July 19, 1936. Middle Watch 0345

Sunset and Evening Star

...But such a tide as moving seems asleep,
Too full for sound and foam,
When that which drew from out the boundless deep
Turns again home.

Twilight and evening bell,
And after that the dark!
And may there be no sadness of farewell,
When I embark...

~Alfred, Lord Tennyson

After the first tearful greetings, John found himself standing to one side. He wasn't much of a talker, and now, after it was over, Nancy, Peggy and Roger seemed to be doing a very good job of talking. He only stood and watched.

Titty had come up to squeeze his hand. Neither said anything, but they knew exactly what the other was thinking.

"You must be awfully tired," she said quietly.

"Yes," John replied.

"John Walker?"

John looked around, half startled to see Miss Turner walking to him. To his great surprise, she held out her hand and he took it hesitantly.

"I am really very sorry that I did not recognize you," she said, a bit stiffly, but her tone was genuine. "You should have reminded me."

"I'm sorry...?" John trailed off.

"Surely you remember," Miss Turner said. "You are my owl at midday."

"Oh...yes."

"I am afraid I misjudged you and your siblings some years back... I did not have the pleasure of getting to know you," Miss Turner didn't sound stiff at all now. "I very much hope we can be good friends after this."

"Of course!" John exclaimed, taking her hand with both of his.

"Good," Miss Turner said with a bit of a smile, then she turned and threaded her way through the crowd to where Molly Blackett was standing.

"Rum." Bob Blackett said and John realized that he had been standing nearby. "Very rum indeed."

"Yes," John said. He thought Nancy's father had expressed himself rather well.

"I've wanted to meet you too," Bob Blackett said, sticking out a hand. "I've heard quite a bit about you."

John shook his hand eagerly and found himself again at a loss for words. What to say to a man who had been prisoner in Siberia for eighteen years and barely escaped with his life? It was a little like Les Miserables or The Count of Monte Cristo come to life.

"I've always wanted to meet you," John said.

"Have you?" Bob Blackett said, slightly surprised.

The story, of course, had to be told from beginning to end and everyone stole chairs from other tables and listened while the adventurers related their travels from beginning to end. The guests at the hotel were filtering in as morning drifted by and some caught snatches of the conversation as they ordered coffee at the bar.

"Sorry to have lost my motor bike," Roger said. "But it kept conking out on me, anyway."

"I'm sorry to have lost the dhow," John said with a grin.

"Is John really going to be court marshalled?" Bridget asked.

"Not he," Captain Walker said with a laugh. "He's the only one who thinks his offense was serious. Admiral Cunningham will probably have a summary hearing and dismiss him with a caution not to be kidnapped again."

"And I'd like to go and get it over with, if you don't mind," John said. "Admiral Cunningham was very understanding to allow me to come ashore first, but I don't want to put it off."

~o*o~

The sun was high over a brilliant world as they watched Captain Walker's launch churn across the harbour towards Hood, where she lay at anchor. They were standing under the grove of date palms and street lights across the street from the Hotel Cecil, on the bank that sloped down to a line of fishing boats, watching them through brightly painted eyes.

"Invite the Admiral for supper," Mrs. Walker had said before they left, speaking for them all.

"What's this?" Captain Walker had asked with a sly smile. "Bribery?"

They saw the distant launch swing alongside the tall, gray sides of the battlecruiser and the tiny white figures climb up the accommodation ladder to the deck.

John's fate was nigh.

"Anyone for lunch?" Roger asked.

~o*o~

"What happened to the GA? I've been meaning to ask."

That afternoon, they had all gone upstairs to dress for dinner. Peggy had gone down the hallway to ask Susan something about her hair and Nancy had followed wondering what dress she should be wearing.

Nancy was sitting cross-legged on Susan's bed, watching through the bathroom door as Susan's reflection carefully pinned Peggy's hair.

"I don't really know," Titty said, swinging around the bathroom door. "When we arrived in Alexandria I was expecting squalls, but they never came. Maybe she's finally realized that she was wrong about us."

"Mother thinks it was because she got to know John and Roger before she really knew who they were," Bridget said.

"She is awfully unpleasant," Nancy said, "But I really do think that I've misjudged her over the years... and she's misjudged us."

"She's still nasty about Father," Peggy said.

"Yes," Nancy said grimly.

"Why doesn't she like your father?" Susan asked through the bobby pins in her mouth.

"She always thought mother married below her station," Nancy said. "She never let her forget it, especially after he disappeared. She always had to point out how much better off we'd have been if mother had married someone with means."

"She can't think herself so far above your father," Susan said. "She hasn't any connections..."

"We used to, or our family did, anyway, years back." Nancy said. "My illustrious ancestor made his fortune after the industrial revolution in textiles and he married the daughter of an Earl. There was an estate that was slowly divvied up over the years. By the time Mother and Uncle Jim came along all that was left was Beckfoot; it doesn't belong to us at all, it belongs to Uncle Jim."

"Beckfoot was a hunting lodge," Peggy explained. "And the Dog's Home was the kennels, but that was years and years ago. Beckfoot was built in the 1700's."

"I never knew it was that old," Titty said. "But I'm not really surprised."

"Aren't you going to get dressed, Nancy?" Peggy asked.

"Yes," Nancy said.

She slipped off the bed and left the room, their talk and laughter following her down the hallway. She was lost in thought when her mother saw her standing in the door of their suite.

"Penny for your thoughts?" Mrs. Blackett asked.

"I was just thinking how strange it is that it's all over," Nancy said.

"I supposed you'd feel that way."

