Book 2, Chapter 29

Looking in the mirror on Friday morning I wondered what I was playing at. My legs were bruised from trying to keep them wrapped around the mast yesterday; my hands would have looked perfect on a bricklayer, and my hair had taken up macrame while I wasn't looking! I'd even been late for dancing last Wednesday through stopping with Bill to get Dumblebit's sails on. Now there was this dinner thing in a week as the only woman with a bunch of men, most of whom I didn't know, and I didn't have anything to wear!

I did have friends though, and in particular female friends and I had an idea. First I phoned Kelly who I knew had contacts in theatrical costume departments, and then Serena, Jenny, Gwen, Martina, Penny and Philip to arrange a council of war. While I was at it I called Litara to let her know of my cunning little plan. "It will all end in tears" was Litara's response although she wasn't sure if I would end in gaol or the the mortuary. "If you must you must but you have to allow me a camera there if you are going to risk my whole career on a whim!"

I must have caught the mood of the times with my plan as that evening, once Philip was sworn to secrecy and they saw a photo of the costume Kelly had found for me to borrow - as last seen in the Christmas pantomime Treasure Island - everyone was in favour.

After an hour of scheming I was getting concerned that I'd been carried away with an over-the-top scheme so was relieved when the conversation turned to Jenny's modelling. The four modelling assignments arising from the casting we had gone to in Canning Town were complete but just this week she had spent two days doing one shoot and going to several more castings in London - all arranged by her newly-signed-with agency who even Martina, as the least fashion conscious of us, had heard. The competition was hot but it was beginning to look as though our Jenny was on her way!

Saturday was back to normal with our dance session in the early afternoon. Like the modelling I was feeling the effects of my regular dancing through the week in the way I moved and the music which even when I wasn't playing any, often ran through my head. Today John and Judy had extended their work a little by agreeing to coach a couple who were due to marry and wanted to stun the audience when they took to the floor with the first dance at the wedding reception. The dance would be 'Swing' and on seeing the way they worked at it I clearly recognised the signs of strong marriage ahead for them. Across the room Mum and Dad were also giving it their all with big smiles on their faces and at that moment , shallow of me though it may have been, the dance lessons for my future partner were as good as booked.

As arranged I met Serena and Jenny after dance class to concentrate our efforts on buying for the summer holidays which with luck could constitute a lot of my time during Dumblebit's voyage as I chased the sailing ideal of winters in the tropics and summers in the higher latitudes, which means I'd be sailing British waters, Cape Horn, New Zealand and The Cape of Good Hope during the kinder summer months.

Hats and sun glasses were the priority according to my blue-eyed blonde friends and I found I had a taste for hats with very broad brims which would be impossible to keep intact in a cramped boat so I settled for one able to survive crumpling, one sensible hat which I kept for a whole 30 minutes before returning it and one to dress up with scarves around the brim. I've heard about and can understand the shoe thing and the bag thing but nobody warned me about the hat thing!

So much to buy and so little time especially as it wouldn't be practical to have a freighter follow my voyage carrying Litara's wardrobes. I wonder if megarich women pay other people to do their shopping for them…?"

"Earth to planet Venus." Serena brought me back to earth with a bump as we headed to the café with our booty. "I was asking if you if you were on for some time at Barry Island tomorrow?"

"I've got my last pool session for my scuba diving course tomorrow morning but should be ready any time afterwards."

Afterwards turned out to be 2:30 as we all still lived with our parents and none of us wanted to miss out on a roast Sunday lunch, but by 3:00 the gang were promenading the the ghostly seafront of the peninsula resort town just west of Cardiff. It was April but it was the school Easter holiday so the local people must have been hoping for more tourists than the sprinkling that actually made it. While a city like Cardiff had economic swings that took decades smaller towns could boom or bust between one year and the next dependant as they were on the weather or a single industry…

Do other girls think like this I wondered? It was down to Bill's legacy of course because other girls weren't likely to find themselves in the position where they could buy a town like this!

"Time to spill the beans Venus." I jumped like a child caught with her hand in the sweet jar and on turning found it was Simon Snow and Litara. At lunch my devious sister had not so much as mentioned Simon but here she was and I didn't believe it was a coincidence.

"Magic fairy-dust Simon. I was thinking that Barry needs some magic fairy-dust to make it special and stand out from the other resorts."

"You're the one with the magic from what I've heard at City Hall, assuming you are the Delia Venus Williams who is the brains behind the Arianrhod Development that are the sponsors of a new Cardiff Bay summer race event."

I knew Simon was a journalist who job it was to sift gossip but to hear that people were talking about me was unsettling. "I don't do magic Simon. They asked what they should do with the land so I told them but any magic lies in how and why the others have moved ahead in their particular ways."

" If you say so Venus, but Litara told me that you were taking on 'The Brotherhood of the Coast' and my question is - 'What are you up to?'"

"The so called Brotherhood of the Coast is my Granddad, my father and my uncle Jack and their friends, who seem to fancy themselves as tough sailors like the original Brothers who were according to google a group of pirates in the 18th century. They gave me a tough time leaving me suspended at the top of a mast and thought they could buy my forgiveness with a dinner but I decided they're a bunch of chauvinists who need teaching a lesson so I plan to pretend to steal Bill's boat Dumblebit early on Friday morning and demand they buy dinner for all my girlfriends to get the boat back."

"Pretend you say?"

"Yes, I think I can fool them into thinking Dumblebit went to sea on the early morning tide but I plan to head in the other direction and hide her up the river Ely until we all bring her into the dock by the restaurant at 7 pm when they plan dinner."

"Your idea sounds fun Venus and I'm sure your grandfather would have coughed up the cash for a dinner except for one thing… The Brotherhood is worldwide and real, it is composed locally of all men who like to think of themselves of embodying the independent spirit of the old-time pirates and if you pull this off you and your girlfriends will have out-pirated the pirates!"