I will be very angry if you feel I’m being foolish, and I don’t want to hear a word about it from you. This all feels very right to me.

The yacht, Expansive, is yours now, to do with what you will. Unfortunately, Libby’s dear old mother is yours, too, and you can handle that situation as you see fit.

Whatever happens, wherever I go, I will always be grateful to you for the time we spent together and for all your hard work. I hope next year you can have a better sailing vacation.

With great affection,

Allison

Stone put down the letter and went through the other documents. There was one conveying the yacht to him as his fee for legal services, and the Coast Guard, U.S. Customs, and State of Connecticut documents were all signed, notarized, and in perfect order.

Stone took a stiff gulp of brandy. Now he would never get any sleep on this night.

Chapter
63

Stone managed a couple of hours’ sleep, but he was up at dawn, looking over his new yacht. He went through all the cockpit lockers, making a mental inventory of the gear aboard, then he walked fore and aft, checking the way the lines led and what each was for. He thought that for such a large yacht, she would really be very simple to sail. The mainsail had been repaired, and he hauled it back to the cockpit. It took him the better part of an hour to get it bent on. Then he hauled on the line that rolled the mainsail up into the mast like a giant window shade.

Finally, he unreefed the roller-reefing genoa and hauled it down. Paul and Allison had had problems with the top swivel separating into two pieces, and he wanted to think about repairing it. To his surprise, he found that it had already been repaired, and very elegantly. Someone, in an impressive display of seamanship, had seized it together with fine whipping wire. It looked as though it was better than new. He hauled the sail up, then reefed it around the forestay. Expansive seemed pretty shipshape, he thought.

“Stone!” The cry came from the lawn, and Stone looked up to see Thomas Hardy running toward him. Behind Thomas, traveling more slowly, came Leslie Hewitt, back in his accustomed shorts and T-shirt. Thomas jumped aboard and turned to give Leslie a hand up.

“What’s up?” Stone asked. “You both look very excited.”

“You tell him, Leslie,” Thomas said.