Chapter 17
Cassie looked over her shoulder to see two of Kiera’s crew, teenaged guys from the water polo team, flirting with Jan and Hannah. “I’m glad I don’t have to go through all of that. I never really had time to learn how to do it.” Then she giggled. “I sound ancient, don’t I?”
Frank looked puzzled. “Learn what?”
Cassie squeezed his hand. “Flirting and that whole mating ritual stuff.”
Frank snickered. “You’re right. You do sound ancient.”
She took a swat at him which he dodged.
“On the other hand, you wouldn’t have any problem attracting guys. You’d have even more problems fending them off now that you’ve grown into your clothes.” Frank stepped aside to examine her. “The capris fit nicely now. And your shoulders aren’t too bony.” He took her hand to draw her closer. “I can see why the men are checking you out.”
Cassie drew away from him. “But I really don’t like that kind of attention, Frank.” Then she leaned into him. “Well, maybe from you.”
“Have you thought about when we should start a family?”
Cassie stiffened and thought, When I’m absolutely sure you’re sticking around. She said, after a pause, “I’m not sure, Frank. I’d prefer to wait until I finish university but I know at least a few of the snotty people from the gala are going to be crushingly disappointed when I’m not showing at Christmas. What are your thoughts?”
“I’d like us to have our first before I’m forty. But some of that’s in God’s hands and…” He raised Cassie’s hand and kissed it tenderly. “And the rest is in yours. Are you worried about tonight?”
Cassie nodded nervously. “A little. I’ve never shared a bed with anyone before. Well, I might have slept with my parents when I was very small but I don’t remember.”
Frank snorted. “Well, you won’t have to worry about anything but sleeping with our guests on board. I don’t want to embarrass them. Or us.” He snorted in amusement. “You know, even in my pre-Christian days I never actually slept with a woman. Well, that’s not really true. Kiera and I shared the forward cabin on Dad’s boat during a couple of cruises that Rob skippered.”
“So you slept with her?”
“It was back in Grade 6 when Dad was still talking to Kiera’s folks. We even kissed a couple of times in high school. It was my bad idea. Even if she was attracted to men, we’re more like brother and sister. Dad was pretty happy when nothing more came of our friendship. He considers the Barnes family to be upstarts. Of course, Kiera doesn’t hesitate to flaunt her activism or her disdain for Dad’s ethics when they’re in the same room.”
“How did she react when you went wild in university?”
“How did you know I went wild in university?”
Cassie gave him a knowing smile. “I listen.”
“Right, Leona’s mum was at the dinner last night, gossiping as usual. I was so mad at Leona when we broke up after going out most of the summer between second and third year. She was seeing other men but she made it out to be entirely my fault that we broke up.” He held up a hand. “I’ll take my share of the blame. I wasn’t very responsible in those days, but I only ever dated one woman at a time. Leona figured that she could sleep with whoever she wanted and assumed that it could continue after we got married. Dad would have been very happy with Leona as a daughter-in-law.”
“So how did Kiera handle it?”
“She got pretty wild too when she was away for pre-law and law school in Toronto. In second year she ended up living with an older woman who didn’t like that she had male friends, to the point that she outed Kiera to her parents, who were crushingly disappointed at the time but they love and support her anyway.”
He glanced back to make sure Jan was behaving. “Anyway, there was a six year period after high school where we didn’t talk much, maybe at Thanksgiving and Christmas and that one gala in Toronto. When we both moved back to Halifax after grad school we realized how superficial most of our so-called relationships had been. Then we cried on each other’s shoulders about our breakups, confirmed that we truly weren’t interested in anything more than friendship and decided to do something positive. So we volunteered to coach at the water polo club and got involved in supporting various causes around town, like the homework clubs I fund and the women’s shelter Kiera founded.”
Cassie said, gently, “I should be jealous of her, you know.”
Frank replayed his side of the conversation as they climbed the steps to the road and turned towards the yacht club. “I see what you mean. Sorry. I can only say that Kiera has been my best friend, so far, almost a sister. But I’m committed to you. I’m praying that we will be better friends than Kiera and I are.”
