Footsteps in the sea Vol 4

Chapter 72

We turned the corner of the island and then angled out until we were opposite the entrance to Mermaid Lagoon and then we turned in for the approach and the short wave radio bleeped, “Ahoy there, this is HMNZ Fleet Auxiliary and Island Defence Ship Pacific Wanderer, stop your engines and identify yourself.”

“Hullo, Martin are you in charge today, does Byron know?”

“I say again, stop your engines immediately and identify yourself.”

“No…Oh, alright then, this is Will and Charlotte, now where do you want us to moor?”

“Identify your vessel and port of registration.”

“HMCIS Undine and I haven’t a clue where we’re registered.”

“Wait one whilst I look you up in Janes Warships.” There was a pause, “Your port of registration is Auckland, can you remember that? What is the password?”

“Stop mucking about or I’ll fire a missile at you.”

“I dare you.”

I grabbed the flare pistol and fired a flare across Pacific Wanderer’s bow. “The next one goes straight up your hawsehole.”

“Pass friend and will you moor astern of us please. Captain Wellington would like to see you as soon as you can.”
“Is this to do with work because I’m still on honeymoon until tomorrow morning oh eight hundred hours.”

“No idea unless it’s the treasure you found, there’s been a bit of a fuss over that I understand, it started yesterday morning.”

“Fighting over it are they?”

“I don’t think it’s anything like that, Aurora hasn’t sent her armed shore patrol over there and the Sunderland hasn’t scrambled.”

We moored alongside the jetty stern on to the beach so that Wanderer had space if she wanted to go astern when she left and I changed out of my beach coat and bikini into my pale blue skirt and a white cotton blouse and we went up to see Byron.

“Ah, Charlotte, Will, it’s nice to have you back. Did you enjoy yourselves and have a good rest?”

“Byron, people don’t go on honeymoon to have a nice rest but we certainly enjoyed ourselves, thank you for asking.”

He smiled, “It’s been a long time since I had a honeymoon, I’d forgotten how much fun it can be.”

“Then it’s about time you took your wife away on another honeymoon. I expect Will to take me away on a honeymoon every three or four years.”

“I’ll mention it to her. Now to business.” He opened a folder and took out a sheaf of papers and a large bulky sealed package. He picked that first, “This contains documents that have been left for your signature, Will knows about them and for the most part they are to do with island business and there are one or two that you will need to read concerning the final salvage claims and your ownership of Pacific Wanderer. Nothing urgent if you are going to be busy but there are some you will need to look at. These are requests and the supporting documents that require both your signatures and they concern your Aunt Kate and her husband and Mr. and Mrs. Underwood…”

“Who?”

“Big Joe and Sarah,” Will told me.

“Oh, I’d forgotten they had a second name, I mean who knows the second name of their close friends.”

“Quite so,” said Byron. There is also Penny and Morris and Mike and Josephine,” he glanced up at me, “More friends of yours?”

“Yes, you know that, I thought you knew they wanted to live here.”

“I did but these papers make it official. There is also Leah and Giles and the documents are the formal requests for permission to live on Charlotte Island on a permanents basis. Penny took the liberty of passing them to New Zealand for clearance and Sir Wilmot Martindale has received the okay as far as New Zealand is concerned and has accordingly signed them on behalf of the New Zealand Office of Immigration and the Governor General who act in such matters on behalf of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth who is our Head of State. All that is needed is for you and Will to sign and they officially become residents of the island and soon after that, citizens of New Zealand. There is also provisional details of the places they have chosen to live and for the most part they are within the guide lines you have stipulated with the exception of Leah and Giles who have requested extra land for their proposed market garden, the erection of glasshouses, polly tunnels, barns and one or two other buildings associated with farming.”

“I know about the land, it’s an area close to where the track across the island meets the track that runs from here down to the south side. It’s where they are going to build their farmhouse and then there’s the meadow to the south of our house which is for grazing and the terraced area on the side of Devonshire Hill. I have agreed to it verbally subject to advice from the scientists who are looking at the environmental impact. I think Faye, Emma and Liz are involved in that.”

“Yes I understand and Sir Wilmot will leave the approval to you. He gave the package to Will and then took up a letter, this is a personal letter left for you by Lady Martindale and the other is also personal and is from both Sir Wilmot and Lady Martindale.”

“I’ll read mine in the cabin. Byron what about the bills for the food and drink and all the other things at the wedding reception.”

“Some has been covered by the navy, a wedding gift if you like and the remainder has already been settled by your Uncle and Aunt who claimed it was theirs as the acting mother and father of the bride.”

“I can’t have that, I’ll need to speak to them. What about the orchestra, the ushers and cooks, all the people who had to work?”

