“Ready to cast off,” Eduardo shouted as someone rushed to release the ropes that held the ship fast to the jetty. Suddenly we took off with such force that I was thrown backward. I made a futile grab at the smooth side of the boat as I went flying off into the ice cold water. Around me the water was churning madly and the thrashing of propellers boomed through my ears. Gasping, I fought my way to the surface. I’m a strong swimmer and wasn’t particularly scared until I realized I was being dragged along. Something was wound tightly around my ankle and I couldn’t reach it because of the speed at which I was being dragged. I fought to keep my head above water long enough to scream, but I couldn’t without getting a mouthful of water. Surely someone must have seen what had happened. I had been surrounded by people. Belinda had been sitting right beside me. I waved my arms frantically. Then there was a splash, strong arms came around me, and the motor was mercifully cut. I was dragged back to the ship and hauled back on board. Everyone was making a big fuss of me, while I sat there, gasping and coughing like a landed fish.

“Are you all right?” Darcy asked, and I saw from his wet state that he had been one of those who dived in to save me.

“I think so,” I said. “More shocked than anything.”

“You’re lucky you didn’t bash your head on the side as you went in,” another voice said and I looked up to see the stiff, upright form of Whiffy Featherstonehaugh. “Because then you’d just have gone under and we might never have noticed you.”

I shivered. Whiffy patted my shoulder awkwardly. “Anyway, my dear Georgie, I regret to inform you that there are no fish big enough in the Thames to warrant using you as bait,” he said. The typical Englishman’s way of offering sympathy. I noticed he was not wet.

Eduardo appeared with a blanket in one hand and a brandy in the other. “I’m so frightfully sorry,” he said. “I can’t think how that happened.”

“It’s just Georgie,” Belinda said, helping to put the blanket around my shoulders. “Things seem to happen to her. Accident-prone, you know.”

“Then I’ll watch out for albatrosses on the voyage,” Eduardo said. “Come down to the cabin and I’ll find some dry clothes for you.”

“So you have to almost drown a girl before you can lure her to your cabin these days, eh, Eduardo?” someone asked.

Everyone was making light of the episode, the way people do after they have had a fright. Belinda went down below with me and helped me into Eduardo’s striped fisherman’s jersey and a pair of baggy trousers about five sizes too big for me.