“I hope so, too.” Cassie stopped to look behind them. The other five were still joking and giggling as they made their slow way to the steps. “We should wait for them to catch up. We promised to keep Jan and Hannah out of trouble.”
Frank noted the wistful tone of regret in Cassie’s voice and squeezed her hand. “It’s a pain being a grown up sometimes.”
Cassie sighed then beamed a smile at Frank. “It has its advantages, too.”
They were still lost in each other’s gaze when the rest of them caught up.
———
Henry took a seat on the rail next to Cassie in the spot Frank vacated when he went below to radio the marina. “What a gorgeous day. I’m glad we accepted your invitation.”
Cassie locked the capstan and looked towards town before sitting down. “I’m glad you did, too.”
Anne said, “You’ve put on some weight since we saw you last. You’re looking much better, I must say.”
“It’s been nice to have regular meals.” Cassie saw the curiosity in Hannah’s face. She turned to her and said, “I was homeless and living on the streets in Ottawa when Frank rescued me. I was down about eight pounds from where I am now and I can put on another five or so before I have to start watching what I eat.”
Jan kept her concentration on the channel markers but commented, “You don’t have much extra weight to lose.”
Cassie grinned ruefully. “I never did, really. Frank’s been a wonderful surprise. A godsend, really.”
Henry grinned. “God does make good things happen.”
Cassie shrugged. “I guess.”
Frank called up from the navigation station below. “Jan! There’s space at the Civic Marina. Would you prefer mooring or docking?”
Jan frowned but kept her eyes on their course. “Mooring is better, I think, because we aren’t staying overnight. When do we have to switch to the inboard?”
Frank looked at the GPS navigation screen in front of him. “Fifteen minutes from now, if we keep it steady at three knots. I’ll go get everything ready.”
Around eleven, the tender from the marina came alongside and everyone climbed aboard. When they disembarked, Marie-Ève was waiting there with her family. Hannah and Jan led the way towards Main Street with Anne and Marie-Ève bringing up the rear.
In the centre of the procession, Frank said, quietly, “How did you find things at Alawen?”
Henry shrugged. “Rather well run, actually. It has to be if they can siphon off that much money over the years without me noticing. And there will be a fair amount of new work from the Navy’s shipbuilding program.” He gave a wry grin. “But only the head of sales, the technical liaison with the shipyard and J. David were available in the afternoon. Everyone else took the afternoon off and we finished early when I noticed how little we were getting done. Not that I blame them, the weather’s been glorious since I arrived on Thursday and I know it isn’t always this nice.”
Frank nodded agreement. “Anyone with spare vacation days or banked overtime will take a sunny summer Friday off, especially if the forecast is good for the weekend. Alawen encourages it because it’s good for morale. And we noticed that the amount of rework needed on Monday spiked because people weren’t paying enough attention on those Fridays.” He
looked over his shoulder to see Anne and Marie-Ève chatting amiably while an excited Genevieve was bending Cassie’s ear about something in rapid fire French. “Did you meet with Marie-Ève yesterday?”
“Just long enough to gauge her reactions to some general questions. She gave me a tour of the admin offices before lunch.”
“Stephen left me a message to say they finished assembling that package for Trevor on Thursday evening. He took charge of sending it by secure courier yesterday so the chain of evidence is preserved.”
“Excellent. I mentioned to Charles that our manufacturing subsidiary in Ottawa was giving up three thousand square feet of second floor office space near Merivale and Hunt Club because we finally finished a major project. There is plenty of free parking for customers and an elevator although the current layout might be awkward for you. If you’re willing to take over the lease and renew for at least five more years I’m sure the landlord will refit it for you.”
“Sounds good. That’s south end, right? Close to Manotick?”
Henry smiled. “South end, but not that close. It’d be a fifteen minute drive, twenty with traffic.”
“That’s not too bad.”
“So when are you starting with Charles?”
“Last Monday in August. I’ll talk to him about the space you mentioned.”
