The Black Opal (11 page)

Occasionally, I would think of the old life, though I did not want to, but it would force itself into my mind. How were they getting on with Aunt Florence, I wondered? Perhaps they would be home by now. They would have the inquest and the house would settle down to its old routine. Lessons and walks with Miss Carson; and Mrs. Marline safely buried and unable to spoil anything again. Adeline would be pleased.

She might miss me a little, but Miss Carson would make up for that.

So it would be a happy ending for them as well as for me. Now and then the thought came to me of what would happen when this voyage was over.

I should go back to Commonwood, I supposed, and then everything would be settled.

But I did not want to think of that. I was going to enjoy every moment of this wonderful adventure first.

Shipboard life was absorbing. At mealtimes we sat at a long table, which was jolly. Everyone was friendly towards me because I was the Captain’s protegee, and they told me how lucky I was to have an uncle who took me on his ship for a long sea voyage. Sometimes Uncle Toby joined us. People all wanted to talk to him. They asked questions about the ship and he talked to them in his jolly, jaunty way which they all seemed to like.

At night I would lie in my berth in the cabin just below the bridge and think of Uncle Toby up there, looking at his charts and the stars as he drove the ship along.

I shared a cabin with a girl who was more or less my own age. Gertie Forman was going to Australia with her family father, mother and brother Jimmy to settle there.

There were two berths, one above the other, and I climbed into mine the top one by means of a ladder which could be pulled down when one needed it. It was great fun lying up there, particularly when the ship rocked.

Gertie and I soon became friendly. We explored the ship together. It was her first time on a ship too, so we had a lot in common. We discovered the public rooms and the best places to sit on deck. Not that we did a great deal of sitting; we always seemed to be dashing around. Sometimes we would talk to the sailors dark men, a number of them, who could not speak much English. But some of them were English and they often referred to me as ‘the Captain’s Little “Un’.

It was wonderful to have a companion at such times when I could not be with Uncle Toby, and Gertie and I spent a great deal of time together. Then we would lie in our berths at night and talk to each other.

I learned that the Formans used to live on a farm in Wiltshire. Gertie told me how she and her brother always had daily tasks to perform . like bringing in the cows for milking, collecting eggs from the fowls, making the pigs’ food. There was always something which had to be done on a farm. They were going to buy a property in Australia where land was cheaper than at home.

The family had left because ‘they’ — Gertie was not sure who-were planning to build a road right through the farm, which would have finished it off as a paying proposition. They were anxious about it for a long time and the Formans had hoped it would never come to pass, but, when they had known it was inevitable, they made the decision to buy a property in Australia.

I told her a little about myself, but I was guarded. I did not want her to know that I had been found under the azalea bush. She would certainly have asked how the splendid Captain Sinclair could be uncle to such a waif. I wondered what I should say if her probing became awkward. But Gertie, like most people, I have discovered, was far more interested in her own affairs than those of others, and it was not difficult to steer her away from asking awkward questions.

In spite of all his responsibilities. Uncle Toby often found time to be with me. He would take me up to the bridge and show me the charts and instruments, and then we would sit in his cabin and talk. I enjoyed every moment on board ship, but to be with Uncle Toby was the highlight of the day.

He talked to me as though I were a grown-up one of the most endearing aspects of our relationship-and when 1 considered the insults I had been subjected to from Estella, Henry and Nanny Gilroy, it seemed miraculous that the

mighty Captain could treat me as though I were important and interesting.

He asked me how 1 liked shipboard life and did not wait for me to reply.

“Wonderful, isn’t it?” he said.

“To feel the fresh sea breeze coming to you … the rise and fall of the waves … and the sea . the ever-changing sea that can be so soft and gentle and then suddenly rages. You haven’t seen it in a fury, and I hope you never will.”

He talked about the places we should visit. We were right at the start now and had yet to go through the Bay of Biscay.

It had a reputation for being perverse, he told me, and we had to look out for squalls. There were currents and winds to be watched.

