by Peters, Sue
`How do you mean?’ Jo wasn’t really interested, but talking helped to pass the endless minutes. It was the Kittiwake’s master who interested her, not the boat, but it seemed as if the one was inseparable from the other.
`Any profit the Kittiwake makes over and above her own running costs goes to the lifeboat station,’ Hannah told her. `The coast’s wild hereabouts, we get a lot of storms, and it means heavy running costs for the lifeboat station. They’ve got the very latest boat,’ she added proudly. ‘They commissioned it last year, that’s why the Gull had to wait another year to be built.’
No wonder the three brothers had been so interested in the amount their catch would fetch. Enlightenment dawned on Jo. She had not been able to understand why Dan and Lance chose such hard dangerous work when it was not strictly necessary.
`They’re brave.’ Hero-worship shone in Chris’s eyes.
`Aye, they’re brave,’ Hannah acknowledged. ‘They’ve both got a Royal National Lifeboat Institution’s award for gallantry, and those awards aren’t won for nothing.’
`They never said …’
`They wouldn’t. And when they come back, you’re not to tell them I told you,’ she cautioned the boy. ‘They’re on
their way now—look.’ She turned Chris’s attention out of the wide glass-panelled lounge.
`There’s two boats.’ Chris glued his nose to the pane. `Oh, can’t we go down and see them in? Please?’ he begged.
`Take the lad down,’ Hannah bade Jo. ‘I’ll stay on here, they’ll want a quick meal and finish their business here before they go back home now, time’s getting on.’
`Come on Jo, do !’ Chris tugged impatiently at her sleeve.
`There’s plenty of time,’ Hannah said calmly. ‘Don’t forget, the boat’s not only got to make its own way in, it’s towing the other as well. It’ll slow them down a lot.’
`Just the same,’ Jo stood up, as eager to be away as her brother, ‘we’ll go and watch them come in.’ For the moment she had almost ceased to care whether Dan loved her or not—almost—so long as he stepped safely ashore. Once she’d seen him again, it would matter …
`Hey, slow down ! Hannah said there’s no need to rush.’
`Sorry.’ Remorsefully Jo checked her speed, but it was with a sigh of relief she reached the street corner where they had stood and watched the boat being launched.
`We’re not the first.’
Several more women were there. The young expectant mother was one. And now the women talked among themselves. Not of the job their menfolk had put to sea to do, Jo noticed, nor yet of their own relief at their imminent return. They spoke casually of mundane things. The cost of children’s shoes. ‘They don’t last ‘im five minutes, the young rip, and you can’t stop ‘em playing hopscotch, can you?’ One had got a new knitting pattern, and bemoaned its complications.
`It seems quieter.’ Was it only her imagination, or was the roar of the waves against the sea wall less than it was? Jo listened, trying to decide.
`The tide’s on the turn.’ The dark-haired girl volunteered the information, and her eyes smiled in a friendly fashion, no longer remote, locked in her own anguished fear. ‘The force has gone out of the water.’
`They’ll be in in about twenty minutes,’ the middle-aged woman who had grumbled about the price of shoes turned purposefully. ‘I’ll go and put the dinner on.’
`I’ve cooked ours,’ the young wife admitted.
`You’ll soon learn to time it better.’ Her companion went off in the direction of home, but the dark-haired girl lingered, standing with Jo and Chris until, with what seemed an impossible effort, the two boats tied up and after a short wait a knot of blue-jerseyed figures emerged from the lifeboat station and broke up to go their different ways as they reached the corner of the main street. A young fresh-faced man, his hair as fair as his wife’s was dark, came up and took her arm.
`I’m hungry.’
`Your dinner’s spoiled.’
`Never mind, love, it’ll go down well just the same.’
Their voices faded, and there was Dan and Lance, safe and sound and walking towards her. Lance turned to call something to the young couple, and Dan walked on. Jo could feel his eyes on her across the width of the street. They held hers, as they had done on the Kittiwake, but this time she did not want to look away. She gazed back at him as if she could not look enough, reassuring herself over and over again that he was safe.
`Dan …’ She half stepped towards him, unable to quite check her relief, and his eyes lit up with a smile.
