The Fat And The Thin Of It Read online

think?”

  “Actually no, I don’t think. Her husband is sitting up in those hills over there,” Jill pointed to the mound on the horizon just above San Antonio. “With his pregnant girlfriend, and Jackie’s up there,” she pointed to the upper deck. “Flirting with your father, imagining her husband can see her from his perch and is reeling with jealousy.” She shook her head. “It’s not healthy, Chantal.”

  Chantal rolled her eyes gracefully. “Oh, let her be, and I would advise you to relax and enjoy the trip.” She got up. “You’re far too tense and serious, Jill. I will fetch Hassan and he can give you a massage. He has magical hands.” She smiled as she glided away.

  Jill got up quickly and dived into a doorway and headed down the stairs in search of the bathroom; she did not want Hassan’s magical hands anywhere near her.

  She found herself in a narrow passageway with two doors on each side and a door at the end. She opened the first door and saw a luxurious suite, with a circular bed covered in a thick duvet of plush purple silk material. She closed the door again silently and turned to the door behind her and found another suite, identical in décor but in royal blue. The third door led to a slightly smaller suite of similar opulence, and the fourth finally led to the bathroom, which was lined with marble panels and had a white bathroom suite, complete with shower, and gold appliances. After relieving herself, her curiosity impelled her to open the final door at the end of the passage.

  It was the grandest suite of all, with a bed that must have measured seven foot square, a crystal chandelier which resembled a pineapple hung from the centre of the ceiling and an immense plasma TV was fixed to the wall. It was decorated in deep red and gold, oil paintings with lavish gold frames hung from the walls and what looked like Ming vases and antique porcelain figurines were dotted here and there. One wall was lined with wardrobe doors and the opposite wall held a door which Jill presumed led to an en suite. She was duly impressed, as she’d been aboard a few luxury vessels in her time, but she had to admit that this one was extremely fine indeed. With the nosing over, it was time to head back up and see what Jackie was up to.

  Jackie was seated where Jill had been before, and she had a champagne glass in one hand and a titbit of some kind in the other. The table under the porch that was formed by the top deck was laden with more titbits; smoked salmon, a caviar dish the size of a child’s sand bucket, numerous cheeses and pâtés and baskets of different types of bread and biscuits. Faruk and Chantal were seated beside their father, munching and sipping, but Ahmed was only interested in Jackie. He was turned towards her, intently listening to what she was talking about, and by the pained expression on Jackie’s face Jill could assume she was talking about Bob.

  Jackie greeted Jill with a smile. “Hello! Where have you been?”

  “The bathroom, love.” She turned to Ahmed. “You have a marvellous vessel, Ahmed. I have to admit that I had to open a few doors before I found the bathroom.”

  Ahmed raised his hands and waggled them. “My dear Jill, you may look wherever you want.” He spread his hands towards her and lowered his head. “My humble vessel is at your disposal.” He turned back to Jackie. “Would you like me to take you on a tour? It won’t take long as it isn’t really my biggest vessel.”

  Jill couldn’t fathom if Ahmed’s modesty was a show for Jackie or if he really didn’t put much stock in the obvious wealth he possessed. And, to Jackie’s credit, she wasn’t displaying any awe at all the extravagant opulence surrounding her. She was simply enjoying Ahmed’s attention and the novelty of the day’s adventures.

  “Ooh, yes!” Jackie put her champagne down and popped the last of the titbit into her mouth. “I’ve never been on a boat like this before.”

  Ahmed rose and offered her his elbow, and they both sauntered off down the deck to the other side of the vessel. “I shall show you from where the boat is driven, first.” He was telling her as they disappeared round the corner.

  Jill noticed they were at high sea, and she couldn’t see the coast of Ibiza at all. She panicked slightly, as she wasn’t a good sailor. “Faruk, where are we?” she asked as she approached the brother and sister.

  “We’ve had to push out further because of the tide, but we should be back at San Antonio in a couple of hours or so.” Faruk said with a polite smile. “Papa had planned on taking us to Eivissa on the other side of the island, but the tide will change and be against us before nightfall; far too dangerous to navigate around the cape.”

  ‘Dangerous’ was not a word Jill wanted to hear while she couldn’t see the coast and calculate if she could swim that far if need be. She searched with her eyes for a life-belt and saw one to the side of the seat, so she grabbed a champagne glass and sat close to it.

