Lotti and Federico stood on the edge of the basin with the water behind them, facing the row of buildings that stood between them and the Thames.
Going to the pub, Jim had said, but which one? There were at least three.
‘We’ll have to try them all,’ she told Federico.
In all her life, Lotti had never set foot inside a pub. The first she came to was a soot-stained brick building. A man sat on a stool outside with a tankard in one hand and a pipe in the other, and stared curiously as Lotti went in. She squared her shoulders and pushed open the door.
The air was thick with smoke and the smell of beer, and the noise was deafening. In one corner, a group sang, huddled around a man bashing away at a piano. In another, a group of men were shouting, something to do with a bet, and money that someone did or didn’t owe. Lotti stood with her back against the door and surveyed the room, eyes flicking from bar to piano, table to barstool. There was no sign here of Frank and Jim. She slipped away and moved on to the next pub, a low stone building. Here she found a quieter crowd, intent on a game of cards.
‘What you after?’ the landlord shouted as she peered in. ‘No kids allowed, and no dogs.’
Lotti beat a hasty retreat. Frank and Jim were not here either.
It was properly dark now, and the dockside smelled of fish and coal and diesel oil. Lotti stepped over a bulk sprawled on the ground. The bulk groaned and she realised it was a person.
‘I’m ever so sorry.’
From the ground, something flew past her ear, only just missing her head, and crashed on the quayside in an explosion of glass and whisky fumes.
Federico growled. Lotti tugged at his collar and ran towards the third pub, straight into Frank who was strolling out with Jim.
‘Should have known it was you when I heard trouble, Charlie.’
Lotti peered back towards the drunk on the ground.
‘I didn’t mean to cause trouble.’
‘Course you didn’t,’ said Jim. ‘Want a lemonade?’
‘No, thank you. I’ve come to talk.’
They sat on a bench outside the pub. Lotti waited as Frank lit his pipe.
‘All right, then. What’s this all about?’
‘Ben’s afraid.’ said Lotti, feeling like a traitor. ‘He says he isn’t but I know he is, and so am I.’
‘Well, blinking hallelujah,’ grunted Frank. ‘You’ve come to your senses.’
‘Not exactly,’ Lotti hesitated. ‘More like I’ve come with a business proposition.’
Frank’s eyes glinted.
‘Will you take us over?’ Lotti asked in a rush. ‘To France, I mean? You said you know the Channel.’
‘I’ve never crossed it in a blinking narrowboat,’ said Frank.
‘I’ll pay you,’ said Lotti. ‘I don’t have a lot of money, and what I do I rather need, but I was wondering if you might take this.’
She pulled Papa’s ring over her head.
Frank stared. ‘What is it?’
‘It was my father’s.’ Lotti fought to keep her voice level. ‘It’s very old, and immensely valuable. I once heard my grandmother say it’s been in the family since before the French Revolution.’
Jim took the ring from Frank and whistled.
‘It means a lot to me,’ Lotti continued. ‘But then so does getting to France. For … for all sorts of reasons.’
Oh, Moune …
Frank smoked on and said nothing. It was Jim who spoke again, softly, using the same line of argument with his brother as on the day they helped to hide the Sparrowhawk from Albert Skinner.
‘If it was our Jack, Frank, stuck in France …’
Frank’s hand closed around the ring.
‘I got two conditions.’
*
Back on the Sparrowhawk, Lotti shook Ben gently by the arm.
‘Wake up,’ she whispered. ‘I need to talk to you.’
Ben turned on his side and looked at her sleepily. ‘Is it morning?’
‘No, it’s still night. I need to talk to you because … well, because I went to see Frank, because I knew you were worried, and I was too. And the good news is he’s going to come with us all the way to France. You don’t mind, do you?’
‘No, it’s good.’ Ben sounded relieved, and Lotti was glad. ‘But shouldn’t we pay him?’
Lotti’s throat tightened. ‘I’ve given him Papa’s ring.’
‘The one you wear round your neck?’ Ben sat up in his berth and looked at her, dismayed. Lotti had told him about the ring, and he knew how much it meant to her.
‘I don’t mind.’ It was a lie, but somehow the fact that she had had to give something up did make what she had to say next easier. ‘Ben, there’s more. Frank says he’ll only attempt the crossing if the weather’s good. He says unless the conditions are perfect, the deal’s off.’
‘Fair enough,’ said Ben.
Lotti gulped. ‘And he says … He says he won’t make the crossing with Elsie. He says if something goes wrong it could put us all in danger, not just her, because you wouldn’t be able to concentrate on the boat, and he wants two good pairs of hands on board, and I’m not good enough. And he’s right,’ Lotti added honestly. ‘I’m not. Jim says he’ll take care of Elsie. He says you can pick her up on your way back, when you’ve found Sam. And the puppies. But for now …’
‘I have to choose,’ said Ben. ‘Elsie or Sam.’
‘Yes.’
There was a very long silence, which Lotti did not dare interrupt.
‘We’ll leave her then,’ Ben said at last. ‘I choose Sam.’
He managed to keep his voice steady but later, when Lotti was asleep, he crept out of his berth and called Elsie softly to him. Together, they padded into the workshop. They slept the rest of the night in Nathan’s berth, with Ben’s arms wrapped round his dog and his hands clutching her fur.