Chapter 9 Ston
Ston
Everyone and everything was still asleep when Ana crept off Dida Krila and strolled under the harbourside trees, past the fishing boats and visiting yachts, and the tiny outdoor bar with its padlocked fridges and ashtrays uncleared from last night.
Ahead of her, the solid grey towers and walls of Ka?tio Fort both guarded Ston and hid its red roofs and honeyed stones from her view, the narrow tracks of the town’s ancient walls snaking over the wooded hillside behind it.
The fresh silence of the new day sparkled around her, and she took the deepest of breaths.
It wouldn’t last. It was going to be hot, hot, hot again later.
She unlocked her open-topped jeep and, sweeping the dust from the seat, jumped into it.
It would take no more than ten minutes to reach her village on the shore of Malostonski Bay, its clear, calm waters so perfect for mussels and oysters.
Farming them had given her family wealth and built the fine, three-storey house on the waterfront they still called home.
Normally Ana loved the freedom that being on board Dida Krila brought her, but right now she needed to get away.
If not from her boat, then certainly from her crew.
Maybe a bit of distance would help her to properly analyse her growing unease that something wasn’t quite right.
It was so nebulous at times that she wondered if it was real, but yesterday evening Lloyd had become almost as withdrawn as Natali, so she knew she wasn’t imagining it.
What the hell was she doing wrong as skipper to make them both so miserable?
Turning off the main road, she wound through the narrow village streets, past modern weekend villas sitting cheek by jowl with smaller houses, the blue of the bay just visible between them.
Purple and pink bougainvillea cascaded over garden walls, fluttering in the breeze from her jeep as it passed.
At this early hour she parked easily on the quayside, then she sat for a moment listening to the gentle ripple of sea against stone, mingling with the rhythmic murmur of cicadas.
To her right her father’s boats were moored in the harbour, the smart wooden barka for tourist trips alongside the smaller oyster farming craft.
All would go out later; summer was the busiest time of year, and it was constantly in the news how Croatia was booming as a holiday destination.
Ana climbed from the jeep and crossed the parking area to the house, letting herself in through the wrought-iron garden gate at its side.
Most of the downstairs was taken up by a workshop and office for the business, but at the back was a terrace and it was here she found her father, looking out over the walled garden as he contemplated the day ahead with a cup of coffee at his side.
He was dressed for work in his habitual blue overalls, his thick hair as dark as ever, despite the fact he’d turn sixty next year.
He stood to greet her, enveloping her in a hug that almost lifted her off her feet. “My darling girl, I was hoping you’d arrive before I have to go.”
“I’ll come with you, if you like.”
He laughed. “I guess even you need your feet on dry land for a while, and anyway, the boat is fully crewed for today. Now, let me fetch more coffee, then we can talk.”
Ana sat down and tipped back her head, gazing at the pale blue sky as she listened to his footsteps on the wooden stairs up to the kitchen.
Beyond the terrace, her mother’s chickens scratched around the shrubs that lined the high garden wall, barred as they were from the vegetable patch to her left, which was overflowing with tomatoes, beans and aubergines.
Her parents didn’t have to live this way.
They could easily buy everything they wanted, but despite their wealth they preferred it, and Ana admired them for doing so.
Her father returned, setting d?ezva and cups on the table between them.
“So, how is your boat of books?”
Ana nodded, picking up her coffee. “It’s … OK.”
“Which means that it probably isn’t.”
Ana shrugged, trying to put him off the scent.
“It’s been a slow start, but I guess that’s to be expected.
Except Kor?ula. That was all right. Pretty good, actually.
” Which, now she thought of it, made Lloyd’s mood last night doubly strange.
She checked herself; in the grand scheme of things, it wasn’t that long since he’d lost his wife, so maybe she should give him the benefit of the doubt.
“The bigger the island the more children there are. It figures. You’re on a hiding to nothing with some of the smaller places.”
So did Tata not approve? Or was he just stating a fact? A fact that he instinctively understood, yet she hadn’t considered at all.
“Or you could say,” he continued, “that you’re providing a service whether anyone uses it or not. After all, with government money nobody expects a return, do they? Once it’s been allocated it’s there to spend.”
