Free Love a Sailor by Amanda Sandton

today?”
    “It’s your turn to look after Sukey. I’m
going to potter about, have a look at the ship, visit the bars and then this
evening — I haven’t told you about that yet, have I?”
    “About what?” I ask.
    Clara stands up and smoothes down her
clothes. Does a twirl in front of the mirror checking herself out. She looks
good, even hot: slim in her designer jeans, cashmere sweater and crocodile
boots.
    “Go on,” I say, rolling my eyes in mock
impatience. “The suspense is killing me.”
    She picks a card up off the dressing
table and holds it out to me but snatches it back, before I can read it, and
holds it against her breast. “I’m going to dine at the Captain’s table tonight.
Look,” she says, thrusting the card at me again.
    So the Captain has gone ahead with his
plan. My fears were unfounded. I’m struggling with the buttons on Sukey’s
dungarees and can’t take the card. It falls face-down on the floor. What does
she mean? She’s going to have dinner with the Captain? Alone, not the two of
us?
    Clara’s putting on her lipstick.
    “Just you?” I ask.
    “Aha,” she answers, tossing her long
blond hair and winking at me in the mirror.
    As soon as I can, I pick Sukey up and sit
her on the bed so that I can bend over to pick up the card. It’s as I thought,
an invitation to both of us. The Captain has been as good as his word.
    “But Clara, it’s addressed to both of
us.”
    “Surely that’s just a courtesy? He must
have invited me because my family is so important in Vermont. Anyway, it’s your
night for babysitting Sukey. You’re the one who says she can’t be left alone.”
    True, and I’m not going to change that
opinion. If I have to sit out every other night while Clara dines at the
Captain’s table, I will have to. Sukey’s safety is my priority, as it is
Clara’s. We just have different ways of looking at it.
    Clara puts her earrings in and fastens
her watch to her wrist and I find myself assessing her as a possible rival.
That has never occurred to me before and I shake the thought away before I let
it get any power over me.
    We leave together to go for breakfast,
Clara choosing the top level restaurant while Sukey and I go to the one on the
lower level. We part, agreeing that we probably won’t see each other again
until late tonight or even tomorrow when we will be docking at Barcelona.
     
    *
     
    After breakfast Sukey and I stroll along
the promenade deck on the way to the Playroom. We have left the winter behind.
The air is balmy and the sea calm.
    When we reach the aft of the ship, Sukey
tugs my hand. “Merry, I can hear dogs barking. Do they have dogs on the boat?”
    I stop and listen. Sukey’s right. Some
ships allow dogs but I didn’t know that the Albion was one of them.
    “Let’s have a look,” I say, drawing Sukey
over to the ship’s plan in a frame on the wall. I pick Sukey up to look. She
can’t read yet, but she likes to be part of everything that’s going on. In
fact, she spots the kennels first. They’re marked with the picture of a dog.
    She wriggles in my arms to be put down
again on the deck. “Can we go and have a look? Please?”
    I check their location. It’s not far, aft
of the ship on a lower deck.
    “Sure—” and Sukey is off, running down
the deck as fast as her chubby little legs can carry her.
    I catch up with her as she reaches the
top of the companionway and grab her hand, just in time to stop her from
tumbling down the iron steps. The kennel compound is fenced off with a notice
saying that only owners may visit with the dogs, and so I turn away.
    Sukey doesn’t understand. “Why are we
going away, Merry? I want to see the dogs.”
    I explain that we can’t and she starts to
cry. Quietly at first. I kneel down and cuddle her. “It’s to keep the dogs
safe, darling. The ship can’t have any old person going in there and upsetting
them.”
    A hand lands on my shoulder and I look up
to find Pete and his sister standing