Sometimes the elements were benign and sometimes the reverse. Then we should go through the Mediterranean and call at Naples and Suez.

“We shall pass through the Canal. That will be very interesting for you, Carmel. A little while ago you would have had to go round the Cape, but now we have this convenient Canal. You’ll like Naples. Italy is one of the most beautiful countries in the world, in my opinion Egypt one of the most mysterious. You are going to see a great deal of the world, Carmel. Do you miss your lessons? Perhaps that is not good.

But a journey like this . well, you will learn more from it than you will find in your school books . perhaps. In any case, we will tell ourselves so. It salves the conscience and that is usually a good thing to do. “

He used to talk about the ancient explorers, Christopher Columbus, Sir Francis Drake. How brave they had been, going off in their ships not in the least like the Lady of the Seas before the seas were charted not knowing what hazards they would face.

“Imagine the storms … the lack of equipment! What men! Doesn’t it make you proud? Voyages of discovery! What days they were! What adventurers!”

I loved to hear him talk like that. I caught his enthusiasm.

In my eyes, he was as great as Christopher Columbus and Sir Francis Drake.

He mentioned remote countries and I was transported back to the schoolroom in Commonwood House, and in my mind’s eye I saw Miss Carson pointing out places on the revolving globe.

A feeling of depression came to me then with a sense of guilt. I had forgotten them all so quickly, and I had a sudden qualm that all might not be well. I recalled the sly looks and the smirks I had seen so often on Nanny’s face, and the poor, sad, lost look on Miss Carson’s.

They had been such a part of my life, and now they seemed like shadows puppets belonging to another world-a world of nightmares and secrets from which I had been miraculously saved by Uncle Toby.

There were times when I awoke and thought I was in my bedroom at Commonwood House and that something terrible which I did not understand was happening. I would be filled with foreboding, then I would be aware of the movement of the ship and in the early morning light I would see above me the bulkhead and know that I had been dreaming and I was actually in my bunk with Gertie sleeping below me in this wonderful world to which Uncle Toby had brought me.

Then Gertie would call out: “You awake?” and I would joyfully answer:

“Yes.”

“What shall we do today?”

What an ideal way for a day to begin for a girl who was not yet eleven years old-though she would be in March, which was not very far away.

The Forman family had more or less adopted me because Gertie and I were such close companions. I would join them for tea or sit with them on deck and I seemed part of the family. Jimmy Forman was not often with us. Gertie and I were younger than he was and he considered us too immature for his company. In any case, we were girls and

as such he had not much respect for us. He spent a lot of time with the sailors, seeking information about the ship.

Mr. and Mrs. Forman were delighted that Gertie had found a companion, and it really was amazing how quickly people became close friends on a ship. I suppose it was because we saw so much of each other.

We had passed through the Bay without much discomfort and we were sailing along the Mediterranean. Uncle Toby told me that there was a party going to Pompeii and Herculaneum, and it would be good for me to join it.

“Alas,” he said, “I shall be completely tied up with business, but I don’t see why you shouldn’t go with the Formans.”

Gertie and I had already discussed it.

“We must go,” she said, and her family would be pleased for me to go with them.

The Formans were quite happy to concede, apart from Jimmy, who did not want to go with the family but with Timothy Lees, with whom he shared a cabin.

It was a wonderful day. In my imagination I was transported to that time long ago when the disaster had happened. There, looming above me, was the menacing mountain and it was not difficult to conjure up in one’s mind the panic that ensued when the hot ash spurted from its summit, covering the city and destroying it with its inhabitants.

We had an excellent guide and, as we picked our way through the ravaged byways of the ancient city, 1 was seeing it all as it must have happened.

When we returned to the ship, I was in an ecstatic state, and as soon as I saw Uncle Toby, I told him what a wonderful day it had been.

He listened intently and suddenly he put his arm round me and, holding me tightly against him, said: “Yes. We need not worry about missing a few lessons. It’s all right for a while at any rate.”

I felt suddenly sombre. I did not want to think of the future. 1 was living in an enchanted present and I wanted it to go on for ever.

