Chapter 8

The skipper and crew of Serendipity slept well, catching up on their interrupted sleep. After a substantial breakfast, Cherry sent Pippa and CC off to buy supplies while she topped off diesel and water tanks and Nadiya tidied up below. The two of them then prepared a hot meal and Cherry checked the weather, clucking to herself at the report.

As Pippa and CC walked towards the town, she curled her fingers into his. "I'm sorry about last night," she said, quietly.

"Sorry about the noise, or sorry Nadiya was with you instead of me?" CC smiled to show he wasn't really angry or upset.

"Oh, Lord ... were we noisy?" Pippa was frowning as she looked at CC. "Both, I suppose. I didn't really expect ... I mean, I thought Nadiya just needed reassurance. It was ... different, I suppose. I liked what we – you and I – did, though."

"Good." CC didn't say any more, but kept his fingers twined in hers. They bought perishable supplies, milk, bread, salad things, and also stocked up with tins and dried food. Mid morning, they found a coffee shop and sat with cappuccinos and biscuits, not saying very much but comfortable together. Both of them were aware, separately, that the comfortable silence was significant and wondered whether to comment. They made their way back to Serendipity and put away the stores.

Goat had been busy, and had only cat-naps over the previous day or so. She was spark out on a camping mat in the surveillance van, but the important work was done and Bernie, her partner, was monitoring the ring's mobile phones. One call in particular caught his attention and he called Alex.

"Hey, Cap ... just intercepted a call – sounded like the boss – saying they'd tracked down Serendipity to Berwick. They've got someone in the Coastguard Service, it seems. You want to let them know?"

"Thanks, Bernie. Yes. Good work. Tell Goat good work, too. Don't wake her to do it, though."

"No, Cap. I don't want her angry at me..."

"Wuss."

"Absolutely."

Lunch was being eaten aboard Serendipity when Cherry's phone rang.

"Cherry Thornton ... oh, hello, Alex. Have you news for us?" Long pause. Very long pause, during which Cherry's face took on a pronounced frown. "I see. Have you any idea how long this will take?" Pause. "Very well. We'll just have to do our best." She put the phone away and took a deep breath. "It seems the big man remained suspicious of us and has a contact or contacts in the Coastguard. My routine announcements of departure, destination and arrival have found their way to him. Well. We were going to leave today anyway. We'll just have to lie." She sighed. "I just hope this doesn't go wrong and affect my licence." She addressed herself to finishing her meal.

They left Berwick on the turn of the tide and as soon as they were clear of the dock Cherry shut down the diesel and had Pippa set the sails to take best advantage of the strengthening westerly breeze, then take over the wheel. Exiting the Tweed required two gybes. When Pippa looked to Cherry for advice, the older girl just smiled and said, "Carry on."

They passed a jetty and the river was clearly bending. Pippa swallowed hard. "Ready to gybe?" What should have been a clear shout, was not. But all the same, she got acknowledgements from the other three. Then, "Gybe oh!" was a little clearer and she turned the wheel as Cherry sheeted in the main. The boom swung across ... hard, pulled up short by the mainsheet, which Cherry then fed out again.

It was only minutes later that Pippa was calling out, more confidently, "Ready to gybe?" again. She was concentrating too hard to see the satisfied smile on Cherry's face. Not too much later, they were passing the lighthouse.

"Course south-east," Cherry ordered. It needed a course change a few degrees south.

"Are we going home?" asked Pippa, her eyes on the compass until Serendipity settled on one three oh degrees. "Course one three oh, Skipper."

"That'll do, Pippa. No, we're not going home yet. I want any watchers to think we're heading south."

By sunset, they were about thirty miles off Alnmouth and well out of sight of land when Cherry ordered another gybe and set course due north. "I'm for bed," she told them. "Nadiya, you don't have to stand watches with me if you don't want to, but if you do, you'll want to come with me now."

"I come, Skip-per. Good night, CC, good night, Pip-pa." Nadiya kissed Pippa on the cheek, then, after a pause, did the same to CC.

Two 'good nights', not quite in unison, but warm in tone, were their response as she went forward to use the head.

"Call me at two," she told CC, "or before, if you're fading."

"Okay, Skipper."

