The Wedding Proposal

by Sue Moorcroft

  ‘Thank you.’

  ‘Thank you,’ echoed Carmelo. He put the glass to his lips and took a cautious sip. Then his face cleared and he took a healthy swig.

  Lucas hid a smile. He suspected that Carmelo wasn’t familiar with ginger ale and had only chosen it in the supposition that anything had to be more fun than water.

  Elle sank down to sit cross-legged on the deck. ‘You must live close by, Carmelo, to be playing in the gardens.’

  Carmelo looked down into his glass.

  ‘Did you know I was living here on a boat?’

  The little boy shrugged. Lucas would bet his bank account that Carmelo had simply followed Elle home. Carmelo’s brown eyes, whenever they rested on Elle, spoke of adoration.

  ‘I live on the boat, too.’ Lucas took a sip of his ginger ale. Not bad. Usually he only drank it when there was a healthy slug of scotch in it.

  Elle developed the theme. ‘Who do you live with, Carmelo? Your parents?’

  ‘Mama and Nonnu.’

  ‘Your mother and grandmother?’ Elle hazarded.

  ‘Nonnu, he is the father of my mother.’

  ‘Oh, your grandfather. Fantastic.’ Elle’s dress blew in the wind and she tucked it around her legs. ‘I used to love my grandfather. My nonnu. Do you have brothers and sisters?’

  Carmelo shook his head, and drank the rest of his ginger ale in one long draught.

  Seized with a sudden ambition to see the solemn little boy smile a bit more, Lucas swigged his down, too. Then let out a giant burp.

  Carmelo burst into giggles that rose like birdsong on the hot afternoon air.

  Lucas belched again. ‘Pardon me.’

  With a grin that showed a wonky front tooth, Carmelo let out a burp of his own, then two more, laughing so much between gas emissions that he could barely manage his ‘Pardon mes’.

  ‘Amazing how well burps and men go together,’ Elle observed, drily. But her eyes laughed.

  Lucas winked at Carmelo and the little boy burst into giggles again, trying, unsuccessfully, to squeeze out a new burp. Instead, he was seized by a hiccup so loud that it made him give an ‘Oh!’ of surprise. Which made him giggle harder than ever. Giggles and hiccups began to alternate, his shoulders shaking.

  Lucas found himself wondering when the little boy had last laughed like a little boy ought to. He’d looked so solemn, spying on Elle from behind the twisted brown-grey trunk of the pine tree.

  It was Elle who was watching Carmelo, now. Although she was smiling, her expression struck Lucas as odd, as if she were fighting a hidden pain.

  ‘Looks like somebody’s having fun.’ The voice came from the quayside, the speaker a woman with thick auburn hair and a wide grin.

  Lucas jumped up, feeling somehow caught out. ‘Kayleigh! I thought you were going to text me when you arrived.’

  Kayleigh stepped easily across the gangplank. ‘Why bother the satellite when I only had a few hundred yards to walk?’ She looked at Lucas and flung her arms wide expectantly.

  Lucas pulled her into a huge hug, glad to see her, but acutely aware of Elle, and that they were all trapped together in a small space.

  As if picking up on his reticence, Kayleigh released him and turned to Elle and Carmelo. ‘Good to meet you. I’m Kayleigh Dunn.’

  Scrambling up, Elle flushed. ‘I’m E-Elle and this is Carmelo.’ Then she glanced at her watch. ‘Sorry to run off the moment you turn up, Kayleigh. I need to go to work.’

  ‘I understand,’ Kayleigh replied easily.

  Elle began collecting the empty glasses. ‘Maybe I’ll see you on Monday, Carmelo?’

  The little boy got to his feet with an air of resignation.

  Lucas held up his palm for a high five. ‘Great to meet you, Carmelo. Good burps.’

  He at least got a smile as Carmelo high fived him back.

  ‘Do you need me to see you across the road?’ Elle asked him.

  Carmelo shook his head and, evidently accepting the inevitable, crossed the gangplank without a wobble and wandered along in the direction of the bridge, glancing back a couple of times.

  With a bright smile, Elle turned away. ‘Excuse me, I have to go, too.’ She whisked through the doors and out of sight.

  ‘Sorry I broke up the party – but hello.’ Kayleigh gave Lucas another hard hug.