That wasn’t exactly the case with this project.
Not given the reports she had to file and the emphasis on numbers.
Numbers of visits to the library, numbers of books loaned out, loans as a proportion of permanent population…
It made her head spin, and it was so important.
This summer was a pilot, after all, and the funding for future years depended on its success.
But she didn’t want to disabuse her father – or, more to the point, give him an excuse to ever so casually mention her bringing Dida Krila into the family business if it didn’t work out. Instead she nodded.
“So, Ana, are you going to tell me what’s really bugging you?”
Why did there have to be something wrong?
Because he wanted there to be? No, no, she was being so unfair; her tata wasn’t like that.
However, he clearly wasn’t going to let this go, and common sense told her she should swallow her pride.
Just a little, anyway. He was certainly the right person to talk to about her crew worries – especially since Meri had dismissed them so quickly. He’d been managing people for years.
But how to put this particularly nebulous problem into words?
Did it even exist outside her own mind? But she had snapped at Natali again yesterday when all the girl had done wrong was fail to tell Ana she was about to apply new anti-slip coating to the foredeck.
She should have been praising her proactivity.
As skipper, she was responsible for her crew’s happiness, and she was making a very poor job of it.
“Ana?”
“I’m thinking.” Start with something she could nail down. Something that might be … solvable. “It’s Natali. She’s not very … well … communicative.”
Tata leant forwards, clutching his coffee cup. “In what way?”
Ana shrugged. “I don’t know. It could just be a young-person thing, but she barely contributes when we chat in the evenings or over breakfast.”
“And how does that affect the way she does her job?” Typical of him to be practical.
“It doesn’t. Not at all. She’s one of the best crew I’ve ever had. She seems to know what needs doing before I even ask her.”
“Don’t get me wrong, Ana, I really want to help here, but I’m struggling a bit with what the problem actually is.”
“So you think I’m being too emotional about this?” They’d had words along these lines before, when she’d been buying Dida Krila, and the memory of it still smarted. Especially as the precarious position of her finances meant that in hindsight he might well have had a point.
“I didn’t mean that. I’d just like to understand a bit more about it. This youngster’s clearly worrying you, so let’s talk it through.”
He was right of course. She was just being prickly.
She’d got up too early, that was all. Needed this coffee and then a shower.
She sighed. “I just feel … responsible. I recruited Natali and I want her to enjoy the summer, not just go through the motions. It’ll make for a more efficient ship as well as a happier one. ”
Tata sipped his coffee. “It isn’t just that she’s a quiet sort of person?”
“She chats to her dog all the time.”
“Maybe she prefers animals to people. I know there are days when I do. Sometimes I even prefer the company of molluscs to the idiots I have to deal with.”
So he was comparing her crew to molluscs, was he? Of course he didn’t mean that. What was wrong with her this morning? “Yet you do. Deal with them, that is.”
“As we all do in the world of work. But you can’t please everyone all the time, nor should you try to.
” Ana shot him a glance. “I know, I know. You think I sound like a broken record, and wanting to make people happy is a really nice thing. However, you can’t run a business like that.
Even as skipper, that isn’t your job. Your crew’s happiness is up to them. And only them.”
She couldn’t stand this line of attack. He just didn’t get it. Ana stood, banging her knee on the underside of the table as she did so.
Her tata sighed. “And now you’re going to switch off entirely, just because I’ve mentioned your people-pleasing tendencies. I don’t know how I can—”
“I’m sorry, Tata. I’m tired and I need a shower. I will think about what you’ve said, honestly.”
He laid his hand gently on her arm. “You can work this Natali business out. With or without my input. I have every faith in you. But first you need to decide what – or whose – the problem really is.”
Which meant he thought it was hers. Was it so wrong of her to want a happy ship? There were only three of them, after all. It wasn’t like charter yachts, with guests coming and going. They were stuck with each other, and no one else, until the beginning of September.
She nodded. “Wise as ever.”
“Remember, Ana, I have every fai—”
She bent down to kiss him. “I’m sorry I’ve been grouchy. I’ll be fine by the time you come home, I promise.” Before he could challenge her again, she ran up the stairs just as fast as she could.