“I don’t think there are any of consequence. The cooks have said they were paid just by being invited to stay for the celebrations and that was echoed by everybody else, particularly as you had a second party laid on for the crew. The orchestra have donated their attendance as well because you have given them a chance to play for the party at Revelation Bay from which they did very well and have arranged to play a ‘gig’ every second Saturday so it appears you have launched their careers as a boyband when they leave the navy or end their contracts with the Antarctic Exploration teams.”

I looked at Will, “Do you think we can accept that, Will. They all worked so hard before, during and since the wedding?”

“I think it might upset them if we insisted on paying for things ourselves but I do agree, they did put themselves out to make sure we had a wonderful day. I think the best we can do is to write a letter thanking everybody and then, once we have the club and pub built, perhaps we can lay a special day on for them.”

“Byron?”

“They’d appreciate that and there are a few of the crews of both Aurora and Pacific Wanderer who have been making enquiries about the archaeological digs. I think they would like to volunteer to help during their make and mend days. I’ve spoken to Andy Bryant and Harry Fellows and they think that subject to vetting we would be happy to release them. Could you find places for them?”

“I bet we could, we have two major sites at present and I have a feeling we’ll find more because there does appear to have been quite a bit of activity on the island and Larry who is currently in charge over there is hopping about with excitement and is spending all his free time on the investigations. At the moment we’re not sure whether we’re investigating an Iron Age or First Millennium site. If you like I’ll get him to come over and give the men who want to volunteer a lecture on what we’ve found so far.”

“It might be an idea if both you and Larry did that together because we come to the next reason I wanted to see you. Larry has spoken to Andy and he has passed on to me that there have been other discoveries which are, it appears, confusing the date of the site even more. The discoveries concern the buried chest you discovered. In view of your recent upset when the chest was unearthed would you like to know now or prefer it was left until you are fully recovered or better still spoken to the doctor who is coming over later in the week?”

“I do need to speak to the doctor but I have rationalised why it always seems to be me that finds these odd things. I wander around more than most people and I’m naturally a curious person, well nosy really. The others that are with me tend to look for things of interest in their specialised fields where as I don’t have a specialised field so perhaps I notice little things more than they. Things like dips in the ground or bumps and mounds. I think it’s because at the back of my mind I am always looking for places where we can build houses without disrupting the natural beauty and wildlife. What have they found this time, the stone tablets containing the Ten Commandments, a chunk of metal that always points south, a bracelet worn by a Yeti?”

“Better than that and probably a lot more valuable. Still want me to tell you?”

“Yes, go on, it wasn’t me who discovered it so I won’t faint.”

“In a manner of speaking it was you or at the least you that created the chain of action that led to its discovery. Below the six caskets you found inside your chest, two further flat caskets have been discovered. One contains a large gem stone set in a Celtic gold cloak broach, a necklace that Larry assures me was more than a decoration but probably a chain of office worn by a tribal leader and there are two vellum scrolls that nobody can read but Larry assures me were written in a language that is part Latin and part runes that are definitely associated with Bronze and Iron Age Britain.”

I did feel a bit dizzy but controlled it, “I’ll phone Larry, I want to know if I can wear the cloak broach as my badge of office, if I ever get an official one, and Will can have the necklace. On the other hand I might change my mind and keep the necklace and let him have the cloak broach.”

Byron nodded, “The last thing I want to mention is by way of a Captain’s reprimand. Stop firing missiles at my ship.”

“It wasn’t a missile it was a flare. I was observing naval protocol when challenged and discharging my weapons out to sea, well a safe place in the lagoon which is the same as firing them out to sea and I fired to miss.”

He chuckled, “That’s when you are at your most dangerous. I have spoken to the Deputy Assistant Chief Minister…”

“Who?”

“Penny. Normally, she told me, the duties were undertaken by Aunt Kate or Uncle Ted but, as at the time they were attending to duties on the south side of the island, she had to assume their responsibilities. She has your list of duties and appointments both state and naval and has told me you will be unavailable until Wednesday when you will be free to formally accept the Sunderland.”

“What does that mean?”

“Go up for a flip round the island for about a half hour.” He smiled at Will, “It doesn’t include you because Penny has reminded me that as is the custom internationally; under no circumstances are both heads of state allowed to fly in the same aircraft at the same time so you can have a trip on Thursday.”

“Does that mean I can fly her?” I asked.

“Not the first time, it may be dangerous. Dangerous for everybody on the ground as well as in the aircraft, I understand she is carrying bombs as well as depth charges not to mention the two fifty millimetre canons and four .303 Browning machine guns. Speak to the aircraft’s commander, I’m sure he will confirm it.”

“I’ll get Aunty Katie to cook him a cake or gingerbread men.” I picked up my shoulder bag, “I’ll take the letters but will you keep the documents here until later. I might leave them somewhere if we take them with us. We’ll be dashing about quite a bit.”

