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.‘Just holding the fort for Harry – my wife,’ he explained with a grin that flashed that very cute dimple.Harry? What kind of name was that? May wondered.And what kind of wife?‘She’s all right, is she?’ Bill frowned.‘Yes, she’s fine.’ Matthew’s smile faded momentarily.‘Good days and bad days, still.’ He turned to May apologetically and added, ‘Just after Christmas we lost someone who was very dear to us, the old boy who used be Harry’s right-hand man here.He was like a second father to her.We’ve got an apprentice with us at the moment, a young lad who’s doing a boatbuilding course.He’s great but it’s not quite the same … For a start, he can tie proper knots.At least I can walk round the yard without being decked by a load of timber! Although it’s taken some of the danger and excitement out of it too.Mind you, Captain Flint, here, keeps me on my toes, don’t you, Flinty?’Cocking his ear at the sound of his name, the dog rolled over for a tummy tickle, making May feel quite envious as the delicious Matthew bent over to oblige.Just then a pale blue Volvo estate of a vintage that made every other vehicle around them look brand spanking new lumbered into the yard.Matthew straightened up and turned towards it with an eagerness that suggested he was ready for a tummy tickle too.‘Here’s Harry now,’ he said, his face lighting up.‘She needed to pop over to the marina at Great Spitmarsh, so she took our trainee with her to take a look at the competition.’A mixed race boy in his late teens got out first, then the driver, who at first sight didn’t look much older.A slight woman in a short dungaree dress and vintage blouse with a suitably nautical print, bare brown legs and baseball boots, her short dark hair curling round her face, she waved then reached into the back seat and lifted a squirming toddler on to her hip.‘And here’s my pride and joy,’ grinned Matthew as the young toddler let out a series of frustrated squeals and started kicking her legs, desperate to get at the dog who was leaping around at Harry’s feet.‘May, meet my wife Harry.This is Tyler, our valuable assistant.And this bundle of trouble,’ he said to the little girl who was stretching out her arms to him, ‘is Georgia.’Harry smiled a greeting as she handed the wriggly toddler over to her daddy.Wow! Was this slim, pixie-faced young mum really the woman who ran the boatyard? The same woman who’d talked old misery guts at Jollimarine into lending Bill his Landie.May was impressed; evidently there was a lot of punch in the other woman’s small frame.She wasn’t what you would call a conventional beauty with her tomboyish looks and wide mouth, May decided rapidly, but her grey eyes were gorgeous and Matthew was beaming at her as if she was the best thing he’d ever seen, so she was doing something right.Looking at their little group, May felt quite wistful for the things she hadn’t got, like an adoring husband and a chubby, adorable baby.It made thinking about what she was going to do next even harder.‘How did you get on, love?’ asked Matthew.‘Well, it was bit more lively than usual, wasn’t it, Tyler?’ said the petite Harry stretching up to kiss her husband.‘Normally nothing ever moves in that marina, so it’s a bit like waking the dead when something happens! Ancient skippers rise from their cabins, looking as if they’ve just heard the Trumpet of Doom.’‘Or the air turning blue.’ The boy grinned.‘There was a right scene on this enormous luxury yacht that’s staying up there.’‘Got in last night,’ Harry interjected, ‘making the acquaintance of a couple of beefy-faced trawler men as it did so, when it nearly took the side of their boat off.’May and Bill frowned at each other; was it a coincidence? Surely there couldn’t be that many top of the range yachts in this part of the world?‘Anyway, this grisly old geezer appears on deck and starts chucking women’s clothes over the side, but before he can throw the Louis Vuitton holdall into the water, this woman who looks like some kind of model tries to wrestle it back [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]