She frowned.
‘For a boat,’ he said patiently. ‘A fifty-two-foot yacht I’m—breaking in for a friend. It’s rather a handful on its own, you see, and my last crew have just left.’
‘Those girls?’
‘Uh-huh. Do you know anything about boats and sailing?’
‘As a matter of fact I do,’ she said slowly, then blinked confusedly and wondered if she’d gone mad. ‘However, if you imagine I would even consider crewing for a strange man... I could end up heaven knows what!’ she said hotly.
‘Raped, murdered and your body dumped in the briny?’ he said softly. ‘I should tell you your kind of superior, possibly neurotic girl doesn’t appeal to me in the slightest. You’d be quite safe but its entirely up to you.’ He smiled at her, a singularly charming smile that reduced that hawk-like impression surprisingly, and added wryly, ‘I don’t know why but my good deeds have a habit of falling flat—had you noticed that about good deeds?’
‘I don’t know what you’re talking about,’ Sidonie said stiffly.
‘Well, when I saw you sitting there with tears on your lashes—’
‘I wasn’t,’ she whispered, going bright red again.
‘Yes, you were. And when I found out why you were trying not to cry, I was prompted to be—philanthropic, I suppose, despite the fact that you couldn’t be less my type if you tried. Oh, well,’ he shrugged, ‘if you change your mind, if you do have any sailing experience, Mrs Watson has all the details. But I am sailing at the crack of dawn tomorrow on the high tide. Goodbye—I hope your fortunes improve,’ he said gravely, and strolled away.
* * *
Sidonie had lunch in a café in a curiously abstracted state, even for her. And at one point she thought, I can’t believe I’m even thinking this! But the fact was, she couldn’t seem to help it and the bevy of tanned, happy, skimpily clad people about her were, in a curious way, urging her on.
And when she’d spun out her lunch as long as she could, she found herself turning in the direction of Mrs Watson’s general store...
‘Mike Brennan, you mean?’ Mrs Watson said and sighed with pleasure. ‘Oh, he’s a lovely man!’
‘Well, I didn’t quite mean in that respect—is he reliable, respectable—that kind of thing?’
‘So far as I know.’ Mrs Watson opened her eyes wide. ‘He’s been coming up here for a few years now and I don’t know of any complaints. The opposite if anything; everyone seems to like him. And he’s a really good customer and he often brings me back some fish. Oh, no, he’s nice all right!’
‘Where does he come from?’
‘Somewhere down south,’ Mrs Watson said vaguely.
‘Well...’ Sidonie hesitated ‘...what does he do?’
‘Something to do with boats, I believe—oh, Jim—’ she looked past Sidonie to the policeman who had just come in ‘—this young lady is making enquiries about Mike Brennan, how respectable he is and so on.’
‘Mike Brennan?’ Jim said with a lift of his eyebrow. ‘One of the best if you ask me. Why?’
‘I think he’s asked her to crew on his boat,’ Mrs Watson murmured.
If she’d said Mike Brennan had asked a baby elephant to crew on his boat, Jim the policeman could not have expressed more surprise in a mostly silent way. His wide-eyed gaze roamed up and down Sidonie, his mouth opened to make some startled exclamation but he shut it sharply then coughed.
Sidonie closed her own eyes and counted to ten beneath her breath. Then she said tautly, ‘I should have thought it was only prudent to make some enquiries before one sailed off with a man one had never met before, however—’
‘Oh, it is,’ Jim said hastily. ‘Very wise indeed. So what can I tell you? Mike is an expert sailor and I’ve never had one word of complaint from anyone who’s crewed for him over the years, nor from anyone he deals with here, chandlers et cetera. Uh—naturally—’ He paused and looked at her probingly.
‘You can’t absolutely guarantee he won’t be tempted to take advantage of me?’ Sidonie queried with asperity.
‘Well, no,’ Jim said seriously. ‘But I have my doubts it would be a problem. I mean to say...’ he paused again ‘...he—’
‘I know what you’re trying to say,’ Sidonie interrupted. ‘He himself told me I couldn’t be less his type if I tried.’
‘I was actually going to say I don’t think he’s the kind of bloke who presses his attentions where they’re not wanted. There are also plenty of girls who— uh—’ Jim grimaced and Mrs Watson tried to look serious but failed.
‘Who would queue up for his attentions?’ Sidonie supplied sardonically. ‘I can’t imagine why he doesn’t get one of them, then, or two or three.’
‘He could be wanting a break from that kind of thing, love,’ Mrs Watson said brightly.
Sidonie regarded them both somewhat balefully and then did the silliest thing. ‘All right. I can’t think what else to do at the moment but if any harm comes to me be it on your heads!’ And she carted herself and her bag, which was beginning to feel as heavy as lead, out of the store with this parting shot.
She stopped on her way down to the marina at another general store, a very general store, where she made several purchases. A shady white linen hat, a powerful sunscreen and a couple of colourful T-shirts. She paused at a rack of bikinis but reminded herself she did have a swimsuit in her bag, a rather aged, very plain navy blue garment, and told herself it would have to do. But, out on the pavement again, she suddenly changed her mind and went back in and bought not one but two bikinis, a bright red one and a hyacinth-blue one with white flowers on it. She then took herself to the park bordering the beach and sat down on a bench because her heart was beating uncomfortably and she was very much afraid she’d been extremely rash.
As she pondered this, she made the startling discovery that she’d been goaded into splurging her slender resources on bikinis of all things out of sheer pique. As a shot in the eye for all those who had made her feel entirely unattractive, and there’d been three of them, she mused ruefully, in the space of one day. But of course the larger issue, she reminded herself, was, was she going to go through with this?
She stared unseeingly at the vista before her then her eyes focused on the boats anchored off the shore; she drank in the wonderful view of the waters of the Whitsunday Passage—and before she could take issue with herself further she jumped up and began the half-hour hike to the Abel Point Marina.
* * *
‘Mike Brennan? Yes, that’s his boat, Morning Mist, over there. He—uh—expecting you?’
Sidonie looked sternly at the marina manager. ‘I’m crewing for him,’ she said equally sternly and was moved to add, ‘Now I’m sure that might cause you some mirth but I’m in fact very good at it. Would you be so good as to as to stop staring at me with your mouth open and let me on to his jetty?’
