Jack Reynolds wiped the sweat from his eyes and stepped back. The afternoon
was hot and he had been hard at for hours, least ways, it felt like hours.
“What’re you doing?”
He started at the unexpected voice and turned. The owner of the voice was
staring at him quizzically.
“Working on my boat. What does it look like?”
The girl said nothing but continued to stare. She moved closer and switched
her gaze from the boat to Jack.
“How come you’ve got a boat then?”
Jack snorted. “She’s a wreck. My Dad was goin’ to scrap her but he said if I
could fix her I could have her. So I’m fixin’ her.”
“What sort of boat is it, I mean, she?”
“Three ton Bermudan Sloop, clinker built, pitch pine on oak with teak decks.
Lovely job, not her fault she got wrecked.”
“So what’re you doing now, then?
Jack regarded her in silence for a moment. He wasn’t really used to talking
to girls, spending all his spare time in the boatyard in the company of
shipwrights and sail-makers. He reckoned she must be a couple of years
younger than he was, which would make her about twelve and therefore in the
‘nuisance’ category. She was tall, nearly as tall as Jack himself, and
skinny with long thin arms and legs. Her fairish hair was long and tangled
by the stiff breeze that rattled the halyards of the moored boats and
scattered white horses on the sparkling sea. She might be quite pretty one
day, he decided, but would need some meat on her.
“Well, the daft bugger who owned her managed to dismast her and she ran up
on them rocks.” He waved a hand vaguely in the direction of the headland.
“I’m cutting out the planks that got stove in and goin’ to fit new ones.
Might have to replace this here rib first.” He gestured into the gaping hole
in the boat’s side. “Don’t know yet. I’ll have to ask me Dad, I ‘spect.” The
girl nodded in solemn agreement.
“What’s she called?” She asked. Jack smiled. “Don’t rightly know, yet. She
was called ‘Tiffin’. Just the sort o’ daft name a daft bugger would call a
boat. I’ll think of something good, you wait ‘n’ see!” Again she nodded with
apparent satisfaction.
“You on holiday, are you?” Jack said. For some reason he wanted the
conversation to continue. She smiled and nodded. “Goin’ to shake your fool
head off, you keep doin’ that.” But his smile took away any sting. He
noticed her eyes were green; the colour of the sea on certain days when a
storm is coming and the sky is troubled and grey. “I’m Jack Reynolds. This
is my Dad’s yard. What’s your name?”
“Elizabeth. Most people call me Beth, though. You are lucky to live her all
the time. We live in London. My Dad’s a Bank Manager.”
“Never been to London. What’s it like?”
“You’ve never been to London? How old are you?”
Jack bridled at the implied criticism. If he were honest, the furthest he
had ever been was Plymouth. But he had sailed far and wide with the fishing
boats and could navigate from here to Brittany. He could hand reef and steer
and repair the clunky old diesel engines. He could patch a hole and caulk
and make good sprung planking, but he had never been to his nation’s capital
city.
“Never had no call to go to London,” he said. “Got everything I need here.
An’ if London’s so great, why do all you Londoners come down here for the
summer?”
She shrugged. “It’s lovely here, so peaceful. And you’ve got the sea and not
the smelly old Thames. We come every August.” Jack said nothing but
continued to glare at the girl who, as he saw it, had exposed some lack in
him.
Beth looked at the boy. She had just started to notice boys in a different
way. He was quite good-looking, she decided. She liked the way his hair
curled, thick and dark over his ears. His skin was deeply tanned and smooth
looking and he had bright blue eyes that still managed to look nice even
when he was scowling at her.
“Can I help?” She said and was pleased when he looked surprised.
“S’pose you could help with the rubbin’ down,” he admitted and gave her a
piece of rough sandpaper stretched over a block of scrap wood. “Easiest if
you do it fore and aft, with the grain,” he said and demonstrated.