  Lucas was apologetic. ‘Carmelo was a bit of an uninvited guest but Elle obviously wanted to give him a few minutes of her time.’

  ‘Cool lady,’ nodded Kayleigh, approvingly.

  Trying to push Elle from his mind, Lucas brought his attention to the woman by his side. ‘Give me a moment to grab my wallet and then we can get a beer or something.’

  But Kayleigh just pulled him down beside her on the seat. ‘We don’t need to go rushing off. I bet you’ve got a cold beer here for a hot visitor?’

  ‘You know me so well.’ He fetched a couple of cold bottles from the fridge.

  When he sat back down, Kayleigh hooked an arm companionably through his, asking about the quality of Maltese beer, chatting about her trip, her work. He understood her well enough to know that she’d parked herself on board the Shady Lady for a reason.

  As if on cue, Elle reappeared, making to brush past with cheery goodbyes.

  Kayleigh pulled her up short. ‘I think your little friend’s doubled back to hide out in the park.’

  Elle braked to a stop. This time, she didn’t swing around and gaze into the shadows. Instead, she sighed. ‘Really? I was hoping he’d go home. He attends the centre where I’m volunteering and I think he’s taken a shine to me.’

  Kayleigh nodded. ‘I work in a children’s hospice and I recognise the signs. He’s becoming attached to you. It’s hard when that happens because your heart goes out to him but you can’t play favourites. And you have to be careful not to do anything that can be construed as inappropriate.’

  Elle looked agonised. ‘Exactly. And I’m a real novice – I’ve only been volunteering a week.’

  ‘Be friendly but aware of the pitfalls, is my advice. Maybe mention the situation to someone at the centre.’ Kayleigh took a swig from her bottle. ‘If it was me, I’d pretend I didn’t know he was back in the gardens and go about my business.’

  ‘Good plan, thanks.’ With a wave, Elle left the boat and hurried up the quayside.

  ‘Very cool lady,’ repeated Kayleigh. ‘Got a good heart and doing her bit by volunteering. So tell me how it feels to be sharing the boat with her.’

  Lucas groaned. ‘Give me a break, Kay.’

  ‘Nope.’ She shook her head. ‘You can’t phone me to casually mention that you’re sharing a boat with the girl who mashed your heart and expect me just to say, “Oh, that’s nice,” and talk about the weather. I know how you used to feel about her.’

  ‘OK.’ Lucas sighed. ‘It was a hell of a shock when she turned up here. For both of us. We flared up at each other and then we both flared up at Simon for coming up with the masterful plan of arranging for us to be here at the same time.’

  Kayleigh watched him. ‘It seems wayward, even for Simon.’

  He took a reflective pull of his beer. ‘Yes, considering that there are a lot of hurt feelings still stabbing at us both.’

  ‘Unresolved issues?’

  He laughed, humourlessly. ‘Not kidding.’ Suddenly the beer bottle was empty in his hand and he realised that he’d hardly been aware of tipping the contents down his throat. He gazed at the froth running down inside the glass as if it held answers.

  ‘It sounds as if your shared history’s eating at you. You need to sort it out.’

  Lucas shifted restlessly. ‘Do we have to do this, Kay? It’s great you’re here but can’t we just enjoy that, without analysing things that are best ignored?’

  She sighe
d, gazing along the quay in the direction Elle had gone. ‘What’s ignoring it going to resolve, Lucas?’ Then she squeezed his arm. ‘Love you, hon, but you’re not the easiest, you know.’

  On the Seadancer Elle found Loz and Davie nursing hangovers in the shade on the foredeck.

  Loz’s hand seemed permanently stuck to her forehead. ‘As the sea got up, last night, Davie remembered hurricanes, the cocktails we used to drink in New Orleans. So he got out the rum, fruit juice and grenadine.’

  ‘Lovely red colour, grenadine,’ Davie put in. ‘But lies a bit heavy on the stomach.’ He rubbed his paunch.

  Loz looked at him severely over her sunglasses, her round cheeks quite pasty. ‘After champagne, red wine and port it does. And you made those cocktails much too strong, because I didn’t drink many and I feel atrocious.’