"Everyday life is so dull," Nancy said hopelessly. "I have to go back to worrying about dresses and people and what I'm going to do with myself now that I'm supposed to be grown up."

"You'll find a new adventure soon enough," Mrs. Blackett said with a little laugh. "I think you'll find that ordinary life can be exciting too, just not in the same way."

"I wish everything would go back to how we were when we were younger. I once said I wanted to live on Wildcat Island forever and ever. I always half thought I could put off growing up and always be young like Peter Pan."

"But you knew you couldn't," Mrs. Blackett said with a laugh. Then she glanced at the door. "Do you feel well enough to go to dinner?"

Nancy shrugged, "I suppose."

"It will all turn out," Mrs. Blackett said, putting an arm around Nancy's waist. "I promise."

~o*o~

Roger, Gibber, Bob Blackett, Jim Turner and Admiral Huskisson were in white wicker chairs in the smoking lounge when John, Captain Walker and Admiral Cunningham arrived for dinner.

"All well?" Bob Blackett asked when he saw John's smile.

"We'll throw him in the brig after dinner," Captain Walker said with a laugh.

They sat and talked. The conversation turned unbidden to the navy, a subject near to nearly all their hearts, and the last war. It was talk of brawls between titan ships; fire breathing leviathans of the sea. Bob Blackett alone had never seen big guns fire and he tried to imagine the sheer sound and power of things that could hurl half-ton shells nearly twenty miles. As they talked, he could almost see the massive sixteen inch guns of the Rodneys swinging around for a broadside, Hood's fifteen inch batteries joining in like thunderous applause.

"Did you always plan to be in the Navy?" Bob Blackett asked John at last, while the others talked.

"It never occurred to me to do anything else," John said with a grin.

"So, you already knew how to sail before you ran afoul of my daughters?"

"Yes," John said. "I'm not sure if I remember a time that I didn't know. My mother sailed when she was a girl in Australia and my father, like my grandfather, joined the navy."

"I didn't know anything about sailing until I met Jim. I could row well enough; later we rowed at Oxford together, he and I." Bob Blackett said. "I would think that if you like sailing so much you wouldn't like to be in the Navy."

"I don't mind it," John said. "I always used to think that steam ships were tin biscuit boxes and the ships in the navy are cookie cutter tin biscuit boxes, but it's much more than that, it's the navigation and the tides, the wind and storms, and the men. You get to learn the sea and the shape of the land and eventually the ship takes on a life of her own."

"Would you rather live a hundred years ago when warships were still propelled by sails?" Bob Blackett asked curiously.

John thought for a moment, then said at last, "I don't know."

"John," Mr. Blackett said quietly. "I've got to thank you for all you've done for my daughters these past few days. I haven't really known them very long, as you know, and I think that it hadn't been for you, I might have been going to their funerals. I'm deeply indebted to you... and your brother."

"If Roger hadn't landed that plane then we'd all be dead." John said seriously. "But I didn't do anything out of the ordinary."

"Oh, I think you did," Bob Blackett said.

"I was wondering..." John trailed off. "I was wondering if it would be all right if I wrote to Nancy? We've known each other a long time and I thought..."

Bob Blackett looked at him shrewdly for a moment, "If you want my permission, you have it."

~o*o~

The first bright glow of sunset was rippling across the sky as dinner was served. Two tables had been put together on the roof to accommodate them all and they had a fine view of the harbour stretching below them and meeting the sea.

It was as Nancy had imagined it when she was half delirious in the Negev; dinner on the roof of the hotel, just as the sun was setting and the first stars were stepping out across the sky. It was like dinner after an exciting play, after all the acts had gone by and the actors have taken their last bows. She was glad that it was over, but she regretted it, too. She wanted to go back and revisit all the places they had left behind.

Dusk fell, dinner was finished with and dessert followed. Nancy found herself standing up and walking to the ornamental railing that went around the edge of the roof to look out at the harbour and the riding lights of the fleet that gleamed like the stars reflected in the water. She looked up and wasn't really surprised to see that John was standing next to her.

"What are you going to do with yourself after this?" he asked.

"We're going to take the train to Cairo," Nancy said. "And see the pyramids. Your people are coming with us. I suppose you wouldn't be able to?"

"No," John said. "Hood is sailing soon. She's going back to home waters for a refit, so I'll be in England before you are."

"You'll have to come visit us when we get back," Nancy glanced up at him. "While we're in Cairo I'm going to look up Dick and Dot. I have their address."

"Tell them I said 'hello'."

"I will."

"Do you mind..." John began hesitantly. "If I wrote you?"

"Don't be a blockhead, John," Nancy said with a laugh. "Of course you can write to us. We'd love to hear from you."

"No," John said. He looked away towards the harbour and he lights that danced on black water. "No... I meant, can I write to you?"

"Oh," Nancy looked up at him with a queer fluttering in her heart. She caught her breath. "Yes, you can... and I'll write back."

See the pyramids along the Nile,

See the sunrise on a desert isle,

Just remember, darling, all the while,

You belong to me.

~ Pee Wee King, Chilton Price and Redd Stewart

Author's Note: So...we don't actually have a good excuse why we took so long to post this chapter, except that we forgot, which is a regular occurrence with me.

Now that the story is over, how did we do? Were there bits that you think need to be changed, or things that should be added? Please be honest. We want to know exactly what you thought of the story.

Happy writing!

~Rose and Psyche

Guest1: As always, thank you for all your wonderful reviews. We really enjoyed hearing from you over the course of the story, and hope you enjoyed your experience as well.