by Gloria Bevan
"You're getting to be a real islander," Eve Daley told her, her glance resting on Robyn's smoothly-tanned skin, the long fair hair now gilded with a patina of lighter gold.
"Think so?" Robyn laughed. "Then how about letting me help more around the place? Couldn't I do the accounts for you?"
"No need," the capable older woman assured her. "Wait until David gets the alterations done, then there'll be more than enough for both of us to do. Right now you're helping out wonderfully with the coral viewing."
"I suppose." Daily trips out to the reef had now become part of a new way of life. She was accustomed to the controls, the short run out to the waves foaming over the reef.
Whether clear in the sunlight or shadowed by shifting cloud, the ever-changing world of tiny jewelled fish and vibrant coral never failed to fill her with wonder. Somehow too, taking the boat out with tourists gave her a satisfying feeling of working, of doing something towards easing the financial burden that had come to loom so large in her life.
"Who knows," Eve told her, "if you keep on like this you might end up by turning the coral boat into a famous tourist excursion, like the Olooloo cruise."
"What's that?"
"It's just about the most popular sea excursion in Suva. A cruiser takes tourists out to the reef. Then skin divers bring up the sea creatures from the deep. A pretty girl in a bikini sits on the deck and explains all about the live coral and fish that the divers pass up to her from the water. The boat makes a short stop at the Tradewinds Hotel, it's built right on the water, then the girl sings and plays her guitar on the way back to the wharves in Suva."
Robyn thought, I could do that, all except the guitar-andsinging bit. Her mind leaped ahead. Later on when the Islander was updated and better known, why not exchange the old Katrina for a cruiser? She could serve coffee and refreshments on board, take out a large number of tourists at a time. Finding divers would be easy in a place where the natives were at home in the water. Aloud she said, "I'd like to make that trip. Does the Olooloo go every day?"
Mrs. Daley nodded. "Every afternoon from the seafront at Suva. Why don't you go tomorrow? You'd enjoy it. Get a taxi here back afterwards, or if you like you could put up at my place in Suva for the night. There's a crowd of students living there, but they would make you very welcome. I go along whenever I get a chance."
Once again Robyn was struck by the fact that her brother's frequent absences from the guesthouse must throw an extra burden on the older woman's capable shoulders. When could she ever leave the Islander for a night? The thought prompted her to say, "You haven't been away much lately, not at all since I've been here."
The cheerful face remained untroubled. "And that's not long, if you count up, but there's nothing to stop you having a day off."
But there was. She didn't want to be away from the house should David arrive. Somebody had to be around when he returned here with the builders. And if Johnny hadn't returned ... Unconsciously she sighed, telling herself that it was useless basing her movements on David. Already he occupied far too important a place in her thoughts ... and dreams. "I'll go tomorrow, after I've made the coral trip, and if the architect does come, well, I'll be back that night, or early the next day."
The Indian driver guided his taxi carefully around the hairpin bends of the rough metal road as he followed the Queens Road cutting between dense jungle-clad hills. At length when Robyn had decided there couldn't surely be any further curves on the route they swept along a straight stretch and came in sight of a wide blue harbour ringed with mountains. On the hills above the sea, white-painted houses gleamed amidst surrounding trees and bush. Soon they were moving towards the busy seaport with its profusion of yachts and catamarans, cruisers and overseas cargo boats. Accompanied by a constant tooting of the horn, the driver negotiated a bend, skilfully avoiding oncoming cars and trucks, swept into the main traffic, to draw up in the main street of Suva, the most colourful and cosmopolitan city of the South Pacific.
She paid the driver, then stood looking around her. Taxis were pulling in all along the seafront and the Olooloo rocked gently at her berth amongst the cluster of yachts and pleasure craft on the sheltered water. Reflecting that she had half an hour to spare before the departure of the tourist excursion, Robyn strolled along the wide main street shaded by an avenue of towering banyan trees. She paused to glance in at the windows of a modern store where a variety of high fashion imported clothing was attractively displayed. Nearby was a Chinese café, then a cluster of small bazaar-like stores with their exotic world of duty-free goods at low prices. There were cameras, jewellery, masks, perfume and yards of beautiful silk sarees and material, all printed in tropical designs in the alive-o colours of the South Pacific. A glance up a narrow byway showed her dingy dark shops where Indian tailors were busily treading sewing machines and craftsmen were weaving mats. It was all colourful and different. If only it wasn't also steamingly, humidly HOT! She pushed the hair back from her damp forehead and crossing the main street made her way towards the markets.
The strong smell of market produce, seafoods and fresh fish met her as she entered the dim interior with its long stalls and narrow crowded passageways. The air was filled with the chatter of Indian and Chinese merchants and huge coconut baskets were piled high with yams, taro, sea-snails and crabs. Native children extended great wedges of glistening watermelon to thirsty shoppers and Fijians stood behind towering displays of fresh bananas and pineapples.
Making her way through the jostling crowd of mixed races moving along the narrow space betwee benches piled high with produce and woven baskets, she paused at a native stall to purchase a pair of woven scuffs with their gay crimson pom-poms.
