Chapter 2

The largish car drew up on the quay next to the marina pontoons. The couple who emerged came as something as a surprise. Not their dress – they'd come from their wedding, so the suit on the man was to be expected. She had clearly changed as she was in jeans and a sweatshirt. But they did not appear to quite ... match. The man ... yes. They could see him as a week-end sailor. Fifty-ish, tanned and weathered, upright and fit-looking. But his wife ... could have passed as a teenager. If they'd had to guess her age, they'd have put her, perhaps, in her early twenties. He moved smoothly enough, she, with a balletic grace. He was clearly Caucasian, she ... brown eyed, brown skinned, with a halo of frizzy, dark brown hair. Each brought a soft bag, and the driver carried a suit-case.

It was the woman who stepped forward, though. "Captain Collins? I'm Denise Quenton..." a huge grin split her face and she turned and grabbed her surprised husband, and kissed him firmly. "Darling! Missus Quenton!" Then bounced back to CC. "I made the arrangements. My husband ... oh! I love that ... was not expecting this, so if he can change, our friend will take his suit and leave us with what we need."

"Welcome aboard Serendipity, I'm Charles Collins – CC to my friends," then turned to a very pretty, petite blonde. "This is my Mate, Nadiya. I have the offshore Yachtmaster certificate, and Nadiya is qualified as a coastal Yachtmaster. We are at your disposal until high water next Saturday, when we need to be heading back to our usual berth in Maldon. You can take as much, or as little, as you like of the management of the boat."

CC turned to Nadiya, who nodded and led the way on board and to the large fore-cabin. Shortly ... well, several minutes longer than strictly necessary ... the couple emerged in casual clothing and handed the suitcase to the driver who smiled, wished them well, and left with the case.

CC broke the awkward silence. "We can stay here overnight, if you wish, but we'll need to leave quite early in the morning."

The honeymoon couple looked at each other. "Thank you." Joe said, "You'll gather this comes as a surprise to me, so I have no idea where to start. Except, I suppose, to ask about the tides and leaving the wet dock?"

"We could leave now, really, and take the ebb down to Harwich Haven. Anchor overnight, and we can discuss what the two of you would like to do over supper."

"Sounds good."

Playing safe, CC decided to motor out of the marina, Nadiya at the wheel, and through the Wet Dock to the lock, where he handled the warps with Joe. Once out in the river, Nadiya turned Serendipity into the wind as the two men hoisted the sails – staysail, main and mizzen.

With sails up, Nadiya got the yacht on the wind and handed the wheel over to a nervous Denise. Nadiya stepped back to stand, braced against the movement of the boat, by Joe.

I think she will do well," Nadiya confided to the older man.

"Good. How long have you been doing this? You seem very capable."

"Thank you. It is almost four years now."

"How did you get started? If I may ask?"

A shadow passed over her face. "Serendipity ... and CC and his friends ... ended a very bad time for me. I was lucky. Very lucky. And I fell in love. With CC, and with the sea." Her eyes, just for a few moments, had a faraway look in them, and he decided not to pursue the topic. They stood and watched Denise. Then Nadiya spoke again. "I remember the first time I stood where your wife is. I was sea-sick, and they made me take the wheel to take my mind off it. It worked. I think I was hooked right then."

Serendipity, not being a fast vessel, took nearly three hours to cover the roughly eleven miles to the Shelf, opposite Felixstowe Container Terminal. Denise and Joe were not hungry following their wedding meal and thanks to the excitement of the day, but with the chilly breeze. hot soup and sandwiches were welcome as they sat in the cockpit and watched the activities of the Haven.

Denise was the first to stand. She held out her hand to Joe. "Come along, Joe. Time for bed." Her husband didn't waste any time in taking her hand and following.

Nadiya looked at CC. "Anchor watch, Skipper?"

CC smiled. "What do you think, Mister Mate?"

She touched a finger to her lips and looked up at the sky. "Let me see ... settled weather. Sheltered anchorage with good holding. Unnecessary, I think."

"I agree."

She slithered over into his lap. "And I suspect ... you and I ... might be ... inspired."

