November-Charlie by Clare Revell Read Free Book Online

everything so much easier. “Do you want some help getting tea?”
    “No, but you lot can wash up afterwards.”
    Lou looked at Staci, needing to fill her in and quickly. “Stace, let’s leave Jim to lay the table. I want to show you something in the bedroom.”
    Shutting the bedroom door, she turned to her friend. “How about we stow away?” she suggested.
    Staci’s eyes grew wide. “Go on the boat with Jim?”
    “Yeah. He can’t go alone, it’s too dangerous, and we’ll never have another chance like this. And I know you don’t want to be left behind any more than I do.”
    “No I don’t, but how do we do it?”
    “Easy,” Lou said without thinking it through. “We leave when he does. Walk Deefer to the boat yard with him and sneak on board when he goes to see Matt. We’ll just hide until he’s left.”
    “What about our stuff?”
    “I put a bag on the boat yesterday with some of my stuff in. We’ll take a rucksack each when we go for the walk. And you have clothes on the boat already, don’t you?”
    Staci nodded. “Mum always keeps some on there. And if he asks why we’re taking rucksacks for a walk?”
    “Then we tell him its girls stuff and to mind his own.”
    Staci smiled properly for the first time in days and then hugged Lou. “Thank you.”
    Just before seven fifteen, Lou’s mother stuck her head in the bedroom.
    “I’m leaving.”
    “OK.”
    Mum nodded. “I’m sorry I have to work. I should be back before you leave for school, Lou. Make sure everything is locked up before you turn in.”
    “Will do.” Lou hugged her mother. “”Bye, Mum.”
    “Night, love. See you in the morning.”
    She looked at Jim. “Hope work goes OK.” Mum gave him a long hug. “Will you be here over the weekend?”
    “If that’s OK.”
    “Of course it is.” Mum hurried off to her car, leaving Lou to consider for the first time if she should leave her Mum alone. She hadn’t stopped pondering when Jim tapped her on the shoulder.
    “I should go, too. I’m spending the night in the boat yard and sailing first thing tomorrow morning.”
    Lou looked at him. “You’re what?”
    “I already said I can’t leave until morning because of the boat yard rules. So sleeping there is the only option. Besides, I’m meant to be living at Matt’s.”
    She caught her breath. Now how would she and Staci hide on the boat overnight? There was no way could she keep Deefer hidden and quiet that long. “But...”
    “But what?”
    Lou caught Staci’s desperate look and knew she was thinking the same thing. “But what if something goes wrong?”
    “Listen, I have forty minutes or so to get there before the yard closes. I’ll leave in the morning. It’s an hour and a half to two hours to the docks because of the speed limit on the river. Passport control may be tricky, but I’ve got the logbook ready, passport is packed and nothing is going to go wrong.”
    Lou scowled. Trust him to ruin everything. “Really? You’re planning on leaving the country in someone else’s boat and nothing’s going to go wrong? Maybe you do live in cloud cuckoo land after all.”
    Jim sighed. “Actually, Avon is mine now. I filed the change of ownership papers on Wednesday. No registry would mean customs wouldn’t let me leave the country. Trust me. Not going through the official channels will arouse a lot more suspicion and attention than if I do everything by the book.”
    “OK. Can we at least come with you? Deefer needs a walk anyway.”
    “Fine, the two of you can go around the block, but we have to go now if I’m going to get there before the yard gets locked up at half eight. Matt’ll wait until quarter to nine. It’s almost half seven now, we have to hurry.”
    “Give me three minutes to grab a jacket and pack and I’ll be there.”
    “Pack? I told you, you’re not coming.”
    “You made that perfectly clear, but we want to take packs because it’s Sunday. And if you don’t let us, then I’ll tell