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  ‘You can if you want to. I’ve dealt with all that. I don’t know how important the packing is—half an hour? Your mother said she would leave the door for us and something on the stove.’

  ‘Mother? How does she know?’

  ‘I telephoned yesterday to say that we would be coming. Your father was kind enough to advise me about the licence.’

  ‘I thought it took days…’

  ‘A day or so, yes. I telephoned him when I got back to Holland and found out about Madeleine.’

  Britannia bit into a sandwich. ‘How did you do that?’ she wanted to know.

  ‘I asked her what she had done. Will you mind very much if we go straight back to Hoenderloo tomorrow, my darling? I have a list for the following day, but after that I’m free until after Christmas. We shall have the house to ourselves, Mama is going to Emma’s and we are invited there for Christmas Day, so we shall have a day or so together, and at New Year, the whole family will come to us again, and I thought we might ask your mother and father as well…’

  Britannia’s eyes filled with tears. ‘Oh, Jake, I’d love to go back to Hoenderloo—your mother doesn’t mind?’

  ‘She loves you, dearest, they all do.’ He smiled at her. ‘Are you going to cry? Do you want my handkerchief?’

  She shook her head. ‘I’m not crying, truly I’m not. Must I see anyone before I go?’

  ‘Your Principal Nursing Officer said that she would be in her office until ten o’clock. What about your friends?’

  ‘They’ll be together in someone’s room, having tea,’ said Britannia. ‘I can see them all at once and pack in ten minutes.’

  ‘Then eat some of that cheese, my darling, and have another cup of this extremely strong tea and I’ll take you back.’

  The café had thinned of customers by now, the last of them had gone by the time Britannia had obediently gobbled down the toasted cheese. Ned came over with the bill and the professor paid with a handsome tip, and Ned, who was no fool, melted through the little door behind the counter and left them alone.

  ‘Ready?’ asked the professor, and came round to button her into her cape once more.

  She looked up at him and smiled. ‘We’ll have to hurry.’

  ‘You are quite right, my darling, as you so often are, but no one is going to hurry me for a moment.’

  He put his arms round her and bent to kiss her, and no one, least of all Britannia, hurried him.

  ISBN: 978-1-4592-3929-6

  BRITANNIA ALL AT SEA

  Copyright © 1978 by Betty Neels.

  All rights reserved. Except for use in any review, the reproduction or utilization of this work in whole or in part in any form by any electronic, mechanical or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including xerography, photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, is forbidden without the written permission of the publisher, Harlequin Enterprises Limited, 225 Duncan Mill Road, Don Mills, Ontario, Canada M3B 3K9.

  All characters in this book have no existence outside the imagination of the author and have no relation whatsoever to anyone bearing the same name or names. They are not even distantly inspired by any individual known or unknown to the author, and all incidents are pure invention.

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