Chapter 64
Daniel
Daniel spent the entire day counting down the minutes until he could see Ore again. Usually he relished his time alone in the wheelhouse, just him and the sea and the sky, but he was eager to recount his conversation with Carlos. In fact, he found that these days he wanted to get her perspective on everything.
Finally, Dudley knocked softly at the door. He looked tired. ‘All right, Captain?’ he mumbled as he took his seat.
‘Yes thank you, Dudley, how are you?’ It wasn’t just pleasantries, to his surprise Daniel actually wanted to know.
Dudley seemed to sense the sincerity, because he turned and sighed and answered candidly. ‘Honestly, not great – no reflection on you at all, but I miss Annie. Sorry I mean Captain Harleston.’
‘It’s OK, Dudley, you don’t have to use her titles. We’re just … chatting.’ Daniel cringed at himself. He wasn’t adept at this whole heart-to-heart thing. Dudley looked a little uncomfortable at the prospect as well, though he persevered.
‘As I was saying, I miss Annie, and I keep trying to get in touch and waiting to hear back, but nothing.’ Daniel worried he’d pushed the topic too far when he spotted the glisten of tears. Luckily for them both, Dudley held it together ‘Maybe I misinterpreted things.’He gave Daniel a wary look; staff fraternisation was generally frowned upon. Although it was endemic, most captains operated with a ‘don’t ask don’t tell’ policy – Daniel included.
But on this occasion he nodded encouragingly. ‘You and Annie, were you an item?’
Dudley blushed. ‘Yeah, I guess, whatever – we were together, or something, I don’t know now. I haven’t spoken to her since she left.’
Daniel felt a horrible sense of foreboding. This could be him soon enough. What if Ore left and he just never heard from her again? He forced the thought to the back of his mind, and willed himself back into the present. This was about Dudley, and what’s more, Daniel knew why Annie hadn’t been in touch. How had he ended up in this position? The gossip-averse, keep-the-crew-at-a-sensible-distance captain turned the holder of so many secrets.
He looked over his shoulder, an ingrained habit he seemed to now share with everyone on board. ‘I’m going to tell you exactly why she hasn’t been in touch, Dudley, but you cannot ask me how I know this information.’
Dudley’s eyes grew wide with a mix of hope and dread. He nodded eagerly.
‘Annie was forced to sign an NDA when she left the boat. I don’t know what the terms were but I assume she cannot discuss any details of … what happened, which is probably a hard thing to do if she speaks to you.’
Dudley looked relieved, and then angry, and then desperately sad. When he eventually spoke, his voice was very quiet. ‘Thanks for letting me know, Captain, much appreciated.’ He turned back to the navigation screen and Daniel took it as his cue to leave.
Daniel made his way back to his cabin. The time was 8.30 p.m. Ore would be coming over soon. He was giddy as he took off his uniform, showered and then doused himself in aftershave.
Looking in the mirror he found himself admiring his own face. Vanity was not something that came naturally to him, but it was as though he was seeing himself through Ore’s eyes. And he had to admit, it wasn’t a bad sight.
Despite his anticipation, the knock on the door still made him jump. He tried to calm his breathing. He was reluctant to let her see this effect she had on him, the way she reduced him to an excitable schoolboy. He smoothed the fabric of his T-shirt and counted to five before opening the door.
She was dressed in a colour he wanted to call purple, but that wasn’t quite right. It was the same colour as the crests of the clouds when they meet an orange sunset. It was the mist of dawn, the blue of sky mixed with the soft pink of nascent sunlight.
‘You look beautiful,’ he gushed, the words falling from his lips before his brain could catch up.
‘Thanks, handsome.’ She winked. ‘Now let me in before anyone spots us. This place is full of spies … I have a lot to catch you up on.’ She slipped under his outstretched arm and into the room. Before he could get his bearings she was off.
‘I don’t even know where to start. Like after you left all sorts of crazy stuff just started happening …’ She told him about the perfume bottle, the envelope of damning documents, the call with Henry and the conversation with Agatha in the kitchen. He was having trouble keeping up, as she recounted it all breathlessly.
‘Wait, so it was Agatha that left the documents?’ He was sitting on the edge of the bed now, as Ore paced back and forth in front of him.
‘Yes … which makes me think she’d not as soulless as I first suspected. Oh and I didn’t even mention that her whole posh thing, it’s totally an act. She grew up, in her words, “very poor”.’
Daniel wasn’t sure what the relevance of that really was, then he remembered how obsessed English people were with class.
‘And she’s like a class warrior now. I don’t know but she seems to hate Chuck?’ Ore was musing.
‘Well yeah I mean he treats her pretty badly, like she’s massively overworked and probably way too qualified to be his PA,’ Daniel added. Ore gave him a quizzical look.
He felt a flush of embarrassment at the thought of how he’d come across those revelations. ‘We were having a bit of a heart-to-heart, you know before she tried to … kiss me,’
‘Urgh, don’t remind me.’ Ore rolled her eyes.
Daniel smiled. ‘Are you jealous?’ he teased. The thought that Ore might have to worry about his attraction to someone else seemed absurd to him, and a little flattering.
