A Debt of Honour – Episode 36
Shauna soon realised they were heading for the airport.
Was Neil about to take off on his solo travels already?
In fact, they barely made the Arrivals gate for the Glasgow flight to land and clear Customs.
Shauna left the other two and ran to hug her daughter.
She brought her and Calum back, arm in arm, to Neil and Charlie.
“Well,” Charlie said. “Meet your bridesmaid. We thought it would be cheaper to keep it in the family.”
His eyes went to Calum.
“Is this your bloke?” Charlie asked Ellie.
Walking over, he shook Calum’s hand.
“Welcome. Now, let me tell you as a brother how she really is –” he began.
Then a glint came into his eyes.
“Tell me, are you into rally car racing?” he asked innocently.
Shauna turned to Neil.
“I meant to ask,” she said. “Have you decided where we’re going on our honeymoon yet?”
Neil gave her a grin. Shauna sighed.
“Let me guess,” she said. It’s a surprise.”
A month later, Shauna clutched Neil’s arm, and looked only slightly up at the vessel moored on the quayside, which was painted bright red from top to bottom.
“What’s that?” she asked.
“It’s a boat,” he replied.
She shook his arm.
“I can see that! But why that colour – and what are all these funny things sticking out on her superstructure?”
“Scientific stuff.”
She had learned to read humour in that deadpan face and voice.
“Where is it going?”
Neil shrugged.
“Nowhere special. Just down to Antarctica. That’s why it’s red – to stand out against the ice, if she gets stuck. They sometimes do.”
Then a wide grin split his face.
“Six weeks at sea. That’s your honeymoon. It’s a supply ship, as well as a research base.
“I want you to meet the other great love in my life. . . the Southern Ice Continent.
“And between us and it are some of the wildest seas on the planet.”
“It looks so small,” Shauna said apprehensively.
“It’s a lot bigger than the Whitby collier that James Cook used to map the southern continent of Antarctica for the Royal Geographic Society.
“Then to map New Zealand here, in the passing, on his way home. Like you did, in these old days.”
Shauna stared at the vessel, far from reassured.
It was already moving gently in the harbour in response to the surging of the waves outside.
“I don’t know if I’m a good sailor,” Shauna said.
Neil gathered her gently into his arms.
“There’s one way to find out,” he said.
“Antarctica has some of the most beautiful setting suns you’ll ever see. I want us to share that.”
Looking up into that weather-beaten face and its sparkling eyes, Shauna knew for sure that this would be the pattern of her future.
She’d be doing things she had never dreamed of before: globetrotting between her business and wherever in the world his research work might take him.
She reached up to kiss him.
“All right, then,” she said. “Let’s go for it together.”