I'm Virtually Yours (9 page)

“Sorry about that, Mum. I'd left my mobile on the barge and I honestly thought I'd be back before you and Dad were up. I didn't expect the police complications.”

“So did you find out who's on board the
Mary-Jane
?” Ben asked.

Will shook his head. “No. The self-steering gear was rigged up and working. The skipper was clearly catching up on sleep. Once I'd seen it was our yacht, I decided to escort her in from a distance.”

“I was thinking of going over,” Ben said. “Now you're back we could go together?”

Will nodded. “Why don't we all go — a proper welcoming party.”

“Oh,” Polly said. “Before you go, I forgot to tell you. Worldsend asked me to arrange a meeting with you tomorrow afternoon. 3.30. The lawyers will have the papers ready for signing by then.”

“Lawyers acting as proxy?” Will asked.

“Somebody from Worldsend is coming,” Polly said. “Don't know who.”

Will said. “OK. That's tomorrow afternoon sorted. Right, let's go. You too, Polly,” he added, looking at her.

Polly instinctively shook her head. “I don't want to intrude.”

“You won't be,” Will said firmly. “Trust me, Polly.”

Lillian locked the office and they all made their way to the workboat tied up alongside the embankment.

Will had clearly had a word with his father about her phobia, Polly thought, because it was Ben who jumped on board and started the engine, leaving Will free to help Lillian and Angie on board.

Standing there biting her lip and wondering how on earth she could get out of stepping on board, Polly began to feel sick. She watched Lillian and Angie expertly step aboard before Will turned to her.

“It's a very short trip across to the
Mary-Jane
— five minutes at the most. Boats don't come much safer than this one, Polly. Come on. I'll be with you all the way and nothing is going to happen I promise you. Other than you beginning to face up to your fear.”

Because the tide was in, the distance between the quay and the deck of the boat was just a short jump down. Polly looked at the workboat.

Will was right. She had to face up to her fear. And the workboat was no rubber dinghy. It was a solidly built safe boat — even she realised there was no way it was going to capsize crossing the river. As Will smiled at her encouragingly, Polly placed her hand in his and, taking a deep breath, she stepped downwards onto the deck.

As Ben began to manoeuvre the boat out into the river, Polly stood squeezing Will's hand tightly, her eyes screwed shut as she struggled to stop herself shaking.

“Polly, open your eyes,” Will said. “Look, there are two swans flying over us.”

Will's voice broke into her thoughts and slowly she opened her eyes and looked skywards to watch the two large birds, so graceful in flight, make for an inlet upriver.

“Wow, that was something else,” she said.

“See all sorts of things from boats,” Will said. “Often get porpoises out in the bay if you're interested in seeing them?”

Before Polly could reply, Ben shouted out a greeting as he drew up alongside the moored yacht. “Ahoy,
Mary-Jane
. Anyone on board?”

“Hi,” a tanned dark-haired man said, appearing in the cockpit. “You the welcoming party?” He grinned at them.

“You could say that,” Ben replied. “You the owner?”

“Yep. Who are you?”

“Ben Robertson. Owner of the yard that built this yacht back in the fifties.”

“In that case you must be my Uncle Ben,” the dark-haired man said. His words fell into a stunned silence.

“You're William Franklyn's son?” Ben finally said. “Daniel?”

Polly gave a strangled gasp which had everyone turning to look at her.

“My virtual employer down here is a Daniel Franklyn of Worldsend Enterprises. You're not…”

“One and the same,” Daniel said. “Pleased to finally meet you, Uncle Ben. You too, Polly — you've done a great job.”

 

 

CHAPTER ELEVEN

 

“So you and Daniel are cousins?” Polly said, trying to make sense of things. Friday afternoon and she and Will were in the boatyard office, waiting for everyone to join them for the signing of the agreement between Worldsend and the Robertsons.

“Yep. His grandfather, Joseph, was my grandfather's brother.”

“And it was Joseph who ran away in the fifties with the
Mary-Jane
?”

