Maiden Voyage

SIXTY-FIVE

Edgar was having tea with George Welterman when Catriona appeared at his stateroom door. George rose from his seat and bowed and said, "Well, well. The Queen of the Atlantic, in person."

Catriona allowed him to kiss her hand. Then she sat down and took off her hat and said lightly, "Don't let me interrupt you, please."

"We were simply going over the inventory," said Edgar. "George wants to know exactly what he's going to be getting for his eighteen million. It runs into three hundred seventy pages—from the Arcadia herself, to three hundred stokers' shovels."

"I see," said Catriona. "No, no tea for me, thank you. I'd rather have a drink."

"Always hard for me to consider drinking before the sun goes down past the yardarm," said Edgar. "Old Anglo-Indian custom, of course. Only way we could keep a check on chaps who would have drunk all day, morning till night." He sucked in his cheeks and then said, "Lot of them still did, of course."

George said, "Edgar's very pleased that you decided to see things his way, Catriona."

"Hm," said Catriona, trying to sound disinterested and vague; but she listened closely as Edgar and George worked out between them how their lawyers could meet as soon as the Arcadia docked in New York; and how IMM's accountants could go through the books in a matter of days; so that Keys could be transferred to IMM's British holding company as quickly as possible.

"How many of our executive staff will you be retaining, do you think?" asked Catriona. "Mr. Deacon here, I hope?"

George stood up and smiled and put his arm round Edgar's shoulders. "Mr. Deacon will get the reward he was promised, the deputy managing directorship of all of IMM's British operations. And he deserves it, too. As soon as your poor father died, he acted promptly and properly; and believe me he's going to save us all a great deal of money and legal difficulty." He winked at Catriona to make it clear he was talking about the Orange.

"What about Mr. Fearson?"

"Well... you have to admit that Percy's getting a little long in the tooth. It isn't going to be easy to find a place for him. But, I'm sure we can come to some arrangement."

"And me?"

"You, Miss Keys?" Edgar laughed crisply. "You will be able to go back to London and play with your theatre folk."