CHAPTER IV

FINDING THEIR WAY

Much to Titty's surprise, the boatyard in the town the farmer dropped them off at was the same one she had been to years before. It seemed to have changed very little from when John had to get the rudder of the borrowed dinghy repaired before the arrival of their parents to collect them. The man they spoke to, of their age, sorted out a dinghy for them, and at the mention of Jim Brading he called to a much older man they could see working in one of the yard's sheds. When he joined them the younger man explained who they were. There was much disbelief that Titty had been one of those children that sailed alone in the dark to Holland, it seemed that Jim told anyone who would listen to him about their adventure.

When they at last walked away from the boatyard they went back along the narrow streets in to the town in search of the Albion. They found it opposite the seafront on the corner where the high street met the esplanade. They entered the main entrance and at the small reception desk they spoke to the woman on duty, because of the time of year they had just one double room vacant. The woman seemed to have assumed Dick and Titty were married, or at least engaged and made no mention to them of any single rooms. They paid a deposit in cash, for two nights, which Dick imagined, would be long enough.

As Dick dealt with the woman and paying the deposit for the room Titty said nothing, though she thought a lot. She noticed that Dick seemed very confident about the arrangements, at no point had he actually asked her if she minded or even wanted to share a room with him, but then she also realised that she had just assumed that was what was going to happen. For Titty if they were sharing a room then they were also sharing a bed. When he had finished the arrangements they left the hotel to explore the town.

Once outside the hotel they saw a telephone box and Dick called Dot to explain they would be staying a day or two to see what they could discover, from what Titty heard of the conversation Dot too seemed unsurprised about their hotel arrangements.

The Town was busy with visitors, both those on holiday and day-trippers it being a fine day, and so they walked around the various streets getting a better idea of the layout and where things were. Titty was surprised as to how some things seemed to have not changed at all since her childhood. As they turned a corner in the narrow cobbled road that connected two main streets Titty spotted something and stopped, she tugged at Dick's sleeve as he seemed totally occupied with something he had seen in the opposite direction.

"What?"

"Did you see that?"

"What?"

"A red cap! A red knitted cap!"

"No, surely she doesn't still wear one?" They at once both knew what this could mean.

"She does, Peggy told me." As they stood looking down the road there was no sign of anyone wearing a red knitted cap. Dick, being Dick, was sceptical.

"Are you sure?" Titty then doubted herself.

"No, it's just that…" Her sentence trailed off, she had thought so much about Nancy the last few weeks she just hoped they at long last were getting somewhere.

It was early evening when both of them realised they had not eaten since a sandwich, a cup of tea and a cake at the buffet bar on Liverpool Street station that morning, Dick suggested given where they were they should have some fish and chips. Titty readily agreed, this pleased him as his motive had much to do with missing such food in America; over there they had nothing like it. Having bought their dinner they returned to the seafront and they sat like day-trippers on a bench on the promenade, the sun was getting lower in the sky and the tide was going out, there they were eating their fish and chips from the paper it had been wrapped in. As they both munched away Dick thought to himself he could not remember the last time he had eaten fish and chips like this, then he began to wonder if he ever had. His parents only every visited sensible or obscure places with archaeological interests, in their childhood it had been the chance for him and Dot to go to the Lakes and the Broads that had given them experiences of eating and sleeping outdoors and fending for themselves.

Titty too was lost in her own thoughts as she ate, she was thinking about Dick. Not the Dick she had known as a child but the man sat next to her now. Her life, during the war and since, had been a succession of casual relationships with mostly unsuitable men, some only lasting a day or two, she had never 'fallen in love' and no man had ever seriously proposed to her; not that the she had ever met any man she would have married anyway. Yet, she had given no thought earlier to sharing a bedroom and a bed with Dick that night, nothing had been said and even if it had she would have not protested or declined, it seemed natural and logical. Though over the years she had been in this situation more times than she cared to remember, this time it seemed different. Dick was familiar. True, he was not the most strikingly handsome man she had ever met but then she knew she was not a 'pretty' or even 'glamorous' woman, but it did always seemed men wanted her company, something over the years Dot had teased her about.

Both of them finished their fish and chips at the same time and scrunched up their wrappers in to a ball, Dick took them both to a nearby wastepaper bin and dropped them in it and walked back to her.

"Shall we go to the bar?" Dick held out his hand to Titty to help her stand up from the bench, it was out of habit and courteousness that he did so, but when he took her hand in his it felt different. She stood close to him for a moment, closer than he expected, then she moved slightly closer and kissed him. He didn't resist, but then started to pull away from her, but she held on to his hand.

"Dick, don't, please. It's fine." She could see him blush, but despite that he held on to her.