’

  ‘It’s all right. I don’t remember her or anything, but I would like a mother.’

  ‘Then you’d have to put up with some woman marrying your dad,’ said Emily bluntly, not pulling her punches.

  ‘I know. And I think Dad and I are OK on our own.’

  ‘I’m sure you are.’ Emily tried to imagine a woman moving into the home that Alasdair and Kate had forged out of the tragedy of his wife’s death. It wouldn’t be easy and probably shouldn’t be attempted. Kate would hate having to share her father after all this time.

  For some reason Emily suddenly remembered the trio of man, child and dog she had seen on the skyline that first morning, when she’d got up before dawn to explore. ‘Have you got a dog?’ she asked.

  ‘Oh yes. He’s with Aunt Becca. He’s an Irish setter called Rupert.’

  ‘And do you live near Crinan?’

  ‘Yes. We have a house on the hill overlooking the harbour.’

  ‘I think I saw you! You were walking with the dog and it was really early.’

  Kate inspected her reflection and added more black. ‘We do that in summer. Dad says it’s bonding time. I say it’s taking Rupert for a walk.’

  Emily laughed. ‘What will your dad say if you’re wearing make-up when he picks you up?’

  ‘Dunno. I’ve never worn it before.’

  ‘I think you should take it off. Here, use this really nice stuff. It smells lovely!’

  As Emily watched Kate slather herself with make-up remover and use nearly half a roll of loo paper to wipe it off she felt a bit deceitful. She’d let Kate put make-up on and now was making her take it off so her father wouldn’t know. ‘But we’ll tell him you put it on, or he’ll think I’m a bad influence on you.’

  Kate regarded her, head on one side. ‘Are you going to tell me what that is?’

  ‘A bad influence is someone who encourages you to do bad things.’

  ‘Is putting on make-up bad?’

  ‘It is when you’re nine years old,’ said Emily.

  ‘You’re not wearing any and you’re an adult.’

  ‘I know. I don’t wear make-up except for special occasions, when I’m going out. Not when I’m working. Talking of which, I should go and see how the bread’s doing. Come on!’

  As Kate threw Emily’s make-up back in the bag, she said, ‘You are sure you don’t want to marry Dad?’

  ‘Perfectly sure. I’m sure he’s a wonderful man and lots of women would want to marry him but I just want to stay single, living on my own, pleasing myself.’

  This seemed to satisfy Kate, who zipped up the bag and put it back in the net that hung above Emily’s bunk, holding her possessions. ‘So you don’t want to have babies, then?’

  Questions about babies could go off in any direction and Emily didn’t want to risk this one going towards where they came from. She decided to head the question off at the pass. ‘Just at the moment I’m more worried about the bread!’

  As Emily followed Kate up the ladder and across to the saloon she hoped she had set Kate’s mind at rest about wanting to marry her father. But as the two of them went into the galley to inspect the bread, Kate said, ‘I’d quite like a baby sister. It’s all boys round me.’

  ‘Perhaps Becca’s baby will be a girl and then you’ll have a little cousin to play with. Now I think it’s time this lot went in the oven.’

  Alasdair arrived to collect his daughter before the shore party got back from their walk. Kate was sitting on the banquette with Maisie, getting on with her knitting. What with Maisie doing a bit and Emily doing a bit, the scarf was nearly finished.

  ‘I see you’ve been busy,’ he said, kissing his daughter’s head.

  ‘Yes. I’ve learnt to knit and we made bread and played with Emily’s make-up. But she made me take it off because she thought you’d be cross.’

  ‘I didn’t quite say that, did I?’ said Emily, feeling a bit caught out.

  ‘Not exactly,’ said Kate. ‘But I knew what you meant.’

  Kate, Emily decided, was very grown-up for her age. And very perceptive. Any woman her father fell in love with and really wanted to marry would have a very hard time. On the other hand, she would protect her dad from anyone who just saw him as ‘eligible.’

  All traces of flour on the floor and mess in the galley had been removed by the time Billie and the others came back. Something in Billie’s attitude had changed.