"I think you very probably are right." His right hand caressed her side, coming to rest on her breast, not that he could feel much through their clothing. Nadiya groaned, however.

"We have too many clothes on, Skipper." Kiss.

"Yes, but let's give them time to finish in the head before we go to bed..."

They hung water-proofs in the wet-locker, though they were dry, and cleaned their teeth in the galley sink, during which they heard the sound of the toilet pump, followed by the bang of the door to the head. By the time they'd finished their ablutions, unmistakeable sounds were issuing from the fore-cabin. They looked at each other and raced aft to the master cabin. The remainder of their clothes were rapidly removed and placed neatly to be accessible in case of problems in the night, and they were soon too involved to worry about what was happening at the other end of the boat.

In the fore-cabin, Joe having done the gentlemanly bit and let Denise go first, found his new wife snuggled under the thick duvet against the chill of an east-coast spring evening; her eyes glittering in the limited light from the docks opposite that found its way through the deck-head lights.

"Come on, Husband! I need you to cuddle – this bed is cold!" Joe was about to slide into bed in boxers and t-shirt. "Uh uh! Naked. Now!" Obeying, he had to agree – the bed was, indeed, cold. But his smooth-skinned, lithe bodied wife was a furnace as she drew him to her. "Oh, well ... looks as though I have to warm you up instead," she commented.

It was far from the first time they'd made love and they were both familiar with each other's bodies, but something profound had changed. They pressed together, laying on their sides, face to face and caressed each other's back. They kissed. Very soon they ceased to notice the chill as their own body heat was transferred to the mattress and retained by the duvet.

Denise rolled back and pulled Joe with her, so he was pressing her into the mattress. He tried to support his weight on his elbows, but she held him tightly.

"I want to feel your weight pressing me into the bed."

Making love in that way limited Joe's range of movement, but feeling her lithe body under his was very arousing in itself. Denise, for the first time, was allowing herself to be controlled ... by Joe's weight. Their marriage had released something in her.

Their progress to completion was slow, but inexorable. They reached heights they'd never before achieved and were so caught up together they forgot any potential embarrassment and cried out in their ecstasy.

When Joe rolled to the side, Denise forced herself to rummage for the tissues she'd stashed earlier, and as soon as she had them strategically placed, snuggled up to Joe again trying to get every possible square inch of skin to skin contact. "Darling?"

"Uh huh?"

"I want your baby."

Joe didn't respond immediately, as there seemed to be a lump blocking his throat. He swallowed hard to try to clear it, but there was still a catch in his voice when he said, "Then you'd better throw your pills away ... hadn't you?"

"Are you sure you're all right with that?"

"Darling, even if I wasn't I wouldn't refuse you, but I've always wanted children. If it happens, God willing," he wondered why inserted that, "then your parents and my mother would certainly be delighted, I think." A few moments later, he added, "And I ... will be over the moon."

She clung to him, shaking, and pushed him onto his back to kiss him, then lay with her head on his chest and his arm round her as she wet his chest with her tears.

"Darling?"

"I'm so happeee..."

Why do women cry when they're happy? Joe puzzled about that and other imponderable feminine characteristics, shortly realising she'd gone to sleep like that.

The sounds they made barely penetrated the consciousness of the couple in the master cabin. They, wanting to sleep lightly and wake early, had coupled lovingly but briefly and were drifting off to sleep as they heard the newly-weds.

All slept lightly. For Denise, it was the unfamiliar, rather hard, bed, the tapping of halyards, lapping of water against the hull and all the other characteristic sounds of a busy commercial harbour. For Joe it was that plus his awareness of the changing conditions. For Nadiya and CC, it was mainly the passing commercial traffic and turn of the tide, but neither would sleep heavily at anchor anywhere afloat, let alone a commercial harbour. Additionally, each was dealing with worries about their personal relationship.

The tide turned at about four-thirty (BST – the clocks having changed overnight) and Nadiya, fully awake, lay in CC's arms. She slipped out of bed at five to listen to the weather and start the kettle boiling for coffee. CC came fully awake as she left. Neither of them had really had sufficient sleep, but both were used to that as a feature of sailing as an occupation. Besides, he had rather be up with Nadiya than in bed alone.

