The Merciless Ladies (14 page)

‘Well, bananas should be quiet enough', Holly said. ‘You can't even make a noise eating one.'

‘Why don't you come home with us?' Paul said. ‘We've the room and the quietness.'

She looked at him directly for a moment, then transferred her bright eyes to me. ‘ Do you mean that?'

Surprised at this reaction, I said: ‘If we'd a commodious steam yacht of about a thousand tons we'd be only too happy … You haven't seen our gilded dinghy.'

‘There's a spare cabin', said Paul. ‘With two bunks. It's as cramped as the devil, but there'd be nothing to disturb you.'

‘Except being bobbed about like a pea in a can and probably being sick for a fortnight', I observed.

Sir Clement dabbed his bald head with his table napkin. ‘Very warm in here. When I was a boy', he said, ‘I went to Australia in a three-masted barque. I remember being sick, but it soon passed. The captain was a Glasgow man. He used to quote Burns when the weather turned bad.

Drumossie moor, Drumossie day,
A waefu' day it was to me!
For there I lost my father dear,
My father dear and brethren three.
Their winding-sheet the bluidy clay,
Their graves are growing green to see.

Are you making this as a serious proposition, Mr Stafford?'

‘We can't go, Daddy', said Holly. ‘ Bill doesn't want us.'

‘Ridiculous', I said. ‘Withdraw the statement!'

‘Oh, I'll withdraw it', she said, ‘if you'll invite us to come.'

I looked at Paul. How far he
had
seriously meant the suggestion I couldn't be sure, but now he seemed in earnest. They were all smiling at me.

‘Unfortunately', I said, ‘I'm the only responsible person at this meal. You're all a lot cleverer than I am, but so far as common sense goes you're twelve-year-olds.'

Holly said to Paul: ‘I love Bill when he's being fatherly.'

Paul put his head back and laughed. ‘Give it up, Bill. They know you're shamming.'

The trouble with a lecture tour is that one has to
wear
things', said Sir Clement. ‘It would be a great relief not having to
wear
things. We should necessarily travel light?'

‘One suitcase each at the outside.'

He beamed. ‘My papers will just go in one case.'

‘Make it a waterproof one', I said.

‘Would you really mind, Bill?' Holly asked.

‘
Mind?
' I said.

‘Good!' said Paul. ‘I think it might be arranged.'

‘It's arranged that we should like them to come', I said. ‘But at the risk of seeming fatherly again, I must point out a few of the provisos. First, let the idea be slept on tonight; see what second thoughts the morning brings. Then these two – children must be given a thorough opportunity of inspecting the cutter, and perhaps of taking a short trip in her to give them every excuse for backing out. Then if enthusiasm still remains at the same level John Connor must be consulted, since it's his yacht. Finally, I suppose we should get the views of the brothers Grimm, whether they would feel like tackling the journey with two more passengers … that is, with a net increase of one. They're all points to be considered, but the most important is whether you two have the slightest notion of the sort of voyage you may be taking on.'

‘I think', said Sir Clement, eating rapidly, ‘that a certain fine balance of imagination is necessary at the outset of all ventures. Enough to make the enterprise seem desirable, but not too much or the enterprise would never be undertaken.'

‘That's exactly how I feel', said Holly.

‘Fr'instance', he went on, ‘had I known all the discomforts of that voyage to Australia I should never as a boy have had the courage to embark. But I have always been glad that I went. Pass the pepper, will you, Bill?'

I passed the pepper and smiled at Holly and felt myself already defeated.

In dealing with the Lynns it was always useless to expect the rational behaviour of ordinary creatures.

Paul was delighted with them. Unpleasant memories of the last few months, the shadow ofthe impending action, the stateness of overwork, the sham suaveness of the social new arrival, all these seemed to slip away.

The Lynns went to see John Connor, and, after he had assured himself that they were in their right minds and had not been cajoled by us, he raised no objection. Nor did the Grimshawes. Except for the awkwardness of having a girl about, one extra would make little difference.

