CHAPTER FIVE“Did you sail across the channel in him?” The child had finished her chocolate croissant and was halfway through the almond one he’d bought for Amandine.
“It’s a her,” said Colin, “She’s a she.” He glanced at her. She was sitting on the cabin roof, dangling her feet over the hatch. “Boats are feminine in English.”
“In France they are men. Le bateau. Masculin.”
“Is that so?
“And we are in France, non?”
“Have you finished with your plate?”
“So? Did you cross the channel in him?”
He so badly wanted to say yes, he so badly wanted to, that he almost committed himself to a Little Ships of Dunkirk moment, some fiction about setting off from Dover with a fair wind blowing, himself the hero of the tale, battling ferries the size of tower blocks and container ships all the way fro