  ‘So I’ll just finish clearing up from the party, shall I?’ Elle wasn’t in the mood to referee a discussion on where the blame lay for their hangovers. Also, the sea was still lively enough to make her wish not to hear any unfortunate hangover symptoms involving bright red cocktails.

  ‘If you don’t mind,’ said Loz weakly. ‘And can you put the coffee on?’

  In neither saloon nor galley did Elle find signs of any clearing up having taken place since her departure last night. Glasses and coffee cups clung stickily to surfaces, crumbs speckled the carpet, plates and balled up napkins lay in wait behind curtains or on the floor.

  She threw open the windows to clear the stink of booze and put on the filter coffee, double strength. While it dripped, she ferried crockery and glassware from the saloon to the galley, loading the dishwasher and standing the rest on a worktop.

  When the coffee was ready she poured herself a cup, placed the jug with mugs, cream and sugar onto a tray and took it out to the foredeck. ‘Caffeine!’ she announced, brightly.

  Davie looked asleep but Loz managed a smile. ‘Is it very awful in there? I feel mean leaving it all to you, sweetie, but, honestly, Davie did make those cocktails awfully strong. Are you horribly hungover, too? Get another mug and join us.’

  Elle deposited the tray on top of the ever-present cool box. ‘I don’t have a hangover and I’d rather get on. That’s what you’re paying me for.’

  Loz looked stricken. ‘I was supposed to pay you yesterday and I forgot, didn’t I? I’ll settle up with you when you leave today.’

  ‘Thanks, that’s fine,’ said Elle, gratefully, and went back to her clearing up, which she didn’t actually mind. Restoring order suited her mood, as she moved quickly around the saloon with hot soapy water to wipe down all the horizontal surfaces – and a few vertical ones that were no longer pristine. She wanted to grit her teeth and scrub at red wine speckling white walls, to vacuum the carpet so energetically that the party debris rattled up the hose.

  If only she could clean up her own life with hard work and efficiency. Hard work and efficiency she was good at. But whenever she thought she’d got her life as clean and tidy as the saloon had been pre-party, it was as if a troop of monkeys tumbled in and hurled their shit around.

  Her conscience twanged. She shouldn’t include pretty, smiling Kayleigh Dunn in her vision. Kayleigh’s only crime was travelling to Malta to visit her boyfriend. She’d been pleasant towards Elle when a lot of girls in the current situation would definitely have turned into shit-hurling monkeys.

  Why was Elle reeling that Kayleigh had turned up, though? Lucas had told Elle Kayleigh would be arriving any time. He’d told her.

  Elle kept the doors between the saloon and the foredeck firmly closed and reached new heights of scrubbing and banging, shaking and vacuuming.

  At the end of three hours, the interior of Seadancer once again shone like something from a yacht brochure. Elle was in the galley, stowing away the final load from the dishwasher, when Loz crept in, clutching the empty coffee jug.

  She eyed Elle as if waiting for her to erupt with Acute Housework Disorder again. ‘Gosh, aren’t you scary, today?’

  Elle found a reluctant grin. ‘I’m not scary. I was just in the mood for it.’

  Loz hugged Elle with the arm not clutching the coffee jug. ‘Don’t be in a bad mood! I’m sorry I left it all for you and sat outside feeling sick. Sorry I forgot to pay you.’

  Elle returned the hug. ‘I’m not in a mood with you,’ she protested. ‘Just with—’ She halted. ‘Haven’t you ever had a good housework session to make you feel better?’

  ‘No.’ Loz looked astounded. ‘I was thinking more about a nice wine spritzer.’

  ‘Great. You go sit down and I’ll bring out the wine and fizzy water.’ Elle didn’t want Loz dripping and dropping all over the nice clean galley.

  Loz dimpled. ‘I was thinking cheese and biccies, too.’

  ‘Right.’ Elle opened the cupboard for the cracker box.

  ‘And we want you to come out and chill with us,’ finished Loz, persuasively. ‘You’ve earned it and it must be wine o’clock by now.’

  Elle paused. ‘That does sound good.’ And a reason not to return to the Shady Lady.

  Once she was seated in the shade with a much-restored Loz and newly awoken Davie, Elle realised that she’d eaten no lunch and drunk only one mug of coffee all afternoon so was able to bring joy to Loz’s heart by helping herself to a big hunk of cheese and a handful of crackers.

