Lord Edwin - 9. Lord Chapter 9

“Have you been on a Neel Yacht before?” Hunter asked, “Yes, once. I was given a tour of a Neel 65 at a Boat Show a few years back. They are very nice yachts,” James replied smiling. “That is good, so you have already chosen which will be your cabin then?” I asked, “Of course, the Cabin on the main deck is directly behind the bridge, and Anton’s Cabin will be the forward cabin in the centre hull,” James replied.

“So, how many cabins will that leave you for guests?” Hunter asked, “Three, all of them midships, one in each hull, with their separate bathrooms,” James replied. “I can hardly wait to see inside,” Anton commented, as I came to a stop, as we arrived near the end of the walkway, in front of the Catamaran.

Having already seen the yacht, I sat down in the main saloon, and Hunter joined me, leaving James and Anton to explore the yacht on their own. “This is indeed an impressive yacht. Are you sure about doing this for us?” James asked when he had finished having a detailed look around. “Yes, I am positive. She is all yours, and if you want to change the name, I will happily pay for the change,” I replied.

“Nope, I like it, Kingfisher has a good Australian ring to it. Leave it as she is please,” James replied, as he sat down next to me and we chatted for about fifteen minutes. “I wonder what is taking Anton so long?” I asked, and Hunter stood up to go and search for him, returning a few moments later smiling broadly.

“He has made himself at home, he is fast asleep in his cabin, so I covered him with a blanket and turned off the light,” Hunter said to me. “You know, as much as I will miss having my sleep partner with me, I may do the same,” James announced. “Very well, we will see you in the morning at the house for breakfast,” I replied, and after saying goodnight, Hunter and I left the yacht and walked back up to the house.

Once there, I asked Edna to pack some clothes, linen and maybe some snacks for James and Anton and asked Aled to deliver them to the yacht before retiring for the night, which they were happy to do for me, and I gave them the code for the security gate, so they can get into the yacht pen area.

When they returned from their little walk down to the yacht club, my staff informed me that Mr Hackney was still awake, and said to thank you for the supplies. After wishing my staff a good night, I remained in the library, which has a few hundred books that I inherited from the previous owners, and I scanned the shelves to get an idea of what was on the shelves.

Hunter came in to check on me about half an hour later. “Is everything ok sir?” he asked me from the doorway, “Yes Hunter, it has been quite an eventful week, hasn’t it?” I replied. “Yes sir, but there is one good thing that comes out of it, you now know that you have an heir to your position and all of your properties,” Hunter said to me.

“My gosh, I hadn’t even thought about that. I will need to speak to Robert, about getting my will changed, and all that sort of stuff,” I responded, and Hunter said goodnight before heading to his rooms for the night, which is a small private lounge with a small outdoor garden patio, a bedroom and bathroom, near the back of the house.

The next morning, I was up early, and soon after the rest of the household was up and about. “Good Morning all, I would like to go on a bit of sail this morning, and I would like all of you to join me. So, can we quickly get prepared for a morning out on the lake, including packing some food for breakfast, snacks and lunch on the yacht,” I announced once Aled, Edna and Hunter had joined me in the kitchen?

Twenty minutes later, we walked down the road, with two picnic baskets full of food and drinks, and a couple of bags with towels, changes of clothes and swimwear for everyone, including James and Anton, and as I climbed the aft steps onto the yacht, James appeared in the lobby, and he slid open the door smiling, wrapped his arms around me and gave me a big kiss.

“Mmm, that was nice, good morning, James,” I responded as we broke off our kiss, “Good morning My Lord and Hunter, Aled and Edna,” James replied, as he raised his eyebrows when noticing all the gear, we were all carrying, and I chuckled. “We are going for a sail this morning, if you would be kind enough to wake up your crew member, we can get going,” Hunter said to James.

“I am awake, My Lord, just give me a moment to wake up properly,” Anton said as he appeared from the front section of the yacht, and I chuckled at his ruffled appearance. “Did you sleep well, Anton?” I asked, “Yes sir, like a log floating on water, it was awesome,” Anton replied, which made me chuckle again.

As Aled and Edna got to work in the galley preparing breakfast, James, Anton and Hunter got to work getting the yacht ready for sailing, and it wasn’t long before we were out on the lake enjoying the warm early morning Swiss air, and I was feeling very relaxed, until my mobile ringing, and I saw that it was Robert calling.

