by Katie Fforde
‘And I did fancy him rotten. Still do, really.’
Jo didn't reply. A 'me too' from her at this point would not be helpful.
‘But maybe a younger man would be more fun.' Carole rested her chin on her hand, thinking hard.
‘You could have some space on your own. Have fun being single, for a while.'
‘I've never been single,' said Carole, sounding as if this was an achievement.
‘I definitely think you should try it. I'd never been single, either, before my husband did what he did, and although that was absolutely awful, I've had a lot of fun since.' Saying the words out loud made her realise just how true they were.
‘I think I'd feel weird, not having a boyfriend.'
‘You should talk to Dora about this. She was engaged for years-'
‘Engaged? She didn't say she'd been engaged.'
‘Didn't she? Then maybe she didn't want anyone to know, but that's not the point. She had a boyfriend for years and now she's single. I think she's having much more fun.'
‘So she and Tom really aren't an item?’
To Jo's immense relief the kettle chose this moment to boil over and Dora appeared. 'Where's this tea, then?'
‘The kettle's only just boiled,' said Carole, who hadn't got up and wasn't now making the tea. 'So, Dora, you were engaged before, were you?’
Dora shot Jo a horrified glance.
‘I'm sorry, Dora,' said Jo, 'it just slipped out. I was only telling Carole that she should try being single if she splits up with Marcus. You're having fun, aren't you?’
Before Dora could answer Carole went on. 'And then I asked her if you and Tom were an item.’
Jo could have thrown the scalding tea bag at Carole just then. 'Carole, dear, I really don't think you should keep going on about this. A boat trip is not the place to have showdowns. Ed could have died in the sea. Please, let's not have any scenes.'
‘What do you mean?'
‘I mean that you're not to split up with Marcus, you're not to try and ensnare Tom, and just try and fit in with everyone else.'
‘Ensnare? What's that mean?' asked Carole.
‘You know perfectly well what it means!' Jo's temper had finally reached breaking point. 'Now, let's just all behave like adults, stick with the men we came with and don't try and get anyone else's!'
‘You know, Jo,' said Carole thoughtfully, having let this tirade pass her by, 'I came on this trip because I thought Marcus was interested in one of the women. I really don't think it's Dora.' She glanced at Dora to double-check she wasn't her rival. 'Could it possibly be you?’
Jo realised she could either lose her temper completely or burst out laughing. She laughed. 'Carole, if you think a man like Marcus would fancy a woman like me, you must need your bumps felt! Now, take your tea, everyone, I'mgoing to have a nap.' She grabbed a mug and hurried off before anyone could say anything else that would make her want to scream, either with hysteria, or with laughter.
Dora looked at Carole. 'Well, that's us told! Do you want some cake? If not, could you bring some up anyway? I know Tom will want some.'
‘Oh, OK.’
Carole seemed a little surprised at Dora's friendly, down-to-earth attitude. Dora was quite surprised at it too, but she decided it was a good strategy. It would keep everything as normal as possible. Kind and rational Jo was obviously near the end of her tether and she was almost there herself. It was also quaintly British – have a nice cup of tea and everything will be all right.
‘Don't forget your water,' said Dora. 'Or whatever it is you were having.’
*
When the buoys became more frequent, Tom called down to Marcus who was awake and in the wheelhouse in seconds. Carole and Dora made themselves scarce immediately.
‘Let's go and see what might be for supper, shall we?' suggested Dora. 'Jo's done all the cooking so far. It's exciting to think we'll be eating it tied up against Holland, isn't it?'
‘It would be nicer to eat out, really,' said Carole.
‘There might not be anywhere, then we'd have to start cooking when everyone is starving and bad-tempered. My dad's always grumpy when he's hungry.' She had been about to say 'I expect Marcus is too' but she managed to stop herself in time.
The two girls went down into the galley. Dora opened the fridge to see if Jo had taken anything out to defrost. She hadn't. She opened the freezer and Carole looked over her shoulder at the array of frozen vegetables. 'I could make a salad. I make brilliant salads. I used to have a job doing it.’
‘I don't know if there's much to make salad with,' said Dora peering in.