“And about fifteen thousand pounds of the company's money,” Will said. “Which was one hell of a lot of money in those days. Robertsons nearly went bankrupt because of it Dad says.”

“And now Joseph's grandson wants to invest in the company,” Polly said.

“Seems Joseph had something of a guilty conscience for all these years. Just before he died he made Katy his daughter promise two things. One was to try and make amends financially and the second was to make sure the
Mary-Jane
returned to her home port.”

“What I don't understand is, why didn't Katy Franklyn simply get in touch with Ben and tell him all this?”

Will shrugged. “You know what families are like. I gather Katy wasn't sure of the reception any overtures she made would get, even after all this time. When Daniel volunteered to try and invest anonymously via his company, sail the yacht back and make peace on behalf of his grandfather, she told him to go ahead.”

“Is Ben happy with the way things are turning out? Will he sign the papers this afternoon accepting the money — and Daniel as a partner in the yard?”

“Definitely,” Will said. “It's the beginning of a whole new era for Robertsons. Daniel has got lots of ideas for the business. It's going to be great having someone on the same wavelength as me. Together we'll drag Robertsons into the 21st century.”

“Beginning to feel sorry for Ben,” Polly said. “With you and Daniel conspiring, what chance does he have?”

“Not a lot,” Will admitted chee
rf
ully. “Polly, about this party tonight — would you mind if we don't go?”

“The one you didn't mention was actually on board a boat?” Polly said. “You should have told me, Will.”

“I know. And I'm sorry. I thought if you knew you wouldn't agree to come and I did want to take you.”

“But now you're not going anyway?” She shrugged. “No it's fine. I guess you've got lots of other things to do now. Anyway I ought to start packing tonight if I'm to make a reasonably early start tomorrow. I did promise Mum I'd try and be back by mid-afternoon.”

“Packing this evening is not on the agenda — and can't you possibly stay on longer?

Polly shook her head regretfully. “I can't, Will. Mum needs her car.”

Will gave her a resigned look before continuing. “The thing is, Dan has invited us all over to the
Mary-Jane
tonight for an on-board family champagne celebration. So you'll still get a party!”

“Oh but—” Polly said.

“No buts,” Will said. “You were fine in the boat this afternoon and it will be fine again tonight. Besides, I want you to come.”

Polly nodded.”OK.” She'd actually been about to say she didn't want to intrude in what would clearly be a private family do.

Will caught hold of her hand and gently pulled her towards him.

“Polly, d'you think…blast.” The office door opened and closed. “Hi Dad, Mum. You're early.”

He let go of Polly's hand and she moved away, wondering what he'd been about to ask her.

“Daniel will be here in a moment,” Ben said. “Have you seen the state-of-the-art navigation gear he's had installed on the
Mary-Jane
, Will?” I thought we had some technical stuff over here but his stuff has to be seen to be believed. He says it's
bottom
-of-the-range over there too! Unbelievable.” Ben shook his head in amazement.

The door opened again and Dan walked in. “Everything ready for the meeting?” he asked, looking at Polly.

“All the papers are on the desk. The lawyer did three copies of each.”

“Thanks. Now before we get down to business, Ben, tell me about these vandalism problems you've been having — likely to continue?”

“You haven't heard?” Ben said. “The body of one of the people responsible has been fished out of the river. And the other one, Jack Pettyjohn, has been arrested in connection with his death.”

“Any idea of their motive?”

Ben shrugged. “Not really, except Jack's always begrudged whatever success we've had down the years — not that there's been a lot of success lately.”

“Actually,” Polly said, “I do know the motive behind these latest attacks.”

“And?” Dan said.

“Checking out the business for you meant I had to look into everything that could affect your investment and I did a lot of research on the internet. Two days ago I discovered that the town council are keen for the harbour and waterfront to be modernised. We already knew that Jack Pettyjohn was trying to put you out of business and buy the boatyard for peanuts. What we didn't know was that he planned to demolish this workshop and build a luxury hotel and spa on the site. All the information I found is in that folder there,” she said pointing to the desk. “If you want to read it through before anyone signs anything.”