The afternoon passed swiftly and they found themselves comfortable in each
other’s company. Neither was by nature especially talkative so they found no
difficulty in the silences. Beth proved herself an adept pupil and it seemed
to Jack that really listened to him when he was explaining something. At
fourteen, he was not used to getting such wrapt attention. At six o’clock a
whistle blew, the signal for the end of the day’s labour, but Jack kept
working.
“Aren’t we going to stop, too?” She asked. Jack smiled. “We’re not on wages,
girl. I got to do as much as I can durin’ the holiday. An’ I got to go
fishing with my Uncle Bill next week so won’t get much done. You can stop
now if you like, though.”
“I think I’d better. My parents will be wondering where I am. Are you going
to be here tomorrow?”
“Afternoon. Got my chores in the morning.”
“Chores? What are chores?”
Jack stared her in utter disbelief. “Jobs what I got to do, course! Don’t
you have no chores to do for your folk, then?” She shook her head. She felt
awkward, sensing the gulf between their lives, the daughter of a Bank
Manager and the son of a boat builder. “We’re on holiday,” she said lamely.
Jack nodded as if this explanation was acceptable. “That’ll be it, then,” he
said. “See you tomorrow?” He was surprised to discover how pleased he felt
when she said yes.
The rest of the summer passed all too quickly for Jack. Beth met him each
afternoon he went to the yard and proved such a quick learner he started to
trust her with more complex tasks like stripping rigging blocks and cutting
new thole pins for the boat’s tiny dinghy. Her parents had come to the yard
once to see how she was spending her summer. Jack had stood tongue-tied as
she explained what they had done and pointed out the remaining work. Her
parents were like creatures from another world to Jack. ‘Big City Folk,’ his
father had called them but had greeted them politely enough and chatted a
bit with Beth’s Dad about the situation in Europe. It had come as a
surprise, therefore, when Beth had announced she was leaving the next day.
“Our time’s up, I’m afraid. Back home and then back to school.” Jack had
nodded dumbly, bereft of words.
Still, he had put on his Sunday clothes and gone to the station to see her
off. He was ill at ease as he stood on the platform. He wanted to be there
but was desperately worried that any of the boys from the town would see
him. His embarrassment was complete when she suddenly leaned forward and
pecked him on the cheek. He mumbled something about seeing her next year and
went even redder when her father had laughed something about ‘holiday
romances’. He wasn’t too sure what one was but it didn’t sound like
something he would like.
August 1939
“What will you do if there’s a war, Jack?” Beth seemed able to read his
mind.
“Join up, I s’pose. My dad says the Navy’ll need proper sailors, just last
time.”
“Will you be an Officer?”
“What me? Not a chance!”
“Why ever not, Jack? I bet you know as much about boats as anyone.”
“Oh, boats, yes. But it’s the other stuff. I think I’d be happier takin’
orders than giving ’em. Anyway, I’m not eighteen ’til next May. It might all
be over be over ‘fore then,”
Beth looked at him carefully. Each year she had come with her parents on
holiday and each year she had renewed her friendship with Jack. He had grown
taller, his voice deeper and his chest and shoulders had broadened, year by
year. He was more man now than boy. She tried to picture him at war but her
mind, or perhaps her heart, would not let her. She felt that was silly. It
wasn’t as if they were lovers. They were friends. She thought he probably
had a girlfriend from the town and felt a small pang of jealousy. She would
soon be sixteen and quite grown up. Sometimes she wished that Jack would
think of her like a girlfriend.
The boat was almost finished. The hull had been repaired and not one but
three of the oaken ribs had had to be replaced. They had built a new
interior from marine ply and fitted her out with new berth cushions and a
gimballed paraffin stove paid for from Jack’s earnings from the fishing.
Jack had cut and made a new mast and spars and, with the help of one of the
sail makers, had cut and sewn new sales and canvas dodgers bearing the name
‘Maid Elizabeth’. Beth hadn’t seen these yet; they were a surprise. Now his
mind was on the coming war. Everyone knew it was going to happen. That
Churchill had been warning the country for years; only now were people
taking notice.
