Read Follow a Star for Free Online Page B

of this manoeuvre, she found him tight-lipped but with a wild-eyed expression which was only matched by that on the faces of various yachtsmen popping up on decks as
Lucille
veered towards their expensive gel coats as gracefully and unpredictably as a pig on roller skates.
    What a time, thought May, frantically wondering which boat to fend off first, to discover that she was off to sea with a complete nincompoop!
    ‘You’re cutting it a bit fine, aren’t you?’ she suggested.
    Gaining momentum,
Lucille
seemed to have set her sights on a close encounter with one particularly beautifully kept model whose skipper was now so near that May could see the tears brimming up in his eyes.
    ‘Get ready to fend us off, just in case,’ Bill said, with a studied nonchalance that wasn’t very reassuring. Unable to bear it any longer, May lunged over
Lucille
’s stern determined to push them off or be crushed in the process. Bracing herself to take the strain, she waited for her arms to snap like twigs at any moment. She closed her eyes, preferring not to watch a grown man cry, and got ready for the inevitable collision. Just seconds away from unpleasant phone calls to insurance companies,
Lucille
’s engine let out a farty roar whereupon she seemed to remember herself and, quite meekly, allowed Bill to steer her out of trouble.
    ‘There are dinghies with more horsepower than this,’ he muttered defensively as they began to snake their way to where the narrow creek joined the wide main channel which led, eventually, to Portsmouth’s harbour mouth. ‘Not that we were ever really in danger of hitting anything,’ he continued, not quite meeting her eyes.
    May was too busy weighing up which was most likely to draw them to the attention of the local coastguard as a shipping hazard first: the little wooden boat or her skipper? But once they’d shaken out the sails and cut the engine, taking it in turns to steer with the smooth wooden tiller, she could feel herself relaxing. They spent the rest of the day simply getting to know the boat, tacking backwards and forwards across the lively green waters of the wide channel safely upstream of the busy harbour mouth.
    Watching the sails fill and listening to the
shwoosh
of the bow wave caressing the hull, May’s worries seemed to slip away in the salty air. To begin with she was simply grateful to have snatched some precious breathing space, somewhere Aiden couldn’t mess with her head or make her feel guilty. But soon she was too busy concentrating on finding out what
Lucille
could do and trying to impress Bill that eventually she even stopped wondering what might be waiting for her back on dry land.
    Bill, too, looked happier once he was satisfied that their provisions had been securely stowed, the safety equipment was to hand and everything was in order to cast off at first light. ‘We’ll stop at Eastbourne first. That’s nearly sixty nautical miles, which is quite far enough, especially while we’re getting attuned to the boat,’ he told her when they tied up on a temporary mooring to take a break. Spreading out a nautical map on the chart table, he showed her the route. ‘It’s another sixty nautical miles from there to Ramsgate, which is the best port from which to cross the Thames Estuary, then we’ll head up the East Anglian coast.’
    ‘Okay … and
Lucille
averages what speed?’
    ‘Let’s say about four knots.’
    Walking pace, thought May.
    ‘So tomorrow we’ll have an hour or two of slow progress, but then the tide will take us all the way to Sovereign Harbour in Eastbourne. By my reckoning we’ll probably do the whole trip from here to Little Spitmarsh in three passages, possibly four. Is that okay with you?’
    Long enough for her to catch her breath, short enough to see there was an end in sight if their tentative truce broke down. She nodded and relaxed while they cast off again and pottered along the peaceful channel in the evening light, looking for a