Voyage of Innocence. Elizabeth Edmondson

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       PROLOGUE

      OCTOBER 1938

      ‘Sir, it’s an emergency.’

      The officer of the watch tried again, speaking more loudly and urgently. ‘Sir, Captain, sir, please wake up. It’s an emergency.’

      Reginald Sherston, Captain of the SS Gloriana, passenger vessel bound for India, lifted his grizzled head from his starched white pillow.

      His eyes opened, the faded blue eyes of a man who had been at sea since he was a boy of fourteen. They looked at the first officer, a capable man, not given to fuss, and across to where his steward was hovering, his uniform in his hand.

      ‘Tell me about it, Mr Longbourne.’

      Minutes later, Captain Sherston was on the bridge.

      The officers in their white uniforms went quietly about their duties, the man at the wheel, locked on its course, was alert. They were all intent on what the first officer and captain were saying.

      The ship sailed on through the waters of the Red Sea. Above them the sky blazed with the brilliant stars that were the gift of ocean travel, and were reflected in the inky, gentle swell. The throb of the engines was steady, reassuring.

      ‘This Mrs Hotspur, a passenger to Bombay, she went ashore at Port Said?’

      ‘Yes, sir. For the day.’

      ‘Did she go on one of the tours? To the pyramids?’

      ‘No, sir. She went ashore with friends.’

      ‘But came back on board.’

      ‘As far as we know, sir. Her re-embarkation card was handed in.’

      ‘And her stewardess says her bed wasn’t slept in last night? Who is the stewardess?’

      ‘Pigeon, sir.’

      ‘She didn’t report it?’

      ‘It happens, sir, that a woman might …’ the first officer looked at Captain Sherston’s Presbyterian face, and he swallowed, ‘… spend the night elsewhere, sir.’

      ‘The dining room stewards say she didn’t take breakfast, СКАЧАТЬ