“Good morning, sorry I missed your call last night, I was out at the theatre, watching a new play, very enjoyable evening,” Robert said to me, “Good morning to you too cousin, I am glad that you had a nice evening. As you know, I have set up base in my new adoptive country, approximately 1,200 kilometres south of your home.

I have some rather important matters to discuss with you, so I will need to see you personally, but I don’t want the media to catch on that I am in your region, so I am suggesting that we meet at a small island located about 250 kilometres south-west of your home,” I said to cousin Robert.

“Ok, so we are meeting at the home of Uncle Douglas Man?” Uncle Robert asked, and I chuckled at the cryptic clue of the location, “Yes, that is correct, I will let you know when I arrive at his house, in a few days,” I replied, and soon after we ended the call.

“What was all of that about?” James asked me, just after pocketing my mobile, “Take a seat dear, I have something special to tell you,” I said and I spent the next half an hour explaining about my years at the University in Zurich and answering a heap of James’s questions.

“I am glad that you have an heir now, I was wondering what was going to happen with all your titles and stuff once we have both gone to the castle in the sky,” James said to me, and I laughed at this comment, “Very funny way of putting it, my love. So, you are not angry or disappointed that I already have children?” I responded.

“Not at all, especially when the boys are now out of nappy changing age, I don’t know how parents can deal with all of that messy stuff, when they are infants, yuk,” James said and I laughed out loud at this comment. “Ok, now I need to take a trip to see my son, who is recovering still from his Bone Marrow Transplant. From what I last heard, he was doing well.

I also need to see cousin Robert, to work out all the complexities of inheritance, and stuff like that, and Hunter will be travelling with me as usual. But before then, we need to set up a website to promote your yacht for charters on Lake Geneva, to keep you both busy while we are away.

I have already obtained a licence for you to run charters based out of the yacht club, and we can set up bookings and everything online, so you don’t need to worry about all of that stuff,” I said to James. “Can we take pictures on this sail, for promotions, for the website?” James asked me, “Sure why not, but I cannot be in any of the pictures, and you will need to get permission from the staff to use them in the promotional photos,” I replied.

“How about after breakfast, we head back to the yacht club and see if we can recruit some willing passengers for a free half-day of sailing on the yacht, and use them from the promotional photos?” Anton suggested, “Yes, and maybe we can find one or two additional casual crew too,” James added.

Back at the yacht club, we found two casual crew members, Casandra, who has galley cook and chief steward experience, and Antonio, who is an experienced deckhand, and while Anton was getting them settled for their jobs for today, James went out to the front of the yacht club, to see if he could recruit some willing passengers.

With this happening, I decided to return home to stay out of public sight, in case I am recognised, and Hunter joined me, leaving Aled and Edna to enjoy a day off work sailing on the lake. Back at the house, I started making plans for my trip to Douglas, Isle of Man, and in most ways, there been to public.

I decided that it would be easier to just charter a plane to fly me there, with just one stop of a refuel, which would be at Brest Airport, in North Western France, with the first leg of the journey covering 830 kilometres, and the last leg will be 625 kilometres.

We would be staying overnight, so the chartered flight would include accommodating the flight crew overnight as well, and I arranged for hotel accommodation close to the airport, while Hunter and I would be staying at an apartment, fifteen kilometres to the north, on the northern outskirts of the village of St John’s, with us getting a hire car under Hunter's name.

I had already set up an expense bank account under Hunter’s name, so that everything can now be paid under his name, without revealing my identity to anyone, which would possibly alert the media that I was back in the UK. After the long flight from Geneva to the Isle of Man, we quickly passed through customs, without any issues, and Hunter quickly collected the hire car.

Less than half an hour later, we arrived at our apartment accommodation and settled in. I was amazed at how beautiful it is on the Isle of Man, and I wondered if it was worth investing in some properties on the island. A look at the local telephone directly, easily gave me the address to the home of Julia Thornton, and an online search of the address showed me that it was a one-level cottage, on a side street, five houses down off the main road and that it backs onto a large commercial plant nursery, and 1.5 kilometres East of the village.

I decided to spend a few days looking around the area and checking online to see what is available in the way of real estate on the Island, with the view of buying a bigger house for Julia and our boys. “I like it here sir, it is so… peaceful,” Hunter commented to me, as we sat in the lounge of our accommodation.

“You man think differently when the two-week-long Isle of Man TT Motorbike race is on,” I commented, as I had just finished reading about it online on my iPad. “Oh, that would spoil the peace,” Hunter responded.