`You shouldn’t have waited all this time,’ he scolded, but gently, he did not sound cross You must be frozen.’ He reached out and cupped his hands over hers. They were warm and strong, and wonderfully alive. Her own tingled with the touch of them. ‘I didn’t think when we went-when the siren sounded …’ His voice held an odd sort of compunction, and Jo wondered why. He had told her to stay with Hannah. He must have known she would do as he asked, she had given him her word.
`I haven’t been here, not all the time. We went to the hotel with Hannah.’ She was quick to justify herself. But when we saw the boat coming back I—I had to—’ she stumbled to a stop, and now her eyes faltered shyly.
`It’s all over now,’ he told her softly. ‘There was nothing to be frightened of, really.’ Tessa would probably have known that. She had not, and the strain had been consequently greater. It showed in her tense figure and haunted eyes that sought his again, unable to quite believe their own evidence, that he stood safely before her. He squeezed her hand reassuringly. ‘I’ll tell you all about it later,’ he promised. ‘But not now. Later, when we’re …’
`Did you say Hannah was still up at the hotel?’ Lance caught his brother up and interrupted whatever it was he had been about to say. ‘I’m starving !’ he declared, boyishly.
`Hannah stayed at the hotel to order lunch for all of us.’ I’m doing it myself, now, Jo thought, half hysterically. Talking about food when—when—her own voice sounded calm and practical in her ears, and yet how could it, when her feelings were in such a turmoil? And what was Dan going to say? Fervently Jo wished Lance had let him finish.
`I won’t come up for lunch with you.’ Dan loosed her hand, he seemed to let it go reluctantly, and immediately her fingers felt icy cold again, but it was the coldness of desolation, it had nothing to do with the weather. ‘I’ve got to see the Council people about getting that field fenced off, the sooner that’s done the better, before there’s an accident, and their offices aren’t open after mid-afternoon. I daren’t leave it. And then there’s the engine bit to be collected. I
want to check to make sure it’s the right one,’ he shook his head as Lance offered to go for him.
`All right, we can meet at the car park about four, then,’ Lance said casually. ‘Come on, young ‘un,’ he grasped Chris’s shoulder, ‘you and I’ll have to eat Dan’s lunch between us.’
`Don’t wait for me in case I’m delayed.’ Dan looked searchingly at Jo. ‘If you get any colder you’ll be sneezing by morning,’ he prophesied. ‘Take the car back, Hannah’s got the keys. I’ll get a lift home with Julian, we’ll be home in time for dinner.’ And he left them, striding up the steep, cobbled street, the street that Julian found it difficult to walk up when it was wet.
And that was that. No eager hug of greeting, not even from the dark-haired girl for her young husband. She must have longed to throw her arms about him, as much as Jo longed to embrace Dan. Her own arms ached now with emptiness, but she took her cue from the other girl’s behaviour, which brought home to her more forcibly than perhaps anything else could have done the truth of Hannah’s words. The young husband had received no joyous greeting, just, ‘Your dinner’s spoiled,’ and he had replied in kind. A casual resumption of their everyday life, as if nothing untoward had happened. Would she ever be able to do the same? Jo wondered. Would she be able to accept Dan’s way of life? Hannah had said it must be accepted to be borne or left alo
ne altogether. To share him willingly with the Kittiwake, and the element that sustained it? Or leave him behind, and cut him out of her life for ever?
Once again she asked herself the question. Would she have the strength to do either?
CHAPTER EIGHT
`EAT your cabbage. Sailors get ‘scurvy if they don’t eat plenty of greens.’ Lance took blatant advantage of Chris’s new plans for when he was grown up.
`I don’t want to be a sailor. I want to be a lifeboatman, same’s you.’
`I thought I recognised you as one of the men on the lifeboat. I didn’t get the chance to thank you properly for the tow you gave us this morning.’ An affected drawl cut across their conversation, and a man and girl paused by their table. Both wore yachting gear, brand new from the look of it, Jo noticed observantly, and both of them looked as if they would have been more at home sunning themselves on the beach of some fashionable Mediterranean resort than in the lounge of St Mendoc’s only hotel.
`Caused quite a bit of excitement, what?’ drawled the man, leaning languidly against the back of Hannah’s chair, and bringing a frown of disapproval to that worthy’s face.
