Page 21 of Escape to the Sun

‘Yeah. A bit like the captain,’ Millie said, tilting her head as she watched Hannah for a reaction.

‘Stop it, Mils. Not that I disagree, but…’ Ruth left the rest of the sentence hanging as she appeared as if by some kind of sorcery and then changed the subject. ‘The art in here is unusual, isn’t it?’

Millie rolled her eyes. ‘Mum, it’s abstract. That means it resembles things or thoughts or feelings, not that it’s a direct representation of something.’

‘I’m not saying I don’t like it. I’m just saying⁠—’

‘When are we going to go to the bridge?’ Millie said, her eager gaze flicking between Hannah and her mother as she pleaded. ‘Sooooooon, I hope.’

Ruth had trouble keeping Millie under control until the time arrived the following day to visit the bridge. They’d had to wait for the Ballygowan to leave port and for the next bit of the journey to get underway before the crew could receive them. Understandable, as far as Ruth was concerned – the last thing she wanted was for the people in the bridge to be distracted and end up running the ship aground or crashing into something horribly solid as they left the Azores.

Nathan was feigning complete indifference. But even though he was doing his best to look as though he was no keener on the opportunity than he would be to lose a finger in an industrial accident, Ruth saw him grin when they reached the bridge and he thought she wasn’t looking. She’d take that.

Hannah was struggling to control her expression, too. Ruth was of the opinion there was only one reason for the bubbliness her new friend was failing to squash – it was so very different from the first day they’d met in the Crow’s Nest, when she’d looked ready to throw herself overboard.

Or rather the reason, in Ruth’s opinion, was down to one person.

And then there he was: Captain Louis King, looking every inch the pin-up for Blue Line Cruising as he welcomed them. Very tall and lean with one of those sporty physiques that would lend itself to rowing or tennis, deliciously dark and with an awesome set of pearly white gnashers revealed by his broad smile – which was mostly for Hannah, if Ruth was any judge. Ruth found herself smiling, too. If she was ten years younger… Well, OK, maybe make that twenty-five… The point still held. The bloke was seriously attractive. And he was single – God only knew why or how, but facts were facts.

Anyway, Ruth was allowed to look, wasn’t she? Looking but not touching was fine, wasn’t that the rule? Especially as these days she was more interested in worrying about when full-bore menopause was going to strike, rather than trying to snag a gorgeous young buck.

God, she sounded like her mother.

Regardless of any of that, Ruth concluded that if Hannah didn’t make the most of the opportunity unfurling in front of her like a beautiful flower, then there was something seriously wrong with this generation. Back in her day nobody would have wasted a chance like that. The nineties, she remembered, were wild…

Ruth paused her thoughts, frowning as the random feeling swept over her again. The captain was introducing Millie to the ship’s cat, Portus. Allowing Mils to stroke the cat’s fur as it perched on a high stool in front of the huge bridge windows, while the captain stared almost exclusively at Hannah. There was something about the way he stared at her; it was almost familiar.

Ruth frowned and shook her head, refusing to allow her thoughts to spiral away into the past. Refused to allow herself to think about the man who had meant everything to her… Teddy. Refused to allow herself to remember how the wildness of those days and how she’d felt about Teddy had not gone hand in hand, and that the reality of what happened had been completely devastating. How her loss had shaped everything that had come afterwards. It was as though he had died, or she had. In fact, if she had died, that probably would have been far easier than the subsequent ten years of regret, and her eventual marriage to Trev, rushed into in desperation and dreadfully disappointing. Probably for them both as it turned out.

‘Mum, Captain King wants to know if I want to help feed Portus for the rest of the cruise. Can I? Say yes… please?!’

Millie was suddenly six again, pleading in the way she had when she wanted Lego for her birthday, a particular house belonging to a tiny Lego Friends figure called Olivia – and with every figure on the box striking a very helpful pose. Even the obligatory male figure was being useful, holding aloft barbecue tongs. Something Trev had never bothered with, not even when Nathan wanted friends round for a barbecue and sleepover for his twelfth birthday and had pleaded with Trev to grill for them.

Ruth saw Captain King’s gaze settle on Hannah again, even though Hannah appeared oblivious. Maybe another little shove was required. Ruth pretended to cough, then rubbed at her nose.

‘I’m not sure, I think I’m a bit allergic. Probably better if I stay away.’ She fixed on Hannah. ‘Would you be able to bring her?’

13

Louis assured Ruth that Millie was more than welcome to visit. The offer was a genuine one. Millie was lively and funny, and it was clear she loved cats.

But the thought that Hannah might come as part of the package was even better. Hannah was smiling, admittedly mostly at Millie, as she agreed to accompany her at cat mealtimes.

‘Can I see the engine room?’

Louis refocused on the teenage boy, Ruth’s son, who had hovered on the fringes of the cat-fest, and deserved some attention, too. Louis remembered only too well what being a teenage boy was like. Even though Louis had experienced more structure within his competition schedule as a teenager than most people probably did, he remembered only too well the undeniable feeling of total confusion.

He remembered having the same kind of gangly limbs as Nathan, not only uncoordinated and uncooperative, but also looking pathetic – when all he’d wanted to do was look attractive to women. And the acne…

Louis shook his head at the memory, luckily consigned to the past for him, and strode over to Nathan, leaving the ladies with the cat.

‘Absolutely. How about I call down to the engine room now and you can see it in action?’

Nathan’s expression brightened. It might have been a simple win for the captain of a cruise ship to offer something so straightforward to the boy, but he remembered that feeling, too. When you couldn’t work out if anyone meant what they said to you or were just trying to manipulate you into doing what they wanted. Wondering if they were just trying to keep you under control when everything inside felt like lava.

‘My Officer of the Watch, Maria, could take you down, if you like?’ Louis added.

Maria looked up from her station at the control desk and grinned. ‘What do you think, Nathan? Sounds like a plan to me.’