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‘Permission to board, Cap’n?’

The voice sent Cassie racing up into the cockpit. It was her dad Callum, back from his extended holiday revisiting the Raven clan in Northern Ireland. ‘I’ve missed you,’ she murmured, holding his hug longer than usual, which left him blinking with surprised pleasure.

‘And who’s this?’ she asked, wrinkling her brow. Knowing of course that the little girl he’d helped up on board, now standing shyly half behind his legs, was Orla, her five-year-old cousin who he’d brought back for a short stay in London.

‘I’ve got no idea,’ said Callum with a shrug and a little wink. ‘She followed me here.’

Orla batted him on the leg, protesting, ‘Ah, Uncle Callum, you’re a case ’ – her accent straight out of the Falls Road. Cassie bent to give her a hug and, looking down on her dark curls, felt a giant hand reach up under her ribs to squeeze her heart.

Orla got over her shyness in a heartbeat and she was soon surveying Cassie’s cabin like a miniature estate agent. ‘I like the look you’ve got going on here,’ she said judiciously. ‘It’s cosy but not cluttered. Though these wee curtains could do with refreshing.’

Cassie exchanged a look with Callum, his lips pressed tight, his shoulders doing the silent laughter thing.

Going into Cassie’s room, Orla threw herself down on the bed which butted right up to the hull. ‘You can hear the water !’ – her eyes and mouth wide with amazement. ‘Oh, Cousin Cassie, can I sleep over? Pretty please? I’ll be no trouble.’

‘No sleepover.’ Cassie spoke firmly. ‘But you can come over one afternoon and we’ll have a picnic up on deck. How does that sound?’

Orla screwed up her face and Cassie was braced for a tantrum or tears, but the next moment her expression cleared and she gave a judicious nod. ‘Picnic on deck. It’s a deal.’

Then her eyes widened. ‘Oooh!’ She’d just spotted Macavity entering the cabin. Seeing the creature bearing down on him the cat’s eyes flew wide open too. A split second later he was just a tail-tip disappearing through the cat flap.

‘When you come for the picnic you can feed him,’ Cassie told her. ‘Then he’ll be your best pal forever.’

Then came the sound of another voice from the towpath: well spoken and sounding borderline irritated. ‘Hello? Anyone at home?’

Flyte.

Cassie did the introductions, feeling awkward: she’d never had this many people on the boat at one time and she didn’t want to explain who Flyte was – or what she was doing here.

But Callum could be surprisingly sensitive to vibes. ‘Come on, missis,’ he told Orla. ‘You’re the one who wanted to go to Camden Market.’

After Flyte’s arrival she’d gone all shy again and followed Callum meekly out of the cabin.

But in the cockpit, when Cassie bent down to give her a goodbye kiss, Orla hissed in a penetrating whisper: ‘Is that your girlfriend? She’s drop-dead gorgeous .’

Callum said, ‘Hey! Wind your neck in young lady!’ – mouthing a sorry at Cassie, he lifted Orla down on to the towpath.

But her comment left a wry smile on Cassie’s face.

Out of the mouths .?.?.