Some people say, 'the best-laid plans etc' often come to nothing. That was what happened to our intention to get our hair and nails done before our date with my father. Instead of a new hairstyle, we had to settle for a new outfit apiece.

The next morning and all dressed up in our new glad rags, we took an earlyish morning train from Leeds to Harrogate. This was well before the allotted time for my encounter and gave us a chance to wander around the town. I’d never appreciated the architecture of the town before but it was quite impressive. Most of the town had escaped the ravages of the 1960’s concrete brutalism that passed for good design at the time. This was a marked contrast to many of our towns and cities.

Luck seemed to have come our way when we spotted a new hairdresser's salon. From the notice in the window, it had only opened for the first time, the previous day. It didn’t look all that busy so we took a chance and after a little bit of negotiation, both of us were able to get our hair and lashes done in time to meet my father for afternoon tea.

Carla was very happy just to get her split ends seen too. She’d been complaining about them for over a week but what with the trial and everything, we didn’t have time or the inclination to get them done at the time.

---

I did feel somewhat nervous as we walked into the hotel for tea. I wasn’t expecting to see my father deep in conversation with another woman but with one eye on the door. The woman was vaguely familiar to me. I was sure that Carla recognised her as well but before I could ask her about the woman, he spotted us and waved us over to his table.

“Come on and take a seat,” he said to us.

His tone threw me quite a bit. It was as if he was trying to be friendly for once.

We sat down and after I introduced Carla, a waitress came over and took our order. I ordered green tea while Carla chose Darjeeling. With that done, we both looked at my father.

“Thanks for coming today. This is Janet. She’s been my eyes and ears at the trial.”

That’s where I’d seen her before.

“Pleased to meet you,” said Carla just before me.

“Same here. I thought I recognised you from the courtroom,” I added.

“Pleased to finally meet you both. I wasn’t sure if you were who you are until I saw you take the invitation to come here today at your hotel yesterday.”

“Well, we are here now,” I said.

“Good,” said my father.
“I have to make a huge apology to you both and especially to you Lauren. All those times I sided with David…”
His eyes sank to the table. I’d never seen him admit any weakness before. This must have been hard for him.

"I was wrong to do that and for that, I am eternally sorry but I know that no matter what I say, I can't even begin to make amends for all the hurt that you have gone through over the years.”

His words were getting to me. I pinched myself hard. I must not show any weakness in front of him. After years of suffering at his hands, I knew that he’d enjoy just getting one over on me. Since I had returned from Australia, I had begun to stand up to him and not let him walk all over me. I must not let him walk all over me again especially with Carla at my side.

I let him carry on.
“Even when you laid it all out before me, I didn’t believe you. It was only after you’d gone and I’d taken a very detailed look at the information that doubts started to creep in. Then Carla’s report arrived and just confirmed everything you had told me. Every which way I turned all the evidence pointed at David but even then, I still thought that there was some good in David. Yes, I’m an old fool and yes, it hurt a lot to admit to myself that all the faith that I’d put in your brother was for nothing. He led me up the garden path and back down again with his lies and promises.”

Our tea orders arrived, he stopped and waited until the waiter had left before carrying on.

“I employed Janet here, to at look all the facts and figures that you’d both laid out for me and confirm what was right there before my very eyes. Janet is a former Chief Inspector of the Devon and Cornwall Police. I dated her for a while before I met your mother. I got back in touch with her through a mutual friend of ours.”

I took a sip of the tea. It was very good. My eyes kept wandering towards the sandwiches but I refrained from interrupting his flow.

“Janet confirmed that pretty well everything you had said was perfectly correct. I am so sorry for doubting you. To make matters worse, she discovered a lot of new information was even worse but her investigations were curtailed by the arrest and charging of David. We turned all that new evidence over to the police. According to Janet, some of those facts were used as evidence in the trial.”

The sheer volume of new facts that had been presented by the prosecution at the trial has surprised me. Now I knew where at least some of it had come from.

“He’s going down for a long time mostly for a being a complete fool. If he’d just managed the business as I wanted him to, he could have lived very comfortably but no… He wanted more, much more. Then the stupidity of trying to blame you for everything when time and time again, you had clearly demonstrated that you wanted nothing to do with the family business was not only idiotic but downright wrong and as was shown in the court, his lies finally caught up with him.”