I said: “I expect Estella and Adeline are back from their Aunt Florence now and they’ll be having lessons again. I shall have to catch up when I get home.”

Home, I thought? Commonwood House. I had never thought that I really belonged, and now I could not bear to contemplate going back.

Uncle Toby said lightly: “Oh, you’ll catch up. I’ve always maintained that seeing the world is an education in itself.”

He changed the subject abruptly.

“Gertie is a nice girl, isn’t she?

You were lucky to get with her. It doesn’t always work out so neatly.

”

Then he began to tell some funny stories about ill-assorted people who had shared cabins in the past.

“Ports are fun, aren’t they?” he went on.

“The next is Suez. We are staying there only a very short time, and there isn’t an excursion planned. We don’t get in until eight in the morning and we must leave at four-thirty. Not much time for sight-seeing. It’s too far from the Pyramids, and you can’t really get a taste of the allure of Egypt. I am sure the Formans will be glad if you join them. We have to go in on tenders, which takes a little time. It’s too shallow for us to get right in. You’ll enjoy it. We use the lifeboats and, of course, have to let them down, as we do if we had to abandon ship. It’s a good exercise. You’ll see. Smaller ships can get in without trouble, but we have to anchor some little way out in the bay.”

I enjoyed having such details explained to me. I was proud and happy that he considered me capable of understanding, and I forgot about the earlier references to the education I was missing, which had brought home the transience of the life I was now experiencing. I determined to enjoy every moment that I might carry it for ever in my memory.

9i

The Formans said they would be delighted if I joined them for the day we were in Suez. Gertie told me that Jimmy and Tim Lees were going off on their own. They thought they were too old to be in family parties.

The days were balmy and when we were at sea Uncle Toby had more free time. Often I would sit on deck with him and one day, when we were talking, the ship’s doctor came by. Dr. Emmerson was a pleasant young man in his mid-twenties I imagined.

Uncle Toby said: “We are just enjoying a quiet teteatete. We don’t have them as frequently as I’d like, but Carmel is a very resourceful young lady and she manages to get along very well without my interference.”

“I am sure she does,” said Dr. Emmerson.

“May I sit down for a moment?”

“Please do. Are you ready to leave?”

“Still one or two things to do,” said the doctor.

Uncle Toby turned to me and said: “Dr. Emmerson is leaving us at Suez and another doctor will be joining us there. We can’t sail without a doctor, you know, so Dr. Kelso will take Dr. Emmerson’s place. We shall miss you, Lawrence.”

“You’ll get along well with Kelso.”

“Dr. Emmerson is going to spend some time in a hospital in Suez,” said Uncle Toby.

“He’s very interested in the ailments of the skin, and he’s making some special studies of them there.”

“Shall you be able to get ashore. Captain?” asked Dr. Emmerson.

“Alas, no, but the Formans you know, the family who are going to Australia are taking Carmel.”

“That’s good,” said Dr. Emmerson.

We chatted for a while about Suez, which Dr. Emmerson seemed to know very well, and then the doctor mentioned that he still had quite a few things to do in preparation for his departure, and he left us.

Uncle Toby said: “A nice fellow, Lawrence Emmerson. Ambitious, too.

He’ll do well. I think his family wanted him to go into the Church, but he knew what he wanted. Now he’s doing this course in Suez, but I expect he’ll be back specializing in London. Good luck to him. His family will be proud of him then. You know, my family didn’t want me to go to sea. But, like Lawrence Emmerson, I’d made up my mind. When I was seventeen, I ran away and joined the Merchant Navy. We used to do the Indian run, taking soldiers and civil servants to India and bringing them back home. It was a wonderful life and I’ve never regretted it. That’s one of the great secrets of life. Never regret.

If it’s good, it’s wonderful. If it’s bad, it’s experience. That is well worth having. It warns you not to do it again. “

I wanted to ask about the family, but remembered that Mrs. Marline had been his sister, and I was afraid of getting on to something unpleasant.