CHAPTER V
SAILING
The next morning Titty and Dick were able to have a leisurely breakfast in the hotel's dining room, as they knew there was no point in picking up the dinghy from the boatyard until it was nearer to high tide. Breakfast over they walked through the town back to the boatyard. Once again the town was full of visitors and as they approached the boatyard they were glad to get away from the bustling centre. Dick had not sailed his and Dot's boat Scarab for years. In the USA he had been invited to sailing weekends but these were just business events where the actual sailing was done by a paid crew, guests were there only to eat and drink. Titty still sailed, usually borrowing Amazon, when she visited Beckfoot to see Peggy and John.
The man at the boatyard had realised from their conversation the previous day that Titty did not need any advice on handling the dinghy. Despite this she still had a few questions for him.
"We'd like to sail to Kirby Quay, would we make it before the tide turns?" He thought for a moment.
"I would follow the Twizzle to the causeway at Island Lane, there's a landing stage there, so you could moor there if you need to. Have you got a chart?" Titty looked slightly guilty.
"No, I was hoping I could remember enough." He looked a bit alarmed.
"Hold on and I'll get you a basic chart, it's not really for navigation but someone like you should be able to manage." He left them for a moment and went inside the wooden shed that served as an office, after a few minutes he came back with a leaflet meant for visitors on foot. Titty was grateful.
"Thank you, what time do you need the dinghy back tomorrow?"
"About this time, high tide."
With this she and Dick took charge of the boat, Titty climbed in and raised the sail and Dick stood on the quayside and untied the painter, when she was ready he got in the boat and pushed it away from the boatyard moorings.
It was a good day for sailing, the sun was shining and there was a fair wind and once they were on the more open water of the Twizzle the dinghy was moving along at a good pace. Dick was pleased that Titty had taken control, despite he and Dot owning Scarab they never got enough opportunities to sail her so his sailing never matched the standards of the others. Titty's skill and experience showed and he was reminded of the teenage girl he had seen sailing years ago, it was hard for Dick to associate her with the women he had known in the war and since.
As the man at the boatyard had warned them they could see that the tide was falling by the time they were approaching the Wade. Titty steered towards the landing stage.
"I think we better moor up as he suggested." Dick didn't argue, and readied to jump out of the boat once Titty had brought it alongside the landing stage. He did so and made it fast and Titty began to lower the sail and store it for when they returned.
On the journey Dick had been thinking and once the dinghy was secured he shared his thoughts with Titty.
"We haven't got very far in our search for Nancy, shall walk down to Kirby Quay?" He had seen it on the map he bought a few days ago and so knew it was nearby. Titty too had been thinking and thought to herself about the evening before and Dick. For the first time in a month or so Nancy became secondary.
"Yes, we could have a look at Witch's Cottage!"
"What?" Dick not being part of the Secret Water expedition did not know what she was talking about.
"There was a thatched cottage at Kirby Quay, an old woman lived there and we had to go there to collect a sack of things for Don before we met Daisy."
"Do you know the way?" Dick had foolishly left his map at the Albion.
"Yes, we go down the lane back to the road and go right and it's the second on the right once you get in to the village."
She didn't wait and started to walk along the lane to the road, Dick soon caught up with her, without a word between them he took her hand in his. Nothing was said, and they continued to walk to the road.
Dick had again been thinking.
"Do you think it was Nancy you saw in the town yesterday?"
"I don't really know, but have you ever seen anyone else wearing such knitted caps?"
"I suppose not, they are unusual. Where did they get them?"
"They had them when we met, neither she or Peggy have ever said. It was just what they always wore!"
Titty's memory of the layout of the village was very good after all the years, and as she remembered the second turning was Quay Lane, a road of old cottages, then fields and trees. They walked along and once past the cottages eventually came to a farm gate, except there was not an actual farm. The gate just stopped anyone reaching the Quay, a relic from the days when wagons would go down the lane to collect the goods unloaded from the barges that plied their trade.
They let themselves through the gate and the once past the trees the landscape opened out. On the right of them there was a small thatched cottage with a similar outbuilding, both with black walls and white window frames, way ahead of them was a large building, Quay House, that Titty knew to be by the actual quay. They stopped for a moment and just took in the view. They were still holding hands.
"Dick." Titty wanted to say so much, but wondered whether she had misunderstood his intentions and about what passed between them the evening and night before.
"Yes, what's on your mind?" Dick was considered by most of the others as being perhaps too single minded; unlike his sister he rarely revealed his emotions and deepest feelings. He was never like that, and his time in America had done little to change this. But now? This short time with Titty had brought out thoughts and feelings within him that nobody else had ever done.
"Last night." Titty, she who was never lost for words, suddenly found herself not knowing what to say, she knew how she felt but couldn't find a way to express her feelings.
"Yes?"
"You know what I was like in the war don't you? I'm sure Dot's told you." Most of them knew of her promiscuousness and took it to be Titty's method of mental survival of those terrible days.
"Yes, she did years ago. What about it?"
"I wouldn't want you to think last night was like that, I've always been fond of you, it's just…"
"I know, I know, people think I'm a bit solitary, Dot is always trying to find me someone, but then she's not a lot better!" He laughed at himself, then lapsed in to silence.
"Yes," she too went silent, "but last night, I've never known how to tell you or show you before."
"No, I couldn't either." Dick surprised himself. Titty was pleased and surprised but did not know how to tell him. She said nothing. "With my war work, I couldn't get to see you, or the others, that much so it became difficult. Then being in America our paths didn't cross much, Dot always told me your news of course, that's why I wrote to you. I knew there was never anyone special in your life." Titty smiled at him.
"No, not until now."
They stood hand in hand looking across to Quay House and the Backwaters beyond; apart from the noise of the leaves moving in the wind on the trees there was silence.