Once again, his voice faltered a bit.
“I had hoped that sending you to Australia would make you see sense and join the business but the fact that you had made a lot of money on your own just didn’t register with me at the time. At first, I took it as a personal slight but when you had your first exhibition, it became very clear to me that you were starting to make something of your life on your own. I am ashamed to admit that, that simple fact made me even madder for a while. I kept wondering why you had eschewed the family business entirely but seeing you looking so happy in your new life as Lauren made me finally understand that you were you being you. David once said to me that you striking it rich in Australia for doing next to nothing was just like slapping me right in the face. At the time, I believed him but as the evidence presented to the jury shows that was when he started to go very bad. He hated that you’d made a decent wad on your own and totally legally. To involve my family there in his crime network was like a gut punch but it explains their reaction to your arrival. All I can think is that David had been cultivating his connections there well before your trip. He tried to make me change my mind even while you were on your way down there. Now, we all know why that was. I was so blind to what he was doing to you, me and the businesses.”

He looked at Janet who smiled.
“Janet used some old contacts in the Australian Federal Police and made a few discrete enquiries about David and my family there. One of those confirmed that David was a person of interest to them. That, without being specific told us all we needed to know.”

“David had tried many times to make out that you were some criminal mastermind but the evidence to the contrary was all right there in front of me but I was too blind to see it. He clearly stated that you had used your trip down under to create a criminal network. I was just too blind to see that you were right and David was being the consummate con artist that he’d become over the years.”

Then he looked me right in the eye. His steel-grey eyes as they'd done a million times before went right through me. Then I saw that he was close to tears as he said,
“Can you ever forgive me?”

That put me right on the spot.

“I don’t know,” I replied trying to buy some time.

Then Clara said,
“What Lauren is trying to say is that if she is to forgive you then it will take some time and will not be done over afternoon tea.”

I looked at Clara and squeezed her hand.

“Yes, Dad. It will take a lot of time and a lot of small steps but remember, I’m not going to have anything to do with the family business. Not now and most certainly not in the future.”

"I know that and that's why I'm selling them. I have had one offer for three of the five companies. If I can get it increased a bit then I'll sell it.”

“You can keep the money. I don’t want any of it.”

For once my normal poker face father smiled. He looked at Janet.

“That’s exactly what Janet said that you would say. I’m going to put some money in trust for your children. To put them through University or start a business. Will your pride allow you to accept that?”

Carla and I had not discussed having children. I'd been putting it off mostly out of the fear of her doing a runner. Besides, a narrowboat is not the best place to bring up children.

I looked over at Carla before saying,
“We have not discussed that sort of thing.”

He smiled at me. For a brief moment, I was a young child and about to get punished for something that David had done. It didn't last long.

“Don’t wait forever. I’m sure that you will make great parents.”

That last sentence got me pretty angry. What the hell does he know about being a good parent?

Clara squeezed my thigh.

"We will make our own decisions in our own time so thanks for thinking about us but we do not want any financial help from you," I said trying to sound confident.

I smiled at her. She was perfectly in tune with my thoughts.

“I agree with that. We do not need any help from you or my parents thank you very much,” said Carla.

I nodded my agreement.
“I think we are done here?” I suggested.

There was silence around the table.

I stood up and said,
"Nice to meet you, Janet. I hope that we will meet again sometime.”

Carla wiped her lips and stood beside me.
“We have our own life to live and that’s what we are going to do thank you.”

Hand in hand, we walked out of the hotel. Neither of us looked back.

I didn’t dare breathe until we were safely on the train back to Leeds. I sank back into the seat and Carla held both my hand tightly.
“I thought that you were going to give him one back there.”

I chuckled.
“The thought did cross my mind. More than once if truth be told.”

“It is all over and done now isn’t it?”

I shook my head.
"It can never be truly over for me until he is pushing up the daisies. From the look of him, Janet had breathed a lot of new life into the old dog. He could be around for a whole lot of years I’m sad to say.”

“Then we’ll have to just ignore him and get on with our lives, won’t we?”

“Are you sure that you want to hang around with someone as flawed as me?”

“I’m still, here aren’t I? Besides, I may have sold my flat. While you were having your hair washed, I received a text from my Dad. There is an offer on the table for just under the asking price. I’m tempted to accept it which means my dear that in a few months, I’ll be homeless.”

The doe-faced look in her eyes was impossible to resist.

“Then that’s one more thing to add to the list of things that we need to talk about tonight and in the days ahead.”

“Eh? What else is there?”

“The little matter of a family. Children and all that.”

“Is that all?”

“Then the little matter of Roxy being rather cramped for the two of us as it is.”

“Then I’ll buy a boat of my own.”

Once again, she got me and there was no escape. I had to admit to myself that the solution was quite good but one that I had no idea about how we would achieve it at least in the short term.

---

That evening was our last at the Hotel before we went back onboard Roxy so we made the most of it. Room service with a very decent bottle of wine to go with our meal. That was the good part. The bad part was that neither of us wanted to be the first to start the conversation that had to be had but was too difficult to start.

The silence at the end of the meal was awkward for both of us.

I reached over and took her hand and looked her right in the eye.
“Do you want to have children?”

