The following morning Rick took Alex to Aunt Beatrice’s whilst the others carried on preparing for the trip. They were to catch the ship over to Egypt that afternoon. As soon as Rick came back they set off for the Docks at London where their ship was waiting.
Once at the dock they boarded the ship, Rick and Evy were to share a cabin, as were Josie and Charlie and Jonathan was to have a cabin of his own.
Rick and Evy went to their cabin.
“You don’t think Alex will be too much trouble for Aunt Beatrice, do you?” asked Evy.
“Nah, he’s a good kid,” replied Rick, “she’ll enjoy having him there.”
They put their suitcases away.
“I think Charlie is going to cause a bit of trouble,” Rick said.
“What makes you say that, I thought he seemed to be a nice lad, a bit quiet maybe but, as I said before, he’s shy,” Evy said.
“He seems very distant, I’m worried he might not work in a team properly and that’s important in the desert,” Rick said.
“Oh, Rick, I’m sure he’s just shy,” Evy said, “You’ll see, he’ll be ok once we get to Cairo.”
Further down the corridor, in their cabin Josie and Charlie are also settling in for the journey across. Charlie was in full flow:
“Josie, I’m not trying to tell you to see or not to see, I was just saying he seems a bit old for you. He’s, what, 40-ish, older than Elizabeth anyway,” Elizabeth was their older sister, “What will Father say when he finds out?”
“Oh Charlie, all I said was I liked Jonathan, he’s nice, I enjoy being with him.”
“You’ve spent most of the past day flirting with him. And you probably spend all the journey with him.”
“Well somebody has to be friendly with them, I’m being more sociable than you, sitting there being all distant and serious, they’re nice people, I’m going to enjoy this trip. More than you are anyway.”
“Yes, but I…”
Josie interrupted him mid flow; he was obviously no match for his sister once she had got going, “But nothing, Charlie. You wonder why people find you hard to talk to…” She was interrupted by a knock on their door, it opened and Jonathan poked his head through,
“Every thing ok, I heard raised voices,” he asked.
“Fine, thanks,” Josie smiled at him.
“I’m going up on the deck,” Charlie said, sharply, as he went past Jonathan.
“I didn’t interrupt anything did I?” he asked Josie.
“No, he needed shutting up anyway. He can be so annoying sometimes!”
They looked at each other for a moment, Josie smiled shyly at him and Jonathan smiled back.
“I was wondering whether you’d care to accompany me to dinner tonight, as my partner. That’s is, if you want to, I mean I don’t want to push you into it, I’d understand if you don’t want to,” Jonathan asked her.
“I’d love to,” she replied.
“Good, see you tonight.”
Dinner, that night.
Josie and Jonathan met Rick and Evy at the doors of the ship’s dining room.
“Where’s your brother?” Evy asked Josie.
“Sulking. Never mind about him, he’s never liked sea journeys and he’s an old grumpy gut anyway”
Rick shot Evy a ‘see what I mean’ look.
“Dinner then” said Evy. They walked into the dining room.
The rest of the journey passed quickly. Evy and Rick took the opportunity to spend the time together, without Alex or anyone disturbing them. Josie and Jon also used the journey as an opportunity to get to know each other. Charlie spent most of the time alone, occasionally spending time with his sister. They were glad when the boat docked in Cairo. From there they had to travel to the port at Giza, where they would catch the ferry to take them down the Nile.