Chapter 25
Any hope Daisy had of a sudden flurry of customers was fading with every passing second. It wasn’t that the town was completely dead. She could hear cars in the distance, and even the shrieks of one or two children, but none of them came anywhere near the September Rose, and by the time she closed the hatch, she still hadn’t had a single customer.
As she secured all the cups and milk jugs, she tried to give herself a pep talk. It didn’t matter if she didn’t make money every single day. Most businesses closed for at least a couple of days a week, anyway. There was nothing wrong with taking a break from work now and again, especially when things were going so well. If anything, she thought, it could well be the universe telling her it was time to slow down for a bit. To enjoy the journey, rather than just thinking about the destination.
By quarter past eight, Daisy and Yvonne were on the stern of the boat, ready to cast off.
‘Are you sure you don’t want to take the tiller for a bit?’ Yvonne asked as she steered them away from the bank and into the middle of the river. ‘It’s quite lovely.’
Daisy’s immediate response was going to be no. This river – the Crouch – was far narrower than the Blackwater they’d joined at Heybridge, which meant it was far easier to run aground on one of the mud banks. She wanted to spend some time getting used to the area first. Yet waiting would mean getting closer to the mouth of the estuary, which was when Yvonne would definitely need to be in charge. Which was why she changed her mind.
‘Actually, yes,’ she said. ‘But you’ll stay here, right? Just till I’m comfortable.’ Controlling the boat on the narrower stretch of water was far easier than Daisy had expected. ‘You never know, I might give it a go when we get out to sea,’ she said with just a hint of nervousness.
‘Be my guest,’ Yvonne replied. ‘But I’m taking no blame if something happens to you.’
Daisy laughed. With her hand still on the tiller, she breathed in a lungful of sweet, salty air. It was a different sort of relaxation, being on the river, she decided. You still had to be alert on the canals, but there was more of a safety net, what with all the moorings and people and locks to slow down the pace. Here, that safety net was gone, and the relaxation came from the openness. The vast expanse of freedom that stretched out in front of her.
Daisy had been at the tiller for quite a while and was allowing herself an indulgent gaze out at the landscape when Yvonne called out to her.
‘Watch it!’ she said.
Daisy barely had a chance to realise what it Yvonne was talking about when something whipped around the starboard side of the boat. In panic and confusion, she pulled the tiller hard towards her, and away from the object. The boat swerved towards the bank and for a split second, all Daisy could do was watch on, waiting for the impending disaster.