‘You've got green beans and all sorts. Don't worry. I can make salad with anything.' Carole opened the fridge again. 'Look, there's celery, green peppers, a leek, lots of things in here. Don't worry, it'll be delicious. I'll forget about food combining and put croutons in it.'
‘There are potatoes and carrots and things outside, in the lobby by the bottom of the steps.'
‘Excellent. Marcus isn't big on salad so I don't often make them. This'll be fun!’
If anyone had suggested to Dora that preparing a meal with Carole could possibly be described as fun she would have been totally disbelieving. But it was. Carole started chopping and peeling and grating with huge enthusiasm. The wooden salad bowl was filling up with all sorts of colours, textures and, potentially, flavours.
‘Now, the dressing,' said Carole. 'Has Jo got any decent olive oil?’
Dora handed Carole the bottle. 'I think that it's been pressed by the hands of virgins from trees planted on sacred ground, or whatever.’
Carole laughed. Dora was surprised. 'You're really into this, aren't you?' she said.
‘Yes I am, and I suddenly feel a lot more cheerful. I've been quite depressed recently but I've started taking some new supplements and I think they've just kicked in.'
‘Oh, right.'
‘Or it could be that I've decided that Marcus and I are history. I'll have to find somewhere else to live, of course, but that'll be OK. I won't go until I've got that sorted.'
‘You won't dump him until you get home though, will you? Imagine the upset!'
‘That's what Jo said, but I think once you've made a decision you should act on it.’
Dora chewed her lip. Carole had suddenly become incredibly proactive and while it was brilliant in lots of ways, the thought of a sulking – or, worse, heartbroken -Marcus at mealtimes was dreadful. 'We don't want Marcus being all miserable though. We need him, for one thing, and for another, he takes up quite a big space as it is. If he was surrounded by a black cloud of despair there'd be no room for the rest of us.'
‘What on earth are you talking about?'
‘Heartbreak takes up a lot of space, trust me. When I finally broke up with John after about a hundred years, I had to leave the village. There just wasn't space for me and his broken heart in it.'
‘Oh, wow,' said Carole, looking up from her chopping. 'And if you think how small a boat is, even a big one like this, well – nightmare.'
‘I suppose..
‘And where would you sleep? There isn't anywhere else.’
‘Couldn't I share with you?'
‘No,' said Dora firmly. 'I don't have any problems with sharing a bed with women but mine isn't very big. So please don't say anything to Marcus until you're home!'
‘Say anything to me about what?' Marcus's voice caused both women to jump and emit small screams.
‘I'm going!' said Dora. 'Let me out of here!’
She pounded up the stairs to the wheelhouse where Jo and Tom were in charge. Tom was at the wheel and Jo was peering into the distance. She'd obviously had her 'nap' and Dora hoped she now felt calmer.
‘What on earth's the matter, Dora?' said Tom, blithely. 'Has the beast escaped? And if it has, did you close the door behind you? We don't want it up here.'
‘Oh God! This is worse than any beast! I think Carole is going to finish with Marcus although I begged her to wait until we g
ot home. The trouble was Marcus appeared.'
‘He wanted a cup of tea,' explained Tom. 'I did offer to make it.'
‘Oh Lord, what will happen now?' said Jo. 'She is selfish sometimes.'
‘Actually we've been having a nice time down there. She's made a brilliant salad, and the lasagne's in the oven.'
‘Oh, fab! Did you find the garlic bread? It's next to the bags of frozen peas.' Jo hesitated. 'What did she find to make a salad out of? I haven't got any lettuce. We've used it.'
‘She's really imaginative when it comes to salad.’
‘That's good,' said Tom. 'I like salad.’
Jo and Dora looked at him. 'Real men don't like salad,' said Dora firmly.
‘That's right,' said Jo.
‘Rubbish. I like what I like.' Tom began whistling softly between his teeth, completely unabashed by the women's firm assertion that his liking for salad was somehow unmanly.
‘Well,' said Jo after a moment, 'I hope we don't find the salad all over the floor, if Macho Man here is so fond of it.' Dora chuckled. 'I do feel a bit sorry for Marcus, actually.’
‘Mm, being dumped is no fun,' said Jo.
