I smiled and walked to them. ‘What’s this, Penny?’ She had plaited two or three strands and was busy hooking a small, downy seagull feather through one of them.
Hal looked up returning my smile, rather ruefully. ‘I think my colouring not quite right for a red savage, Raphael. Perhaps you would prove a more satisfactory vi … subject.’
I laughed. For I knew he had been about to say victim. ‘Maybe you need one or two more feathers, il piccola mio?’
il piccola mioShe jumped to her feet. ‘I’ll ask Morris. He has hens below.’ It had not taken her long to find her way around the crew.
We watched her skip away on her errand as though her ordeal had never happened. I crossed myself thanking God for his mercy before sitting down, my back against the other side of the mast. I cleared my throat. I
