Page 9 of Old Girls on Deck
‘And what did Sam say when you told him?’
Diana hesitated for a moment. ‘We had a lovely chat on Christmas Day, and he was very pleased. I left several messages on his phone since then; he doesn’t often pick up when I ring. But then he’s so busy, they both are. You know what young people are like. I sent him a text anyway. And a link to our itinerary.’
‘You must send him some pictures and let him know how you are getting on. Now let’s open this bottle of bubbly!’
No sooner had we raised our glasses to toast our adventure than there was a knock on the door.
‘Who could that be?’ I said, my glass halted in front of my mouth. ‘We haven’t done anything for people to complain about yet. Well, I haven’t. Perhaps it’s the balloon man come to berate you.’
I went to see.
Opening the door, I found the French man from the welcoming photographs disaster standing there, still holding his camera.
I sneaked a look at Diana and saw that she was blushing very attractively. Which for some reason made me feel rather pleased.
‘Bonjour! Hello! I hope you’re settling in?’ he said. ‘My apologies. I should have introduced myself earlier. Raphaël Duclos.’
He handed me a business card and let me squint at his identification pass so I could reassure myself he wasn’t a random psychopath. He seemed even taller when he stepped inside, and it made the cabin feel even smaller.
‘Diana,’ Diana said, holding out her hand for him to bow over, ‘and this is my sister, Jill.’
‘Enchanté. Are you okay now?’ he asked, smiling pleasantly at Diana.
‘Absolutely fine,’ she said, distinctly flushed with excitement.
‘J’regrette… I’m sorry but I just need to take a couple of shots of you arriving in your cabin and then I promise I will leave you in peace. The radio station asked if that would be okay.’
‘Of course, I signed the agreement,’ I said cheerfully, waving my glass, ‘we’ve just discovered the bubbly. You wouldn’t like a glass, would you?’
He smiled. ‘Non, merci. Not while I’m working, thanks.’
He steered us onto the balcony, and we jostled each other for space while he stood well back and took a few pictures of us looking cheerful in front of the backdrop of containers and reversing trucks on the quayside below.
‘This is a lovely ship,’ he said, ‘I’ve worked on quite a few over the years.’
‘No norovirus or flooding this time?’ I asked innocently.
He grinned back. ‘Not that I’ve heard. There are always a few early problems with any ship, but I’m sure they have been dealt with. There now, alors.’
We stood, rictus smiles on our faces while he snapped away and then he took a couple of pictures of our empty cabin before we had the chance to mess it up.
‘There, finis,’ he said at last. ‘I’ll leave you to it, ladies. And I’ll see you later.’
He favoured Diana with another rather dazzling smile, which revealed a delightful dimple in his cheek, and left.
‘He fancies yoouuu,’ I drawled, topping up our glasses.
‘Oh don’t be daft,’ she said, looking rather unsettled, ‘have you seen some of the crew members? One of those girls on reception looked like Cindy Crawford. I suppose he was rather handsome though.’
Well, that was interesting. I’d never known my sister notice or pass comment on any man other than her husband. Although, admittedly Casper had been very tall, dashing, and attractive in his uniform, so perhaps she hadn’t needed to.
We finished off the bottle in record time while we unpacked our cases which had been delivered to the door just after Raphaël had left. And then eager to explore, we set off back down the long corridor toward the central staircase, me wondering out loud if we would ever find our way back. Diana reminded me about the dolphins.
Beneath us we could feel the ship moving out into the Solent, the landscape outside of terminal buildings and containers sliding away to be replaced by housing estates and then green fields.
We stopped and looked over the ship’s rail. I waved at a couple in luminous running gear, thinking how lucky I was not to be them, and Diana took in a deep breath of the salty air.
‘You okay?’ I asked.