The Lost Sister, Kathleen McGurl [best desktop ebook reader txt] 📗

so she needed to take some warm clothing. Dressy clothes for the dinners. Light comfortable items for daytime. Walking shoes for the excursions on shore – the ship was calling at Rotterdam, then Zeebrugge from where you could take a trip to Bruges, and St Peter’s Port on Guernsey. And she’d need swimwear for the pools, loose clothes in case they decided to take an exercise class, and something to wear travelling to and from Southampton. Finally, after much soul-searching and a dozen phone calls to Sheila, she had a selection of clothes she was happy with. Why had it been so much harder than packing for a week’s camping with John?

The night before, Sally had phoned. ‘Are you all packed, Mum, for your big trip?’

‘I am, at last. But it’s not that big a trip, honestly. I’ll be back before you know it. How is Jerome?’

‘Tired. Missed school today but I’m hoping he can go tomorrow. How are you getting to the docks?’

‘Taxi to Bournemouth station, train to Southampton Central, taxi to cruise terminal is the plan.’

‘If Jerome’s in school, I’ll pick you and Sheila up and take you to the station, if you like.’

‘Oh, that would be fantastic! But only if you’re sure …’

‘It’s no problem. The sooner you go, the sooner you come back, in my strange, stressed and warped mind. What time do you need picking up?’

Harriet frowned at Sally’s odd logic, but the lift would certainly help. ‘Oh, I suppose around 9.30 would work?’

‘OK. I’ll let you know by 8.30 if there’s a problem – if Jerome can’t go to school. You’ll still have time to book a taxi then.’

And now, here Sally was, on the dot of 9.30, all smiles because Jerome was having a good day. She grimaced as she hefted Harriet’s suitcase into the boot of the car. ‘It’s five nights, right? Feels like you’ve packed for a month!’

‘I tried to keep it down, but it was difficult!’ Harriet laughed. ‘Once we get to the cruise terminal the luggage gets taken from us and put in our cabin. So it’ll be all right. OK, so I have turned off the gas and double checked it, and locked the door, and checked that three times. My neighbour’s putting the bin out on Monday. Sheila lives about five minutes away, and she’s texted to say she’s ready.’

‘You sound as excited as a kid going on a school trip,’ Sally said with a laugh, and her comment brought to Harriet’s mind a day long ago when both her daughters went on a Guide camp together for the first time, leaving her and John alone for a week. Sally and Davina had been best of friends in those days, and had been jumping up and down with excitement about the trip when they were dropped off at the campsite. Harriet had assumed then that they would always be friends, all their lives. But Davina had come home sullen, complaining that Sally had bossed her about all week. Sally had insisted she’d only been trying to instruct her sister, as the older and more experienced Guide. But as usual Davina would have preferred to work things out by herself.

Sheila was waiting by her garden gate for them, and the two of them did a good impression of Sally and Davina going on Guide camp while Sally stowed Sheila’s suitcase in the boot of the car.

Sally laughed. ‘You two kids. I hope you have a fabulous time.’

‘I’m sure we will,’ Sheila said.

‘I’ll ring you every day,’ Harriet added. ‘Shall we go? Train to catch!’

An hour later they’d arrived at the cruise terminal, checked in, handed over the suitcases which would be put in their cabin for them, and were standing in front of the Queen Mary II, gazing up at it and admiring the ship’s size and splendour.

‘She’s beautiful, isn’t she?’ Sheila said. ‘So glad we picked this ship.’

‘Yes. Gorgeous.’ Harriet was imagining how her grandmother must have felt the first time she boarded a liner for work. The great liners of those days were far smaller than today’s ships of course, but must still have been awesome to see. She’d read up a little on the Olympic and the White Star Line – and the Titanic tragedy, of course – since finding the old trunk. The Olympic had been the largest liner of the day, when she was first built. Just as the QM2 was the largest at the time of her launch. There was a pleasing symmetry about that fact, though Harriet was glad she was going on board as a passenger, not working as a stewardess.

‘Shall we board, dahling?’ Sheila said, arching her eyebrow.

‘Yes, why not?’ said Harriet, taking Sheila’s arm, and giggling, they walked over to the covered walkway that sloped up and onto the ship. Soon they’d found their cabin, unpacked their cases, peered out of the porthole at the tugs that were getting ready to pull the ship away from the dock, and were heading up to be on an outside deck as the ship set sail. They were halfway up when the ship’s foghorn sounded – so loud it startled Harriet and she clutched at Sheila’s arm. Laughing, they reached the deck just as the tugs began to ease the ship away from the quay. There were quite a few people on the quayside – some working and some who’d come to see friends and relatives off. Harriet spotted a family including three very small children waving madly, the mother holding up a hand-made, coloured-by-children sign that read ‘Happy Cruise Granny!’ She felt a pang of self-pity that no grandchildren were there to see her off, but then remembered it was a school day and Jerome, thankfully, was well enough to be at school. And as for Summer and Autumn – she could only assume they too were at school, somewhere in France.

‘Shall we get ourselves a drink?’ Sheila said, when they’d pulled away from the quay and begun the journey