He was grinning. Of course. “Just helping a lady, that’s all. You look so prim and rigid in that getup, I thought you’d need the assistance.”

“You’re lucky I’m lady enough to refrain from punching you square in the nose.” It still had a bump on it from when Ollie had done so when they were nineteen, and she wouldn’t mind adding another. Though it wouldn’t be half so satisfying as delivering the blow to his brother.

“I’m utterly terrified.” He climbed in after her, pulling the anchor up as he sat. His hands then found the rigging, and within a minute he’d caught the wind in the newly unfurled sails, and they were off.

Just to poke at him, once they were in open waters, she asked, “Who won the race this morning?”

His scowl was all the answer she needed, which brought laughter to her lips.

He settled into his seat with his hand on the tiller. “We’ll take them next week. Especially if Enyon keeps losing sleep because of ghost stories.”

“Ghost stories?” She wasn’t sure whether to be curious or simply amused. “I thought he’d outgrown such tales.”

“Apparently not. He was going on this morning about hearing something in Piper’s Hole and seeing lights from his window.” He shook his head, but then he glanced over his shoulder, back toward Hugh Town. “There were rumblings in the village about something, too, though. Shadows on the shore. Dogs barking at all hours. Mr. Gibson, as you’d expect, was quick to launch into tales of pirates and smugglers.”

He would. It softened her. She’d have to make certain she was at his house at teatime so he could tell her a few tales too.

Her feet bumped against a box, and as she looked down at it, she finally thought to wonder why the headmaster of Tresco’s school was over on St. Mary’s of a Wednesday afternoon. “Third term isn’t over yet. What are you doing here?”

“Had to pick up the new slates we’d ordered.” His eyes lit in a way she still had a hard time reconciling, even after knowing him from the very day she was born. She never would have taken him for the sort to get excited about academia. And likely he wouldn’t have developed said excitement for it either had he not been in perpetual competition with Oliver. Through their childhood, they’d always been locked in a struggle for the highest marks, the top spot in the class.