Page 43 of Old Girls on Deck

I bit down a chuckle and Diana snorted with laughter rather inelegantly.

‘Right then, I think they are brilliant, and I am sure Radio Wonderful will like them. I’m heading off to meet up with Evelyn,’ I said, ‘and after, there is always the late show if I’m stuck with nothing to do. It’s Cabaret night, so I am expecting a lot of high kicks and moodiness. I’ll see you two crazy kids later.’

Before Diana could say anything, I gave her an exaggerated wink and turned to leave.

‘Dinner then?’ Raphaël said.

I pulled a silly face behind his back and gave Diana two thumbs up and then I hid behind a pillar and watched them walk away. I felt rather triumphant at that moment, and more than a little bit thrilled.

I found Evelyn exactly where we had arranged to meet, in the Lautrec cocktail bar.

She was in one of the more secluded booths, dressed in a lavender dress and jacket that were slightly dated but very stylish. She was reading the menu using the light from her mobile phone. She looked up as I reached her side and gave me a lovely smile.

‘There you are. Isn’t this exciting? Did your sister really go off to dine with that handsome fellow? She did? Well back in the day so would I.’

She patted the seat next to her. ‘You’re younger than I am, Jill, you can shimmy in, whereas I would have a heck of a struggle with my bionic hip.’

I slid in beside her and picked up a menu.

‘It’s too dark, isn’t it?’ she said when she saw me squinting. ‘Why do they do that? Is it so we can’t read the prices? I had something very nice the other day, now what was it? Something to do with Shirley. I remember that because I had a friend called Shirley at finishing school.’

‘A Shirley Temple?’ I suggested.

‘Goodness, no, we need something stronger than that. Ah here is it. Bend Over Shirley. Raspberry vodka and something. What do you think?’

I gaped a little as Evelyn flagged down a passing waiter.

‘Two Shirleys. Bent over,’ she said sweetly. ‘Now then dear, what have you been up to?’

‘I’m blowed if I know,’ I said, ‘apart from the chocolate tasting and the other opportunities to eat. Have you really been on this ship for three months?’

‘I have. Nearly four, actually. It was just after all that to-do with the Norman virus and the flooding on board. What a lot of fuss about nothing. As I understand it from my butler, there were two cabins with a bit of a leak from the shower, and three people came down with tummy upsets. One would think there had been an outbreak of bubonic plague. People today love to make a drama out of a crisis, don’t they?’

‘And go to the papers about it.’

Evelyn laughed. ‘You’re right. All those sad faces in the newspapers, droning on about the impact on their lives, how badly they had been affected and of course the price of their houses. They knew they would be compensated but it didn’t stop the media from whipping up a frenzy, or the tragic victims from their fifteen minutes of fame. I didn’t get on with Andy Warhol, but he had some interesting ideas.’

‘You knew him?’

‘I met him twice. In the early days before he was really famous. He was a strange character, even then, but he did love cats, and his mother. He drew a rude picture on a dinner napkin for me once, and I used it to mop up some cat sick. It would have been worth a fortune now I expect. Now then, what I really want to talk about is Diana.’

I sighed, ‘I hope she’s having a good evening with Raphaël.’

‘Will she spill the beans afterwards, do you think?’

‘I hope so. I’ll make her. It’s the first time she has been out with a man for years.’

‘What was Casper like? Oh, I know everyone says how marvellous he was, how everyone on the ship loved him. But what do you think?’

The waiter returned with our drinks and a bowl of pretzels and that distracted us for a few minutes, but then Evelyn’s blue eyes fixed me with a compelling look over the rim of her cocktail glass.

‘I think he was very controlling,’ I said, ‘perhaps because he had to be so disciplined at work, but he was the same at home. My sister taught for years and loved it, but eventually she was persuaded that their son would go to Casper’s old boarding school, and she would spend most of her time travelling with him. At first, we all thought how lucky she was, but now I can see it did a lot of damage to her relationship with Sam. She really needed him when Casper died, but by then he had gone to live in Scotland; I think he had adopted the MacLeod family as a substitute for his own. And now Diana is stuck, living alone. She has friends of course, she’s a really lovely person, but no real fun in her life.’

‘Hmm. She has that look in her eyes. She’s lonely and – to use a nautical phrase – rudderless. I think I was the same when Douglas died.’

‘I can’t imagine that,’ I said.

For a moment I tried to imagine my life without Eddy. If he, and not Casper, had been the one to die unexpectedly. It didn’t bear thinking about and I gave a little shudder.