Out in the bay these days were warships instead of pleasure craft and in the
last week he had seen two great Battlecruisers, ‘Repulse’ and ‘Renown’, he
thought, forging westwards towards Plymouth with attendant destroyers. If
war were coming he would be ready for it. He wouldn’t wait until he was
called up. As soon as he was old enough he would catch the train to Plymouth
and sign up at Devonport Navy Barracks. His Dad had fought in the last lot,
had been in ‘Warspite’ at Jutland, soon it would be his turn.
He came to himself and noticed Beth was very quiet. “You’re not worried
about me, girl?” He tried to make it sound like a joke but it came out
wrongly.
She tossed her head angrily. “Of course I am, silly! Fine friend I’d be if I
wasn’t worried.”
“It could all blow over, like Czechoslovakia,” he said; but even to him it
sounded unconvincing.
Beth frowned. “I don’t think so this time. I think we really ‘for it’ this
time.”
“Well, then. We’d best get this boat in the water while there’s still time.”
Oh, Jack, is she really finished?”
“Pretty near. We’ll step the mast and rig her in the water. First we got to
christen her, though.”
“A name! You’ve thought of a name at last!”
Jack grinned. “She’s had her name since 1936. Tomorrow we christen her. I
mean I’d like you to do it, Beth, if you will?”
“Of course I’d love to, silly! What are you going to call her?”
“Maid Elizabeth, of course, silly!” And he roared with laughter at her
stunned expression. “Couldn’t be nothin’ else, now could it?”
That last summer of peace slipped away all too swiftly. Jack and Beth sailed
‘Maid Elizabeth’, abbreviated between them to the ‘Maid’, every day they
could. She proved a lively sailer, quick and responsive if somewhat wet.
Jack made plans for some modifications to the cockpit coaming to counteract
this, but these could wait. After nearly four years of hard work and
patience, The ‘Maid’ was in her element at last.
As if reflecting the change, things between Beth and Jack were different,
too. Jack found himself looking at her surreptitiously whenever he got the
opportunity. She had certainly filled out. The skinny arms and legs were
shapely and he couldn’t help notice how the front of her canvas sailing
smock now bulged intriguingly. She was still a kid, he told himself, but he
also had to acknowledge that she was a damn’ pretty one. Her light brown
hair was streaked in places by the sun and her face and arms were tanned to
a delightful honey brown. She had acquired ‘a bit of meat’ as well – and as
far as Jack could judge it was in all the right places!
This time when he saw off at the station, he was no longer awkward but hoped
instead that the town boys would see him with this lovely young girl, whom,
he’d just discovered, now inhabited the body of his friend.
June 1940
“Good God Almighty! Beth, would you look at this!” Beth jumped, unaccustomed
to hearing her father blaspheme. He thrust the ‘Daily Express’ towards her.
“Isn’t that your friend, that Reynolds boy?” She gasped as she saw the
photograph. It was Jack all right and the ‘Maid Elizabeth’. The ‘Maid’ was
crowded with weary-looking soldiers. There must have been over thirty
crammed into her twenty-four foot length. Jack was unmistakeable in his
canvas sailing smock, his thick dark curls tousled by the wind. She quickly
scanned the story. It was about the ‘little ships’ that had gone to Dunkirk
and plucked the British Army off the beaches. Already this massive defeat
was being re-written as an epic. She supposed it was in a way but, like
everyone else, she’d have preferred a real victory.
“Among the last of the gallant ‘little ships’ to leave,” the story read,
“was the sloop ‘Maid Elizabeth’ and her eighteen year old skipper, John
Reynolds of Lyme Regis. ‘Maid Elizabeth’ undertook several trips from the
beaches to the waiting destroyers and then brought home her own precious
cargo after the bigger ships left.”
The article continued in a jingoistic vein before concluding with the news
that John Reynolds would shortly be joining the Royal Navy, after recovering
from ‘his ordeal’. Beth handed the newspaper back to her father. “It is him,
isn’t it?” he said. “Yes, Daddy,” Beth replied. ” It’s Jack, all right. In
fact, it’s Jack all over.”
