Gillian in Gibraltar

"I shouldn't need much support. I have been saving while in the Navy and they give me an end of service bonus. I might need help in my third year but you will have finished by then."

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The next day Charles had to re-join his ship and Gillian would board the RFA tanker for the voyage back to London. The three of us went to the dockyard. Roger had resumed his naval uniform and put his kitbag on the destroyer. We took a dockyard barge to the tanker which was lying at a buoy in the harbour. The tanker was empty, having discharged its cargo in Gibraltar. We had to climb about fourteen feet up a rope ladder to the well deck. Gillian went first, with Charles following in case she slipped. He had slung Gillian's suitcase on his back with a length of rope. I went last.

Gillian, even wearing high heels, went up that ladder easily. At the top was an RFA officer.

"Welcome aboard, Miss Gillian," he said. "You managed that ladder beautifully. You could be a naval wife. Yours?" he said looking at Charles.

"No," Gillian said. "They're my brothers."

The RFA officer was about the same height as Gillian but shorter than Charles.

"I can see the size similarity. I'm Roger, second officer here. I will show you to your cabin."

I could see that Roger was very pleased to have Gillian on board. Within a few minutes we left them chatting as Charles and I went back to the dockyard barge and Charles joined his ship. I caught a bus back to my parents' house and a welcome cup of tea from Maria.

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Two years later my parents had left Gibraltar and moved into a semi-detached house in a London suburb. They had lost the status they had enjoyed on Gibraltar but they had known from the start that it would be for only three years of high life, followed by a mundane existence as my father became a commuting civil servant working at Admiralty HQ in London. I had gone to boarding school. Roger was ending his second year at university. Gillian had taken a post as a primary school teacher in Portsmouth and was engaged to Roger, the former second officer of the RFA tanker. He was now first officer on a larger RFA tanker and hoped to be master of an RFA ship in a couple of years. During the school and university holidays Gillian and Roger married, Charles and I were there as ushers. My parents and Gillian's parents were there. Charles and I were proud to see our adoptive sister happily married to a man who obviously loved her and was tall enough to be her dance partner.

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