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‘Permission to join you?’ Sebastian came to a halt beside him, looking out over the park.
‘You don’t have to ask. You outrank me.’
‘But you were here first. I don’t want to intrude.’ He paused, but there was no answer. ‘You know, I used to come and climb here with my friend James when we were boys. The park attendants used to yell and chase us.’
‘He’s not coming back, is he?’
Sebastian turned his head. It was obvious the boy wasn’t talking about James. ‘I don’t know.’
‘Michael’s right. He doesn’t want us any more.’
‘It’s not as simple as that.’
‘Why not?’
Sebastian rubbed a hand over his chin, trying to think of a way to explain. ‘You know, in the navy each man is given a single tot of rum a day. Just one, mind, so that they don’t fall off the rigging.’
Peter looked at him strangely. ‘What does that have to do with Papa?’
‘Nothing directly. I suppose what I’m trying to say is that too much drink is dangerous. It makes men forgetful and encourages them to take risks, but sometimes, when a man wants to forget something, it can be a means of escape, too. Then he can come to prefer that feeling to real life. It becomes an illness and he doesn’t know how to stop drinking.’
‘So, Papa is sick?’
‘I think so, but I know that he hasn’t left because of you. It’s more likely because he loves you and he doesn’t want you to see him the way he is now. Sometimes people need to go away in order to get better. And he made sure to leave you in good hands, didn’t he?’
‘Aunt Henrietta needs to run the shop. I heard her and Nancy talking. She doesn’t know how she’s going to manage.’
‘But she will.’ Sebastian glanced over his shoulder to where Henrietta was now holding a crying child in each arm. ‘I haven’t known your aunt long, but if there’s one thing I’m certain of it’s that she won’t let you down.’
Peter looked pensive for a moment. ‘Are you going to marry her?’
‘What?’ He let out a startled cough. Suddenly the solid ground beneath his feet felt ten times more precarious than the branches he’d just been swinging from.
‘Is that why you’re helping Aunt Henrietta to take care of us?’
‘No-o.’ He cleared his throat. ‘We’re friends, that’s all.’
‘But you won’t leave, too?’
Sebastian tensed. Staying beyond the end of the week wasn’t what he’d intended, but something about Peter’s anguished expression at that moment reached inside him and pulled at his heart strings... He’d seen that look on other boys’ faces before, but at least this time he could do something about it.
He put a hand on his shoulder and squeezed. ‘I’ll stay for as long as your aunt needs me. How about that?’
‘Thank you.’ Peter nodded stiffly.
‘Now, do you know what we need?’
‘No.’
‘A cricket bat. You need to vent those feelings.’
‘We don’t have a cricket bat.’
‘But we do have branches and pine cones.’ He looked around, searching the ground for suitable candidates. ‘That’s another trick you learn in the navy. Improvisation.’
And that, Sebastian realised, was that. He’d just made a promise to a ten-year-old boy that he wasn’t going anywhere. Oddly enough, he couldn’t even bring himself to regret it.
Chapter Ten