August 1942
The small grey ship inched its way up the Mersey to the naval dock. Another
Atlantic convoy over. More ‘tools to finish the job’, as Churchill had
called them, delivered safely but almost as many now littered the ocean
floor. Petty Officer (Acting) Jack Reynolds, twenty-one and now a veteran,
was at the wheel, as usual. As the coxswain of HM Corvette ‘Speedwell’, it
was his job to steer the ship in action and at any other time when his
experience and skill was needed, such as entering and leaving harbour.
Jack’s assistant, Leading Seaman ‘Tom’ Piper gave a gap-toothed grin. ”
Leave, ‘swain. Two bloody glorious weeks! What you going to do?” Jack
grunted. He hadn’t really thought much about it. ” Go home, I s’pose, Tom.
What about you?” Piper danced a little jig. “Nookie, nookie, nookie!! Then a
pint or ten to wash away the salt. Then more nookie!”
Jack looked away. He felt uncomfortable. It wasn’t that he was prude. You
couldn’t survive three years and more on the lower deck and be a choirboy.
Somehow he’d never felt it right to go whoring with his messmates. He was
twenty-one and he’d never even kissed a girl properly. Always in the
background was Beth. They had written to each other regularly. Well, to be
honest, she had written regularly and he had replied when he could. Whenever
the Fleet Mail caught up with ‘Speedwell’, he could be sure of a dozen or so
letters in her neat, round hand. Jack didn’t know how he felt about her.
They had been friends for so long. She must be what, nineteen now. He hadn’t
seen her since 1939, since that last brief summer of peacetime.
He’d wanted to see her, of course. Somehow he couldn’t quite gather together
his courage and telephone her. He worried about her. Living in London
through the Blitz was dangerous. Thousands had died. He’d had messmates who
had learnt that their family, be it mum and dad or wife and children, had
been obliterated by the nightly bombing. London, Coventry, Bristol, Plymouth
and many, many more; they had all suffered the devastation of modern
warfare. And then there was her. She probably had a proper man by now.
London was crawling with young men in uniform. She’d be an officer’s lady,
he thought and felt a wounding stab.
Lyme had changed. It was now the base for Motor Torpedo Boats and the
harbour was off-limits to civilians. Reynolds’ Boat Yard was building for
the Navy. Motor Boats and Landing Craft. The previous month the allies had
invaded Sicily; everyone knew that France would be next; perhaps not this
year but soon. After a week at home, Jack was climbing the walls with
boredom. After a couple of nights in the local pub he has stopped going out.
The complaints about shortages angered him the most. He had seen the cost of
keeping the country fed. The shattered ships and drowning men were engraved
forever on his consciousness. As for his parents well of course they were
pleased to see him but seemed remote, separated from him by experiences
unshared. In desperation, he resolved to go to London.
He telephoned her from the station. “Beth? It’s Jack Reynolds.” He took her
silence as disapproval; could imagine her mouthing to someone ‘ what does he
want?’ When she spoke it was like hearing music for the very first time.
“Jack. Oh God! Fantastic! Where are you?”
“Um, I’m in London. Just got off the train. I, er, I don’t s’pose you’re
free this evening?”
“Of course I am for you, silly!”
He’d still never been to London. He’d passed through a few times, en route
from one naval base to another but he’d never stopped. He realised he hadn’t
the least idea where to take her. ‘Oh well,’ he thought, ‘it’s her town, I
‘spect she’ll know somewhere.’ He found her house in Palmers Green without
too much difficulty but then spent twenty minutes or so walking up and down
to gather his courage. She must have seen him from the window because
suddenly she was there beside him. Her arm slipped through his and she
kissed his cheek. “You could’ve come in, you old silly. We don’t bite you
know.” Jack looked sheepish and smiled down at her. He was overwhelmed with
how wonderful she looked. Yes, he could still see the remains of the skinny
girl from the boatyard but as for the rest… The only word that came to
mind was ‘lovely’. Her long hair was twisted up into something Jack thought
of as ‘French-looking’. Her green eyes sparkled and her clear complexion
seemed to positively glow.