Only Tom continued to whistle, unaffected by recent dumping experiences from either the dumper's or the dumpee's perspective.
Marcus seemed fairly unaffected too when he appeared in the wheelhouse holding a mug. 'Sorry, did anyone else want tea? I very selfishly just made one for me.'
‘I'm going to wait until we tie up and then have a big drink,' said Jo after a few seconds. 'I think I need one.’
‘Me too,' said Dora.
‘We're a good two hours away, Tom might need something before then,' said Jo, returning to her unofficial horizon-watching duties.
‘I'm fine for now, thanks.' Tom smiled at Dora and something in his smile made her blush slightly.
To her surprise, it was Marcus who came to her rescue. 'If you're not doing anything else, Dora,' he said, 'I think Carole could do with a hand down there. She wanted to know if Jo had a micro-plane grater. She wants to put ginger in the salad.'
‘I'll go and see,' said Dora and fled back down the stairs almost as fast as she'd come up them a few minutes earlier.
‘Well! What happened?' she said to Carole when she landed in the saloon. 'Did you finish with him?'
‘Yes! He was very calm about it. He said, "If you feel it's time to go I mustn't hold you back." He kissed my cheek. It was rather sweet.'
‘You don't mind that he didn't beg you to stay?' Dora felt that Carole might be the sort of woman who'd appreciate a bit of begging.
Carole laughed. 'Oh, Marcus doesn't beg. No, I was just pleased he wasn't too hurt really, because as you and Jo both said, it could have been terribly awkward. I'll sleep on the sofa tonight.'
‘Oh, good idea!'
‘So let's get this dressing made and then we should set the table,' said Carole firmly. 'And do you think we could open the wine yet?'
‘Definitely,' said Dora finding a bottle and a corkscrew simultaneously, 'although we won't be there for another couple of hours. I didn't think you did drink.'
‘Oh yes, just not all the time.’
Then a door opened at the top of the stairs. 'Any tea going?' called down Ed. 'When a man's been half drowned, he needs a cuppa.’
Chapter Twenty
Ed's accident had changed things, somehow, and the women decided to stay down below during the last couple of hours of the trip. They had their separate reasons. Jo was quite frankly nervous and didn't want to see the huge ships and the occasional barge that made their vessel seem so tiny in comparison. Down below she could close her eyes and sip wine from time to time and pretend they were just on a jaunt.
Dora stayed because she didn't want to hang around Tom. Ed's accident really had made her see him in a slightly different light; she'd known he was fun and capable and had always respected him, but seeing him be so efficient, so thoroughly good in a crisis, made her realise just how worthy of respect he was. The accident had brought them much closer in some ways, but for Dora, their friendship had tipped into something a bit more unsettling than their previous mateyness had been.
Dora and Carole, who was keeping clear of Marcus for obvious reasons, did take a turn up at the bow together, but there wasn't a lot to see so they came back to the comfort of the saloon.
Jo had made snacks to keep the men going until they could eat properly, and tea flowed to such an extent that Jo began to worry about her tea-bag supply again.
‘Let's play cards,' suggested Carole, to Jo and Dora's complete surprise. 'Have you got any?'
‘Mm! Yes I have,' said Jo, springing up. 'I bought them, just in case. What shall we play? Old Maid?’
Dora and Carole looked at her in disbelief. 'Poker,' they said together.
‘I'll teach you,' added Dora kindly.
Rather to their surprise, Jo was not such a novice as they had expected and turned out to be very good at poker. By the time Tom called down to tell them they were missing all the fun, she had enough matchsticks to set her up in a nice little flat somewhere, if only they'd been exchangeable for cash.
They had heard the engine note change and their speed slacken right down and wondered what was going on. Jo used the excuse of putting all the matches back in the boxes not to rush up and see, but both younger women went up when Tom called.
The engine manoeuvres gave Jo mixed feelings of excitement and anxiety. It seemed amazing that in the early, early hours of that morning they'd still been in England, and now they were in Holland. They had another half a day to go before they reached Dordrecht, their final destination, but tonight they would tie up in a foreign country. Excitement sent her up the stairs just as they turned into the lock. She immediately went outside, not wanting to be in the way or, worse, called upon to do something she didn't understand. She stood next to Ed, where she felt safe.
