THe promise

Lucy almost dropped an open packet of Kellogg's Rice Krispies by surprise. After hearing a solid thunk and a male voice uttering a crisp swear word in response.

The door at the bottom of the stairs opened into the compact kitchen. A handsome young blond man appeared at the bottom step rubbing a sore spot on his sun-kissed forehead.

She smiled warmly at her husband and stepped forward, kissing him lightly on his cheek. “Forgot the low beam halfway down the stairs again — Huh?” Lucy struggled to avoid smirking. Adam unconsciously raised his hand and again began rubbing the point of impact. Futilely hoping for a little more sympathy, then rapidly realising she had other things on her mind.

“I can’t wait for the day when we manage to move to another place, Hun'…” He looked thoughtfully into the distance, “I don’t see that happening anytime real soon. Unless I can find a new spot on the sea bed, to drop my lobster pots over.” Adam again seemed to be staring blankly somewhere into the distance.

Lucy took his hand, squeezing it affectionately. “I was talking to ‘Old Jack’ yesterday afternoon, and he said that you had mentioned it to his younger brother Ted. He reckoned that you were thinking about heading closer towards France.” She looked worriedly into his steel-blue eyes.

Adam quickly changed the conversation. Now feeling concerned, after noticing that she had shuddered slightly coping with the subject mentioned. “Where is my baby girl this bright and sunny morning?”

Lucy sat down and placed a spoonful of cereal into her mouth. She savoured the crunch before answering. “Your daughter has a name—and in case you have forgotten, it is Angel,” she said teasingly with a twinkle in her eyes.

Adam placed an enormous calloused hand under her chin and towed her gently towards him with his thumb and forefinger against her cheeks. He kissed her gently, ignoring a dribble of cold milk escaping from her lips. “Okay, I’ll ask again. Where is Angel at this moment?”

Lucy was tempted to present her husband of just over a year, with yet another flippant answer. When they both heard the murmuring of a content child floating through the open window, they looked onto the compact yard outside the kitchen.

Raising thick eyebrows, Adam absently picked up a small carved wooden dolly, sitting on top of the kitchen dresser. He reflected on the reason for its creation. It was only a short time after they had discovered that Lucy had quickly fallen pregnant after they were wed. He spent every Sunday afternoon carefully whittling at a discarded boat hook. Until finally satisfied that he had finished the toy, Adam proudly presented it to Angel as she lay sleeping in her cot.

He looked at Lucy as she flicked an annoying loose lock of rich Auburn hair from her eyes. “I’m going to get down to Mary Jane, a little earlier than usual, today. My second-in-command and I want to make an early start. Ted had mentioned that the shipping forecast had predicted storms late in the English Channel.”

He announced the statement — ‘matter-of-factly’. In a blatant attempt to avoid any need for his wife to worry further, about any potential dangers he faced, every day at sea.

He met Lucy, his best friend and partner for life, at Mereway Comprehensive School. They had both attended classes together from the age of eleven, until leaving education, as inseparable teenagers five years later.