did it go?’ She took the proffered, and now redundant, blazer from Greer and hung it for the last time on a padded hanger in the coat cupboard, next to her husband’s golf clubs.
‘The English paper was fine and the history paper was everything I’d revised, so I think I’ll have done OK.’
‘You are a clever girl.’ Elizabeth kissed her. ‘I’ve got crab salad for tea.’
‘Actually, I was hoping to go out.’
‘Where?’
‘Fishing with Loveday and Mickey.’
‘Just Mickey and Loveday?’
‘Erm, I think Jesse will be there too.’
‘I see.’ Elizabeth knew all about Bryn’s plan for Greer and Jesse. There had never been any other children after Greer and no doctor could ever tell them why. Elizabeth was not really sorry. Childbirth was messy and dangerous, and once had been enough for her, but she knew how much it unsettled Bryn to think about what was going to happen to the company. Women were taking the reins in business more and more these days, but Greer had never shown the slightest interest – and quite right too, thought Elizabeth. Fishing was a man’s world and women had no place in it. Part of her wanted Greer to marry someone outside Trevay, someone with a bit of breeding; but she supposed that Jesse Behenna was as close as it came to old money in Trevay. Besides, look at Bryn, he’d been just like all the other coarse Trevay fishermen when he’d courted her, but she could sense his ambition and together they had come far. All men could be moulded by a strong woman who knew what she wanted.
‘Mum, there’s nothing to worry about,’ said Greer, interpreting her mother’s interest as concern for her morals. ‘He has tons of girlfriends and I’m not one of them.’
‘But you’d like to be.’
‘Muuum. Don’t. You sound like Dad.’
Elizabeth turned and walked towards the kitchen. Greer followed her.
‘Can I take the crab salad with me?’ She tried to appease her mother. ‘I don’t want to waste it.’
Her mother nodded. ‘Yes. I’ll make a little picnic up. Don’t want you getting hungry and eating chips or you’ll get as fat as Loveday.’ Mother and daughter exchanged knowing smirks.
*
Greer heard Loveday thumping down the stairs before she pulled the front door open. She had teased her hair into a big, orange, candy-floss ball and was wearing a low-cut, sleeveless, fashionably ripped T-shirt, her pink bra partly on show. She was pulling at a fringed ra-ra skirt that was at least two sizes too small for her.
‘Ha!’ she crowed, taking in Greer’s tight white shorts, blue and white striped top and long, tanned legs. ‘I knew you wouldn’t wear jeans so I’ve pulled all the stops out. Hang on while I get my shoes.’
Greer watched as Loveday bounded back up the stairs, her ra-ra skirt lifting with every step and exposing tiny black knickers stretched over her generous bottom.
‘Wait till you see these,’ Loveday called from upstairs, ‘They arrived from the catalogue this morning.’
A few seconds later and Loveday came down the stairs, with as much grace as a jolly pig in electric blue stilettos, gripping the banisters for balance.
‘What do you think to these beauties?’ She bounced off the last stair and posed like a stripper.
Greer couldn’t help but smile. ‘They are very eye-catching.’
Loveday looked at Greer’s flat ballet pumps with sympathy. ‘A word to the wise. You’ll never pull Mickey in those.’
Down on the quay, the warm evening sunshine had brought out the couples with pushchairs and people with dogs. The holiday-makers wouldn’t be down in force for another six weeks so at the moment Trevay still belonged to its locals. The tide was out and the inner harbour was littered with boats lying on their keels, green fronds of seaweed hanging from their mooring ropes.
Greer couldn’t help but always remember the first time she saw Jesse down here when they were both so young. His skinny brown legs hanging from his shorts and his blond hair falling over his eyes. Now he was a man. Six foot four, broad and muscular. Greer’s feelings for him had intensified over the years. She dreamt about him, he lit up her life when she was with him, but he treated her like a sister. Greer his friend. Not Greer his girlfriend.
Sometimes she wondered whether he had feelings for Loveday. He certainly seemed to enjoy her company, and she knew that Loveday had a crush on him. But he always seemed careful not to encourage her, from what Greer could see. Anyway, how could he fancy someone as chaotic as Loveday? No. Jesse couldn’t fancy Loveday, he probably just felt sorry for her. Mickey fancied Loveday and, one day, Greer hoped, he’d land her. Loveday would be a fool not to go for Mickey. And one day, Jesse would see that Greer was the woman for him.
Loveday jolted Greer from her musings. ‘There they are!’ She pointed at Jesse and Mickey, who were strolling about a hundred yards ahead with fishing rods over their shoulders. ‘Jesse! Mickey!’ she shouted. ‘Come and give us a hand with this.’ She hefted the weighty picnic basket, which Greer had asked her to carry, from one hand to the other, then waved extravagantly to the boys. Mickey, of course, came to help Loveday. His lanky frame, dark hair and sweet face with its slightly large nose and eyes that drooped at the corners a little, reminded Greer of a lovesick greyhound. As soon as Loveday had loaded him up with the picnic basket, she raced off to walk beside Jesse.
At that moment, Greer felt enormous compassion for Mickey. ‘Here. Let me help.’ She took his fishing rod and put it across her left shoulder, then looped her right arm through Mickey’s free one and walked with him.
‘Don’t worry about Loveday. I know how you feel about her. She’ll see sense one day,’ she told him.
Mickey blushed and quickly brushed her off. ‘Loveday’s all right but I’m playing the field.’
Greer raised an eyebrow, unconvinced. ‘Are you, Mickey?’
‘Sure. I’m a fisherman and there’s plenty more fish in the sea.’
‘Oh, Mickey,’ Greer laughed, ‘you’re fooling no one.’ Mickey looked at her ruefully but then laughed too.
Loveday looked back over her shoulder and saw Greer and Mickey walking arm in arm. Heads together and laughing.
‘Jesse, look, I knew it. Mickey and Greer are a match made in heaven.’
Jesse turned to look too, but said nothing. He was trying not to think about the lace bra that was showing through Loveday’s T-shirt, which was only serving to accentuate her generous cleavage, while also trying to keep in check the dangerous sensations that threatened to overwhelm him whenever he was in close proximity to Loveday Carter.
*
Our Mermaid was a good-sized trawler painted in the traditional local colours of sky blue, chalk white and clotted cream yellow. The hull had streaks of rust coming from the holes where the anchor chain fed, but she was in good condition and well maintained. She was tied up alongside the deepest part of the harbour wall where the boys hoped to fish from.
