Page 18 of Gideon
“Well, we’ll let your natural arrogance light the way forward,” he says somewhat snippily.
I wheel him into the waiting lift and hum happily as the door closes and it goes up.
He shoots me a glare. “Are you doing that on purpose?”
“What?”
He gestures. “Being all cheerful and stuff.”
“It’s my natural state of being,” I say solemnly, enjoying the way he hides a smile.
I’m coming to know him a little. Gideon is bored. He’s surrounded by people who do as he says. He needs clapback to keep him entertained. I’ve heard him being described in the press as a complete bastard, but I’ve had the real thing as patients in the past. Gideon isn’t a bastard. He’s clever and quick-witted and bored.
Once we’re outside, I lift my face to the breeze and inhale. “What are you doing?” he asks curiously.
“I love mornings at sea. The sunshine and the sea wind. Makes everything fresh like the world’s been through the washer overnight.”
I flush slightly as I open my eyes and find him staring at me, but he nods. “That’s a nice way to look at it,” he says somewhat grudgingly.
I bite my lip and push him quickly towards the back of the small crowd that has gathered around the staff member a few feet away who is talking earnestly about lifeboats and lifejackets. I park the wheelchair and push the brake down next to an old lady in a wheelchair. She’s staring at the steward doing the talk with a slightly jaundiced air while a young man who’s obviously her nurse leans on the back of the wheelchair and gazes around.
When we come up next to them he shoots me a quick glance and then stands up straight. At first I think he’s recognised Gideon and my heart sinks, but then I notice the way he’s looking at me like I’m breakfast.
“Hello,” he says breathily. “I haven’t seen you before.”
Gideon snorts, but when I look down, he’s facing forward and my old baseball cap is hiding his distinctive features.
“We just got in last night,” I mumble, and the steward doing the talk sighs loudly.
“For the benefit of those who have just joined us, I’ll go through that bit again. In the very unlikely occasion of the ship running into trouble, these lifeboats here will be yours. You will assemble here ready for us to disembark in an orderly fashion.”
The old people around us nod eagerly, apart from the lady next to Gideon who sighs loudly as if she’s dying of boredom. Dressed in pink trousers and a bright pink and blue kaftan and with her white hair coiled in a bun, she looks flamboyantly expensive. Like a flamingo.
“But darling, that’s just not true,” she drawls in a cut-glass accent. “If we get in a lifeboat and the ship goes down, it’s highly likely that the lifeboats will all be sucked down with it in the vortex that it creates.”
Several old ladies shriek and the group’s noise level rings with worry as everyone turns back to shout questions at the steward, who immediately looks rather hunted. Everyone apart from Gideon. I sigh as he looks in fascination at the old lady as if he’s found his soulmate.
“What an interesting perspective,” he says happily.
“It’s the truth,” she says, waving her arms about cavalierly. “It’s just designed to keep the surface appearances of normality working. Underneath is just chaos and death.” I stare at her open-mouthed as she rummages in her bag and produces a hip flask. “Drink, darling?” she says brightly.
Gideon opens his mouth but I lean forward into her vision. “No, he won’t, thank you,” I say politely. “He’s on medication.”
“I’m sure it won’t hurt,” Gideon says, eyeing the hip flask like it’s made of gold.
“I’m sure it will,” I say firmly. I grin at the old lady. “It was a nice gesture.”
“Oh, you’re Welsh,” she says happily, her voice carrying in that way that very posh people have. “I had a Welsh man once. Divine man,” she says thoughtfully. “But he had an absolutely humungous penis. Far too big. Like he got his own ration and another couple of people’s too.”
The sharp intake of breath from everyone around is drowned out by Gideon’s laughter. “I need to discuss this further,” he says happily and she grins.
They start to talk and her nurse nudges closer to me. “I’m Oliver,” he says throatily. I smile and introduce myself. He’s a very pretty man. Small and slender, with tanned skin and dark hair that’s been brushed until it lies sleekly against his skull. However, there’s something off-puttingly perfect looking about him compared to my own scruffiness. “She’s quite batty,” he says, looking over at his patient. “But not really any trouble.” He looks at her hip flask. “Yet,” he finishes somewhat doubtfully.
I laugh and he edges closer. “It’s nice to see someone my own age on here. I thought the trip was going to be very boring.” He shrugs, running his eyes over my crotch so thoroughly that I feel like cupping my groin to protect it. “We’ll have to get together and have a drink sometime.”
“Maybe,” I say noncommittally. “It’ll depend on my patient, of course.”
“Of course,” he echoes with no conviction at all. He looks idly at Gideon and then stands bolt upright as if he’s been shocked. “That’s Gideon Ramsay,” he whispers.
