Drew scanned them, nodding. ‘A hundred percent. Very impressive. Did you bribe Jake?’
He knew full well that she hadn’t. ‘No, bribery’s a contravention of Jake’s and my safety standards. Do we change here?’
‘Yes, it’s easier than trying to do it on the boat.’ He led her across to the diving centre and unlocked the main doors. ‘The changing rooms are over on the left.’
Locked in the white-painted cubicle, Caro took a deep breath. She was really doing this. She carefully unrolled the drysuit. All she had to do was to apply what she’d learned now. That started with getting into the suit.
First there were layers of clothes to keep her warm, two thermal vests and two pairs of thermal leggings. It took a bit of wriggling and cursing to get into the suit, and she was glad of the zip hook that hung next to the mirror, but she made it. Jake had said that thick socks and trainers would be fine for the boat, and she pulled them on, along with a warm jacket. Bundling her clothes into her bag, she found Drew sitting on the jetty, watching a small blue and white painted fishing boat make its way towards them.
‘That’s your dad’s boat?’ It looked a very small craft in which to brave the sea.
‘Yep. It looks as if my grandfather’s at the helm.’
When the craft neared the jetty, Caro saw a white-haired man standing alone in the small, white-painted cabin that provided the only shelter from the wind that the boat afforded. He cut the engine and threw a mooring rope to Drew, who caught it expertly and then turned his attention to Caro.
‘Welcome aboard, young lady.’ He held out his hand in a gesture of old-fashioned courtesy. Caro climbed down the steps from the jetty and found that she was guided onto the deck by a firm, steady grip.
‘Thank you, Mr Trevelyan.’ The boat wasn’t wobbling as much as she thought it might, but it she still had to concentrate on keeping her balance.
‘Call me Gramps. No one but the excise man calls me Mr Trevelyan.’ Gramps’s dark eyes twinkled.
‘Leave it out, Gramps.’ Drew was handing their diving equipment down to his grandfather and shot Caro a smile. ‘He loves to sit in the harbour during the summer and tell all the tourists his smuggling stories. He’s never smuggled anything in his life.’
‘That’s what you know, boy.’
Gramps gave Caro a confiding look, tapping the side of his nose. When he turned his back, Drew rolled his eyes, mouthing his words silently. ‘He hasn’t.’
‘Where’s Dad?’ Drew swung down into the boat.
‘He’s gone off somewhere with your mother.’ Gramps shook his head. ‘I’ll never understand those two if I live to be a hundred.’
Drew shrugged as if he didn’t understand either, and Gramps nodded.
‘Sit down, lass, we’ll be ready to go.’ He motioned her towards a bench that ran around the side of the boat and Caro stumbled towards it, sitting down heavily next to the diving gear. Drew sat next to her as the engine of the boat started up again and they began to move across the bay.
‘I hope we haven’t put your grandfather out. Coming out this morning...’ She grimaced awkwardly. Fish out of water was an entirely appropriate cliché as all of this seemed so new and different.
‘Nah. The only way you can put Gramps out is to leave him behind on dry land. My parents have a habit of disappearing off together on day trips from time to time.’
‘That’s nice.’ Caro was searching for something to say, and that seemed to be the least contentious, but Drew chuckled.
‘My parents are both very different people, and they argued their way through twenty-three years of marriage. Now that they’re divorced they get on like a house on fire.’
That seemed very personal information. But in the context of a village, where everyone knew everyone else’s business, Caro supposed not.
‘I guess...whatever suits them.’
‘Yeah. That’s my view. They were never going to change each other, although they both tried. Living apart gave them the opportunity to make their peace, and they found that they really liked each other.’
He seemed so at ease out here. As if the wind and the waves were absorbing all the woes that the land held for him. Drew even seemed better on his feet on the rolling deck than he was on land, using handholds on the boat to steady himself instead of his stick. Caro watched the land recede, wondering whether she was going to be sick. A wave of nausea suddenly hit her, and then disappeared as quickly as it had struck.
‘You want to take a turn at the helm, lass?’ Gramps called back to her, and Drew gave her a nod that indicated this was something of a privilege that wasn’t afforded to everyone.
Be brave...
‘Yes. Thank you.’ Caro eyed the distance between her seat and the helm, wondering how she was going to get there without falling overboard.
‘On land you always keep one foot on the ground, yes?’ Drew murmured to her, and Caro nodded. ‘On a boat, it’s one foot on deck, and one hand to hang on with.’