“Are you here for dinner, Victor will need to know though I suspect Penny has already spoken to him?”

“We have nothing else planned,” answered Will. “We’ll be moving into the house and shifting our personal stuff up from here and transferring the remainder of our new furniture from the cave.” He looked at me, “Dinner here?”

“Yes, if that’s okay, Byron and tomorrow as well I expect. I don’t think Auntie Kate and I will have time to get everything ready in the kitchen of our house.”

“I’ll instruct Victor to allow for it then. Penny also asked me to lend you a couple of men to help but Andy is sending the men who transferred the cargo from Pacific Wanderer into the cave to do the job. They will have the small forklift and will also remember where everything was stored. The petty officer in charge has arranged for one of the buggy low-loaders to be available for both days as well.”

We left Byron and went into the saloon, “You’d better have something to eat here, I don’t know what we have in the house, though I expect Auntie Kate will have sorted something out. How are we going to split the work?”

Will was about to answer when Garry approached, “Too late for breakfast and too early for lunch, Charlotte but I can get you something, I’m sure.”

“I’m fine, Garry but Will would probably like a half cow on toast.”

He smiled and looked at Will, “Only a half?”

“A snack will do me until dinner. I’m confused at the moment, Charlotte cooked breakfast on Undine before we started this morning, we’re having lunch or a snack here and later dinner here most probably. What would you suggest, we haven’t a lot of time?”

“Ham salad sandwiches and if I make up about a dozen, you can take the remainder with you for later.”

And that’s what we had before we went to start moving. “If you can handle the stuff in our cabin, I’ll take the cave.”

“Okay, I want to check with Penny and Auntie Kate before I start packing and I’ll have to borrow a few suitcases to carry everything. I’ll see you some time before dinner. Do you want me to take all your clothes up to the house or would you prefer to leave some here?”

“All of it. If we need to keep a change here, we can bring items back as we need them. We’ll have to evict ourselves anyway, there’s bound to be other people who will need to borrow our suite.”

It took the remainder of the morning and all the afternoon to transfer everything and I would still have a lot to sort out tomorrow but at least it was up at the house now and tomorrow, Auntie Kate and Ted could move what remained of their stuff up to the second double bedroom and Penny and Wilmot’s PA could sort out the office and Penny’s stuff. That meant we now had an extra suite and a cabin free on Pacific Wanderer. At the weekend, David and Gwyneth would be moving into their temporary portacabin suite near where their house was being built and the girls would be housed in three other suites until their places were sorted out so when Pacific Wanderer was being used for other work and earning her keep, she would have room for fare paying passengers as well as cargo. She was going back to New Zealand in ten days’ time and carrying the wedding guests I had invited who would be returning to the UK and the Sunderland was going to start her weekly trips later this week, everything was working out well and the sooner I sorted out our new residents, Joe and Morris, the better because if my devious plans went ahead as planned, we would be having more residents joining us, we still needed a plumber, a vet and Penny was going to need help with the island administration because I know she was under pressure and the girl who was handling the New Zealand government work was only here on a temporary basis and that was something else I would have to attend to as a matter of urgency.

There was a knock on the door of our private sitting room and Auntie Kate popped her head round the door, “Tea and biscuits in the kitchen, are you joining us?”

“Yes, straight away. Who’s there?”

“Ted, Penny, Carol the New Zealand girl and Gwyneth is driving up from her place and will be here in five minutes, that’s all.”

“What about Will, David and the men who were helping us?”

She grinned, “Where do you think Will and the men are? Down at the cave eating raw meat and drinking cold beer of course and David is on the ship with Mark doing a surgery for the crew and will be there for a couple of hours.”
I glanced at my watch, “It will be time to get ready for dinner soon, that’s only two and a half hours away.”

“David took his change of clothes with him, Will is coming back here in half-an-hour, there’s only us and we have two bathrooms in the double bedrooms and a shower next to Penny and Carol’s room, that’s enough.”

“The sooner I get the extra bedrooms built for the hundreds of children, the better.” I got up and we went into the kitchen.

Penny greeted me with, “We have lots I need to go over with you.”

“We’ll do it tomorrow morning before we start sorting everything else out. I need to talk to you about getting help because you are going to need it quite soon.”

“Oh, have I been leaving things or forgetting them?”

“No, in fact you’ve been doing a tremendous job, much more work than you should be doing and on top of that, the girl who’s acting as Sir Wilmot’s representative will have to return to New Zealand in the not too distant future and I have an idea about who to offer the job to.”

“Petra Sutherland,” Penny reminded me. “She is one of the things I need to talk to you about.”

I sat down with my ears paying attention to Penny and my eyes counting the dunking donuts on the table, “Only one each?” I asked.

“That’s it, dinner is only a couple of hours away,” responded Auntie Kate.

