‘Why ever not? Abi did.’ Emmy grinned.
‘Quite, and now we don’t know where she is,’ he pointed out.
‘But wedo.’ Emmy told him. ‘Maria gave me the address of Hugo’s grandparents. I thought of writing to them but didn’t like to.’ Something occurred to her then, and she went on, ‘My mother told me Jasper is in trouble for clearing off from home again. You don’t think he’s gone to Hugo in France too, do you?’
‘I’d say that was a possibility.’ Jake looked thoughtful. ‘He’s certainly spent enough summers out there in the past but I’ve never known him to go in the winter.’
‘There’s a first time for everything and I wouldn’t put it past him if it saved him from having to work,’ Emmy snorted.
The door opened and Dorcas appeared. ‘Imogen is having a nap so I thought I’d pop down for a cup of tea. How are you, Jake?’ She smiled at him.
‘I’m very well, thank you, Aunt.’ Jake gave a polite little bow, then he turned and looked at Emmy pointedly and she gulped. She supposed he was thinking now was as good a time as any to ask her mother to stay for a while. And so, she tentatively put the idea to her and was surprised when Dorcas readily agreed without any argument.
‘But I don’t want you travelling all that way on your own,’ she said, wagging a finger at her.
‘That’s exactly what I told her,’ Jake said. ‘But leave that with me. I’ll have a word with my boss tomorrow and see if I can get a few days off so that I can go too.’
The next evening Jake informed them that he’d booked a week off work starting on Saturday and had organised for his friend Richard to hold the fort at the poor surgery while he was gone. Suddenly everything was hustle and bustle as Dorcas helped Emmy pack for the journey.
‘You must take plenty of warm clothes, it’s going to be cold on the ship,’ she warned. ‘And when you do find Abi, please persuade her to come back if you can.’
‘Of course I will,’ Emmy promised. The trip was only two days away and she was alternately looking forward to it and dreading it. What if Abi wasn’t there? Or worse still, what if something had happened to her? But then she would have Jake with her no matter what happened and the thought was comforting, although she wasn’t sure how she was going to be able to be in his company for so long without betraying how she felt about him.
Before she knew it, it was Saturday morning and time to be off. After hurriedly kissing her mother and aunt, Emmy clambered into the cab Jake had waiting for her outside and they headed for the docks to boardThe Neptune.
Unlike the day that Abi had sailed, the sea was as calm as a millpond and the boat was covered in frost that made climbing the slippery gangplank a treacherous affair. Emmy would have slipped more than once had it not been for Jake’s strong arm about her and once they were safely on deck she breathed a sigh of relief.
‘I-it’s so cold!’ she said through chattering teeth as Jake led her towards the passengers’ cabins.
‘Hopefully they’ll have left us plenty of blankets to wrap ourselves in,’ he said as they negotiated the treacherously slippery stairs that led down into the ship. ‘Ah, here we are,’ he said eventually, ‘Number 5. I could only get one cabin, I’m afraid, but, all being well, we won’t be sleeping aboard so we’ll just have to make the best of it. Once the ship has set sail we’ll go and find the dining room. Hopefully it will be a bit warmer in there and we’ll be able to get a hot drink and something to eat.’
Almost an hour later the ship began to rock and they were on their way and by the time they had climbed back up on deck they were just in time to see a foggy London fading into the distance.
Within no time the ship’s cook had made them a very tasty breakfast and with that and two cups of hot sweet tea inside them they began to feel warmer. Emmy would have liked to wander on the deck but now that they were out at sea the wind was cutting so they stayed where they were in the warm and chatted about the patients who were now attending the surgery.
‘Word’s getting around and I think the free bread is an added attraction,’ he told her with a grin that made him look so handsome her heart turned over.
The day passed in a flash and soon it was dark and Emmy glanced nervously towards the window.
‘I hope they know which direction they’re heading in,’ she said.
Jake chuckled. ‘Don’t worry, we should be there soon and the captain knows exactly where he’s going,’ he assured her. ‘If it wasn’t so cold we could go and stand on deck and watch the lights of Le Havre come into view.’ He smiled and pointed towards the window where the first snow of winter was fluttering down.
Emmy nodded. It looked so pretty but not pretty enough to tempt her out on to the deck. ‘I hope we can find somewhere to stay tonight,’ she said.
‘Don’t worry. I happen to know there’s a rather nice hotel not too far from the docks,’ he told her. ‘We can stay there tonight and then we’ll go and find Hugo, and hopefully Abi too, first thing in the morning.’
She nodded in agreement and they spent the rest of the journey sitting in a companionable silence.
When they disembarked, Jake lifted their bags and after taking directions from a sailor, they found their way to the hotel where they hurried to the reception desk.
‘It ees a double room you are needing for yourself and your wife?’ the man behind the desk asked and colour flooded into Emmy’s cheeks.
‘Oh no .?.?. we’re not .?.?. I mean, thank you but we’d like a room each please,’ Jake told him hastily, looking rather amused.
The hotelier was a small man, almost as far round as he was high with a waxed handlebar moustache and oiled black hair.
‘Ah, forgeeve me, monsieur. I assumed the mademoiselle was your wife.’ He turned and took two keys from a board behind him and snapped his fingers to summon the porter who was slouching on a sofa in the far corner of the foyer.
