And then the tour came to an end, and Ludmilla spent a few minutes chatting informally to people and answering questions. We had a quick whip round for a tip for her, which she accepted with a sweet smile.
‘I think I need a drink after all that marauding,’ Don said, fanning his face with his hat. ‘Takes it out of a chap.’
‘Good idea,’ Craig said. ‘What do you think, girls?’
Dawn had evidently not forgiven her husband and she spoke in frosty tones.
‘You go ahead; I am going to contemplate what it would be like to live here and be a nun. Do you think they would let me bring Pookie? Are nuns allowed to have pets?’
Craig snorted with laughter. ‘Well, you’re definitely not going without him; that dog has chewed up more than his fair share of my shoes. I think his squeaky dinosaur would disturb your contemplation so you’d better leave that behind.’
‘I sometimes think my mother was right about you. Come on, Belinda, I need a drink of water,’ she said irritably.
‘I was hoping for a glass of wine,’ Belinda murmured.
‘On your liver be it,’ Dawn murmured.
‘Do you want me to go back to the convent, Dawn, and ask for an entry form for you to fill in?’ Craig shouted as she left.
‘You never know, there might be a bogof offer.’ Don chuckled. ‘Buy one get one free, two for the price of one. What do you say, Belinda?’
Belinda fixed her husband with a basilisk stare and Don snorted with laughter.
‘That’s a no then? I’m going to suffer for this later, you mark my words.’
‘Look, Dawnie-pops,’ Craig said in a conciliatory tone, ‘can I ask a stupid question?’
‘Go ahead, you’re more than qualified,’ Dawn replied, and as she walked away, she made a surprisingly rude gesture.
* * *
Marjorie decided to go back to the ship to change her shoes and have a little rest. Evelyn said she was fine to carry on but wanted some lunch first so she went with her friend to see what the on-board buffet had to offer.
Don and Craig tried to persuade us that we should seek out some lunch together, because Belinda and Dawn had stalked off to the nearest café without them and could be seen sitting with large glasses of wine and water respectively and rigid backs that spoke of their annoyance.
‘I think we’ll join the ladies on the boat actually,’ Anna said.
‘We were going to do that thing, weren’t we?’ Harriet said.
‘We were,’ Anna agreed. ‘Come on, we don’t want to be late.’
The two of them hurried away in the direction of the quayside, pointedly leaving me behind.
Jack caught my arm as I hesitated.
‘There’s supposed to be a marvellous viewing spot over there. Shall we go and find it and then we could find the nun’s shop? Or buy some of this famous cake?’
‘I’d love to,’ I said, relieved.
Spending an hour listening to Dawn cross-examining the waiter about harmful ingredients on the menu wasn’t my idea of a good way to spend the day.
We walked back up the stone stairs to the upper street and carried on until we found the viewing place we had been told about. A fabulous area, sheltered by trees and overlooking the sea. Beyond was an area which was more thickly wooded, with proper pathways and convenient benches. There were families there, a small boy on a tricycle, who was enjoying himself immensely whizzing about between his parents.
Eventually we sat down on an empty bench and looked at the view.
‘This is glorious, isn’t it?’ he said. ‘Exactly what I hoped it would be like. I’ve been to a lot of places over the last year which have failed to live up to their promise, but this isn’t one of them. I could almost see myself living here.’
I laughed. ‘It’s funny, Harriet said the same thing about Susak, Cres and Mali Lošinj. I think she has been googling house prices already. And checking up on the standard of health care.’
