"Where is Tommy? Still up at the house?"

"I guess. Holed up in that godforsaken little office again. Said he had a heap of things to do, that's why I stepped in to crew with Pete. Oh, talk of the devil!" My son appeared. "Hey, listen, young Pete, if you ever need someone to yell instructions at in a beautiful pea-green in the States, I'm your girl. Or is this the new shipmate?"

Peter had come across with Adam and was proudly introducing Janey, flushing with pride as he said her name and where she was from. I saw that Janey was right: he had indeed got a major crush, and she would indeed gently tease him out of it. Starting by calling him young Pete. So that, in time, he'd look back very fondly on that kiss, in a night club with an older woman. Maybe even wonder wistfully what might have been, had Janey not had more integrity than to lead him on. And more class, I thought, looking at her joking around with the boys. She was instantly putting them at their ease, letting them feel like men for a moment, and not boys just out of their last term at school. And why ever not, for heaven's sake? But for once, my mind was not on my son. It was elsewhere.

I made my way over to the cameraman who was folding his tripod away in the corner. Carefully slotting the lens cap on his huge camera. I introduced myself and told him I was a friend of Shona's, and that I'd actually been supposed to meet her today.

"Oh yeah, she said." It was the sound man who turned and answered. He looked apologetic on her behalf. “Said she was hoping to have lunch with an old mate, but she got wind of a story. And you know what she's like?” He sniffed the air theatrically. "Like a bloodhound.” He grinned. "We're picking her up in about an hour, which will give us time to eat, finally." He shrugged. "Her loss."

"Oh, right. Where are you picking her up from?"

“Some bar in Newlyn? The Shipwright's Arms. She said she was meeting an American guy there."

Chapter 26