"Robyn!" A sense of excitement shot along her nerves. Only one man she knew possessed that particular lazy timbre in his deep tones. Only one man could flutter her pulses with just one word! She swung around to face David, his smile as heart-warming as ever, just as though it were the most natural thing in the world that they two should run into each other in the native markets. Pushing through the throng, he reached her side and all at once the babel of voices, the crowded long stalls weren't noisy and odoriferous and bewildering any more but exotic and colourful, a day touched with magic. It's seeing someone you know when you're in a strange city, she rationalized to herself in an effort to explain away the sudden wild excitement that was flooding her senses.
"Come on," he took the scuffs from her and stuffed them in the pocket of his tan cotton shorts. "Let me get you something. A souvenir? Everyone buys souvenirs at the market." Taking her arm, he piloted her through the milling throng. "Pearls? Beads? No? A bunch of bananas, then, just off the tree. Dried fish? Taro?"
She laughed up into his face. "Definitely not taro —" "Have you ever tried it?"
"No, but —"
"How can you tell, then? That's the trouble with you, Robyn, you lack the spirit of adventure ! How about these?" He guided her towards a great mound of ripe pineapples, golden, luscious and mouth-watering in the overpowering heat. "Only a few cents! A bargain if ever I saw one! You will?"
"Mmm, I'm so thirsty!"
"You'll get it in a minute, when we're on the way out. I'm not carrying that monstrous fruit in my pocket, even for you, Rob. Wait, I've got it! A basket! How about that?" He indicated a nearby stall with its assortment of cane merchandise. "Made on the premises, only the best pandanus leaf used, latest style —"
"Look, who's doing the selling around here?"
"All right then, you choose one !" She strolled along the bench. "Can I have this one, David?" The feather-light basket wasn't a large one but definitely attractive with its decoration of pink and white and brown shells.
When he had paid the smiling Fijian stall owner, they strolled on, listening to the mixture of foreign voices, intrigued by the colourful scene around them.
"Now this you could do with —" He paused at a small stall with its assortment of woven sunhats.
"How about yourself?" Robyn laugh
ed back.
"Why not?" Taking a wide woven sombrero from a big Fijian woman, he placed it at a rakish angle over his tanned face. "Like it?"
Smilingly, head on one side, she studied him. "Uh-huh,
there's a gorgeous shell ornament on one side."
"You're hedging. Let's see how it would look on you!" Very gently he slipped the sunglasses from her eyes and placed the hat over her bright hair.
She laughed, looking up at him.
"Keep it, Rob, it's just the thing for the Olooloo cruise —"
She stopped laughing and stared at him, lips parted in surprise. "Now just how did you guess that I was —" But he was paying the plump Fijian woman standing on the opposite side of the stall.
Admit it, she told herself. It's just wonderful to be going on the excursion with David! Awful how she kept forgetting that she shouldn't like him so much, feel so happy whenever she found herself in his company. But it was merely an outing, nothing of any importance, so why not make the most of the hot, sunshiny day?
"Let's get out of this mob," he was saying. A hand placed on her smooth tanned arm and he was guiding her through the throng of Indians, Fijians, and overseas tourists. Out in the open again they strolled along the seafront where Indian taxi-drivers were pulling up at the wharves and tourists were gathering near the various excursion vessels.
Although the glass-bottomed cruiser was rocking gently on sun-dappled water, the gangplank was not yet up. They dropped down on the wharf steps in the sunshine and David, taking a knife from his pocket, sliced the fresh pineapple, cutting away the prickly skin. The cool fruit with its sweet tangy favour was thirst-quenching and delicious. Afterwards they joined the group of tourists who were moving over the gangplank to the cruiser with its gay blue pennant, Olooloo, fluttering at the masthead.
"What does the name mean?" Robyn asked as they strolled along the deck.
"Can't you guess? Say it slowly. . . . loo . . . loo . . . the sound of doves." The soft haunting music of native guitars followed them as they moved along the deck beneath a canvas awning.
With relief she realised that he hadn't asked the question she dreaded. "Is Johnny back at the house yet?" Perhaps he had given up asking
A smiling Jijian crew welcomed them aboard and soon they were moving over the rippling blue sea. Presently the engines were cut and they drifted over the coral reef that made the water here free from sharks. They watched from the deck as youthful Fijian skin-divers dropped over the side, surfacing to bring with them from the deep, clusters of coral. A pretty native girl in a coral-pink bikini arranged the treasure from the sea on a small platform, then held up for observation a tropical jewelled fish before placing it in a small tank of seawater with other tiny fish. Heads craned eagerly forward and Robyn slipped from her shoulder the leather case holding her Instamatic. In the crowd pressing around her on all sides she found it impossible to view the exhibit the native girl was holding up until all at once David cleared a space for her and propelled her gently forward.
