Night Over Water - Ken Follett [212]
Mervyn looked solemn. “Thank you, Di. I wish you the same.”
Then Nancy understood: they were forgiving one another for the hurt that had been done. They were still going to split up, but they would part friends.
On impulse, Nancy said to Diana: “Will you shake hands with me?”
The other woman hesitated only for a fraction of a second. “Yes,” she said. They shook hands. “I wish you well,” Diana said.
“And I you.”
Diana turned around without saying any more and went aft along the aisle to her compartment.
Mervyn said: “But what about us? What are we going to do?”
Nancy realized she had not yet had time to tell him of her plan. “I’m going to be Nat Ridgeway’s European manager.”
Mervyn was surprised. “When did he offer you the job?”
“He hasn’t—but he will,” she said, and she laughed happily.
She heard the sound of an engine. It was not one of the Clipper’s mighty engines, but a smaller one. She looked out of the window, wondering if the navy had arrived.
To her surprise, she saw that the gangsters’ motor launch had been untied from the Clipper and from the little seaplane and was pulling away rapidly.
But who was driving it?
Margaret opened the throttle wide and steered the launch away from the Clipper.
The wind blew her hair off her face, and she gave a whoop of sheer exhilaration. “Free!” she yelled. “I’m free!”
She and Harry had had the idea at the same time. They had been standing in the aisle of the Clipper, wondering what to do next, when Eddie, the engineer, brought the skipper of the launch down the stairs and put him in number 1 compartment with Luther; and both of them had been struck by the identical thought.
The passengers and crew were too busy congratulating one another to take much notice of Margaret and Harry as they slipped into the bow compartment and boarded the launch. The engine was idling. Harry had untied the ropes while Margaret figured out the controls, which were just like Father’s boat in Nice, and they were away in seconds.
She did not think they would be chased. The naval cutter summoned by the engineer was in hot pursuit of a German submarine, and could not be expected to take an interest in a man who had stolen a pair of cuff links in London. When the police arrived they would be investigating murder, kidnapping and piracy: it would be a long time before they worried about Harry.
Harry rummaged in a locker and found some maps. After studying them for a while he said: “There are lots of charts of the waters around a bay called Blacks Harbour, which is right on the border between the U.S.A. and Canada. I think we must be near there. We should head for the Canadian side.”
A little later he said: “There’s a big place about seventy-five miles north of here called St. John. It has a railway station. Are we heading north?”
She looked at the compass. “More or less, yes.”
“I don’t know anything about navigating, but if we keep in sight of the coast I don’t see how we can go wrong. We should get there around nightfall.”
She smiled at him.
He put the charts down and stood beside her at the wheel, staring at her hard.
“What?” she said. “What is it?”
He shook his head as if in disbelief. “You’re so beautiful,” he said. “And you like me!”
She laughed. “Anyone would like you, if they knew you.”
He put his arm around her waist. “This is a hell of a thing, sailing along in the sunshine with a girl like you. My old mum always said I was lucky, and she was right, wasn’t she?”
“What will we do when we get to St. John?” she said.
“We’ll beach the launch, walk into town, get a room for the night and take the first train out in the morning.”
“I don’t know what we’re going to do for money,” she said with a little frown of worry.
“Yes, that is a problem. I’ve only got a few pounds, and we’ll have to pay for hotels, rail tickets, new clothes....”
“I wish I’d brought my overnight case, like you.”
He looked mischievous. “That’s not my case,” he said. “It’s Mr. Luther’s.”
She was mystified. “Why did you bring