`Meet the master and crew of the cabin cruiser we brought in just now.’ Lance’s voice was dry. ‘Another quarter mile and the current would have pulled you straight on to the Claw Rocks.’ He looked directly at the man, his manner holding more than a hint of Dan’s sternness. ‘I don’t think you would have found the consequences exciting then,’ he added curtly, and the man flushed, and straightened away from Hannah’s chair. She settled her hat like an angry hen settling its feathers, and gave a disapproving sniff
`I say, you can’t blame a body for running out of fuel,’ the man protested, his condescending manner wilting slightly under the joint disapproval. ‘Two double Scotches,
waiter.’ He snapped his fingers arrogantly, and brought a scowl to the erstwhile pleasant visage of the waiter.
`Do you mean to say you didn’t check your fuel before you set out?’ Disbelief choked Lance’s utterance for a minute, and the girl spoke up defensively.
`Why should we bother? The fellow who sees to the boat said he’d have it ready. He’s paid to do that kind of thing.’ `All tanked up, he said,’ her escort confirmed.
`Of course, we did set off an hour or two earlier than we said we would, darling,’ the girl giggled. ‘It was all a bit of a lark, really. Wait till we get home and tell them!’ She gave Lance a ravishing smile. ‘They’ll all be jealous that we’ve been rescued by such a handsome bunch. But we were so busy looking at that cluster of birds on the water, we didn’t really notice we were in any danger, and then the engine passed out. It’s a good job you knew how to use the radio, you clever boy,’ she simpered to her companion.
`What birds were those?’ Lance struggled to be polite.
`Oh, I don’t know, they could have been anything. They were all covered in oil, the poor dears.’
`Oil?’ Lance sat up, giving her all his attention now. `Whereabouts did you see them?’
`Oh, about half a mile out from where you took us in tow,’ the man told him as the girl shrugged indifferently. He looked relieved at the change of subject.
`Did you pick them up?’
`Good heavens, no!’ the girl grimaced her distaste. ‘I told you, they were all covered in oil. They’d have made the deck dirty. Daddy’ll be cross enough as it is that we’ve taken his boat in the first place.’
`Your whiskies, sir.’ The waiter drew their attention just in time to prevent Lance’s feelings from boiling over.
`I detest painted fingernails.’ He vented his wrath on the first thing he remembered as they emerged from the hotel, leaving Hannah in the lounge chatting to a crony, with a
firm promise to be at the car park by four, while Jo and Chris accompanied him to the boatyard.
`Fancy leaving those birds !’ He could not forget the callous behaviour of the pair he had recently helped to rescue, and he strode forward with angry steps.
`Afternoon, Lance,’ a voice hailed them from what Jo had taken to be a large warehouse close against the beach. `Heard you took the boat out, this morning.’ A man rounded the door with a saw in his hands, and nodded in a friendly fashion to Jo and Chris.
`A cabin cruiser. They ran out of fuel.’ Incredulity still rang in Lance’s voice. ‘Anyhow, while we were here I thought I’d run over a few things with you about the Gull.’ Evidently this was the boatyard, and the man chatting to them was the foreman Lance intended to see.
`Ooh look, Jo, you can see its ribs !’ Chris peered round the door and his eyes widened at the skeleton of the boat confronting him
`It’s the cladding I’ve come to see you about, among other things. Go ahead and have a look, Jo,’ Lance added, `you won’t be in the way. Now, I’d thought of having …’ The two men slowly walked round the boat, deep in conversation, and Jo gazed about her, fascinated by the birth of a new vessel. Dan’s boat. Still only half finished, and landlocked on the boatyard, it looked somehow pathetic. It was hard to believe it would soon ride the sea as proud as the Kittiwake and obedient to its master’s command. For the first time, Jo sensed something of the pride Dan must feel in his boat. Perhaps he had watched the Kittiwake being built, maybe taken her on her maiden voyage, and so forged a link that made the boat peculiarly his own. Would he give the Kittiwake to Lance when this one was built, and take over the Gull when she was ready? If he did it would grant Lance’s dearest wish, to skipper a boat of his own.
Absorbed in what she saw, she followed Chris slowly
round the structure, and stopped abruptly as they came to the big double doors again, and found Amos leaning against the doorpost.
