Unnoticed, two dark figures came skidding to a halt and watched the departing ship in stony silence.

The first officer, a retired British naval man, regarded Kara and her few belongings with wry amusement as one of the deck hands brought her up to the wheelhouse.

'I hope you have money enough to pay for this trip,' he told her. 'Otherwise you may find yourself working your way across the Atlantic.'

'I do have money,' Kara told him hopefully in her best broken English, 'but I don't mind working, it that's possible.'

'Oh, it's possible,' he told her. 'Inevitable, judging by your dearth of visible assets. So tell me, are you running away from someone or something, or are you yet another young hopeful on her way to New York?'

'We are going to New York?' she asked aghast, prompting chuckles from the bridge crew. 'But- I thought we were going to the Americas!'

'They are one and the same, young lady,' the officer told her with some asperity. 'I take it you didn't exactly plan this trip.'

'Oh, I planned it very well,' Kara said, 'only just the part where I get out of England. But- I was told that I needed to get on your ship if I wanted to get to the Caribbean.'

'The Caribbean?' The officer raised an eyebrow. 'Why on earth do you want to go there? Do you have family or friends living there? Or a job waiting for you? A husband?'

'I am told it has a climate like Greece,' she told him. 'It will be like home to me.'

The officer looked dubious. 'Young lady, the Caribbean is not the sort of place for a young girl your age! And don't give me that hurt look! You'll go straight to New York and catch yourself a husband if you know what's good for you! Now, go talk to Mr Hill, that charming young fellow who is about to wipe the smirk off his face, and he will get you settled. After that, go to the galley and present yourself to the cook. Tell him I sent you. I hope for your sake you don't mind cleaning fish.'

Groaning as she left for her quarters with Mr Hill, Kara muttered,'Fish again! I could tell you all there is to know about cleaning fish!'

The trip across the Atlantic was not without small compensations. The people working in the galley were a fun-loving, lighthearted bunch, and they often stayed up late playing cards, drinking tea, cocoa, rum and whiskey, and filling the galley with cigarette smoke and singing and concertina music.




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