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I finished my glass of champagne and topped our glasses up again before investigating the cake stand and choosing a beautifully thin cucumber sandwich.
‘He’s lovely. I’m very lucky. These few days away have made me realise that all over again. We went through a bit of a rocky patch when we were first married, but then we got used to each other. And I can honestly say we’ve been happy. It’s funny but being apart from him has reminded me what a truly nice man he is. But he’s not perfect, before you start thinking that. Even when I’m dolled up to the nines to go out somewhere, I have to drag a compliment out of him. Do you know, I bumped into the first officer yesterday evening. Charles, the one with the dog called Chic. I was on my way to the wine bar, and he said, “madame you look very elegant this evening.” It nearly made me cry. He wasn’t chatting me up, he was just saying something nice, paying me a compliment for absolutely no reason. With Eddy, there’s always that awful throwaway phrase “you know I think you look alright.”’
‘Everyone wants to be appreciated,’ Diana said. ‘Perhaps it’s just their generation?’
‘Now that Eddy has retired, he has plenty of time to help out a bit, it just never crosses his mind. I’m going to have a word with him when I get back. Although he is doing the patio now, and he’s been talking about that for years. Look at Alfred, he’s a man and he doesn’t seem to have any difficulty getting out the J Cloths and the antibacterial spray.’
We carried on making short work of the little sandwiches and cakes, and also polishing off the champagne.
‘This whole experience feels wonderfully decadent, doesn’t it?’ I said. ‘Eating food we haven’t prepared, not doing the washing up afterwards and drinking champagne in the afternoon.’
‘It’s marvellous,’ Diana said, raising her champagne towards me. ‘Hurrah for us.’
We walked back through the central area of the ship, where there was a small shopping area, and duty-free shop which had opened again since we had left Barcelona. We investigated the jewellery and the unusual liqueurs for a while, and Diana bought a souvenir teddy bear with a blue jumper embroidered with Avanti for Sam. Although once she had bought it, she looked at it in some confusion.
‘Sam is thirty-five, he doesn’t need a novelty teddy bear. Do I still think of him as a child who needs to have presents brought back from my holiday? Of course he isn’t. He has a house and a job and a car, and now a fiancée. He’ll be married soon.’
‘It’s just to show you were thinking of him,’ I said.
Diana clutched the bear to her chest and looked rather upset.
‘Do you know, I can see very clearly now that Sam has slipped away from me. Being at boarding school, me spending so much time away with his father travelling. I was nearly always the one to ring Sam, the one to travel to see him. When was the last time he had come back to see me without a pressing reason? Perhaps I haven’t been such a good mother after all. When we get back, I’m going to do something about it.’
‘Hang on,’ I said, grabbing Diana by the arm, ‘we’ve forgotten something.’
‘What?’
‘We’re going back into duty-free and we’re going to buy something. For ourselves.’
Diana looked doubtful for a moment and then her face cleared.
‘Yes,’ she said, ‘let’s.’
13
That evening we had a message delivered to our cabin from Captain Lebrun: would Diana and I please join him for drinks and refreshments, in his suite at seven thirty.
‘Hell yes, we would be delighted,’ I said. ‘Thelma would be so jealous if she knew. What shall we wear? I have a lovely green dress I’ve never worn; I think I’ll give that an outing. What about you?’
Diana flicked through her wardrobe. Eventually she decided on some black evening trousers she said she’d had for over twenty years, and a fairly new silk blouse in her preferred shade of navy blue with a daring white collar.
We sent a message back to say we would be delighted to join him and spent the rest of the time getting ready and wishing we hadn’t eaten quite so much at the afternoon tea.
‘That’s cruises I suppose,’ Diana said, looking at her side view, asking if she looked fat, which she didn’t. ‘These days I would never eat three proper meals a day, let alone four. But it’s such a treat to have meals made for me and cleared away afterwards, it’s seductive.’
‘The same goes for booze,’ I agreed from my armchair where I was watching the netcam from the ship’s bridge on the television. ‘We’ve already had a bottle of champagne between us, and no doubt there will be wine at this do. We can say no and be sensible. Just have mineral water.’
‘I will if you will,’ Diana said.
‘It’s a deal, I wonder who else will be there. You don’t think we will just be having room service meals on trays on our knees, do you?’
‘I doubt it. Casper had a beautiful cabin on the Pirandello. Right near the bridge. Two bedrooms with a dining room and a kitchen. It was fantastic. Although most nights he got woken up by someone on the bridge banging on the door, wanting something. He never really got away from work; it must have been very stressful. And to be honest we never seemed to have any time just for us.’
‘Did they ever catch you – you know – in an embarrassing position?’ I asked.
‘Trust you to ask that,’ Diana giggled. ‘Once or twice. It sent Casper off to work in a very bad mood. I could hear him shouting through the door. My word, that man could shout when he wanted to.’
‘Right, shall we go?’ Diana said at last, after she had changed her lipstick twice and her shoes three times.