The weather remained perfect, a slight westerly breeze with hot sun and cloudless skies, and the trip we took the Lynns round the island as an experiment was a too-complete success. Their tour of America had not been conducted without a good deal of lavish hospitality, and the prospect now of some discomfort and rough-and-ready meals was like a breath from home.

So we laid in our stores. Water for a month, bread in tins, lime juice, milk and tongues and pressed beef in cans, potatoes, sugar, butter, honey and jam, dried eggs, a big shallow box of spring onions planted in soil, soap and paraffin and matches, all the stores we had brought on the outward journey with some additional quantity and in a little more variety. Some of the additional stores were packed in the fo'c'sle, and Paul made room for extra water by selling his case of whisky to the hotel where we were staying.

We parted from Connor with good wishes and expressions of regret and weighed anchor exactly at dawn the day after. While it was still dark we had rowed out and taken our dinghy aboard. Both sea and land were very quiet, and there was an air of excitement and conspiracy about it. Very few lights in Funchal, and the island behind brooded dark and mountainous. A breeze stirred and moved across the ripples of the harbour.

We raised sail and slipped slowly away from the land, the last land we should approach for a thousand miles, if all went well. As the night lifted, the sky opened its opal of early
light
, with delicate pale islands of cloud decorating the silent greens of the east. Then a few darker clouds gathered and the sun sprang up behind them like the opening of furnace doors.

We had a free wind all that first day. Holly and her father had taken Connor's rear cabin, which was the most private, the rest of the accommodation remaining unchanged. Paul, I noticed, had bought a sketching block and some crayons in Funchal, but he still made no attempt to use them. He talked a good deal to both Holly and her father, and the expression in his long-lashed blue eyes was more than usually intent. Undeterred by my warning, he began to ply them with questions about their own work, which was a new world to him. They were very patient with him.

The sun went down that night brilliant but brassy, and clouds assembled in twos and threes on the horizon, pink and gold, with patches of washed green surrounding them. Dave Grimshawe caught my eye and jerked his thumb towards it, but we didn't say anything. After all, we couldn't expect all fine weather, and a few showery days would do no harm. Everyone was very happy and content.

The night was clear and calm, with an old moon rising after midnight and the wind a gentle breeze on our port quarter. Morning dawned watery but fine, and the choppy sea changed in character. A long, dark swell began to come in from the west. Almost for the first time since leaving England we saw cloud and felt the strength of the element on which we sailed.

The wind had gone north-west, but so far there was little of it. But the swell grew all day, until to us, who were accustomed to the swells of the narrow seas, it seemed of tremendous proportions. What affected one was not only the height of the waves but the great distances between them. From furrows ploughed in a field they had become hills and valleys. The cutter would lift to the top of one, light and airy, and it seemed without weight; in front of it was a great sleek-sided valley; you were on top of a ridge which stretched away for miles on either side, on top of a world of swift-moving water, then the vessel would slide down the side into a dark green, bottle green valley, the sails would flap, she would yaw a little; the valley was wide and dark and deep and there was no horizon to see, but some way off and approaching rapidly would be a rushing mountain of grey, swelling mast-high. She would answer her helm and shift back on her course and begin a slow climb, until the last moment when she would rise heart-lurchingly up and up like a cork, like a sea-gull, until we were again on top and gazing oyer all the rushing sea to the rim of the world.

We had a light supper that evening in a quieter mood. Everything in the saloon creaked and slatted and groaned. The cutter seemed to be travelling through the water faster than she really was, and at times would twist and shudder disconcertingly. Every time we went down into a trough the sensation was like that of the Grand Dipper at a holiday fairground.

Holly had spent the day on deck in flannel slacks and a grey jumper, but in honour of the evening meal had changed into a skirt and blouse. Her hair had grown wilder and more Holly-like as the day progressed, but this also she had restored to its recent semi-tidiness. Despite the self-levelling table, cups slid about all over the place and could never be more than a quarter full. Towards the end of the meal Paul rose and lit the hanging paraffin lamp, but this made things still more uncomfortable. It swung its light constantly and maliciously backwards and forwards, creating and reducing shadows every few seconds and giving a goblinesque effect to the scene.

