“By which you mean to reprimand?”

I nodded. “Going back to her room she fell over a piece of furniture.”

“Her furniture?”

“Yes, but she fell down the stairs and that was the beginning of her being crippled.”

“You must have had a trying time.”

I did not answer, and he went on: “I thought of you often. I wished I had been able to call again and ask what happened. And then I heard that she had died.”

“Everyone was talking of it at the time.”

“After I left you I went off on The Secret Woman. You remember the name of the ship.”

I did not tell him that I still had the figurehead which I had taken him up to my bedroom to see.

“That was disastrous too,” he said.

“Oh.”

But he had changed the subject. “So now you are here to teach young Edward. He’s a bright boy, I believe.”

“I believe he is so.”

“And you are sailing shortly on Serene Lady.”

“Yes. For me it is something of an adventure.”

“It is years since you have been at sea,” he said. “At least I suppose you have not sailed since you came home from India.”

“I’m surprised that you remember that.”

“You would be even more surprised if you knew how much I remembered.”

He was looking at me intently. I was suddenly happier than I had been since I had last seen him. It was foolish but I couldn’t help it. I thought: It is the way he has. He looks at women as though he finds them interesting, making them feel they are important in his eyes. It’s just a habit charming people acquire. Perhaps it is the very essence of charm. But it doesn’t mean anything.

“Well, that is flattering,” I said lightly.

“At the same time I must convince you that it is the truth.”

“I should need a little convincing,” I said.

“Why?”

“You are a sailor. You are accustomed to adventures. That evening at the Queen’s House for me was an adventure. For you it was a casual encounter. You see, my aunt’s return and her fall made it high drama for me.”

“Well, I was part of the drama, too.”

“No. You had already left the stage before the drama began.”

“But the play’s not over is it? Because here are two of the characters engaging in their dialogue in another scene.”

I laughed. “No, it ended with Aunt Charlotte’s death. ‘The drama of the Queen’s House.’”

“But there’ll be a sequel, perhaps it will be the comedy of Serene Lady.”

“Why should it be a comedy?”

“Because I always liked them better than tragedies. It’s much more fun to laugh than cry.”

“Oh, I agree. But sometimes it seems to me that there is more in life to cry about than to laugh at.”

“My dear Miss Brett, you are misled. I shall make it my duty to change your view.”

“How … when?” I asked.

“On Serene Lady, perhaps.”

“But you …”

He was looking at me intently.

“But surely you had heard? She’s my ship. I shall be in charge of her during our voyage.”

“So … you …”

“Don’t tell me you’re disappointed. I thought you would be pleased. I assure you I am a most capable master. You need have no fears that we’ll founder.”

I gripped the rail behind me. I was thinking I should never have come. I should have found that post which would never again have brought me into contact with him.

I was not indifferent to him; I could never be, and he was aware of this. He did not mention his wife any more than he had on that other night. I wanted to talk of her. I wanted to know of the relationship between them. But what concern was it of mine?

I should never have come. I knew it now.


* * *

There followed weeks of feverish energy. Chantel was in a state of great excitement.

“Who would have believed this possible when we were in the Queen’s House, Anna?”

“I admit it’s strange that we should both be here, and about to leave the country.”

“And who brought it about, eh?”

“You did. And did you know that Edward’s father is the Captain of our ship?”

She was silent for a while. Then she said: “Well, we have to have a captain, don’t we? We can’t sail without one.”

“So you did know,” I said.

“In due course. But does it matter, Anna?”

“I knew that I would sail with his wife and son but not with him.”

“Does it bother you?”

I must be frank with Chantel. “Yes,” I said, “it does.”

“He still has power to stir your emotions in spite of the fact that you know him for what he is.”

“What is he?”

“A philanderer. A maritime Casanova. Oh, nothing serious. He likes women. That’s why women like him. It’s a false theory that we like misogamists. We don’t. The men who are attractive to women are those who are attracted by women. It’s simply a matter of flattery.”

“That may be, but …”

“Anna, you’re perfectly safe. You know him now. You know when he says charming things and gives you languishing looks it’s all part of a game. It’s not an unpleasant game. It’s known as Flirtation. Quite enjoyable as long as you know how to keep it under control.”

“As you do … with Rex.”

“Yes, if you like.”

“You mean you know Rex will never marry you, that he is going to propose to Miss Derringham, but you can be quite happy being what you would no doubt call flirtatious friends?”

“I can be quite happy with my relationship with Rex,” she said firmly. “As you must be about yours with our gallant Captain.”

“I can see,” I said, “that I must learn from your philosophy of life.”

“It has served me very well so far,” she admitted.


* * *

Teaching was easier than I had believed. Perhaps it was because I had such a bright and interested pupil. We studied maps together and I traced our journey with him. His eyes — so like his father’s, except that they were brown — would light up with excitement. The map was not a sheet of paper with different colored portions; it was a world.

“Here,” he would say, putting a finger into an expanse of blue, “is Mamma’s island.”

“You see it is not very far from the continent of Australia.”

“When she gets there she’ll be happy,” he told me.

“Let us hope that we shall all be happy there.”

“But …” His eyes were puzzled, and he struggled to express his thoughts. “We are now. It’s only Mamma who has to be happy. It’s because it’s her island, you see.”

“I see.”

“The Captain will love her again there,” he announced gravely. He always spoke of his father as the Captain with reverence and awe. I wondered how much he heard of their quarrels and what construction he put on them.

Monique never made any attempts to restrain herself, and I was near enough to her room often to hear her voice raised in anger. Sometimes she seemed to be pleading. I wondered how he was with her. Was he unhappy? He did not seem so. But then he probably treated his marriage too lightly to be especially bothered because it was not a success. As Chantel had said of him: He liked all women too well to be too much involved with one. That must be a comfort to him, and yet what sorrow for the woman who loved him, as I believed Monique did.

I should never have come. I was not sufficiently aloof. It was no use my trying to adopt Chantel’s philosophy. It could never be mine. I was already too deeply involved.

And Chantel, was she as in command of her feelings as she would have me believe?

When I saw her walking in the gardens with Rex it would have been easy to believe that they were lovers. There was something about their pleasure in each other’s company, the way they talked and laughed together. Is she as invulnerable as she pretends? I wondered; and I was concerned that she might be hurt as I had been.

Such uneasy weeks they were. I think the happiest hours were those when I was alone with Edward. We had taken to each other. I think I must have been an improvement on the not very satisfactory Miss Beddoes, and it is always easier to follow a failure than a success. Lessons had become centered round the coming trip. That was easily explained in geography, but I found myself telling of the colonization of Australia and the arrival of the First Fleet. In arithmetic he found it easier to concentrate when the sums were concerned with cargo. A magic word in itself.

Whenever we went out our walks always took us to those heights where we could look down on the docks and see the shipping spread out before us.

Edward would dance about with excitement.

“Look at her. She’s a wool clipper. She’s going to sail to Australia. Perhaps we’ll get there before her. I think we shall … because we are sailing with the Captain.”

Once we took the binoculars with us and there we saw her. We could make out her name painted on her side in bold black letters: Serene Lady.

“That’s our ship, Edward,” I told him.

“It’s the Captain’s ship,” he replied soberly.

“They’re getting her ready for her journey,” I added.

The time was close at hand when we should leave England.


* * *

It was a thrilling moment when, Edward’s hand in mine, I climbed the gangway and stepped onto the deck of Serene Lady. I felt reckless and yes, happy. I couldn’t help it. The excitement of the adventure was with me, and I knew that had I stayed behind and known that on this ship Redvers Stretton sailed — and Chantel with him — I should have been as depressed and unhappy as I ever was in my life.