For a moment Natalie thought she saw a tear in the corner of his eye.
“Hey,” she said turning to face him, “I’m sorry I didn’t mean to upset you.”
“You haven’t. I didn’t see him often in his last years. My work always got in my way. Journalism does that to family life. I spent some years as a war correspondent in the middle east.”
“Wow. Did you see much fighting?”
Dennis undid his right shirt sleeve and rolled it up to reveal his elbow. A large surgical scar ran from his triceps to the start of his forearm. She gently touched the skin.
“Ouch!”
“Car bomb in Jerusalem ripped my arm open. I lost a lot of blood but I was lucky….”
“Lucky?”
“Yes. My cameraman was killed in the attack. He inadvertently shielded me from the blast.”
“That’s terrible.”
“Like I said,” Dennis pulled the sleeve down and buttoned it up the wrist, “I was lucky.”
“When did that happen?”
“Three years ago. Eight were killed in the blast. Fourteen more wounded.”
“I think I remember seeing it on the news.”
“After that I decided to get out. I convalesced back in England. When I fully recovered I achieved an ambition I’d had for a long time. My editor in London arranged for me to train with British special forces for a book we published together. I had a great four weeks with those men. I wasn’t allowed to reveal names for obvious reasons. Four weeks in winter in Wales. They were the toughest men I’ve ever met.”
“It sounds like you had fun.”
“It was incredible. You sometimes had no food and you were told to go and find it.”
“Like a McDonalds you mean,” she said laughing.
Dennis chuckled with her.
“No. What they called real food.”
“Like deer or rabbit.”
“Yes and worse. Sometimes you had to turn over stones.”
She looked at him in disgust now.
“Are you serious?”
“Yep,” he said, “Worms.”
She put her hand over her mouth.
“Worm omelettes,” he said.
“Oh shut up! You’re making me feel sick!”
Then a thought crossed her mind and she very nearly was sick.
’Oh God! I’ve just kissed him’
She had to stop herself from vomiting. When she could take her hand away she fanned her face with it.
“Seriously please, shut up! It’s disgusting!”
“Not if you want to survive it’s not.”
“Really it is. I couldn’t bring myself to do it.”
“Oh it wasn’t that bad. I must admit I’ve seen them wriggling about since and probably couldn’t do it again. But when you’re surrounded by tough, fighting, men who are laughing at you for hesitating, well….” He threw his arms out to the sides, “You’ve just got to do it. Still one thing they did do was teach me to fire every weapon they had. Turns out I’m quite a good shot too.”
“George would keep a gun if I let him.”
“I take it you don’t approve.”
“There is no need for them.”
“Boys and their toys huh!”
“Yes. But as far as my work goes there is no use for them. Some of the sites I’ve worked on in Egypt have had armed guards but never near the archaeologists themselves.”
“They must be man’s worst invention right.”
“No that would be cigarettes.”
“Ah I thought I saw disapproval when George was smoking near you.”
“To be honest I hate it. But most men in the Mediterranean world smoke and to be honest I can’t make personal choices for him. He knows I don’t like it and he does stay away from me when he smokes.”
“You’re his boss, surely you could forbid him.”
“Sorry I don’t believe I have the right.”
“My grandfather used to smoke but of course most if not all soldiers during the second world war did. They didn’t have much else in the way of luxuries. It would be almost another forty years before he would give up.”
“What did he die of? Sorry if that’s not personal. Well it is….I….Sorry,” Natalie fell silent, embarrassed.
“Many things, Emphysemia, Angina, taking a bullet through his shoulder probably didn’t help bless him. They said at the time that his lungs weren’t injured but he suffered with his breathing in old age. Did I mention he was ninety when he died….”
She shook her head.
“….And just old age. He worked hard all his life to provide for his wife and four children and many grandchildren. I am the second oldest. There are ten of us and now five great grandchildren,” Dennis paused for a moment staring out to sea, “I only hope we make him proud,” he continued looking up at the heavens, “Because we are so proud of him.”
They both sensed Hutchinson returning.
“We’ve got our port clearances,” he said handing back their passports. Natalie opened hers at the photo page, looked again as she recognised Dennis in the picture and offered it to him.
“I think this may be yours,” she said.
He checked the one he was holding.
“My hair has never been that long,” he said giving her hers.
“Are we leaving Tunisian waters Jim?”
“No Peter it’s just routine that they check all on board have current passports. Everything is in order. Everyone to me please.”
They gathered in a circle around him, Natalie, Peter Dennis, George, Jack, Tom and Alex the Frenchman. The driver of the people carrier presented a clipboard which Hutchinson signed and returned. The driver thanked him and placed it on the front passenger seat. He opened all the doors and began unloading all the luggage and placing it on the quayside. The driver of the other hired vehicle did the same. The two vehicles left.
“If you’d like to collect your belongings and follow me to the ship. If you have any queries crew members are on hand to help.”
Hutchinson set off at a brisk pace. The others throwing bags over shoulders and wheeling cases behind him. Once on board they were shown to their cabins by the crew. Natalie was given a cabin all to herself. Dennis rapped his fingers on her door.
“Hello,” she said.
He poked his head into the room.
“Hi just thought I’d check to see if you’re ok.”
“Yes I’m fine thank you. You can come in.”
He entered the cabin. It was bigger than his, which was just down the corridor. He looked out of the port hole window. The water was ten feet below. A tug boat was maneuvering into position.
“It looks like we are leaving straight away.”
Natalie had just placed her holdall on the mattress of the bottom bunk.
“Well Jim never likes to waste time.”
“That’s what I came to see you for. Jim has asked that we be on deck near the crane at 11am. He wants you to go over the equipment and give the safety talk.”
She looked at her watch.
“An hour and fifteen minutes.”
Dennis sat down on a small stool.
“Do you mind,” she said, “I’m waiting to unpack my things.”
“Don’t mind me,” he said not taking the hint.
“Most of it is my underwear,” she said opening a small drawer in the bedside table.
He jumped to his feet.
“I’m sorry.”
The ship lurched sideways as the tug boat pulled it away from the dock causing her to stumble into Dennis’ arms as he caught her. The closeness of the embrace felt good to them both.
“What was that?” she asked.
“I guess we’re leaving port,” he replied.
She felt that she should pull away from him. She’d hugged men before of course in relationships but somehow this felt different to her. Kind of exciting. Suddenly he was kissing her hard, pulling her towards him, still holding her arms. She responded, the tip of her tongue touching his teeth. The kiss went on and on and she pulled his shirt out of his trousers and ran her hands up and over his chest. She felt his nipples harden under her touch. Her own felt very hard. He unbuttoned the shirt and shook it off. She pulled away from the kiss to admire his muscled torso.