All was well script on upper back

You will want to know about the boat first, so here it is plainly. The Morwenna came round the breakwater at half past four on Tuesday with her engine coughing and Tom Pascoe at the tiller swearing in two languages. Nobody drowned. The net is gone, and Mr Hocking says the insurance will not cover a net, only a man, which is his joke and not a kind one. I have been sitting on the wall with a cup of tea gone cold, watching the gulls argue over the chip papers.

Mother came down to the harbour in her good coat, which tells you how frightened she was. She did not say much. She stood with her hand on the bollard and counted the boats in, one, two, three, the way she used to count us in from the orchard when we were small. When Tom stepped onto the quay she let go of the bollard and just said, "Well," and that was all the speech anyone needed.

I went through the dresser this evening looking for the tin with the wedding money and found the old card Father wrote for you the winter before he went. It still says the thing he always said when the weather turned: all was well, and all manner of thing shall be well, though he never could remember the rest. I have decided it is enough. Tom is asleep upstairs with his boots still on. The kettle is on again.

Write soon, and tell Frank to keep his hat on in that wind.

Love, Edie