`Have you come to see how she’s getting along, Amos? ‘Twon’t be long before she’s commissioned.’ The foreman appeared as well and smiled at Jo. ‘Lance won’t be long, miss, he’s making a couple of phone calls to the component suppliers. His word will carry more weight then mine.’
Because he was a Penderick. But if the family held a position of authority, it had been hard won, and the universal respect they received from the community in which they lived was only their due, and it no longer aggravated her.
`He’ll be here to give you a lift home any minute,’ the man added cheerfully.
`We’re living with Dan Penderick.’ Chris made it abundantly clear that Lance’s home was also theirs, and he did it in a most ill-chosen manner
`That could be true.’ A voice, barbed with malice, turned Jo and the two men around, and Jo groaned. Tessa again. She had a shopping basket in her hand; probably she thought Dan had come down to the boatyard, and came herself in the hope of meeting him.
Well, she’ll be disappointed this time, Jo thought grimly. There was no doubt the girl had heard what Chris said, and put the worst possible construction on his innocent words. Her face went white with anger. Even her lips lost their normal healthy colour.
`Well, now …’ The foreman looked heartily embarrassed, not knowing how to cope with the situation. Amos had greater faith in his own capabilities.
`On your way home, gel.’ His face was stern, and he waved his pipe at Tessa in angry dismissal. ‘Get off with you. Now !’ he ordered.
`Oh, very well, I know when I’m not wanted. And Dan’s
not here anyhow.’ She flashed Jo a glance of pure malice and flounced off, and the old fisherman stuck his pipe back between his teeth and looked straight at Jo.
`Tek no notice o’ that one, wench,’ he told her, and this time his growl had a kindly sound to it. ‘She’s no leddy herself, and don’t know when she sees one. Aye !’ With this pronouncement he stamped off, whether to see that Tessa had obeyed his order or not he did not say. ‘See you later at the Anchor,’ his voice called back to the foreman, and Lance grinned as he joined them.
Did I hear Amos call you wench?’ he asked interestedly, and when Jo nodded, ‘You are honoured,’ he assured her. `He only calls a woman wench if he really likes her.’ His eyes l
aughed, but his voice was quite serious, and strangely Jo knew he meant what he said. ‘Heavens, is that the time?’ He caught sight of the clock on the workshed wall. ‘Come on, we’ll have to hurry if we’re not to keep Hannah waiting. You can come and have a look at the Gull another time.’ He took Jo’s arm, and calling to Chris hurried her away in the direction of the parked car. ‘In the meantime, try practising breaking a bottle of champagne over her bows. In imagination, of course,’ he corrected himself with a grin. ‘We’ll give you the real job on the day,’ he promised.
Jo doubted it. That job would go to Tessa, not herself. But she did not say so to Lance. He liked Melanie well enough, but somehow she felt he did not care for Tessa very much; there was a reservation in the younger man’s manner when Tessa was around that was not evident in Dan.
`We’ve just made it,’ Chris triumphed, gesturing towards where Hannah walked purposefully towards the car, but still some yards distant. ‘There’s Melanie with her.’ He waved, and the young girl broke into a run.
`I’ve come to see your bird book,’ she panted to a stop. `Hannah said it cost a whole pound.’ Her voice held awe.
`I earned it, crewing on the Kittiwake.’ Chris tugged it
from under his coat. ‘It’s all wrapped up now. Come home with us and have a look at it there, we can sit on the rug and see it together.’
`Chris ! It’s not home to us. You mustn’t …’ Jo went scarlet with embarrassment and Lance laughed.
`It’s home for now,’ he said easily, ‘that’s good enough. And it’s been second home to this one since she could toddle,’ he tugged a lock of Melanie’s dark hair in an older brother fashion. ‘Come back with us if you want to, Sprite, I expect Hannah will let you stay to tea. That is, if it will be O.K. with Tessa?’ he added dutifully.
`She said I could stop out until supper time.’ Melanie squeezed into the car with Chris. Probably Penderick House had been home from home with both the girls, Jo thought. Tessa would be much of an age with the two younger Penderick men, probably they had played together as children. Been invited to the same parties, and so on.