Her eyes wandered about the room for several seconds. Then they came back to look at mine.

“It isn’t as simple as that. I want some time to live my life without any pressure. I went through school aiming to get into Uni. I went through Uni aiming to get an internship with a good law firm. I went through that hoping to get a job that would lead to a partnership. You know how that turned out. Being on Roxy for the first time made me begin to understand that there is a whole different life outside of the law cocoon that I have wrapped myself in for far too long. With the law being a virtual no-go area for me now, my old plan for the future has gone up in flames. Roxy is where I want to be right now and for the foreseeable future.”

She paused for a moment.
“Am I making sense or am I talking total gobshite?”

“No, you aren’t so please, carry on.”
That was a bit of a lie but I had understood most of what she was saying.

“Thanks for listening.”

After a brief pause, she continued,
“I love being with you on Roxy. Sitting in the courtroom and watching the defence barrister telling the most outrageous lies I've ever heard in a courtroom made me feel ashamed to be a lawyer. That was when I finally decided that I am not going back to being a lawyer even if I could do so. I’m done with that. I used to love the law and justice but that whole thing was just shameful. Yes, everyone should be defended in court but there comes a time when you are flogging a dead horse and continuing to plead their clients' total innocence when the CCTV evidence shows that he is as guilty as sin is just wrong."

"I'd like to live a guilt-free life for a while. If I can find another viable source of income then the 'for a while' it could well become forever."

Carla looked me right in the eye.
“Is that so wrong?”

I knew exactly what she was feeling. Being my own boss was highly addictive.

“It is not wrong. Am I right in thinking that you’d like to have children but not yet?”

“Yes, but I know that the clock is ticking with my biological clock. I’ll turn thirty next month. Then there is the question as to how I’d get pregnant. I know that it is going to be next to impossible for you to father my children given the drugs that you are taking. I saw your prescription and looked it up on the internet.”

I squeezed her hand.
“I love sharing Roxy with you but she isn't set up for two people on a long-term basis let alone more than two.”

“I know that only too well and I have been doing some thinking about it.”

My heart sank at the prospect of Roxy being torn apart… again.

I guess my disappointment showed because Carla smiled at me.

“It won’t be that bad. What I’m proposing is that I buy a narrowboat of my own. We can make Roxy a real home and the other one could be a place for both of us to work. A decent space for you to paint and a desk for me. A small galley and a toilet. That’s all that is needed.”

“What about Roxy?”

Carla smiled at me.

“Don’t worry, I’m only interested in making her more comfortable for two people. I’d make the main bedroom a bit bigger as well as the bathroom. A shower capable of holding two would be nice. Showering together would save water would it not?”

Her plan was pretty logical but it raised a good number of questions.

“Buying a boat is not something you do on a whim. I spent months looking for the right boat before I found Roxy. Not every narrowboat is the same.”

Carla smiled back at me.
"Then you will have to help me, won't you? Then she'll need to be converted to run on electricity. Experiencing the new Roxy has converted me. Dad's friends on the Medway with their noisy diesel engines are living in the past."

The cost of her seemingly simple project was from large and heading towards huge, by the second.

“That does not come cheap my dear.”

“I know so we will have to work on that. I’ll have a good amount to put into the kitty when the sale from my flat goes through.”

The look that Carla gave me told me loud and clear that ‘the lady was not going to be budged’.

---

I could tell that Carla was serious about buying a narrowboat of her own when I caught her browsing a number of the online sites that dealt with narrowboats and all sorts of related equipment that would be useful for someone starting with life on the 'Cut'. At first, I hoped that the sheer cost of buying even a fairly decrepit craft would put her off. No such luck. That made me wonder exactly how much money would she have to put into a new boat. The last thing I wanted was for her to go all-in on a boat only for us to fall apart and break up.

We had a lot to occupy us as we travelled from Leeds in the general direction of Manchester and the route south.

To get from Leeds to the Manchester area is not exactly direct. First, you have to head southeast from Leeds to Castleford before you can turn west and the Pennines. Whichever way you go, there are a lot of locks to traverse. One way is the more direct route for us as we wanted to head south but that involved going through Standedge Tunnel [1]. This is the longest, highest and deepest canal tunnel in Britain. There is more than one tunnel. There are four to be exact. Three are railway tunnels but the oldest one is used by the canal.

Traversing the 'Huddersfield Narrow Canal' had been on my bucket list for a couple of years. At nineteen and a bit miles, it isn't the longest canal in the country but has 74 locks and over three miles of Standedge Tunnel.

Carla was puzzled when I showed her our booking to go through the tunnel. It was for five days ahead. I explained that traffic through the tunnel is quite limited. It is open each day for a few hours to allow East-West traffic to pass through and a few hours for boats going in the other direction. The rules state that we also had to have a pilot on board.