“So what will you do until then?”
Frank’s smile lit up his face. “We have a trip to Norway coming up and we have to furnish our new house and I still haven’t shown Cassie enough of Nova Scotia.”
“Are you still getting strange looks when you’re together?”
Frank sighed. “Every time we’re affectionate in public, Henry, unless she’s dressed to the nines.”
Eric and Gaétan waved from a block ahead, trying to get them to hurry along so they could eat.
———
Cassie sat down to join the other five around the table for supper. There was a moment of silence punctuated by the cry of the gulls while the first spoonfuls of chowder were eaten. Anne spoke first. “This is excellent, Cassie, and much nicer than the chowder at the restaurant we went to for lunch. Where did you learn to do this? Chowder isn’t easy to get right.”
“Mrs. Robertson taught me how to make cream soups. She’s one of my spare grannies.”
Frank commented, “Cassie is a wonderful cook. I think she knows more than most chefs.”
Cassie blushed at the compliment. “My Granny started teaching me to cook when I was nine or ten, I guess. Granny had to wait until I could turn off the stove without burning myself but I helped with mixing and measuring before then. The neighbours on the floor in our building all taught me, too. So I can cook Greek, French, Portuguese and Latin American dishes on top of what Granny knew how to make. This was one of Granny’s favourites although it was usually leek and potato or onion and potato. But once in a while there would be a can of clams or crab meat at the food bank and we’d have this as a treat.”
‘Food bank’ registered with Jan. “Why would you need to go to the food bank?”
Cassie took on a guarded expression. “My Granny was only fifty-nine when they discovered the cancer that eventually killed her. The disability insurance from her work wasn’t quite enough to pay for everything so we often had to choose between her drugs and food. So we bought the drugs and I went to the food bank. We’d have been a bit better off if she’d been over sixty-five or if Dad had been paying the child support money to Granny instead of Mum.”
Frank said, “You can make really good meals for cheap if you know what you’re doing.” He smiled. “She does. I don’t.”
Cassie shrugged. “Widows in low rent housing are very good at making do. Frank liked my lamb and barley stew. I think I made six litres for about forty dollars. And that recipe is almost as good with burger which is much cheaper than lamb. But I really like lamb.”
Anne said, “Henry still asks for leek and potato soup but there’s too much butter in it.”
Henry said, “I’ll pay for this at the gym next week but I’m going to finish every bite.”
Hannah took another few mouthfuls and then asked, “Earlier today you said that Frank rescued you?”
Cassie and Frank exchanged a look that gave Frank permission to start. “Cassie ran away from home because her stepfather and his buddies were hitting on her all the time. When I saw her on the street I remembered about when Jan ran away. I know Jan had a safe place to go but Cassie didn’t. When I met her, she was trying work up the courage to hustle strange men outside a strip club to get a dry bed for the night.” Then he smiled at Cassie. “I guess it worked.”
Cassie shrugged. “You aren’t that strange.”
Hannah and Jan looked at each other then picked at their food. Frank continued. “I fed her some leftover pizza and let her sleep on the sofa in my suite. The next morning I fell in love with her so when I was faced with letting her go back to live with her abusive stepfather or marrying her right away, it was a pretty easy choice.”
Cassie leaned her head against Frank’s shoulder. “I’m still waiting to wake up from this dream, so I don’t want anyone to make any loud noises.”
Frank kissed Cassie on the top of her head. “Then I’ll whisper, if it makes you feel better.”
Anne snickered when Cassie swatted at his arm as she stood up to check on the entree.
“I’m rather glad she agreed to marry me because it would have looked very strange trying to convince her to go out with me. I’m sure the high school would have called the cops.”
Cassie gave a bitter snort. “They would have called them on you because you’d have been waiting for me near school property, like the gentleman you are. The girls with older boyfriends used to skip class and sneak over to the mall to meet up with them. Until the guy got them hooked enough on something to pimp them out then we wouldn’t see them again. No one in the neighbourhood wanted to annoy the gangs so the cops were never called.”