  Davie pulled his tatty baseball cap down to shade his eyes. ‘Sorry we didn’t think to rescind the party invitation to your old flame,’ he said, gruffly, making her a spritzer that was almost entirely wine.

  Elle accepted the glass with thanks. ‘That would have been tricky. Let’s not worry about it.’

  Settling back in her chair and propping her feet on the cool box, Elle gave herself up to admiring the blue Mediterranean twinkling busily, the white yachts jostling at their moorings in front of the honey-coloured stone of Manoel Island.

  Again, she reminded herself that this was what she’d come to Malta for, to live her new and exciting life. She was here for her.

  Not to stress about the corporate competition, not to do what her parents wanted, not to live her relationship with the feeling that it was always teetering on the brink of some dread discovery. She was here to draw a line under all that.

  ‘Lucas’s girlfriend has arrived,’ she announced, as if she’d just remembered. ‘That should keep him occupied, shouldn’t it?’

  Loz leaned forward to put her soft hand on Elle’s arm, her voice a whisper. ‘Don’t you mind, sweetie?’

  Elle drank four big gulps of her drink. ‘Lucas and Elle were over long before Kayleigh turned up.’

  By the time Elle prepared to leave the Seadancer she was feeling pleasantly fuzzy and relaxed. Loz and Davie would have swept her along with them as they went ashore to dine with other yachtie friends, but she had been firm in her refusal.

  ‘I’m too hot and sticky and I’ve eaten about a pound of your cheese. What I’d really like to do,’ she added, ‘is swim. I can’t believe I’ve been here almost a week and haven’t been in yet.’

  ‘You don’t have to go very far.’ Davie gave her directions to a suitable swimming spot and within minutes she was back at the Shady Lady. Relieved to find the boat empty she changed into a golden yellow one-piece. Throwing on a loose dress, she grabbed a towel and set off through the early evening sunshine to where a gathering of hotels looked across Marsamxett Harbour to Valletta and an area of sea was roped off against the intrusion of boats.

  People, bright towels and beach bags were scattered on the rocks between road and sea. Balancing on the rocky ripples and serrations, Elle picked her way right to the end. The water looked incredibly inviting, lapping and twinkling in the sunshine.

  She threw down her towel, kicked off her dress and flip-flops and dived in.

  After the heat of the afternoon, the sea felt scalp-
tingling cold. Through the water she gained a blurred impression of rocks, seaweed and her own bubbles dancing around her before she broke the surface with an exultant ‘Whoo!’

  The sea was still choppy and she flipped over and began a languid back crawl, the sounds of children squealing gargling in her ears, warring with the tolling of a church bell and the constant grumble of traffic.

  Reaching the line of rope and buoys, she paused to tread water and gaze across the harbour to admire the Carmelite Dome and the elegant spire of St Paul’s church.

  She swam back more slowly. Then she climbed one of the ladders out onto the rocks and dried herself, thinking about shopping for her evening meal. Lucas would no doubt be busy with Kayleigh.

  Now she had what she had expected in the first place, the boat to herself … it was going to feel odd.

  Chapter Ten

  To: Simon.Rose

  From: Elle.Jamieson

  Subject: Two weeks into the adventure

  Hi Simon,

  I’m e-mailing you while all around me industrious 16–18-year-olds are creating CVs for potential employers. Joseph’s mum, Aileen, is here, too. She’s a retired English teacher so she does the words and I do the IT skills. Having been married to a Maltese man, she speaks quite a bit of the language, so the kids tend to behave pretty well when she’s around.

  Two weeks in Malta have flashed by. But, somehow, I feel as if I’ve been here much longer, too. I get on well with Loz and Davie. Loz is so funny, isn’t she? Flinging her arms around people, always agog about their lives. She doesn’t get EastEnders on the boat so real people have to take its place. She’s lovely to work for, so long as I don’t mind her wandering around with me, chattering as I work.

  I’ve sorted out the computer room at Nicholas Centre. Everything’s reformatted and working as fast as I can make it go. I won’t bore you with the details of installing a new router with more ports, getting the broadband speed raised, firewalls, virus checks, clearing porn blah blah. Let’s just say I had to view it as a challenge rather than a frustration.