No sunset this evening; just a darkening of the clouds and a loss of the periodic horizon. Dave Grimshawe lit the navigation lights, and the night fell upon us.

Holly went to bed with a sick headache. She said the lamp was giving her the jitters. I saw that Paul was feeling ill also, but he would not let me take his turn at the wheel. In fact I didn't think the Grimshawes would allow him to take the wheel on a night like this, but I didn't argue and, since there was nothing else to do, turned in. I remember hearing it begin to rain heavily just before midnight, but did not hear Paul come in and slept soundly until dawn.

Paul woke me being sick. I condoled with him while I dressed and then went on deck. It was blowing now from somewhere north of west and raining too. We were scudding along on our fore canvas and a snugly-reefed mainsail. Sam Grimshawe was at the wheel and I struggled to him. Drips of water formed and fell from the ends of his moustache. I shouted that the glass was not falling any more, but he shook his head. Presently he removed his unlighted pipe and spat overboard.

‘Am – eck – ine – er.' His words were blown away. On my asking for a repetition he was understood to say that we couldn't always expect fine weather. This was the sort of remark to invite no response, so I told him I'd get some breakfast and then relieve him at the wheel for a bit.

On going below I knocked at the door of the rear cabin and was told to enter. Holly was up and dressed but looking pale. Sir Clement was sitting up in his bunk in vivid crimson-striped pyjamas, his long legs dangling almost to the floor.

‘Rough morning', I said. ‘It's blowing a bit and wet. How are you both?'

Holly pulled her mouth into a wry shape. ‘We've had a foul night, being sick in turns. I'm better at present, but Daddy's still in the middle of it.'

Sir Clement said:

‘The boat rocks at the pier o' Leith,
Fu' loud the wind blaws frae the ferry.

I find I dislike the sensation of seasickness more now than when I was a lad. But it comes back to me like yesterday.'

‘Stay on your back today, Sir Clement', I advised. ‘Don't try to work and it will pass off quicker. I'll get you a cup of tea with plenty of glucose in it.'

‘My dear Bill, there's a hoodoo on my work', he said. ‘First a dance band and then bad weather. Both produce in me the sensation of not wanting to live much longer.'

‘I need some air', said Holly abruptly. She pulled on a béret.

I followed her up the companion-ladder, which dipped and jerked as we climbed it. On deck I clutched a stay and put an arm round her to steady her against the first fierce thrust of the wind. After a moment or two one became used to the pressure. I noticed again how bright her eyes had become since she grew up.

She shouted: ‘How's Paul?'

‘In the same boat', I said.

‘You needn't be humorous about it.' She looked at me. ‘Are you never sick, Bill?'

‘I feel queasy but nothing happens. That's so long as I keep eating.'

‘Ugh! Well, it's better up here. The air's – fresh. It clears your brain.'

The swell had broken up during the night, and sometimes flying spray was indistinguishable from the rain as it swept across the deck. Even on the lee side there was little protection.

We stayed for about ten minutes, then went below. I brewed tea for the invalids and had a cup with Holly in the saloon. I judged she was feeling better because she was able to watch me eating a boiled egg and bread and butter without aversion. The conversation turned to Paul, and I told her something of his recent history.

‘And what's he going to do when it's all over?' she asked. ‘He won't get many portrait commissions if he paints them all like that.'

‘I think it was just a freak; a sudden break-away that won't be repeated.'

‘It must be a bore to be famous', she said. ‘And dangerous. If everyone kept telling me how wonderful I was I might in the end come to believe it. I wonder if great men have any sense of humour.'

‘It depends on the type. All embryo dictators ought to be sent on a voyage like this. It might save the world.'

‘You mean if the yacht foundered.'

I laughed. ‘Not necessarily. If the wind merely blew hard enough and they found themselves bobbing about in a very empty sea.'

She nodded. ‘Most sailors have a feeling for religion.' She thoughtfully screwed a drip of water out of her béret and was silent. ‘I wish I had more.'