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Paolo drove the Toyota into the space at the Cruise Port he was directed to park in by sailors from HMS Prince George. He was behind a Jaguar and next to a gold Bentley Continental GT. As he got out of the car he said to Jinnie, “I hope no one thinks this is our regular car.” That morning Paolo had second thoughts about wearing his good suit to the formal dinner, and he and the children had accompanied the ladies on their shopping expedition to Bridgetown. Consequently, he was wearing a dress suit and black bow tie in the heat of the afternoon. He had to admit that the ladies had scrubbed up well and all looked elegant in their long formal dresses. Even the twins looked the part, Millie in a pretty dress and Willie in long trousers, a white shirt and, like his father, a bow tie.
They strolled along the dockside to the building Paolo recognised as the Cruise Terminal and, once inside, a CPO glanced at the invitations and handed them numbered tickets. They were numbers 71 to 76, and a notice said numbers 35 to 60 were currently boarding, so he asked, “Who needs a cold drink,” and led them over to the trestle table where cold drinks were available. He had only just got a paper cup of iced water when yet another CPO called out, “Ladies and gentlemen, we are ready for guests with tickets numbered 61 to 85. If the holders would now pass through the security check and then follow the guide onto the tender.” The twins walked straight through the metal detector, as did Paolo, but all three of the ladies set it off. The operator scanned them with a handheld wand and declared it was their jewellery and, in Jinnie’s case, her medals that had triggered the detector and sent them on their way.
They were quickly seated on the half-full tender, and it chugged across the harbour to the open sea where numerous warships were at anchor. As soon as the tender had cleared the harbour, the Petty Officer let the launch go and, much to the twins’ delight, it skimmed across the water to the landing platform at an opening in the carrier’s hull. The tender pulled alongside the landing platform and two matelots in lifejackets helped everyone hop from the tender onto the platform. They were then directed up a short stairway and through a door into the bowels of the warship.
They were greeted by an officer who welcomed them aboard and, once again, checked their invitations before handing them over to a guide. The guide led them to a goods elevator, which was operated by yet another matelot. When the lift doors opened, they revealed the massive open hangar deck, the centre of which had been cleared and white-clothed tables were laid with glistening glass and tableware, which Jinnie admired. But it was the aircraft and helicopters parked at either end of the hangar that brought ‘Wows’ out of the twins.
As they, and several other guests, stepped out of the lift, there was a greeting line of senior officers and a CPO who read out the names on the invitations. The De Lucas made their way down the line, shaking hands with numerous officers, about whom Paolo said, “It’s a good job they all have their names Velcroed on their whites, there are so many of them.” Jinnie was only happy to see that all the officers were wearing miniature medals, so she didn’t feel out of place.
Jinnie reached the head of the receiving line and was surprised that the XO was a female Commander, who glanced at Jinnie’s medals and said, “Captain Harman told me we were expecting a Dame, but he didn’t mention that you were also a George Cross. We are highly honoured.” “He had no way of knowing I was a GC. It was awarded at a secret ceremony for services before and during the War of Liberation, but the ex-Prime Minister Sir Nigel Farage tells me that it has now been declassified, so I can wear it in public,” replied Jinnie. “You are right,” said Captain Harman. “I simply didn’t know. It’s not often we entertain a Dame who is a GC. In fact, I suspect this is the first time. I’m guessing from your careful wording that it was awarded for secret work, but you must have been very young.” “I was,” replied Jinnie, not elaborating.
“Now, twins,” continued the Captain, “I have not forgotten my promise, and Sub-Lieutenant Hickman is going to take you on a grand tour of the ship while your parents mingle with other guests and have a glass of champagne. Don’t worry, the Sub will have you back in time for dinner. I think the first stop is those fast jets over there, and I hear he has arranged for you to sit in a cockpit.” It was a pair of very excited twins who went off with the Sub-Lieutenant.
Paolo, Jinnie, Izzy and Cathy, champagne in hand, mingled with the early arrivals and chatted to a few people, none of whom Jinnie knew. There were a few politicians, a couple of ambassadors, but most were businessmen and women. Jinnie found herself talking with a small group of businessmen that included the CEO of Banks Brewery, the MD of Mount Gay Rum, and the Chairman of the Central Bank of Barbados. She exchanged business cards with all of them but was interested to learn that Banks Brewery were refurbishing their staff canteen and Central Bank were looking for new, bigger offices — information she tucked away to pass on to Keith, Jorja and Trevor.