  “Jill,” Chantal slid over and leaned into her. “Do you like playing games?”

  Jill’s jaw dropped, but she tried to keep a smile on her lips. “Uh-huh… um, what kind of games?” she moved her shoulder away from Chantal’s.

  “Well, because Papa is so busy entertaining Jackie and you look as bored as Faruk and I are,” she leaned a little closer and smiled conspiringly at Jill. “We thought we could go inside and play some poker.”

  “Aahhh,” Jill breathed. “Poker! Oh, okay, I can play poker,” she said with relief. “But I don’t have that much cash on me.”

  Faruk came over.” Oh, we don’t play for real money. Papa hates gambling and if he found out we were playing for real stakes he’d be very upset. We have the chips, so we just share them and play until someone loses.”

  “Right,” said Jill, relieved again. There was no way she’d be able to keep up with the kind of stakes she imagined these people would play for.

  Faruk tended a hand to Jill. “Come along, before Papa comes back.”

  He led Jill round the other side of the vessel with Chantal close behind. They entered through some French windows into an extremely plush living room, with elaborate, deep gold tapestry sofas, another huge crystal chandelier, more lavishly framed oil paintings, a cherry wood bar with all sorts of bottles and liqueur dispensers and a round card table, also of cherry wood, beside the bar. There was an enormous fresh flower arrangement on the low coffee table in between the two sofas and a deep pile Persian rug of gold and brown hues was spread underneath it.

  Faruk went to the small, intricately carved sideboard just beside the French windows and pulled out a pack of cards and a large wooden box with silver inlay on the top. “Come, sit down, please.” He beckoned to Jill. “Would you like a drink?” he indicated to the bar.

  “Actually,” Jill said a little sheepishly. “I’ve had enough alcohol for today. Could I have a cup of tea?”

  “Of course!” he said and placed the cards and box on the card table before grabbing a phone from the wall. “Would you like Indian, Chinese, Darjeeling…” he looked at Jill for an answer.

  “Oh, uh… do you have Lady Grey?” asked Jill as she sat on one of the chairs round the card table.

  “Certainly.” Faruk pushed a button and waited for a moment before speaking in what sounded like Arabic into the phone.

  Chantal slid onto a chair opposite Jill and pulled the cards from the pack. Faruk joined them and opened the box, which was full of poker chips, and began to share them into three piles. Jill looked at her chips and saw that there was nothing less than ten thousand dollar symbols on them; ten thousand, fifteen and twenty, twenty-five and fifty and finally a hundred thousand dollars. ‘Just as well they don’t play for real money, or I’d have to jump overboard right now’, Jill thought.

  The trio played until Jill won almost nine hundred thousand dollars. Faruk was a terrible poker player, as when he was dealt a good hand he smiled from ear to ear and immediately laid fifty grand on the table. Chantal was slightly better, except for the languid sigh that escaped her when her hand was a bad one. They stopped when the phone buzzed and Faruk answered it, gave a short answer in Arabic and announced, “We’ll be docking in about fifteen minutes.”

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bsp; ‘Gracious’, Jill thought, ‘what time is it?’ She glanced out of the window and saw that it was quite dark. There was a grand clock, which looked like it was eighteenth century French, perched on the mantelpiece over a feaux log fire and it said seven-thirty. She calculated they’d been playing poker for about three hours! ‘Where on earth is Jackie?’ she fretted.

  A sudden spasm of fear that they were going to dock at some foreign port and be sold off as chattel made her shudder, but she shook it off and berated herself. ‘Daft woman, you’re still over-acting after all this Bob lark’. Still, she took her mobile phone out of her handbag and poised her index finger on the ‘on’ button, just in case she had to speed-dial Terry’s number and send an SOS.

  Chantal and Faruk cleared the table and put everything back in its place, then the trio went back out to the back of the vessel. Jackie and Ahmed were sitting on the seats laughing about something, and when Jill saw her, her jaw dropped. She was wearing a long, shimmering evening gown that looked like a Valentino from a few years back and a white fur coat was draped over her shoulders. Ahmed was impeccably and richly dressed in a white evening jacket, black trousers with a satin band down the sides, a crisp white shirt and black bow tie. His shoes were polished to such an extreme that they