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Minella was often with him he took pride in coaching her so that she was able to take part in dinghy racing at a very early age. Her mother was delighted, not by her daughter’s achievement, but because she became so absorbed in sailing she was hardly ever at home. As soon as school was out she was down at the harbour, and at weekends she was too occupied with boats to bother about doing homework, until her teachers complained and Greg scolded her. Her mother didn’t even bother to look at her report.
    Without Greg her childhood might not have been so happy. Patricia Farmer was not the maternal type and Minella had been a mistake, but with her husband’s help it might have been fun bringing up a daughter. When he died soon after the baby’s birth she was heartbroken, and acted as if Minella was to blame. Patricia rejected her. And Greg, who was then ten years old, found himself having to stay in and look after his tiny sister more and more often. He accepted the situation stoically. Aware that his mother was making new friends and didn’t want to be bothered with the baby, he took responsibility for Minella, and it was to him she turned for much of her love and affection.
    Patricia Farmer was a frivolous woman in many ways, but she had a good head for business, and with the help of one of her new friends she opened an antique shop. She dressed impeccably, and as Minella grew older and showed signs of becoming a very attractive girl, she enjoyed buying her expensive clothes. It was as if she was dressing a doll. What she couldn’t give her in the way of love she tried to make up for with money, but Minella never had any illusions. She was a nuisance to her mother. Greg was nearly old enough to be off her hands, but she was saddled with Minella for many years yet.
    But though Patricia had little time for her daughter, the ties with her son grew stronger, and soon after leaving college she had drawn him into the antiques business. She resented it when he was at the sailing club, and involved him in discussions about hallmarks and glazing until he was as enthusiastic about antiques as she had intended him to be. Minella watched him growing stuffier and less fun to be with, too much in his mother’s company, and she worried about him. Some instinct beyond her years warned her that her mother was using him to compensate for her own loneliness, yet she refused to turn to Minella who needed her love so badly.
    She was fifteen when she met Annette Moran. Annette joined the staff of Minella’s school when she was in the fourth year, and they were drawn together by recognition of a loneliness each thought was well hidden. Minella was happy at school, but she had never encouraged close friendships, as the older girl discovered when both sought the same retreat on several consecutive dinner hours. They began to talk and found they shared mutual interests, sailing among them, and it was not long before Minella invited her to the sailing club. Friendship grew between them in spite of the difference in their ages, and she liked Annette more than any girl she had ever met. More than anything she wanted her to meet her brother.
    ‘You’ll like Greg,’ she had said. ‘He’s the most wonderful brother in all the world.’
    ‘I’m sure he is,’ said Annette.
    But she was in no hurry to meet him, and it was soon obvious she was putting forward every excuse to avoid it. Minella was hurt, but on one rare occasion when they were talking of personal things Annette spoke of her past.
    ‘I don’t trust men any more. The one I was going to marry ran out on me, and I’d loved him more than anyone on earth. We’d made such marvellous plans for the future, but everything changed when he was injured and lost his job. It made no difference to the way I felt, but he was very bitter and he didn’t want me any more. I was ready to give up everything for him, but he went off without a word and I’ve never heard from him again. It was so