Lorne's iPhone alarm woke them at six, and after a quickie, they showered and headed downstairs. They were greeting Rachel good morning in the kitchen as Michael came in the back door. "Compost habit — unless it's pouring rain. Good morning. Have you changed your mind on breakfast?"

"We're running on a schedule, Daddy," Catherine said as she kissed him. She snickered and added, "Time and tide wait for no man, not even for Lorne."

They hugged Rachel goodbye. "Don't be strangers. Your bedroom is always here. You can back come and cook like that for us as often as you wish."

The tender was where they had secured it, and after a hug from her father, Catherine stepped aboard and opened the chain lock. "So how do I start this thing?"

"I'll code the thumb pads for you later." Lorne did a sequence of touches and received a green light, then he undid the mooring lines and pushed away from the float. She pulled the lever back and slowly backed into open water as they waved at Michael.

"So down-to-earth, both of them. What delightful parents you have. And what a magnificent daughter they have." He put his arm around her waist as she headed the tender toward Tastevin.

Alongside, he talked her through attaching the hoisting slings and disabling the tender's drive. As they walked up the steps of the accommodation ladder, he asked her, "Do you remember the lowering sequence?"

"It seemed simple when you did it."

"That's because it is simple. The toggle switches are labelled, and everything is logical." They arrived at the panel. "Take your time and think it through while I raise and stow the accommodation ladder. I'll show you that next time."

She smiled at him as he returned half a minute later. "Seems logical I start here. Hoist Up Down." She pushed Up, and they watched the tender rise from the water.

"There's a cut-out switch at the top, so you can't raise it too far. Run it until it switches off." He bent and kissed her cheek.

"Next is Travel In Out, again logical." She tilted the toggle to In, and they watched the tender move across the deck and stop directly above the chocks. "I figured there'd be another cut-out switch here."

He kissed her lips lightly and patted her bum. "You finish here, I'll go release the snubbers."

"What about the lashing strops?"

"You should be able to figure those out."

She was finishing the last of the lashing when he returned from the bow. "Elegantly simple system. A child could sort it out and operate it."

"No need to make it complex. That complex stuff is for those who want to play macho."

He began shortening the scope on the rode as he rolled out the staysail, explaining as he worked. "The sail will move us forward toward the anchor, easing the load on the windlass. With this breeze, there should be sufficient momentum to pop the anchor free as we sail over it." He continued shortening the chain, gradually swinging the bow toward the anchor. "Next we pull out a piece of the main to catch more of the breeze. We should now be nearly up-and-down on the anchor."

The bow dipped a bit then rebounded, and he pushed the Auto button for the windlass to recover the weighed anchor. "There's a great auto-house system in the bow, again with a cut-out. I can let it carry-on while I tend to other things."

"This seems so simple. No noisy and smelly engine, no scurrying around, Dad would love this."

"I'd love to have them out sailing."

"That would be nice. Coffee time?"

"Hug time first."

"You amaze me, Lorne. You really amaze me." She wrapped her arms around him. "Nathan wouldn't let me do anything he considered men's stuff. Here with Tastevin, he would have done everything himself, quietly, not sharing, not showing how, not caring. He would have told me to go make coffee, tidy-up below. I would have had to ask him for a hug."

"It pained me over the years to see your frustrations increase as I read between the lines of our conversations and watched you with him. But you always appeared happy."

"Happy to see you. That was my happiness. I wasn't dying inside like some of the girls, but —" Catherine tilted her head up to receive his kiss.

Lorne did a visual and instrument sweep, then pushed the autopilot button before taking the kiss further.

He raised his head to do another horizon sweep and check the chartplotter. She asked again, "Coffee?"

"Great idea."

Two hours later they were through Porlier Pass and set-up on a beam reach making hull speed and pointed at Point Atkinson. They lounged back in a cuddle in the corner of the cockpit settee and chatted. 

"I've spent so much time dreaming about this, about sharing this. Strange thinking of it now, but for the last while I had been increasingly thinking this would be impossible for me."

"What was holding you from it? Keeping you from doing something about your penis?"

"I hadn't thought about why until I was at the compost with your father. He questioned why I had done nothing for nearly two decades. I started realising Connolly had used hypnosis. He was always telling me I must keep this hidden from everyone except him. He must have used it on me for other things."

"That makes sense. It was such a strong force. I was startled — shocked, actually by your reaction in the taxi."

"Whatever his hypnotic suggestion was, it was stronger than the amnesia. I kept my wounds hidden in the hospital, from my foster parents, from everybody."

She reached down and put her hand on the bulge along his thigh. "I'm so pleased it's finally free."

"A few days ago, after my episode at Molly's — the piercing reaction — a thought ran through my head: He's dead now, he wouldn't know. The same thought came more strongly when we were sitting at eSushi a while later."

He enjoyed the light pulse of her hand and swelled to it. "Thinking now, Connolly must have used hypnosis. That's how he was able to shoot that video."

"What video?"

Lorne checked the instruments and did a visual horizon, then sat back into the cuddle. "Connolly tried for months, in the beginning, to make me enjoy playing with his butchered penis. He was still splitting his own shaft at the time and made me watch the process, then play with it. He was gentle and accepted my revulsion, but told me I would eventually enjoy it. Told me it's a learning process, a necessary part of our sacred covenant."

"The video?"

"I guess that's where the hypnosis comes in. He showed me a long video of me happily licking and sucking him through all stages of his self-mutilation. He was a sick man."

"Psychotic."

"He insisted I call him Father. In the beginning, it made sense; he was a priest and also my foster parent."

"That doesn't seem nurturing for a father."

"But he was, though. He was caring and always concerned about my education. Strange thinking about it now. I'm sure he loved me. It's when he took me to the garret and locked a chain around my ankle that the situation became strange. But his love and his caring seemed to continue."

"How did he explain the chain, the isolation?"

"He said it was part of the covenant process. I had to endure deprivation and hardship to be accepted. It was a necessary part through which all had to pass."

"You didn't question him?"

"I was young, fourteen, and likely still in shock from the deaths of my parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles. He was a priest. I went along with it. The place was comfortable; an old illegal rental suite, a bed-sitting room and a small bathroom. There was an under-counter type fridge with a microwave and toaster oven stacked on top."

"What about food?"

"He kept the fridge and freezer stocked with quick-prep items for the ovens and there was always a selection of fresh fruit and vegetables. The chain gave me access to them and to the desk, the bookshelves and the lounge chairs. Plus the bathroom and bed, but the dormer window was out of range."

"Sounds basic, but I guess many live less comfortably than that." She stood and did a sweep of the horizon. "The Cross-Island ferry in our port bow?"

He glanced over at the instruments. "Both the radar and the AIS still show it will cross well clear astern."

She bent to kiss him, then sat on his lap and snuggled into his chest. "Let's talk about something easier for a while. Do this stuff in small doses."