“That’s what your mum was worried about, Jan. They thought you’d been conned into working for someone like that. I’m glad you had the key to my place.”
Cassie said, “They probably would have left her alone for at least a couple of days if she’d ended up on the street and didn’t ask anyone where she could find drugs. Kids who dress like Jan and Hannah usually have someone who will care enough to call the cops, unless the cops pick them up first because they don’t look like they belong. The pimps want girls like me whose parents won’t miss them.”
Frank said, “Cassie may have been the target of a person recruiting girls to be sold overseas into some sort of harem or brothel. I’m trying to convince her to talk to the police when we get back to Ottawa.”
Cassie looked up from slicing the roast. “Maybe if I can meet the detective at your office I’ll be able to do that. But I’m a bit too memorable to walk into the police station for more time than it takes to report an accident. I’m sure that Gord and his buddies would find out if I went to the station to talk to the cops.”
Jan and Hannah squirmed a bit at the direction of the conversation. Anne noticed and said, “The fact is that some of the girls who end up on the street are very desperate and fall for a line from one of the charming predators who flash big money around. They would have used different bait for Cassie, I’m sure. She would have been offered a scholarship to finish high school at an exclusive girl’s school overseas or a dream job that would tempt her, like some of the dancers from Eastern Europe who are told they’ll be ballerinas but end up working in the strip clubs here. But with most of the girls, it’s booze or drugs. The girls on the street are given a sample of drugs to take their minds off their troubles and when they get addicted it gets easier and easier to fall into doing what their supplier asks.”
Frank said, “I’m very glad that you were able to stay at my place while you were figuring out what to do, Jan.”
Jan nodded and said, “Me, too. But I’m thankful for more than just that, Uncle Frank. I’m sur
e that Mom and Dad would have split up if you hadn’t dragged them off to church and the counsellor.”
“That was the easy part. Convincing them to keep at it was much harder.”
Jan shrugged. Then she smiled and said, “Enough with the depressing talk. What I want to know is if we can push this baby really hard tomorrow on the way home.”
Cassie beckoned Hannah to help serve the main course as Jan and Frank got into a lively debate.
———
Jan was securing some things that had fallen off the shelves in the main cabin while they had pushed the J122 hard on the homeward leg. “You are so lucky, Aunt Cassie.”
Cassie braced herself against the swell as she took the container of homemade tomato bisque from the icebox and hunted for a pot to heat it in. “I know. Your uncle is a wonderful man.”
“What I meant was that you can be a stay at home mum if you want to be. You don’t have to finish school now.”
Cassie gave Jan a puzzled frown. “Yes I do. There’s so much I don’t know yet.”
Jan looked confused. “But Uncle Frank would take care of you.”
Cassie gave Jan a very grown up look of disapproval. “I know that Frank is very wealthy and that he loves me and he wants to take care of me. But there could be a market crash that would wipe out most of the money. Or we could split up. Or any number of other things could happen that would mean I need to work. But even if I do stay at home, most of the people that Frank and I interact with are your parents’ age and they talk about so many things I don’t know anything about. If I’m going to be useful to Frank when we entertain, I need to finish my education. And I like learning things and I get bored when I don’t have enough to do.” She grinned as she carefully transferred the soup into the pot on the gimballed stove. “Mind you, I don’t like tests or essays. Schools do seem to want you to prove you were listening.”
Jan flopped onto the down-slope sofa. “I don’t like tests either. I get panicky.”
“So ask the guidance counsellor for some help. Mrs. Valentino at St. Patrick’s in Toronto ran a course after school when I was in Grade 9 that was all about taking tests. My marks went up fifteen points after I took it.” Cassie began to prepare a batch of submarine sandwiches. “But it did take me a while to learn how to write essays properly.”
Jan rolled her shoulders. “But it’s hard.”
“Of course it’s hard. You don’t learn anything if it’s too easy.” She handed Jan a sandwich.
“Thanks.” Jan took a bite and sat with a sullen expression.