We had plenty of time in hand to get to the tunnel entrance and as the weather was good, we made the most of it and spent a good part of each day moored. I got a lot of sketching done and Carla had her head down on her laptop writing away as if there was no tomorrow.

Most evenings, we ate at a Pub on or near the canal so it was very relaxing despite traversing a good number of locks each day.

---

Neither of us was even remotely prepared for the experience of travelling through a 3-mile-long tunnel in almost total darkness and silence. The only real sound was that of the trains passing through the adjacent railway tunnel. Those sounds told us that we were not completely alone. Those sounds were slightly comforting but strange all the same.

Carla breathed a huge sigh of relief as we emerged from the tunnel into daylight. It was a very different experience from the other tunnels I'd been through with Roxy. I didn’t tell her that going through the tunnel was one more item ticked off on my bucket list.

I tied up Roxy to let the ‘pilot’ off. He was impressed with Roxy. He’d been on a few electric boats but his compliments on how Roxy’s conversion had been done made me very happy.

Carla decided to walk a bit of the towpath on the western side of the tunnel for a breath of air. The air in the Tunnel had become very claustrophobic after a while. It was just as well as there are twelve locks within a mile or so of the tunnel. There was a lot of traffic going the other way. As it was a Sunday some delays were to be expected but it looked like it was going to take us hours and hours to get through those locks.

To my amazement, there was a free mooring between locks 23 and 24. I took the opportunity to give Roxy a service while Carla took a shower in the adjacent block. With all the smellies dealt with, I followed Carla into the shower.

Over dinner that night, Carla surprised me by saying,
“I think I was wrong about buying a boat of my own. There does not seem anything suitable on the market at the moment.”

I took her hand in mine and looked her in the eyes.
“Don’t give up so easily darling. It is the wrong time of the year. Late summer, early autumn is a better time. I have been thinking of my own about the months ahead. When Roxy was in the boatyard near Oxford, Melody and I borrowed a house. It gave us a base for that time. I got quite a bit of work done so based on that, I think that we should find somewhere to moor Roxy for the winter and rent a house until March. That way you can get your novel finished and I can do some painting and at the same time we can look for Roxy-2 without any pressure.”

“Where? Where do you suggest we stop?”

“I think somewhere near Stoke upon Trent or a bit further west. I’d also like to meet your parents and… possibly get married if we have their blessing.”

Carla was a little shocked by my proposal.

“Aren’t we good as we are?” asked Carla.

“We are and since we left Leeds, I’ve been happier than I think I have ever been. But I’d like you to make an honest woman of me especially if we do decide to have children. I guess I’m a bit old fashioned like that. Am I so wrong in wanting to make what we have a little more permanent?”

Carla didn’t answer me for quite a while.

What I did notice was that her eyes moistened and eventually a tear rolled down both cheeks.

"I… I wasn't sure if you wanted to marry me. After what we said about having children and all that."

“Spending time with you without the pressure of David’s trial hanging over us has been good and I want that to continue… forever. Am I being silly?”

Carla leaned over and kissed me. Long and slow.

When we broke apart, she was crying.

"No, my darling, you are not being silly. I would love to be your wife. I've grown to love this slightly nomadic life. I'd like it to continue so, yes, I will marry you."

[The End]
[Postscript]

We were married in Chatham six weeks later. Her parents while they had verbally accepted me, took a while to come around to me being who I was and all that but once they’d seen us together for a few days, they accepted Carla’s decision that I was the one for better or worse.
The sale of her home in Watford had gone through but we didn’t find a suitable narrowboat for her to buy. That would have to wait a while.
We rented a house near Ellesmere for the winter. Roxy was moored nearby on the Llangollen Canal for the duration. I started painting industrial scenes of the North of England while Carla beat the hell out of her laptop with her writing.
She had ample opportunity to dress up for me. I came to like seeing her encased from head to foot in silver or black. She bought a suit for me for Christmas. I was right about not having the right figure for it but we had a lot of fun together so who really cares eh?
By the end of winter, Carla had two novels self-published on a couple of online bookshops. Naturally, I did all the artwork. It was the least I could do.

The picture of her face when she received her first royalties is one that I’ll treasure for a long time to come.

Carla hasn't given up on the law. She's been giving informal advice to other inhabitants of 'The Cut'. She charges a little for the legal work that she does but that isn't the point. The point is that she's very much enjoying our life and if she is happy then so am I.

My next collection of pictures is nearly complete and a gallery in Manchester had signed me up to put on a show next May. This particular gallery is a mere stone’s throw from the Canal. That made it just about perfect for us to continue our slow-paced but nomadic life on the ‘Cut’.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Standedge_Tunnels