The MD of Mount Gay Rum had recently dined at the Continental and was interested to learn of Jinnie’s connection. As the small group chatted, Jinnie could see the businessmen slowly realising that they were talking with a serious businesswoman who had interests in numerous businesses throughout not just Barbados, but the wider Caribbean, UK, Canada and Florida, and was worth substantially more than the three of them put together. Eventually, Jinnie spotted Caroline Harman and her twin daughters and made the excuse that she had to talk to them.
As Jinnie crossed the deck to Caroline, she was joined by Paolo, who said he had been with Izzy and Cathy, who were being chatted up by a couple of junior officers, and he was bored, so he had slipped away when he saw her. Jinnie said “Hello” to Caroline, who replied, “Oh, thank goodness, a friendly face. Tim has only recently taken command of this ship, and I don’t know any of the wives as I live off-base. On top of that, I recently lost my nanny, who has taken a position with a new baby.” “That’s tough,” said Jinnie. “I remember when I lost my original nanny when she married and moved overseas. I guess I was lucky I had met Izzy at an event sometime before and she took over and has been with me ever since. We are good friends, and the twins think of her as a second mother.”
“You are so lucky,” said Caroline. “I am stuck in the house in Brookmans Park and now I have lost Nanny, I have had to give up my job to look after the girls.” “What did you do?” asked Jinnie. “I worked in the press office of a huge supermarket chain,” replied Caroline. “I handled all the press releases and edited the in-house magazine. It always amazed me how many stories I didn’t have room to print each edition.”
“I have been thinking,” said Jinnie. “I have been looking at launching an in-house publication for the group I am CEO of. We have five divisions spread across the UK, Ireland, the Caribbean, Canada, Slovenia and now Florida. I am pretty sure that people in some companies we own have no idea what other companies in the division do, let alone what other divisions do. Would you be interested if I were to offer you a job? It would be based in our Group HQ in Potters Bar, but it would involve visiting all of the companies wherever in the world we operate or we are opening new businesses.” “That sounds like my dream job,” replied Caroline, “but I don’t think I could accept it while I have to look after the girls.” “I think I might have an answer to that,” said Jinnie. “If I could find you an excellent nanny, would that make a difference?” “I think so,” said Caroline. “I would love to get back to work, but only if I am happy the girls are happy and safe with someone responsible.”
“Well, my temporary nanny is out of work now that my permanent nanny Izzy is back from her honeymoon. I have every confidence in her. The children love her, maybe not as much as Izzy. I have been more than happy with her the month she has been with us and I intend giving her a glowing reference. She is here tonight. If I introduce her to you, you give her an informal job interview without her knowing.” “I like that idea,” said Caroline. “But do you think she would want to work with seven-year-old twins?” “I certainly do,” replied Jinnie. “She has just been doing just that with my two.” “I clean forgot you also had twins,” said Caroline.
As everyone sat down to dinner, Izzy said to Cathy, “You look like the cat that got the cream. Have you got a date with that dishy Lieutenant Commander you were flirting with?” “No, I got a job offer,” answered Cathy. “I have to talk to Jinnie about it as I’m officially still working for her until the weekend, but I could start tomorrow if it’s OK with her.” “Of course it’s OK with me,” said Jinnie. “Who do you think recommended you to Caroline? If she wants you tomorrow that’s all right with me. It’s not like you’re leaving me in the lurch now Izzy is here. I understand she and the girls are staying at the Yellow Bird Hotel that is just by Rockley Beach. She was telling me the hotel only has a café which is good for breakfast and a snack lunch, but not very good for dinner. If you want to tell her you are taking the job, please do it now before we start eating. I’m sure I can drive you and your luggage over to the Yellow Bird tomorrow. Anyway, I have promised her I will take her and the girls to lunch at Aunty JoJo’s in Rockley.”
***
Jinnie parked in the huge Aunty JoJo’s Rockley car park and surveyed the huge branch. As she looked, she realised she had not been there since before it had opened, and it was most impressive and hugely busy. The twins were desperate to be let out of the Toyota to try the swings, slides and roundabouts the restaurant offered. But Jinnie spotted Jorja waiting for them at the main entrance and told them they would have to wait until after they had eaten.
Caroline parked her hire car beside the Toyota and the two families headed for the restaurant, bypassing the queue. Jinnie had phoned Jorja that morning to ask her to sort out a table for nine for lunch, and Jorja had said she would be happy to do so. As they walked to the entrance, Jinnie was delighted to see the four children seemed to be getting on, and Cathy and Caroline were chatting happily. Izzy whispered to Jinnie, “Have you seen how well everyone is getting on? I think this is going to work out.”
