Draca. Geoffrey Gudgion

walked out onto one of the pontoons. They were laughing together like schoolgirls playing ‘ dressing- up ’ games. Charlotte was in borrowed clothes, too loose on the top and too short in the leg. Her hair flowed in a ponytail behind a baseball cap, and her feet were pushed into canvas slip-ons so that she moved flat-heeled, like an athlete rather than a model. He watched them, bemused by their instant friendship, until the rattle of the ladder against the ship ’ s side told him someone was coming aboard.

      A tanned, lined face appeared, framed by tufts of grey hair under a dark, Breton cap. The man beneath the cap climbed with the steady pace of someone who has learned to take life as it comes. He paused at the top to catch his breath, holding on to the projecting length of ladder, and nodded at Jack.