Sally was feeling a bit miffed. She'd finished her A levels with 5 A*s -- all in maths and sciences. Her mum had wanted her to follow her father into medicine. He'd made a great success of it and was a wealthy man. Dad though had wanted her to follow her mother into finance. Her earnings were several million a year. Growing up Sally had wanted for nothing.
Being raised as an independent young woman she had her own ideas and graduated Cambridge with a double first in Genetics and Mathematics. She stayed on for a PhD in epigenetics.
And here she was at twenty-five with good job offers from four leading-edge research groups.
But she was feeling let-down. The past three years she had watched her supervisors struggling with endless funding crises and the never-ending pressure to publish, publish, publish. They were having no fun at all. She felt she'd taken a wrong turn at some point.
Sally put all four offers on hold and did what she always did when she was miffed -- she decided to spend some of daddy's money.
Monday 10:00
Three weeks later she was strolling along the Jetée Albert-Édouard in Cannes, wearing very little, when she saw two stunning young women step off a huge luxury yacht. A uniformed flunky offloaded a pile of suitcases and organised porterage. Then an older man stepped ashore and bid them both a long and surprisingly intimate farewell.
She watched as they strolled away smiling with their luggage following in their wake.
When she glanced back to the boat the older man was watching her. She held his gaze as her lazy stroll took her closer. He gestured behind him at the boat. "Would you like to have a look 'round her?"
Sally paused. He looked harmless and she was a good six inched taller than him. Couldn't do any harm. She smiled back "Yes please...". She took his hand as he helped her aboard.
"This way please."
The boat was luxurious. A 'cutter rigged sloop' apparently. Whatever it was it was opulent. Down at the bottom there were small but very well appointed rooms for the crew of six, storage rooms, a doctor's office and a kitchen. Above there was a huge master bedroom with a sitting room and bathroom, a good-sized cabin at the back and a smaller twin cabin at the front. At the top there was a big lounge and bar.
Sally was overwhelmed by the sheer class of the thing.
They were standing just inside the twin cabin when her guide -- Vincent -- said. "This cabin is vacant at the moment..."
"Oh?"
"Yes -- did you see those two young ladies that disembarked here? It was theirs. They'd been with us since we left New Zealand."
"They must be very rich!"
"Not when they joined us -- they were our Boat Girls."
Not understanding the allusion Sally let it pass. He led her up to the lounge. "Sit down my dear and I'll mix you a drink."
Sitting in a soft white-leather easy-chair sipping some exotic cocktail she looked around the elegant decor "So all this is yours?"
"Oh no my dear -- I'm just the captain."
"Ah! That was your cabin at the back."
"Indeed. So what brings you to Cannes my dear."
"I came here to think." Feeling quite relaxed and at ease she explained her dilemma.
"So what do you plan to do?"
"I'm thinking of taking a gap year and doing a bit of travelling. See if I can get my head together. I'm sure I can get my father to pay my allowance for another year."
"You could travel with us..."
"Oh no! I couldn't possibly afford that!"
He went to mix more cocktails.
"You are very tall my dear."
"My mother is Swedish -- she's very tall."
"And your father?"
"He's African."
"From where?"
"South Sudan" she laughed "Believe it or not he's a Jieng prince."
"Ah yes -- hence your beauty."
She sat and blushed for a bit.
"Do you speak any languages except English Sally?"
"I'm close to fluent in french and I have a little Russian -- why do you ask?"
"We have an opening for two crew"
"Oh -- I don't know much about sailing really."
"I have a vacancy for two boat girls..."
She raided an eyebrow "Boat Girls?"
"You have the legs for it my dear -- the question is, how easily do they open?"
"Vincent! What are you suggesting!"
"Before you dismiss the idea out of hand please listen to what's involved."
She sat back and crossed her arms "Go on."
"This is a charter boat -- currently chartered for the next twenty-seven months. Our course is plotted two years ahead. The charter rate by the way is $164,000 a week."
Sally gasped.
"Yes my dear these aren't cheap-skates." He paused. "You would travel with us for as long as you wanted and could leave at any port. While you're with us your full expenses would be paid by the charter company plus a small allowance. The allowance is currently $5000 per month. Whenever you decide to leave us you will also be paid a bonus of $20,000 for each month that you've spent with us."
"That's $300,000 a year! You must have some very perverted clients! What am I expected to do for that sort of money?!"
"No my dear. Not perverted at all. Just very, very wealthy."
"Mostly you'd need to be just your normal sunny self. I'm quite good at this -- I've interviewed a lot of women for this job -- and believe me, you are the perfect candidate. The speed of your mental arithmetic, your use of language, your assertiveness, your ease in these surroundings. They all tell me what I saw in a glance -- you are perfect for the rôle."