Jinnie introduced Jorja to those people she hadn’t already met, before Jorja led them to two large tables that had been pushed together and had a ‘Reserved’ sign on it. Jorja was about to leave them when Jinnie said, “Please join us for lunch, Jorja. I have a couple of things we need to talk about. Since I saw you last week, things have been happening. Firstly, I hope HR has sorted out your new contract and wages.” “Oh yes,” replied Leah, “and I am more than happy with the new grade.” “Did they also tell you the grade comes with a better car?” continued Jinnie. “I checked this morning and it is on order. However, it will be another fortnight, and I’m sorry to tell you that there was no choice of colour. It’s a white Citroën C5. If we had wanted a specific colour, I understand it would be on four months’ delivery.”
“Secondly,” said Jinnie, “Caroline is joining us at HQ as Head of Publicity. Her new department will be tasked with all our dealings with the media. Up until now it’s been on a very ad hoc basis, and I have made a lot of use of a contact on our local paper. I want to get things done more formally with proper press releases. Next, we are going to publish a quarterly in-house newsletter through Publicity, and Caroline is going to edit it. Initially, it’s going to be quarterly, but if it is the success I hope, it might well be more frequent. I want an early edition to feature a story on your Contract Catering business.”
“Next,” said Jinnie, “I have realised that I have asked a lot of you as your background is in fast food and not Contract Catering. So, I have found you a deputy who has been working for one of the biggest Contract Catering companies in the UK. He has been on their new business team, tendering for new jobs and negotiating contracts. Finally, I nearly forgot, I have a couple of leads for you from a reception on the aircraft carrier that was off Bridgetown yesterday. Now let’s get down to ordering lunch. As we now have an official connection with SuperBurger, I’m going to have one of their SuperDogs and chips.”
While waiting for the food to arrive, Caroline said, “I’ve just realised that I have driven past the place several times and never thought to come in. It’s really rather nice in here, and seeing the food that is being eaten and the long queues, I gather it is very popular. I feel an article coming on.” The two sets of twins all chose from the brand-new children’s menu, and all four had the mini cheeseburger and chips and a chocolate milkshake. All the adults, except Jinnie, had Aunty JoJo’s original chicken and chips, and as always, the food arrived promptly and was good. Caroline said, “I have never visited an Aunty JoJo’s before, but this has surprised me by being so good. I am amazed by the queue at the takeaway counter. We often use the SuperBurger in Potters Bar now it has been refurbished, but I didn’t realise it was associated with Aunty JoJo’s. Do the UK branches sell SuperBurger stuff?”
“Some do,” replied Jinnie, “but only where there isn’t a SuperBurger outlet anywhere nearby. With nearly 2,000 SuperBurger outlets, there are not many places where we have an Aunty JoJo’s and no nearby SuperBurger. But it does happen. It’s very different here. We don’t have any SuperBurger branches. You can order them online from our dark kitchens, and they are growing sales quite quickly, so we decided that it made sense to add some SuperBurger products to Aunty JoJo’s in the Caribbean.” “Now that’s the sort of thing that I can drop into an article on Aunty JoJo’s,” said Caroline.
“Mummy,” said Millie, “can the girls come to ‘our’ beach tomorrow morning? They say the beach at their hotel is not very good. Then we can all go to Anderson’s snack bar for lunch, and we can all swim in our pool in the afternoon.” “Well, that’s OK with me,” answered Jinnie, “but it all depends on their mummy. She might have other plans.” Caroline said, “Tell me girls, would you like to do that?” “Yes please,” said Alex, while Anna nodded in agreement. “Willie says the beach is ace, Anderson’s is the best, and they have a private pool at their house.”
***
The following morning the twins were anxious about going to the beach before the Harmans arrived. “How will they know where to find us?” asked Willie. Izzy replied, “Don’t forget Cathy is their nanny now and she knows exactly where we go on the beach.” Willie and Millie were paddling in the warm water when the Harman family arrived, and the girls raced down the beach to join them. Cathy quickly called them back to be slathered in waterproof factor 50 before the four set about digging a big hole to make a swimming pool. The adults all found loungers in the dappled shade before Caroline said, “Your twins are quite right. This is a far better beach than our hotel. The hotel beach is nice enough, if you didn’t know this was here and was a public beach.”