CC and Pippa were alone in the cockpit. The force six - 'strong', up to twenty-seven knots – wind was moving Serendipity very well; she was making better than six knots at times, but it was producing a beam sea, waves up to three metres in height, and Serendipity was rolling more than usual. Additionally, spray from the tops of the waves was making them very glad of the water-proofs they were wearing. Running more or less parallel to the waves as they were, the waves were less of an impediment to progress, but every so often she would bury her bows in a wave when the helmsman misjudged things in the dark, causing a jolt and a cascade of sea-water over the deck. Exhilarating sailing, but tiring. The five hours they shared on watch put them slightly north of Berwick and fifty miles offshore when Pippa shook Cherry awake.

As soon as they were relieved, CC and Pippa headed for bed, where Pippa arrived first, stripped naked, and huddled under the duvet. When CC joined her – in t-shirt and shorts – she wrapped herself round him, opened her mouth to complain how he was dressed, but was too tired. She was aware of his hand on her hip, gently stroking, then his kiss on her forehead, then she was aware of nothing; having made the transition from 'just awake' to 'asleep'. CC lay there, enjoying the closeness, her soft warmth, the pressure of her breasts and her leg hooked over his. He, too, slept, thinking how much he'd miss her when she went home.

"Are we okay?" Cherry could hear the anxiety in Nadiya's voice.

"Very okay. Serendipity can cope with much worse than this. Come and take the wheel." For the next hour, Cherry coached the girl in the techniques of making the best of the conditions; how to avoid the bows digging into the face of a wave, how to ride the back of the wave ... all without really being able to see very much, if anything. "But don't worry; you will bury the bows from time to time – we all do. I'm going to make some tea; you'll be fine for a few minutes. Shout if you see anything."

Nadiya wondered what she might see apart from the vague outline of the cockpit and the glow of the compass binnacle, but then, not long before Cherry reappeared, she thought she saw the glow of a light ahead. A green light ... and two white lights. She opened her mouth to call out, but Cherry reappeared with two mugs of cocoa and Nadiya pointed ahead.

"Good girl," was Cherry's only comment.

The green and two white lights became a green, a red and a white light; a large power boat was heading straight for them. The boat loomed out of the darkness and the throb of diesel engines ceased. A loud-hailer. "Ahoy, the yacht. What vessel?"

Cherry took only seconds to come to a decision. "Auxiliary yacht Eirene out of Harwich for Lerwick."

"Seen any other boats? Like yours?"

"Two or three, heading east or south."

"Thanks, Eirene." The diesels started up again and the big boat moved off to the south. Cherry let out the breath she'd been holding.

"What ... that?" Nadiya had to shout a little from the wheel.

"Someone is looking for us ... for you. Don't let your cocoa get cold." Cherry flicked off the navigation lights.

Dawn came reluctantly and CC appeared with Pippa in tow shortly after; Serendipity continued to forge ahead. By twenty-two hundred they were off Fraserburgh and altered course to north-west, close-hauled for Duncansby Head, passing outside the radar coverage from Wick at Noss Head. At eighteen fifty on the ninth, Cherry tacked and headed in to Freswick Bay, where they anchored at twenty-two twenty. Sheltered by the land, they were, for the moment at least, at peace.

Pippa was thinking she might at last make some more progress with CC until Cherry said, "I want to be under way before dawn, but we can at least get a fair night's sleep. Pippa, if you wouldn't mind taking Nadiya with you, you don't have to get up quite so early."

Pippa opened her mouth, but shut it again without saying anything; she'd seen the expression on Nadiya's face. Instead she laid her arm round the younger girl's shoulder. "Come on, then, Nadiya. Let's have a cup of tea while the Skipper and CC get ready for bed."

Not too much later, Pippa and Nadiya were cuddling – no more – when Nadiya said, "I'm scared."

Pippa held her close, stroking her back, without answering for several minutes. Then, "So'm I, Nadiya." She kissed the younger girl's forehead. Then after a further several minutes, "It's going to be okay," even as she was thinking, 'I don't know if we'll live through this, but I do believe Alex will sort out the ring. How can I explain that to Nadiya so she understands? I think she's brave enough; I just wish I could speak Russian, or that she had fluent English.' It seemed that her words were enough, because Nadiya slept soon after. Pippa, despite her uncertainty, also slept well.

The girls ... and CC ... slept through Cherry's initial preparations at about four thirty. It was only as the first links of the anchor-chain grated through the fairlead that CC was jolted into consciousness. He was out of his bunk and pulling on trousers and sweater before he was fully awake, and on deck apologising to Cherry minutes later, well before she had half the chain in. He took over with that and Cherry went aft to the cockpit.