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Chapter 7

Chapter 7

HE BRIDGE OF the Pride of Liverpool had a projecting portion of open deck on either side of the hull. Merseyside humour had dubbed them "bugger-lugs" at first sight, which polite maritime circles had then translated as "side-whiskers," the meaning being the same. At seven bells of the middle watch or half past three in the morning to his unsleeping wife and daughter in their stateroom below Frank was standing alone on the port side whisker, gazing at the setting moon through his binoculars. It was not his watch the middle watch never is the captain's. Nor was it Wheeler's either, he was deputizing for the third officer who was down with a touch of malaria. It made for a distinct tension on the bridge to have the captain and the first officer the at time when both should be sound asleep.

It is a tradition of the sea that when a captain moves to one half of the bridge, all officers and hands with no instrument to tend in that half move to the opposite side. So Wheeler murmured "Permission, sir?" as he stepped out of the bridge house onto the open deck.

"By all means, Wheeler," Frank said without

turning round.

The officer joined him at the rail. When he was "Wheeler" they could talk; when he was "Number One" it was strictly business. "Nothing the matter, I

hope, sir?" he said. Frank grunted.

"Very calm for January."

"We'll pay for it at the equinox. There's a bill for everything in the end." After a pause he lowered his binoculars and, with a brief glance over his shoulder, said, "I've been a bloody fool, Wheeler. Hybris, that's what it was tempting the gods. What's your

opinion?" "I thought it incautious, sir."

Frank gave a small, humourless chuckle. "A cautious judgement! Did you read that case in the papers last year? An old fellow who died at the age of eighty in Hackney, in the arms of his wife, whom he'd married at the age of eighteen. And all that time "I remember it," Wheeler said. "It turned out he

had another wife "In Dalston! Only a mile away! Married her at

twenty. And for sixty years he'd hopped between them, raised two families - and no one ever twigged." "I wonder what happened to them." "The two widows? They moved in together."

Wheeler cleared his throat. "I know," Frank agreed. "Not much hope of that in

my case. Why did I do it, man? D'you remember the old Pegasus?" "Not so old, sir. She's bound for Rio at this very moment."

"It was a different age. D'you remember standing on her deck after we ran her aground - the day before we refloated her? It was a world on its own." After a pause he repeated the phrase: "A world on its own, outside of time. And that was my undoing. It came to an end the very next day, and I didn't realize it."

Wheeler drew a deep breath and said, "Has Mrs Morgan discovered anything, sir?"

"It wasn't for carnal reasons, you know," Frank went on. "It was just that, if I'd lost her then, I... well, I don't know what I'd have done. Eh? Mrs Morgan?

No. No, she doesn't know a thing. It's my daughter,

as a matter of fact. But I'll tell you the most

extraordinary thing of all: She approves! I was so taken aback I could hardly "But how on earth did she discover such a thing, I mean learn... I mean, she's hardly out of the nursery

"

herself, sir." "I'm not quite sure. We haven't had much chance to talk about it - as you may imagine! One of the stewardesses had a hand in it. Used to be a housemaid of ours. Very 'thick' with Kathleen, as they say in Ireland."

"And she approves, you say? Isn't that extraordinary, sir? May I ask - I hope I'm not trespassing now - but may I ask how she conveyed the fact? I mean, did she just out with it?" "Exactly. Almost the moment they came aboard. I

was showing her the bridge and my cabin and the speaking tubes and things and ... out it all came! She'd visited Teresa that very afternoon, seen the baby- everything. And she thoroughly approved! It's put me in a quandary, as you may imagine. I'd almost got over my fear of discovery. And then to find I'd been unmasked by two slips of things like that barely out of rompers, as you say. And then to be told

they approve! It beggars the imagination." "Can the stewardess be trusted, sir? It's the Harding girl, I presume?"

Frank nodded. "I believe so. She didn't have too happy a time of it when she was our housemaid. Mrs Morgan took against her rather hard. She recognized the girl at once, of course, as soon as she came aboard, and was all set to have her dismissed. So if ever there was a time to blurt out what she knew about me, that was it. Yet she held her tongue.

"And kept her place here," Wheeler pointed out skeptically.

"That's what I thought, too, of course, but it wasn't so. I haven't told you everything, yet. My younger son, Lawrence, wants to make the girl my daughter in-law. I'm beginning to think he's a better judge of character than any of us."

"It, ah, mightn't be a bad idea, sir," Wheeler suggested. "Keep it in the family. Give her a vested interest in it."

Frank laughed and clapped him on the shoulder. "You're a tonic, man. Sound, practical advice and no tut-tutting. That's what's called for now. For instance, my daughter has fallen for a young American lad, heir to quite a fortune. And he's going up to 'varsity this autumn. To Yale."

The significance passed the officer by. "Yale is in New Haven, just a few miles from Fife. Kathleen wishes to go over there and stay with Teresa."

"Aha!"

"You're wrong. I don't believe that's her only cause for approval though I agree it is very ..." he

hesitated.

"Convenient?" Wheeler offered.