The next morning Ben was
woken by a loud knocking on the driver’s door window.
He and Tanya were asleep
under the blanket, and she was cuddled up close to him with her head on his
shoulder.
On opening his eyes, in the
half light, his eyes and brain were struggling to make sense of what they were
seeing.
The problem is that the brain
processes what you can see and then fills in the blanks with things from your
memory bank.
I.e. when your eyes become
more accustomed to the darkness a sleeping dog on the floor becomes a dressing
gown discarded the night before, or a sleeping child on the chair becomes a
sweater dropped haphazardly.
In this case he was looking
at a six-foot chicken, but after a few blinks he realized it was a firefighter,
so he opened the window.
“Morning” he said, “I think.”
“Hello, sir, is everything
alright?” the firefighter asked.
“Yes, all good”
“No injuries? Damage?
Mechanical problems?”
“No, everything is fine.”
“And the horse?”
“Yes, he’s fine too” he said,
“It’s just trees in the way.”
“Well, we’ll have the road
open again very soon” The firefighter reassured him.
“Do you know where the driver
of the MG is?”
“Yes, she’s here” Ben
replied.
“Really?” he retorted with
admiration.
“We’ll let you know when it’s
safe for you to leave.”
“Ok thanks” Ben said and
closed the window.
However, the chilly morning
air flooding the cab caused Tanya to stir, and when her eyes opened, she said.
“What time is it?”
“Just after 5” he replied and
then she became aware that she was cuddled up to him and apologized.
“I’m sorry”
“Don’t be silly” he reassured
her.
“The Fire Service are here by
the way.”
“How long will they be?” she
asked with a yawn.
“At least an hour” he
replied, “So plenty of time for coffee.”
“I thought we’d finished the
coffee” Tanya retorted.
“I have a kettle in the back?”
he replied.
“You’re a wonderful man” she
retorted grinning broadly.
By the time they had said
hello to Trojan and made and drank their coffee and he had easily towed the MG
off the verge they were told the road was reopened.
“Well, thank you for sharing
your coffee and blanket.
and of course, for your
company” she said and kissed his cheek.
“My pleasure” he said as she
got into the Midget.
“Don’t forget you have an
open invitation.”
“I won’t,” she said as she
started the engine and after flashing him a smile Tanya said, “Bye Ben” and
drove off, muttering under her breath over and over,
“Why did I kiss him on the
cheek?”
Tanya went straight home to
quickly shower and change so she could get back to Pipershaven in time to take
out the 8am Ferry and Ben finally got to the Starlight Café where he made use
of the facilities and got two sausage and egg baps to go before heading back to
the port.
The Queen Eleanor wasn’t
slated for the 8am sailing but due to the Empress Victoria having to sit out
the storm in St Pierre Port Tanya needed to take the Eleanor out early and she
was conscious of the fact that she was uncharacteristically late.
However, when Tanya got to
the port office, she found that everything was in hand and loading was in
progress.
At the Beaumont Manor Hotel
the next morning began for Josh and Liv with a shared shower and some over
enthusiastic mutual drying, which resulted in them having to skip breakfast and
Joshua having to drive her to the port at speed where they shared a farewell
kiss outside the Shaw Brothers Office before he went off in search of a full
English.
Olivia watched Joshua drive
away, feeling that she had made the right choice to forgo a hotel breakfast and
she was grinning from ear to ear as she opened the door and walked in.
“Good morning, Lisa”
“I think it was a good night
judging by the smile on your face” Lisa Stokes said.
“A great night” she agreed
with a gleam in her eye.
“It was a success then?” Lisa
asked.
“Very much so” Olivia
replied, “I owe you one.”
“Well, it’s funny you should
mention that” Lisa said with a wicked smile.
After exchanging pleasantries
and doing twenty minutes of essential admin Tanya left the office and made her
way to the Queen Eleanor, and when she was about halfway there her phone rang
and she saw it was her sister Olivia, so she accepted the call.
“Something amazing happened”
they both said simultaneously and burst out laughing.
After sharing all the details
of their amazing happenings Tanya was left feeling a little jealous, not that
she begrudged Olivia’s good fortune, but she only had a coffee and a peck on
the cheek for breakfast whereas Olivia had the full English, twice last night
and once again that morning.
Olivia though had the benefit
of a hotel room Tanya was less fortunate and she wasn’t about to do it in a
horsebox, she had more class than that, if it had been a camper van it might
have been different.
After navigating her way past
the breakwater and into open water she could relax, so she took in the scenery
and enjoyed the warm spring sunshine.
Halfway across the bay she
saw the Empress Victoria coming the other way, it was unusual for both Ferries
to be out in the bay at the same time, so as they passed each other the two
sisters waved to each other from the navigational bridge.
When they had passed by, she
cast her eyes around the ship, and she caught sight of a burgundy-coloured
Horsebox on the deck and her heart skipped a beat.
So, she left the first mate, David Leggett,
at the helm and went down to the car deck to look for Ben, but she couldn’t see
him anywhere.
Tanya was just about to give
up and return to the bridge when she caught sight of him standing by the rail
looking out to sea, so she made a beeline for him.
“Good morning, Mr. Beaumont”
she said, and he turned to look at her.
“Hello” he said and did a
double take when he saw her white uniform shirt and epaulettes on the
shoulders.
“When you said it was your
ferry, I didn’t realize you were literally in charge.”
“I am the Captain.” she said
proudly.
“Well having seen what you
can do with an MG Midget I would just like to ask where I can find the
lifejackets?”
“That’s not fair, it wasn’t
my driving, it was God throwing trees at me” she said indignantly, and they
both laughed.
“You do realize that as
Captain, I can have you clapped in irons and make you walk the plank.”
“In which case I will
definitely need a life jacket” he retorted, and they both laughed again.
But their joviality was
brought to an abrupt end by the blast of a claxon.
“Sorry I have to go and do
important maritime stuff now” she said and kissed his cheek and climbed the
companionway to the bridge.
“Why did I kiss his cheek
again? I should have snogged his face off” She muttered.
“Next time he’s mine.”
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