For her part, she thought Jack looked older. There were signs of strain in
his face and lines that did not belong on the face of a young man of twenty
one. It suddenly made the war seem more personal, somehow. She leaned into
him and squeezed his arm.
Beth’s mother looked out at her daughter and the smiling young man. She
turned to her husband and said, “She’s made her mind up you know. He doesn’t
know it yet but I do!” Her husband snorted in reply and went on reading his
paper.
“It’s all very well, dear, but this war, it’s changed things. Young people
are in a hurry now. You can’t really blame them. Look at the Owens’s girl,
married at eighteen and a widow four months later. You’re going to have to
speak to her, make sure she doesn’t do anything rash.”
Beth’s father put the newspaper down with slow deliberation. “Since when has
anything I’ve said made the slightest difference? She’s her mother’s
daughter, that one. Pretty as a picture and stubborn as a mule – just like
you!” He smiled fondly. “She’s old enough now to know her own mind and young
Jack’s a steady sort. I can’t see him rushing into anything. To be honest, I
don’t think I’d object if they did. This war won’t last for ever and that
Boatyard is a sound little business. It wouldn’t surprise me if Reynolds
didn’t do very well out of this war and all those Government contracts.”
“Spoken like a Bank Manager! I just don’t want to see her hurt.”
“And would it hurt less if they weren’t married? Anyway, I thinking you’re
jumping the gun. It takes two to Tango, you know, and he’s probably got a
girl in every port. You know what sailors are!”
“Not that one. He’s been mad about her for years, he just hasn’t realised it
yet”
But he had. As Beth dragged him towards the house, Jack knew, for the first
time, that he was in love.
The rest of that week passed in a blur for Jack. He felt giddy, exalted.
They went dancing at the Hammersmith Palais and found quiet pubs in which to
sit and talk. Once they went to the pictures and Jack fell asleep while Beth
wept silently at the heroine’s demise. All too soon they found themselves on
Euston station, clinging to each other until the very last minute the
crowded train was due to leave.
Jack kissed her hair. “You’re my girl, now, right?”
“Oh, you silly, I’ve always been your girl! Right from that first afternoon
in the boatyard when you were trying to be so grown up and fierce. It’s just
taken you a little time to catch up, that’s all!”
Jack hugged her tightly. She was right, of course. It had taken him time but
then, he’d never dared to hope. He had no experience, not like Tom Piper.
Jack only knew that now he had Beth there could never be anyone else.
November 1942
“My Darling Beth
I can’t tell you where we are but I can say we’re all all right and will be
in here in Dock for a couple of days. I think about you all the time. It
helps me get through.
Anyway, I was able to get ashore yesterday and I might have done something
silly. That’ll depend on you. You see, I bought a ring. What I’m trying to
say, my love, is that I’d be the happiest man in the world if you’ll agree
to be my wife.
I know I’m supposed to go down on one knee and to ask your Dad’s permission
and all that but it’s a bit difficult when I’m so far away. So I’ll just
kneel down now and pray you say yes.
With all my heart,
Jack”
Beth clutched the letter to her breast and danced around the kitchen. “He
wants to marry me! He wants to marry me!” Her mother looked up from the
pastry she was making. She was about to make some cautionary remark but the
pure joy radiating from Beth overcame her. She felt her heart melting and
hugged her daughter close. “Of course he does, darling. Anyone can see how
much you mean to him.” She sighed. “I suppose you are going to say ‘yes’?”
“Oh yes, yes, yes, yes, yes!” Beth still twirled like a dervish, the letter
held in both hands, now, at arm’s length.
“I love him, Mummy; I always have. I think I’ve loved him since I was
twelve. Oh I do wish this war would end and we can be together always.”
August 1943
“I now pronounce you man and wife. Er, you may kiss the bride.”
It has all been arranged in a rush. Jack’s leave had come unexpectedly.
‘Speedwell’ had thrown her propeller shaft out of alignment and had limped
into Liverpool a couple of days before. Since then it had all been a whirl;
the special licence secured, the church arranged, his parents summoned to
London. And there had been the matter of the interview with his Captain to
request permission to marry.