“We could have had a donut and a gingerbread man each, that wouldn’t spoil dinner.”

“Yes it would. One donut so eat it slowly,” insisted a totally unsympathetic Kate.

I was about to add a second spoon of sugar to my tea to make amends but the sugar bowl was whipped off the table before I had a chance. I gave up my struggle for food and decided to delete Auntie Kate from my will and returned my attention to Penny. “Go on, what about Petra.”

“She’s English but works for the New Zealand Government at New Zealand House and she’s been talking to me quite a lot over the phone when we were discussing island stuff. I think she’s very interested in coming to live here. She didn’t say it as such but is always hinting about it and she told me her bloke is interested as well and was enquiring about police work here.”

“I remember she said they might get married and have their honeymoon here but I didn’t know she was thinking about settling here permanently.”

“Well she hasn’t said anything directly but she did say that her fiancé had enquired about the possibilities in New Zealand as far as his job is concerned, he’s a sergeant in the police I think.”

“He is. When is she getting in touch with you again?”

“Sometime tomorrow, did you want to speak to her?”

“Yes please. How would you feel if she came here as the New Zealand representative, assuming that Sir Wilmot was agreeable.”

“It would be terrific, we got on very well at the house, yes I’d like it.”

“Okay. Call me when she phones or if you can’t get hold of me, get her to leave her mobile number with you.”
“I have it in case I need her for something urgent.”

We finished our tea and the others went off to have a short rest before getting ready to walk down to Wanderer for dinner but I stayed behind to speak to Auntie Kate. “How are you coping with all this upheaval, Auntie Kate?”

“Busy at the moment but a couple of days and everything will be organised and we can settle down to a near normal life, by that, I mean as normal as we are in Berkshire.”

“I’ve been thinking about that. Originally I had thought that once we moved into the house that would happen but there is so much going on. With me dashing about quite a bit and Penny very busy you aren’t getting much help and we can be sure that as the island settles down and more people arrive to live here, we will have even less time to help.”

She thought about it for a while, “Most of the people coming here will need accommodation.”

“That’s organised and the hotel will be able to cope with it and there’s going to be a restaurant and shops but a few of them will be friends and it’s inevitable that some will stay here. Even if it’s only for a few days it will be a lot of extra work for you. Then there’s your own annexe and the extra bedrooms for our children because I am determined to have three or four.”

“Which means four bedrooms and two bathrooms,” she smiled, “Because when you are older and have to wait two hours to get into your bathroom because two teenage daughters are hogging them, war will break out.”

“Dead right and there will be two teenage boys as well and though they won’t require hours of bathroom time, they will be extremely untidy and Will being a man will accept that as normal and won’t be any help.”

“You are thinking of employing help, servants?”

“We’ll have to. One to help with keeping the house clean and later, somebody to help with the cooking because there will be a need to have formal dinners, cocktail parties and perhaps the odd business meeting and somebody extra will be needed to help with waiting on table.”

She started to clear away the afternoon tea cups and plates, “Where are we going to find suitable people, there’s nobody here at the moment that will fit. Most of them have or will have second jobs as teachers, caretakers and lollipop attendants.”

“That’s the problem. We can’t expect people in New Zealand to apply for jobs like that, there’s a slight problem with commuting. Whoever does apply will be expecting a live in job or have local accommodation. We’ll have to think about it and I’ll ask the girls if they have any ideas or know somebody that can help but we’ll have to come up with something. The problem is going to get worse when the pub, restaurant and hotel open as well as the other shops, they will need staff as the population grows.”

Auntie Kate stopped clearing away and moved around the table and stood behind me and I felt her stroke my hair and then she kissed the top of my head, “Charlotte, a short while ago you were told to take things easy and here you are getting involved in more things rather than less.”

“But Auntie Kate, I love doing it, this island, the new house, you and Ted, Will all my new friends have brought me to life.”

“Yes it has. The change in you, your ambitions, your zest for life, everything about you has changed and you are a lovely, interesting and extremely lively person but you must give yourself space. Take time for yourself. Go and speak to your muse, Artemis, she’ll tell you the same and as for organising the house, that’s my job, including finding staff when we need them. Go and have your bath and prepare for dinner, wear your lovely clothes and stop worrying about me. I too have fun but being older and wiser, I know when to find help and I already have an idea and don’t ask, it’s my department.”

“Can I still go with you when you shop?”

“I shop at Wanderer, Orca, Penguin and any other stray ships that wander in and there’s always somebody that wants to come with me, Gwyneth, Penny, Carol the New Zealand girl or one of your friends.”

“That’s not fair. I have an idea though, the Sunderland is starting her regular trips soon, we’ll go to New Zealand and do some serious shopping there, I need perfume and bath things.”

“Okay, I’ll keep that trip for you, now go and get ready for tonight.”

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