After a few minutes of silence Cassie tested the soup and gave it a stir. “Almost right.” She looked again at Jan and had a moment of unreality again. I’m behaving like a grownup, she thought. “Meghan was right,” she muttered.
Jan looked up at Cassie. “Who’s Meghan? And what was she right about?”
Cassie sighed. “Meghan is a very nice woman that we made friends with in Ottawa. She was eighteen and her husband Gene was forty when they got married six years ago. She warned me that getting married would change things for me. Meghan said that after she got married her high school friends all started treating her like she was, like, old, because she was married to an old man.” Cassie shrugged. “I feel like I have to at least pretend to be a grownup now because I don’t want to disappoint Frank.”
Jan stood up. “I don’t think you could. He loves you too much.”
“Maybe.” Cassie handed Jan a mug of soup. “Could you bring this to Hannah and come back to help me get something for Anne and Henry?” She grabbed Frank’s mug and headed up the ladder.
Frank’s welcoming smile as she walked across the canted deck warmed her almost as much as the soup had. She blew him a kiss and returned to the galley to get sandwiches for everyone. When she returned to the main cabin Jan was sitting slumped with her eyes closed.
Cassie said, “You wanted us to continue the cruise down to Yarmouth with Kiera and the rest of the fleet, didn’t you?”
Jan looked at her and sighed. “It’s not fair. You ran away from home and got to marry my uncle. I ran away and got grounded.”
Cassie took her mug of soup and sat next to Jan. “I’ll speak to Bonnie when we get back. But at least you aren’t a prisoner, like I was.”
Jan scoffed and said, “It sure feels like it.”
Cassie sipped her soup while she debated what to say. “Do you have one of your parents with you 24/7? Do they ask one of their biker friends to come over to guard you when they go out? Do you get beaten if you’re five minutes late getting home from the food bank? Are they waiting at the school to pick you up the minute the bell goes off? Do they scare off all your friends? Do you have to sneak to the bathroom and hope that no one grabs your ass or have to check to see if they’re hiding behind a door before you walk into a room? Do you have to carry a wedge with you to keep the bathroom door shut so you can feel safe enough to take a shower? Do you have to put a chair under your bedroom doorknob so no one can come in and grope you after your mother passes out?”
Jan heard the bitterness in Cassie’s voice. “No, of course not.”
“Then all they’ve taken away is some of your fun.” Cassie stood up. “Deal with it. I’d love to have parents who gave a damn.” She crossed around to the galley sink to wash her cup. She took a deep breath. “Sorry, Jan, that came out stronger than I wanted it to.”
Jan mumbled, “I’m sorry. I didn’t know.”
Cassie let out a bitter laugh. “Well, it’s not something I’m going to drop into a casual conversation.” She took her hair out of the elastic and reworked her ponytail. “I’ll be getting counselling when we get back to Ottawa. I still get angry too quickly.”
Jan looked puzzled. “But you’re so calm all the time.”
Cassie fished a drinking box of apple juice from the icebox. “It’s an act. I figure if I act that way long enough then it will become real. Eventually.”
Jan moved over to the nav station to check the GPS and update their position. She frowned. “I should radio harbour control. Only two more hours until we get home. Three if we want to be boring.”
Cassie tapped Jan on the shoulder. “Two would be more fun. But remember, we’re invited to the Dixons’ for supper, so you won’t have to go home right away.”
“And you’ll talk to Mom and Dad?” Jan looked hopeful.
“You know them better than I do. What are my chances of convincing them to loosen up?”
Jan gave an exaggerated sigh. “Maybe as good as fifty-fifty.”
Cassie smiled. “Frank wants us to spend some time at the summer house in Parrsboro before we head to Norway. I’ll ask him if we can bring all three of you with us when we go.”
“Would you? That would be awesome, even if Sophie and George have to come too.” Jan gave Cassie an excited hug and headed up the companionway, calling, “Lunch break’s over. Everyone use the head if you need to before we push this barge to the limit.”
Frank saluted and indicated that Jan should take the wheel as Hannah raced below to stow her mug.