Jack had four days’ leave for the wedding. One had been consumed by a
torturous journey from Liverpool to London – a matter of four hours in
peacetime but three times that now, with stops for air raids and higher
priority traffic. The second day had been spent in feverish preparations,
the third was set aside for the wedding. He knew that the last day would
have to be spent travelling back. He groaned inwardly at the thought that
they would have only a brief few hours together before that great
relentless, all-devouring beast, the war, claimed him again.
The reception had been brief. Rationing prevented much in the way of a
wedding feast but the spirit was the same heady mixture of joy and hope and
relief. They had blushed at the innuendo-laden speech of Tom Piper, the Best
Man and toasted the King with all solemnity. Jack’s mother had shed a tear
and her father had enveloped Beth in a huge bear-hug, welcoming her to the
family. Now they were alone the small hotel room Jack had been able to
procure near Euston Station.
“We’ll do it properly one day,” he said. “I dunno, maybe go to Scotland or
someplace like that.” Beth wasn’t sure where someplace like Scotland might
be but she nodded happily anyway.
“Jack, my love, it doesn’t matter where, it only matters who. And the ‘who’
that matters is you. We’re married now and we’ll be together always, won’t
we?”
“Come hell or high water, girl, we’ll be together.”
The bed stood behind them like a huge question mark. Their love, until this
moment, had had no physical expression. They had kissed and hugged but that
was all. Now Beth felt suddenly shy and Jack, seeing this steal over her
face in a rising suffusion of pink, was overcome by a feeling of great
tenderness, combined with a nameless dread. His throat constricted and he
had the urge to run while feeling deep within him, a sense of rising need.
He reached a tentative hand towards her face and gently stroked her cheek. A
small tear glistened beneath one eye and he smoothed it away with a thumb.
He wrapped her softly in his arms and kissed her hair. Her heart hammered
against her ribs and he felt the rapid beating against his chest. He bent
his head and kissed her face and she angled her head until her mouth met
his. The sweetness in her kiss held a hint of something else and he felt his
cock stir. Beth felt it too and turned her hips to press herself against it.
Her kisses now were full of hunger and she could feel a spreading heat in
her lower belly. Her hips seemed to be moving involuntarily as she ground
against him. She was consumed with the need of him. She craved the weight of
his body upon her and the burgeoning thickness she could feel pressing into
her belly seemed to send sparks through her whole being.
Her voice was husky as she whispered “Now Jack, I want you now.” They
undressed quickly and clumsily, Jack falling as he tugged at his trousers,
having forgotten first to remove his shoes. Their laughter defused the
intensity and they could slip between the cold sheets grinning like naughty
children. Jack moved to switch off the lamp but she stayed his hand,
whispering, “No, I want to see, my love.” Beth gazed at his body. The pale
skin of his torso contrasted sharply with the weather-beaten arms and face.
His erection rose like a ruddy tower out of the tangle of tight curls and
she gasped. ‘Oh God, will it fit?’ she thought and jumped as his hand found
her breast, sending electricity speeding from her hardened nipple to the
junction of her thighs. Jack felt a deep awe. The smoothness of her skin was
like satin under his calloused fingers as he trailed down her flanks and
over the swell of her hip. He moved his mouth to capture one dusky pink
nipple and moaned with the force of the emotion that surged within him. He
thought his heart would burst, it felt so full of love and wonder.
Beth arched her back and seized his hand, pushing it from her hip towards
the sweet fire burning between her legs. She gave a small scream as his
fingers probed between the dewy lips and brushed her clitoris.
“Now Jack, now!”
“Oh, yes!”
“Oh my God!”
“My love, my love”
“Ahhh!!”
“Oh Christ, I’m sorry.”
“Don’t stop! If you stop I’ll … Ohhh!!!”
“I love you so much”
“Oh, Jack, pleasssee!!!!!”
“Yes.”
“Oh yes, yes, yes, YESSS!!!!”