“I have just one question. Does it mean the boatyard is under threat from the council for redevelopment?” Daniel asked. “Compulsory purchase even?”

“No,” Polly said. “What they do want though is the area tidied up to attract more visitors — both by land and sea, which means they will apply pressure for things to be improved and provide more facilities. The next few months could prove to be very expensive for Robertsons.”

“Which is what we were planning to do anyway,” Will said. “Isn't it?” he added, looking at Daniel.

Daniel nodded. “Absolutely,” and he took the cap off his pen. “Let's make this official then.” He signed the agreement the lawyers had prepared and Polly had left on top of the folder and pushed it across the desk for Ben and Will to add their signatures.

As Will signed, Ben held out his hand to Daniel. “Welcome aboard the family business.”

 

 

CHAPTER TWELVE

 

After the meeting in the boatyard, everybody left to do their own thing for the next couple of hours. Will jumped in the dinghy and went out to the barge to finish off some of the work.

Angie, when Polly arrived back at The Captain's Berth to start packing, said, “Would you do me a favour? Keep an ear out in case anyone knocks the door, wanting a room? Only I'd love to go for a sail — the wind is just perfect at the moment. If somebody does knock and you like the look of them, show them one of the rooms. If you don't, tell them I'm full - or set Solo and Rosie on them! ”

“No problem,” Polly said laughing. “Go enjoy your sail.”

Upstairs in her room Polly began to pack her suitcase ready for leaving the next morning.

It would be strange next week working back in her room at Carmarthen. No walking to the boatyard every morning to collect the books, no sitting at the table in her room overlooking the harbour. No girly glasses of wine with Angie of an evening after dinner.

It was going to be hard saying goodbye to Angie and Solo — Rosie was going to miss Solo too. Angie had accepted an invitation though to bring Solo and stay in Carmarthen with Polly and her mum at the end of the season. She'd also made Polly promise that she'd be back for at least a weekend during the summer.

As for saying goodbye to Will, Polly didn't even want to think about that. She'd been hoping that Will would say something about wanting to keep in touch once she'd gone home. But so far he'd not given any indication that he was going to miss her. Maybe he'd planned on saying something this afternoon when Ben and Lillian's early arrival had interrupted them.

The morning on Dartmoor with Will and the dogs had been such fun she'd begun to think he liked her as much as she did him, but she'd barely seen him since then. Now all his energies were going towards Daniel Franklyn and Worldsend Enterprises.

Couldn't really expect anything else could she? Boats were his life after all. Whereas she couldn't stand them. Although surely she'd earned some brownie points riding in the workboat out to the
Mary-Jane
? Maybe he'd say something at the party tonight?

Carefully Polly slipped her new yellow dress off its hanger and folded it ready to pack. She'd been so looking forward to wearing it to the party this evening but now…she stopped.

Tonight was a celebration party so why didn't she wear it anyway? Give Will a chance to see her out of the jeans and sweatshirts she'd been wearing all week. Her new high-heeled sandals would have to stay in their box though. Between The Captain's Berth and the quay were lots of cobbles and there was no way she could possibly walk across them in 5-inch heels. Hopefully her gladiator sandals would be dressy enough to complement it.

 

Over on the barge Will tried to concentrate on varnishing the handrails leading from the cockpit down into the chart room. With the financial problems of the boatyard solved and Dan Franklyn keen to help them rebuild the business, he should have felt happier than he had for months. Only he didn't.

All he could think of was Polly leaving the next day and when he would be able to see her again. He was pretty sure she wanted to see him again, so long as boats weren't involved.

“Hi, Will. Thought I'd come over and see the barge.” Dan's voice broke into his thoughts. He was manoeuvring the tender from the
Mary Jane
alongside. “OK if I tie up to the barge?”

“Sure. Throw me the rope.” Will expertly caught the rope Dan threw across and secured the tender to the barge.

“Fancy going over the plans and ideas you've drawn up for the business with me?” Dan said. “Together we might even come up with some more.”