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something, but Judith was happy to play along with the game. ‘Well, I am sorry not to see him,’ she said, and then settled herself on a bench next to Hal as he ordered, ‘Cast off and take us back to the ship, please, cox’n.’
    ‘Aye-aye, sir,’ said Big Daniel who started barking out orders to the oarsmen to back them away from the jetty, before he swung the pinnace around and set a course to the
Golden Bough
which lay on the water, a couple of hundred yards or so ahead of them.
    ‘She looks beautiful,’ said Judith, watching Hal look towards his ship and knowing the pride that he took in her.
    ‘Well, the men and I did a bit of cleaning and tidying up,’ said Hal, nonchalantly.
    ‘Had us working our fingers to the bone, night and day for a week, more like, ma’am,’ Daniel observed.
    ‘Poor Daniel, I hope he wasn’t too much of a hard taskmaster,’ said Judith.
    ‘Oh you know what Captain Courtney’s like, ma’am. Takes after his father, so he does, likes to run a tight ship.’
    The words were almost thrown away, but Judith knew Hal well enough to realize that Daniel could not have paid him a higher compliment and she gave his hand a squeeze to signal that she heard and understood it. As they drew close to the
Golden Bough
, Daniel ordered the men to stop rowing and ship their blades. As one, the oars were raised into a vertical position and the pinnace was brought to rest with just the lightest of touches against the larger ship. Lines were thrown down from the deck above and made fast against the pinnace’s cleats. A net was hanging down the
Bough
’s hull to enable those in the pinnace to climb up to the deck. Judith stood and took a pace towards the net, but Hal gently held her arm to stop her and shouted up.
    ‘Lower the swing, lads, nice and gently if you please.’
    Judith looked up and saw a boom hanging over the side of the ship.
    ‘We use it to bring supplies aboard,’ said Hal. ‘But I thought we could put it to a better purpose today.’
    The boom was garlanded in a profusion of vividly coloured flowers, like a horizontal, tropical maypole. From it there hung a canvas sling that had been decorated with coloured ribbons, signal flags and anything else the men could find to make it look jolly. The sling was lowered down to the pinnace and Hal helped Judith sit on it, as if on a garden swing.
    ‘Make sure she’s safe and sound,’ he ordered Daniel, then pecked Judith on the cheek and said, ‘I’ll see you on deck, my darling.’
    Hal leaped onto the net and started clambering up it with what looked to Judith like the speed and agility of a monkey up a tree. She giggled at the thought, then held on tight to the sling as Daniel shouted, ‘Haul away!’ and she was lifted up into the air. By now all trace of the warrior General Nazet had disappeared and Judith was simply a young woman in love, having the time of her life. She gave a little squeal of alarm and excitement as she rose up through the air, watching Hal come to the top of the net and then spring onto the deck where he stood, surrounded by the ship’s company.
    ‘Three cheers for the captain’s lady!’ shouted the
Bough
’s veteran helmsman Ned Tyler. ‘Hip-hip!’
    A great cheer rang out as Judith appeared on her swing, several feet above the level of the deck.
    ‘Hooray!’ the men cried, waving their hats in the air as the boom swung her over their heads.
    As the second cheer rang out she was lowered to a patch of deck that had been cleared to receive her. As Ned Tyler gave the third ‘Hip-hip!’, Judith let go of the sling and jumped the last few feet to the bare wood, landing with the grace and agility of an acrobat, and as she found herself again in Hal’s arms the third cheer echoed around them and grew even longer and louder as he gave her a single, all-too-short kiss whose burning intensity filled her with a thrilling sense of anticipation of what would follow that night, and a terrible frustration that