He lay back panting and hugged her against his chest. She felt a glow deep
within her that seemed to ebb and flow in time with the beating of her
heart. Her fingers twined in his chest hair and she kissed the sweat that
glistened on his shoulder and neck.
“Did it hurt so much?”
“A little, but it was a nice hurt”
“I didn’t want to hurt you”
“You didn’t. It wasn’t you it was my silly maidenhead. I’m glad it’s gone.
I’m so very glad it was you.”
“Oh my girl, I love you so much.”
“I wish tonight could last forever!”
But nothing lasts forever and the next day she saw him off on the train back
to the war.
June 1944
Jack adjusted his balance to the ship’s rolling and peered into the gloom
beyond the bows. The pre-dawn blackness seemed particularly intense and he
had to strain to see the telltale blue flicker of the stern light of the
next ship in line ahead. He could sense, but could not see, the great convoy
of vessels heading for the coast of France. As they had formed up the
previous evening he had gaped in amazement at the sheer size of the
assembled armada. The Great grey battleships, his father’s old ship,
‘Warspite’ among them: The Landing ships packed with troops. They had all
felt a sense of, well, history as they had gaped from the decks of little
‘Speedwell’.
Now, as the sky started to lighten, he could hear the steady pinging of the
Asdic, sweeping for submarines and the occasional stamping of feet on the
bridge above the wheelhouse. The voice-pipe in front of Jack whistled and a
tinny voice gave him a new course to steer. He repeated the order and spun
the wheel, feeling the ship’s motion increase as she swung broadside on to
the swell. He didn’t hear the explosion. He just saw the brilliant flash
that seemed to burn right into his skull. The mine must have been disturbed
by the ship ahead. The corvette nudged one of those deadly horns with its
thin steel flank, the point of impact just below the bridge. It broke her
back, the thrust of her propeller forcing her steadily under waves.
It was still dark when Beth was awoken by the sensation of a kiss on her
forehead. She murmured sleepily. “Hello, darling, ” and sighed contentedly
as kisses trailed down her neck to her breast. He smelt warm and salty,
somehow. His mouth was moving lower and she gasped as his tongue entered
her. She lay back with her eyes closed and luxuriated in the delicious
sensations that flooded her. She might even have cried out as he entered her
and she felt the power of his body moving above her. When it came, her
orgasm was so intense that she blacked out momentarily, all her senses
consumed by the shuddering ecstasy. When she woke again, it was light. And
she was alone.
“What time did Jack leave?” she asked her mother at breakfast.
“Jack? I think you must have been dreaming, darling. Jack’s at sea.”
She shrugged and then her attention was caught by the voice of the BBC
Announcer.
“At dawn this morning, allied forces landed on the coast of Normandy
supported by airborne landings at strategic points inland …” It sounded as
if the landings were a success and Beth felt her heart leap at the thought
that this might really mean the war would soon be over. She was hugging this
thought to herself when the voice cut through her reverie. “The admiralty
regrets to announce the loss of His Majesty’s Ships ‘Archon’, ‘Buccleuch’
and ‘Speedwell’.”
She heard no more but stood, ashen-faced, her hands clasping her belly where
she could feel the first stirrings of new life within her womb.
August 1946
Beth Reynolds stood in the warm sunlight and looked at the canvas-covered
hull in the corner of the boatyard. “I reckon she’s rightly yours, Beth”
said he father-in-law and gave her a shoulder a squeeze. She leaned on the
pushchair in front of her where the breeze ruffled her son’s dark curls. She
looked up at the elderly man beside, seeing in the lines etched on his face
a reflection of her own sufferings.
“I’ll need some help to put her right and Little Jack, here, isn’t going to
be up to it for a year or two!”
“Don’t you worry ’bout that, none, girl. I reckon between us we can see
‘Maid’ right.”
“And Little Jack will need to learn to sail her.”
“Ah, that he will, my girl, that he will.”
They exchanged slow smiles and each felt, for the first time, the long
shadow of sorrow beginning to lift. Above them a sea bird soared and
circled, its harsh cries sounding unusually triumphant.