Page 34 of Beg, Borrow or Steal
The day had started badly but over the course of the morning things had gradually improved. It helped that Rosie was so excited about the speedboat, about Beauty being on the speedboat, about their speed as they flew across the water, even about the soggy sandwiches Amy produced from the picnic cooler. It was hard to stay angry around that kind of absolute happiness and genuine joy.
Libby took the towel from Jamie and used it to wipe off her face and hair. Droplets of water still clung to her long eyelashes despite these efforts, and Jamie couldn’t help watching in fascination as they dripped onto her high cheekbones. Once they’d powered over to Osbourne Bay off the Isle of Wight, it had taken a fair amount of convincing to get Libby out on the wakeboard. She’d watched Dan and Jamie first and eventually agreed to try it. After a couple of epic wipeouts she’d managed to stand up, and this was the third long run she’d managed. Her coordination was outstanding and Jamie was reminded of her flips from table to table and bench to bench at the club, and her gravity-defying chair antics. That kind of natural ability had to come from some sort of high-level sport requiring a lot of balance work. Seeing her enjoy something so much was incredible. But despite this he was now somewhat regretting the offer.
As he pulled another towel from the hull and wrapped Libby firmly inside it, making her more burrito than person, Baby Rufus started crying again. It had become clear over the last two hours that Baby Rufus was not a sea-faring baby. He seemed to regard the boat as some sort of terrifying, unnatural, and definitely hostile entity. Most of his time had been spent either in wide-eyed terror or yelling at the top of his lungs. Every so often he shot his parents looks of heartbreaking betrayal that they would be cruel enough to put him through this kind of torture. By now he had gone way past his normal nap time, but the adrenaline of the experience was keeping him awake.
‘I don’t understand,’ Amy said, trying to be heard above the screams as she held Baby Rufus to her chest. ‘He loved it last time.’
‘He was six weeks old last time Aimes, and strapped to your chest the whole journey,’ Jamie told her. ‘The only thing he’d have registered was the motion of the boat and the fact that he spent a good few hours communing with your boobs – which at that age is about the best place a boy can be.’
Amy scowled at him. ‘I’ll have you know Rufus is averyadvanced baby. He knew exactly what was going on last time. Something must have spooked him.’ She sighed and Rufus let out another scream. ‘Maybe we’d better go back.’
‘Can I …’ Libby hesitated as she glanced at Dan and then back to Amy. ‘Can I try something?’ she held out her arms. Amy stared at Rufus’s angry little face and shrugged.
‘Go for it,’ she said, passing the baby over to Libby, who to Jamie’s annoyance allowed the towel burrito to fall to her lap so she could take him. Baby Rufus and Libby stared at each other for a long moment as she held him up in front of her. He took a deep breath in, no doubt preparing another blood-curdling scream, when Libby blew on his face. Rufus blinked and then frowned at the stranger in front of him capable of such magic. She blew again and the blink she elicited this time was even longer. Whilst Baby Rufus was distracted, she rearranged him so that he was lying along her legs on the towel, and picked up Amy’s filmy scarf from the floor. Baby Rufus looked left and right, his face screwing up in anger, but then froze as the scarf was fanned out and pulled gently over his face. He blinked again and frowned but before he had time to scream the manoeuvre was repeated. After about ten face swipes his eyes were mostly closed and after twenty his whole body had relaxed into sleep.
‘That is some trick,’ Dan said into the stunned silence of the boat.
Libby shrugged. ‘I used to do some child-minding when I was saving up money for medical school. It was a great way of being with Rosie but still earning during the day. That technique helped me out a few times.’
‘Nothing I do seems to work when he gets like that,’ Amy said, and for the first time Libby could detect a trace of sadness in her words. Amy’s shoulders were hunched defensively and she was looking down into the bottom of the boat. She sniffed and cleared her throat, forcing a fake smile. ‘Not much of a mother, am I? If I can’t even comfort my own child.’
Libby frowned. ‘But … babies cry,’ she said matter-of-factly. ‘They cry all the time. It’s the only way they get any exercise in their little lives. As long as you’ve fed them, they’re clean and they have cuddles there’s not much more you can do. Rosie cried non-stop. Admittedly some babies cry less than others, and you might have gotten lucky with Seb, but most of them spend a large amount of their day screaming bloody murder. Believe me I’ve looked after enough of them to know.’
Amy’s mouth had dropped open and she was staring at Libby as if she’d imparted some vitally important, mysterious piece of knowledge, rather than just a simple fact. ‘Babies cry,’ Amy muttered under her breath, a slow smile spreading across her face.
‘Yes,’ Libby told her slowly, obviously still confused as to why this was such a surprise to Amy. ‘Yes, they do.Allthe time.’
‘Do you want me to take him?’ Amy asked, reaching over to the sleeping Baby Rufus.
‘No way,’ Libby told her, leaning back in the boat, arranging a dry towel over her and splaying Baby Rufus across her chest. ‘They’re yummy when they’re all sleepy and floppy like this. You go wakeboard or something. I’ll get my baby cuddles in.’
‘Mummylovesbabies,’ Rosie said from the bottom of the boat, where she and Seb were draped over Beauty. ‘She wants to make them better and look after them all day. She’s gonna be a paedi-electrician.’
‘Paediatrician, Little Louse,’ Libby said gently, and Rosie scowled up at her.
‘Ugh, Mummy, that’s what I said – paedi-a-giction.’
‘Well, I think your mummy will make a fab paedi-a-giction, sweetpea,’ Amy told her, and winked at Libby whilst she hurried to get changed to go on the water.
*****
In the end they spent the whole day out on the boat. Libby didn’t push to be taken back after the two hours was up. She was still very wary around Dan, but then again he didn’t seem to be anyone’s favourite person that day; his wife barely looked at him, and Will (who Jamie realized after the first hour and a couple ofGame of Thrones-slash-Star Warsconversations with Libby, was totally besotted with her) had noticed something amiss and was, it seemed, very much on Libby’s side.
Jamie was beginning to realize that Rosie didn’t miss a trick, and halfway through the day she had gone to stand next to Dan who was still in the driver’s seat and tapped him on the shoulder.
‘Why have you got your grumpy knickers on?’ she asked, tilting her head to the side, then putting her small hands on either side of his mouth and pulling his lips up into a smile. ‘There, much better.’
‘Yes, darling,’ called Amy, ‘whyhaveyou got your grumpy knickers on?’
‘Boys don’t wear knickers, Mummy,’ shouted Seb.
‘Your daddy does,’ said Rosie, who had moved on to kneading Dan’s cheeks like she did with Jamie. ‘Grumpy ones. All my crew have got to be wearing their happy knickers – isn’t that right Mummy?’
‘Uh … Rosie,’ Libby said in a warning tone, ‘why don’t you leave Mr Grantham alone.’
‘Please, Libby, please call me Dan – and it’s fine,’ said Dan through smushed-together lips courtesy of Rosie. ‘I’m happy to be your crew, Captain Rosie. In fact why don’t you steer for a while?’ Rosie released his face and squealed so loud that Jamie was surprised the windshield didn’t shatter.
‘Hurrah!’ she shouted, her hands straight up in the air and her head tilting back dramatically. Dan’s face broke into his first real smile of the day. He sat her on his lap and they experienced speedboat-driving Rosie-style, which consisted of multiple jerky turns and at one point a rather too close encounter with a small ferry.
