Page 43 of Escape to the Sun

‘HELP!’

The shout came from behind her, from Millie. Hannah broke away from Louis, who within seconds was making for Millie, slicing through the water to where she bobbed around in shallower water. Hannah clocked Millie’s expression – pure terror – before she followed in Louis’ wake.

Louis was with Millie in no time. He caught the child up under one arm, reassuring her as he swam awkwardly for shore. Hannah met up with them at the shoreline. Millie was crying and apologising and grabbing at her foot at the same time.

‘I’m sorry, it hurt so much and suddenly I couldn’t move and then I thought I was being dragged out into the ocean and I panicked.’

She spluttered the words out and Louis hugged the girl’s shoulders as Ruth sprinted down the sand to reach them.

‘Don’t worry, everything’s fine,’ he was saying as Ruth skidded to a stop.

‘I had a pain in my foot,’ Millie said. ‘I’ve never felt something so painful before. I thought my foot was folding up the wrong way and then I couldn’t swim properly.’

‘Have you been bitten, or stung or something?’ Ruth fell to her knees, grabbing at Millie’s foot and examining it as Millie whimpered and protested.

‘I think it was a cramp,’ Louis said. ‘There aren’t any jellyfish in the water.’

‘I told you to stay in the shallow water, Millie Herring. You promised…’

Millie began to cry again. ‘I was, Mum. But I thought I was being undertowed away. I thought maybe it grabbed your foot and pulled. I was really scared.’

Ruth let go of Millie’s foot and hugged her daughter, holding her tight.

‘I’m here, Mils, I’m here. I’ll never let anything happen to you. Never.’

Hannah felt tears pricking at her eyes, and then Ruth was reaching out to Louis, clutching his arm and thanking him while chastising Millie, then hugging her tight, a swirl of emotion it was impossible not to be moved by. And then Ruth was suggesting it might be time to head back to the ship, and they were gathering their belongings and heading for the car.

All too soon they were back on the Ballygowan, the magic of those few moments on the beach lost as a member of the crew called on Louis almost as soon as they’d boarded and he was whisked away, with no future plans in place for what might happen next between them.

Hannah checked her phone as she wandered back to her cabin for a shower. Three missed calls from Ian and a series of texts. She sighed as she pocketed the phone, instead pulling her keycard from her bag to unlock her door.

23

Louis had missed a couple of calls on his phone when he’d been swimming. Maria had been waiting for him to return, immediately explaining that there had been a problem with a regular check of the ECDIS system, but an engineer had fixed it without issue.

Maria insisted the calls had simply been to keep him informed, but Louis couldn’t help but kick himself for missing them.

Back in uniform and on the bridge, even though he wasn’t strictly on duty until they were due to leave Philipsburg, he ran through what had happened since he’d left the ship, to satisfy himself everything was as it should be.

Louis hadn’t heard anyone approach, but he looked up to find Tim standing directly in front of him.

‘Don’t worry, we’ve got your back, Captain.’

There was something in the tone of Tim’s voice that didn’t match the words or the smile. But there was nothing Louis could do about that – he hadn’t been on board, but the problem hadn’t been one to set alarm bells ringing. Louis had been first officer for a fair few years before becoming captain, and there would have been no way Captain Crowther would have expected to have been bothered by something so trivial. He would have been informed of it, nothing more. There was no need for Tim, or anyone else for that matter, to ‘have his back’. A captain, when not on duty, is entitled to leave a ship for some leisure time when it docks at port. Louis hadn’t done anything wrong.

‘Thank you so much, Tim.’

What else could he say?

What Louis was more annoyed about was having no firm plans with Hannah. He checked his watch; still about ninety minutes before the harbour pilot was due on board and their departure from Philipsburg could commence.

Louis used the time to book a table at one of the more romantic restaurants on board, then swung by the ship’s florist, ending up at Hannah’s cabin door with an armful of flowers and the sudden realisation that she might not even be there.

Too late for doubt, he knocked on the door and was rewarded by it swinging wide, with Hannah’s smile as she looked at him, then at the flowers, growing as wide as the door as she invited him inside.

‘I haven’t got long,’ he said, as she took the flowers from him and rested them gently on a side table. ‘We’re due to leave port in about an hour. It depends when the harbour pilot can get to us. But I was wondering if you might like to have dinner later?’

It was as though Hannah hadn’t heard most of his words.