‘It's enormous!' she said to him, referring to the lock. 'I've only ever seen locks on canals at home, or on rivers. They seem so tiny in comparison.’
Ed chuckled. 'This is small compared to some of them we'll see later. And not much rise to it, either.’
She forced herself to stand there and watch and not scuttle back down below. The trouble was, she was tiredand unsettled by lots of things, and in that mood she was extra liable to feel nervous. She glanced at Marcus in the wheelhouse. He was chatting on the VHF, and then to someone on the lock side. He was completely in control of the situation, a fact that didn't make him any less attractive.
Carole was with Tom, holding a fender, and he was making her laugh. Jo could see Dora holding one some where else. Did Dora mind that she couldn't join them and stop Carole snatching him from under her nose? Jo shook her head to try and force some reality into her brain. She really must track down some good supplements when she got home, something that would control her wretched hormones that needed a Richter scale to measure the soaring highs and lows. She wouldn't go as far as having HRT, not unless she really needed it, but she'd heard good things about black cohosh, wild yams and evening primrose. She'd always been very bad about taking vitamins but if she was going to feel like a teenager in the presence of a perfectly ordinary man, she had to do something. She'd preferred it when she'd had good reason to dislike him but now she had to admit he was actually being quite nice again and it unsettled her once more.
Suddenly she said, 'Oh my goodness! There's a wind mill! We really are in Holland.’
Ed chuckled again. 'It really looks like the books we all had as a child, doesn't it? It's a great country, Holland. I like it a lot. We'll be all tied up in about half an hour,' he added. 'Any chance of a cup of tea?’
Jo nodded. 'I'll make you one now, but don't tell the others. Then I'll make sure dinner's hot.’
Although it was a bit chilly, they decided to eat up on deck so they'd appreciate how far they'd travelled. Tom helped Dora and Carole bring up the table and chairs which fortunately, as Carole pointed out, had been designed for o
utside in the first place, and so conveniently folded.
There was an air of celebration. For the first time Carole was remarkably cheerful, possibly because she'd dumped Marcus, or maybe because she'd made a contribution to the meal. Marcus was putting a brave and relaxed face on his broken heart, seeming more full of a sense of achievement than anything. Ed was full of beans, enlivened by his dip in the sea and their successful arrival. Dora and Tom were as friendly as ever, although Jo noticed that Dora didn't seem quite so relaxed around him. And Jo – well, she reflected that although they were not at their destination, the hard part was over. She had survived and even enjoyed the trip a little bit.
‘That was a massive lock,' said Dora, 'but it all went so smoothly, didn't it?'
‘They're very efficient on the Continent. Transporting cargo by water is much more part of their way of life,' said Marcus, 'and in a country like Holland, which is so full of waterways and rivers, it's the only sensible way to do it. Great salad, Carole,' he added with a smile that would have turned Jo's heart to mush had she been on the receiving end of it.
The women regarded him in disbelief. Carole had definitely said he didn't like salad and here he was, praising it with genuine appreciation.
Carole couldn't speak for a moment. 'Oh. Thanks.’
Was he trying to get into her good books again? thought Jo. Was this an attempt to win her back? Looking at him, it seemed unlikely. Maybe he just wanted to let everyone know he had no hard feelings about her and appreciated her efforts. If that was the case, he definitely earned a good mark in Jo's book.
‘Yes,' agreed Ed, unaware of any subtexts. 'I love thattouch of wholegrain mustard in the dressing.' He filled Jo's glass with wine. 'Do you remember, Marcus, when we came over here the first time? We were coming the other way, we'd picked that barge up in Rotterdam. We found a completely empty quay, went for a meal at the yacht club and then turned in. You'd have laughed, Jo…' Just the way he said it told Jo she would not have laughed. 'At about two in the morning, wasn't it, Marcus?' Marcus nodded. 'We were woken by a hell of a row! All these fishing boats came in and started discharging. We thought we might be in one of them's way, but they didn't knock us up or anything, so we sat tight. Oh, happy days.' Another well-loaded forkful went into his mouth.
