Chapter 63
It was another ten minutes before everyone was in place and the paddles were opened, allowing the water to drain out so that it could lower the boats down to the same level as the next part of the canal.
After relieving himself, Johnny stayed next to Daisy on the bank. She wasn’t thrilled by this. She needed to be able to focus on the boat, and the fact she had to hold and let out the rope meant she couldn’t hold Johnny’s leash. So instead, she placed it beneath her foot and trod on it, although, after a couple of minutes, that seemed pointless. He wasn’t going anywhere. Even when a flock of pigeons landed next to him, a quick sniff was the most interest he showed, before refocusing his attention on the draining water. Much the same way as Daisy was doing.
‘I do wish you could talk,’ Daisy said as she glanced down at the animal by her side. ‘I’m sure you’ve seen some amazing things, haven’t you? It would definitely be easier to find out where you came from if you could just tell me, wouldn’t it?’
She was looking at Johnny as if he might speak when her phone started buzzing in her pocket.
‘Argh!’ she groaned to herself, knowing exactly who it would be.
She had sent Theo a couple of voice messages that morning, hoping that he might reply with the same so that she could at least hear his voice a little. That was what she was missing about this. Hearing his voice and seeing his expressions as he told her about all the things he had been up to at work each day. She missed showing him the birds out of her window or the cakes she had made for the coffee shop. But it would be worth it, she reminded herself. She was doing this for him. There’d been no doubting how she felt for him when he saw she’d gone to all this effort to get there. It would be fine. Absolutely fine.
‘Everything all right there, Daisy?’ Yvonne called from the stern.
Daisy lifted her hand and offered a short wave in response.
One of the best things about life on a canal boat was how much time it gave Daisy to think, but sometimes, that could be the worst thing, too. After all, it gave her a chance to think how much money she could have been earning if she’d just stayed in Wildflower Lock. Money that could have gone on her and Theo having a weekend away. Or she could have invested in new art gear. After all, the bits and pieces she’d found of her father’s wouldn’t last forever, certainly not how she was using them up. And art gear wasn’t cheap. Even paper cost more than an arm and a leg. And here she was, spending money on copious quantities of fuel when she had just started making ends meet. No, being lost in your thoughts wasn’t always a great thing.
She drew in a long breath and was considering how she could speak to Theo that night so that she could actually see him, without him knowing something was wrong, when a horn blasted into the air. Daisy grimaced. She knew without turning that it was going to be the same man and his family again, only this time, it wasn’t one blast. It was several. And it was followed by screaming.
‘Help! Help!’
Daisy twisted on the spot, only for her jaw to drop.
The man had tied the boat up, exactly as he’d said was going to do, but rather than using a decent length of rope, he had kept it taut and short. When the water dropped, the boat had been unable to lower with it and was now hanging near vertically by the ropes. With two children inside.