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There was a brief silence

‘It is late,’ he conceded ‘I was hoping to get up here earlier, but we had a bit of an incident downstairs in the kitchens, and a few of us got called to sort it out’

‘Thank you, anyway,’ she said ‘I hope you enjoy the rest of your evening’ There was a lus, and he stood up to let her pass

‘Don’t go,’ said Margaret

Frances spun round

‘Go on For God’s sake, woht and now the least you can do is have a turn round the dance floor Let aret, I’o on, Frances There’s no point in both of us being wallflowers Shake a leg, as our dear friend would have said One for Jean’

She looked back at him, then at the crowded deck, the endless whirl of white and colour, unsure whether she was fearful of entering the throng or of being so close to him

‘Get on with it, woman’

He was still beside her ‘A quick one?’ he said, holding out his ar herself to speak, she took it

She wouldn’t think tonight about the i so told herself it was unsafe to feel About the fact that there would inevitably be a painful consequence She just closed her eyes, lay back on her bunk, and allowed herself to sink into those moments she had stored deep inside: the four dances in which he had held her, one hand clasping hers, the other resting on her waist; of how, during the last, even as he kept himself, correctly, several inches froainst her bare neck

Of how he had looked at her when he let go Had there been reluctance in the way his hand had separated slowly froine there had been? Was there not a strange emphasis on the way he’d lowered his head to hers and said, so quietly, ‘Thank you’?

What she felt for him shocked and shamed her Yet the discovery of her capacity to feel as she dide rip of some seaborne virus She had never felt so feverish, so incapable of efficiently gathering her thoughts She bit down on her hand, trying to stop the bubble of hysteria rising in her chest and threatening to explode into God only knehat She forced herself to breathe deeply, tried to restore the inner calm that had provided solace in the last six years

It was just a dance ‘A dance,’ she whispered to herself, pulling the sheet over her head Why can’t you be grateful for that?

She heard footsteps, thento thesubstitute with red hair and sleepy eyes She lay, only half listening, wondering if it was tie Then she sat up

It was hi that she was notin her chest She thought of Jean and grew cold Perhaps she had been so blinded by her own attraction to him that she had not seen as before her

She placed her ear to the door

‘What do you think?’ he was saying

‘It’s been a good hour,’ the other ot a choice’

‘I don’t like it,’ he said ‘I don’t like doing it at all’

She stepped back from the door, and as she did, the handle turned and it opened quietly His face slid round it, an echo of its earlier self, and he had caught her there, shocked and pale in the illuhts

‘I heard voices,’ she said, conscious of her state of undress She grappled behind her for her wrap, and flung it on, tying it tightly around her

‘I’ent, ‘but there’s been an accident downstairs I ondering--Look, we need your help’

The dance had ended in several unofficial gatherings in various parts of the ship One had eine roo one of the ays that flanked the ine The accounts he’d had so far were unclear, but they had fallen into the pit that contained the engine The man was unconscious; the bride had a nasty cut on her face

‘We can’t call the ship’s doctor for obvious reasons But we need to get thees’ He hesitated ‘We thoughtI thought you ht help’

She wrapped her aro down there You’ll have to get someone else’

‘I’ll be there I’ll stay with you’

‘It’s not that’