He took a turn round the deck to make sure everything was as it should be – it was – and used the head. By the time he'd finished, the kettle was beginning to sing and Nadiya was listening intently to the inshore forecast with a forecast pad in front of her. He knew better than to distract her and got on with starting bacon for breakfast, and making coffee. He hadn't finished when Nadiya came up behind him to hug him.

"Weak front coming through during the afternoon. Nothing much, light rain, moderate south-westerlies veering northerly, force three to five."

"Good enough." He poured coffee for himself and made a mug of tea for his Mate, laid rashers of bacon between slices of bread, and they went to sit at the saloon table. "I want to get under way by seven-thirty," he said, swallowing a mouthful of bacon sandwich. "Get offshore on the last of the ebb. I expect Joe will be okay, but Denise's stomach might be a bit uneasy. We'll serve them breakfast in the cockpit, unless they're up a lot earlier than I'd expect..."

Actually, Denise was awake, and in the process of making sure Joe was, too. A combination of factors made it difficult to remain asleep; the deep rumble of a passing ferry's diesel engines, followed by the disturbance of her wash, the slap of water against the hull and the tapping of halyards, the harder, narrower bed than that which she was used to ... and, once she had surfaced, the sound of CC's footsteps on the deck and the whistle of the kettle from the galley.

There is something about sleeping on a boat, like camping, which promotes hunger. Of course there was something other than normal appetite that had her attention, too – Joe's morning erection, which she stroked thoughtfully.

"Joe?"

Grunt.

"Oh, very romantic!"

"Mmmm?" His eyes opened. "Hello, my lovely."

"Oh, Joe ... I love you so much."

His arms, wrapping her, tightened. "And I love you, too. Very, very, much."

"I know. I'm so happy we're married." she wriggled against him, and the hand that had been stroking his erection released it and stroked up to rest on his chest. "CC and Nadiya are moving about. Would you mind very much if we got up and joined them?"

"Darling, if that's what you'd like to do, we'll have plenty of time to make love later. And, as the saying goes, 'time and tide wait for no man' ... or woman."

She chuckled. "I'd never really thought about that saying before. It's really true, isn't it?"

"It's really true." His hand cupped and caressed her breast. "It's hard to believe that you, lovely as you are, wanted to be with me..."

"Because you're a good man. But, Joe, you'd better stop that, or we won't be leaving this bed for an hour at least."

"And that's a bad thing?" He tweaked a nipple and she gasped.

"Not in itself, no. But this week is for me to find out about sailing, right?"

He sighed (theatrically) and released her. "If you say so, darling."

"I do say so. But I'll make it up to you tonight ... and every night." She pecked a kiss on his nose. "You go first in the toilet ... head, isn't it? I've got a bit more cleaning up to do."

By the time Denise got to the saloon, Joe was chatting to Nadiya, who was just starting a batch of bacon and keeping an eye on sausages under the grill. She glanced round and said, "Good morning, Missus Quenton. You didn't need to get up early..." then returned her attention to the food.

"Oh, I just thought we ought to make the most of our time. We can sleep any time..." she blushed, apparent despite her normal colouration.

Nadiya glanced round again. "The skipper is getting ready to get under way in..." she glanced at her watch, "any time up to about an hour from now. You can have a bacon sandwich, or I can do eggs, toast ... whatever you fancy in that line. The sausages are to have in sandwiches, cold, later, while we're sailing."

"What are you having, Joe?" Denise slid behind the saloon table.

"I think I'd like bacon, eggs ... poached ... and toast."

"That sounds good. Nadiya?"

"Coming up ... in just a few minutes. There's coffee just made fresh, and juice."

Although they didn't rush, they were both finished well before CC's 'deadline' for getting under way. Once he realised they were up and about, he would have delayed a little anyway, but it was only a little after seven when Denise stood with Joe in Serendipity's cockpit.

"There are various ways of doing this," CC began, Joe nodding in agreement. "We're 'tide-rode' meaning that Serendipity is pointing into the current, rather than into the wind. Which way is the wind?" He looked at Denise for the answer, knowing she was the one who needed to understand.