She had taken off her oilskin cap, although she still wore the coat and her head was bare and the wind was whipping small tendrils of her pale hair round her cheeks.
She made no attempt to tidy them and the Duke thought that she was quite unconscious that she looked just like a sea nymph.
“Why are you hiding here?” he asked.
“I wanted to look – at the sea,” Bettina answered. “It is so majestic.”
“You are obviously a good sailor.”
“I am very lucky,” Bettina smiled,
“At the same time you must be careful when you are moving about the deck and the yacht is rolling like this,” the Duke admonished her. “Otherwise you might well be swept overboard.”
“Oh! Not before I have seen the Opening of the Suez Canal!” Bettina exclaimed.
He laughed.
“Surely it would matter whenever it happened?”
“