  ‘Hi,’ she said. ‘We picked wild raspberries. You can eat them yourself or put them in a pudding.’ She put the plastic bag on the worktop. ‘I’ll go and change and take over dinner if you like.’

  Emily didn’t hesitate. She undid her apron and thanked Billie; then she went up on deck to look at her surroundings.

  James joined her, leaning over the bow, looking at the hills. ‘Here.’ He handed her a tube. ‘You might need this. Now we’re stationary, the midges will gather.

  ‘Oh, thanks,’ said Emily, smearing on the cream. ‘They’ve been OK so far.’

  ‘They’re not so bad when we’re at sea but the instant we moor up, they pounce.’ He didn’t speak for a few seconds, looking at the scenery. ‘Fabulous view, isn’t it?’

  ‘So far, they’ve all been fabulous views,’ said Emily. ‘Although for me they’ve been glimpsed out of the galley window. Or is it a porthole?’

  ‘I tend think of portholes being round, windows being anything with corners. But you must get out of the galley more. I had a word with Billie.’

  ‘I wondered if you had. She sent me off out of the kitchen so she can finish dinner.’

  ‘Good. You’ve been really busy, looking after my niece and Maisie.’ James turned away from the view to look at Emily. ‘It was really very kind of you and beyond the call of duty.’

  ‘They looked after each other. We taught Kate to knit and had a great time. And I know Becca wouldn’t have asked just anyone to do it but I am her friend and she knew I wouldn’t mind.’

  ‘She asked me to talk to Billie. Becca has lost a layer of tact since she’s been pregnant and realised if she said anything to Billie she might say too much.’

  ‘And we wouldn’t want Billie walking out,’ said Emily, with a shudder. ‘I had a bit of a word with her myself.’

  ‘Well, she seems to have got the message now. She’s actually a really good deck hand and I’ll employ her next year like a shot.’ James smiled. ‘She might not be so keen if we don’t have Drew.’

  Emily smiled back – young love was rather sweet. ‘And she’s good in the kitchen, too. So I’m glad she seems to be on the same team as the rest of us now.’

  ‘Becca felt she was a bit untidy,’ said James.

  ‘Becca
has very high standards. I do too, for myself, but not so much for others.’

  ‘So you taught Kate to knit? That’s clever!’

  ‘Maisie did most of it. She’s taught all her grandchildren to knit.’

  ‘It’s good for Kate to have some female company,’ James went on. ‘But she can be a bit prickly if she feels any woman has designs on my brother.’

  Emily laughed. ‘Maybe that’s why we got on so well! I made it quite clear that I do not have designs on your brother. Nice as he is,’ she added quickly.

  ‘So you’re a confirmed spinster, then?’

  Emily made a face. ‘Spinster refers to spinning, and I’m a confirmed knitter.’

  ‘A knitster?’

  ‘Mm. Good – I like that.’

  ‘So why haven’t you been snapped up, as my mother would say? If you don’t mind me asking.’

  ‘I don’t mind. It’s really to do with my work. Very irregular hours. My last boyfriend got a bit fed up with me never being there in the night and having to sleep during the day. I could see his point. We parted as friends.’ She glanced at her watch. ‘I’ve got time to either go for a short walk or look at emails before I get the table set for dinner.’

  ‘Go for a walk. Captain’s orders. You need the fresh air. But before you go, I wanted to thank you for leaving everything to help us out. Becca was so grateful and relieved.’

  ‘I was thrilled to come. I needed to get away and this is really “away”.’ She gestured to the view. ‘I haven’t been here long but I really love it.’

  ‘And it’s not too much like hard work? And difficult sharing such a tiny space with Billie?’

  ‘It’s absolutely fine! And if you don’t mind, I’ll have that walk now.’

  Refreshed from her walk, Emily went back into the galley just as Billie was about to mash potatoes. ‘Shall I do that? Or would you like me to get the table set?’

  ‘Maisie offered to do that,’ said Billie, ‘so mash the spuds if you like. Or see to your emails. Your phone beeped.’

  ‘I’ll just see what it is and then help you.’

  There was an email from Sally, the midwife she worked with.