“So, he’s not stalking you in England?”

“I don’t think so.”

“Good. Oh, more good news—my new boat is being delivered to the dock at around noon tomorrow. Part of my deal with Hinckley is that I get three days’ training. Would you enjoy that?”

“I would. Will it be hard, do you think?”

“Hinckleys are very easy to handle. Do you mind if I ask Felicity to join us?”

“Not at all.”

“She called this morning. She got me elected to the yacht club at Cowes while I was away.”

“Congratulations.”

“I’ll take you to dinner there. You’ll enjoy it.”

They arrived back at Windward Hall, and Gala went to put away her things and take a nap. Stone called Felicity, told her about the boat, and arranged to pick her up at her dock.

“I’ll need to leave for London around five,” she said. “Early meeting Monday morning.”

“We’ll have you back by then.”

—

The following day, they took a box of sandwiches down to the dock, just in time to see the new boat coming up the river. She pulled alongside, and Stone and Gala took her lines.

Half an hour later, they had been through the drill of checking fluids, locating the major systems. They picked up Felicity, and she and Gala were introduced to the JetStick, which controlled the boat.

“All Hinckley motorboats have jet drives,” Chris told her. “There’s no propeller and no rudder. The JetStick controls a computer that controls both jet drives and a bow thruster, so if you want to go ahead, you push the stick forward. If you want to go aft, you push it backward, and if you want to go sideways, you push it sideways, which is very handy for docking.”

They both tried docking the boat and found it easy.

“And you can spin the boat on her own axis, by twisting the JetStick.” Chris demonstrated.

They took the boat down the river and Chris demonstrated the electric anchoring process, then they had lunch.

At five, they returned Felicity to her dock, then practiced more docking at Windward. Then Stone had the two Hinckley men driven to their inn, and arranged a pickup time for the following day.

“I think one more day of training will do it for me,” Stone said. “It’s similar enough to my old Hinckley Picnic Boat.”

“Good, then we’ll have a day or two to see some of England,” Chris said.

Stone and Gala returned to Windward Hall for dinner.

They were having drinks in the library when Geoffrey entered the room. “There’s a call for Ms. Wilde,” he said.

“That’s odd,” Gala said. “Who’s calling?”

“He wouldn’t say, but the gentleman did have a foreign accent.”

Stone and Gala exchanged a glance. “Geoffrey, tell the gentleman that there is no Ms. Wilde here, nor will there be, and ask him not to phone again.”