“But all beaches in Barbados are public,” said Jinnie. “Some hotels like to make out their beach is private, but it isn’t. If you can’t get to it by road, you always land from a boat. But we like this beach, it is in a nice, protected bay, the water is shallow for a long way out so it gets warm. The sand is good, and Anderson’s have the loungers and umbrellas on this part of the beach. I know Anderson, he is a fellow director of DKL. We eat lunch there whenever we are on the beach, and he never charges us for loungers.” “And he makes terrific Flying Fish Fingers,” said Willie.
“I suppose I’d better tell you that in the evening Anderson’s becomes a superb fish restaurant,” added Jinnie. “It is lovely sitting on the terrace, in the warm air, under the stars, and it’s only a short walk from our house. But he has now built a decent-sized car park as it is so busy in the evening. Perhaps we should all have an evening there before you go home. I’ll make a booking if you all like fish.” “Yes please,” said Caroline. “We all love fish.”
At lunchtime everyone headed to Anderson’s and two tables were quickly pulled together for the party. The two sets of twins insisted on sitting next to each other and the waiter who was serving them did a double take. The four children all had a hot dog with loads of fried onions. Jinnie’s pair wanted chips, but she said no because they were having a meal delivered that evening and she wanted them to eat it. After lunch they went back to the beach for an hour or two before Willie said, “Mummy, I thought we were all going swimming in the pool this afternoon.” Jinnie put her Kindle down and said, “OK, if all you kids want to swim properly, let’s go.”
Fifteen minutes later everyone except Jinnie and Caroline were splashing in the pool. Jinnie was giving Caroline a tour of the house, something she was rarely able to do. Caroline loved the kitchen packed with modern appliances, but it was the office with its humming server and Jinnie and Paolo’s PCs that interested her. Jinnie explained how she was in virtually instant contact with every part of the business via the SAP system and logged into her email to show how she was in contact with the group email server in Potters Bar.
Jinnie explained to Caroline that as a department head she would have access to all relevant Publicity Department information, but not the company financial information of other departments, via her office PC. “I’m supposed to learn how to operate all this computer stuff as well as run the department?” asked Caroline. “It’s not that difficult,” replied Jinnie. “Besides, we will give you training. You won’t be just dumped in front of a screen and told to get on with it.”
Jinnie and Caroline joined the others in the pool and were soon joining in a game of ‘piggy in the middle’, which was really a bit unfair on the four children as they were so much shorter than the adults and the ball kept going over their heads when they were the piggy. Caroline said to Jinnie, “Gosh, your two swim like fishes. My two are quite good, but nowhere near as good as your two.” “It’s having regular access to a pool,” said Jinnie. “Oh, you’ve got a pool at home?” said Caroline. “No,” replied Jinnie, “but we have free use of our next-door neighbour’s pool and the twins use it a lot.”
Cathy, who had been listening to the conversation, then said, “But that’s only part of the story. Their neighbour is Sir Nigel Farage and not only is he the twins’ next-door neighbour and godparent, but he helps them with things like learning racing turns.” “Gosh,” said Caroline, “you do move in high places. I can only claim to have met a few admirals. I don’t know an ex-Prime Minister.” “But you soon will,” said Jinnie. “Nigel is on the board of directors.”
***
The family stepped off the Virgin flight and, as usual, made their way to an immigration officer while Izzy went through an e-gate. Jinnie, Paolo and the twins went to a Border Force immigration desk, the twins being too young to use the e-gate system. Paolo presented his Italian diplomatic passport and the twins’ passports and was nodded through. However, when the officer scanned Jinnie’s passport she sensed something was not quite right, as the officer did a double take of his computer screen and asked Jinnie to wait a moment. Two minutes later a young girl in plain clothes arrived and handed Jinnie a DL envelope with her name on it and ‘By Hand’ in the corner where a stamp would normally be. Jinnie slipped the envelope in her pocket and took back her passport.
It was only when in the Lexus driving home that she opened the envelope and withdrew the single sheet of A4. She read:
‘Dear Jinnie,
I didn’t want to interrupt your family holiday, but I must tell you that the PM has activated the mission that we discussed some months ago. Your sister is already in position, and we would like you to join her as soon as possible. Consequently, please phone me immediately, so that we can organise a meeting to discuss the mission and your transportation.
Yours sincerely,
Alan’
Jinnie checked her watch, 08:50. She thought it was still a bit too early for Alan to be in the office. She would phone him from her home office, before realising it was Sunday, and it would have to wait for tomorrow.
In Chapter 29 – Preparations
© WorthingGooner 2025