His tone was perfectly normal, so why was she so overwhelmingly aware of his nearness? How could you focus your gaze on a rubbery starfish when all you could think of was David's arm around you, his breath on your face? Blindly she clicked the shutter, then realised that he had no intention of releasing her until she had taken further shots. How could he guess the way in which he was affecting her? In quick succession she snapped a striped yellow-and-black butterfly fish, a coral-encrusted wine bottle and a puffer fish, an incredible sea creature with the strange ability to blow itself up when danger threatened until it resembled a baby's pink head.
"Did you ever —" Swinging around to David, she found she couldn't quite meet that bright gaze.
At length the skin-divers climbed aboard the cruiser, the attractive native girl threw fish and coral back into the deep and the throng of onlookers dispersed over the decks. The next moment engines throbbed into life and the cruiser was moving across the harbour in the direction of the Tradewinds Hotel, where the sea lapped against the dining room. A few steps over the floating jetty, then they were entering the Quarterdeck Restaurant with its wide balcony looking out over the sun-flecked water. Alongside, famous oceangoing yachts were tied up at the Anchorage Bar and a fleet of small craft moored nearby waited to take visitors by water-taxi to Suva.
David chose a nearby table and ordered drinks. They came served by a Fijian girl with a hibiscus in her hair and a wide and friendly smile. The drinks were cool and frosted with a lilac orchid clinging to the side of each tall glass. Robyn sipped idly, her gaze moving over the scattered atolls of the harbour, then back towards the luxury craft moored so close. "Dreamy island setting. You know, there must be some famous international yachts tied up here. Just look at that super one —" Her voice trailed away as a group appeared on deck, amongst them Johnny and a slight, sandy-haired young woman. A few moments later the two were strolling over the jetty towards them. Robyn, taking in the immaculate outfit of white slacks and nautical blue and white striped sweater, mused that for all the expensive garments and exquisite grooming, the other girl presented a painfully nondescript appearance.
Johnny appeared as surprised as herself at the unexpected encounter. For a few seconds he seemed at a loss for words, then the old rakish grin crossed his bronzed features. "Rob ! What on earth are you doing here? No, don't tell me, let me guess! You're on the Olooloo cruise, I bet! This is Noeline ... my sister Robyn ... David Kinnear Coolly assessing greenish eyes, cold as river pebbles, met Robyn's smiling greeting Somehow she had pictured the girl who Johnny had once cared for enough to want to marry as someone poised and attractive or, at the very least, pretty. What special quality could have drawn Johnny to this plain, sandy-haired girl with the discontented, pettish twist to her thin lips? Only ... money? The thought came unbidden and she thrust it aside.
Johnny was talking excitedly, almost as though he were trying to avoid an awkward pause or a question.
"Care to join us?" David asked in his affable tones.
"Sorry," Johnny answered quickly, "but we're due to sail in half an hour and time's running out."
"Pity," David observed easily, "I've got the plans all drawn up for the Islander alterations. They're just waiting for your okay before I get the builders on the job and we're away !"
In a moment Johnny's face had changed, all the light-hearted laughter wiped away. "Another time —"
"But, Johnny —" Noeline laid a thin, freckled hand on his arm.
"It doesn't matter," he told her. "It's nothing of any importance." Swinging around to David, he said in tense, angry voice, "Like I told you before, do as you like! You will anyway, so why keep on about it?"
"You're the owner, mate."
"I'm not the only one! Seeing you two are so friendly," there was an ugly twist to Johnny's lips, "why don't you get Robyn on the job instead?"
"I'll do that," David said quietly.
With no alteration in his even tone he had succeeded in putting Johnny firmly in his place, Robyn reflected, and his place at the moment was very definitely that of an ill-tempered, vindictive small boy. How could he be so insufferable?
"Go right ahead!" Robyn noticed the high flush on his cheekbones, "and good luck ! Come on, Noeline, time to go !"
Sick with humiliation, Robyn watched the other two as they threaded their way through the small tables. "He looked as if he'd a bit too much to drink," she offered lamely, "and besides, it must have made him furious seeing me ... with you. I mean, he'd never believe that we ran across each other by accident."
"Do you believe it, Robyn?"
At last she was forced to meet his smiling gaze. "I never dreamed —"
"I have, often! That's why when I got through to the
Islander this morning and Mrs. Daley told me, where you were heading for in Suva —"
"I might have known !" But the next moment other thoughts crowded in, the anxious mortifying recollection of Johnny's behaviour that drove everything else from m
ind. "Now he'll think — he'll think —"
"What does it matter what he thinks?" David laid a firm brown hand over her fingers. He added with his unshakeable good humour, "Too bad if he takes off. I'll have to make do with you instead for giving me a go-ahead with the plans. Not that I mind, you understand ?"
But she was too humiliated by Johnny's behaviour to listen to what he was saying. Thoughtfully she stirred the long cool drink with a sugar-cane swizzlestick. She said uncertainly, "He could be working on that yacht. You know? One of the crew?" Her tone gained confidence. "He often goes away like that, signs on a boat for a trip around the islands."
His voice was very gentle. "Haven't you noticed the name, Rob?"
She followed his gaze to the luxuriously appointed white yacht riding at anchor so close beside them. How could she have failed to see the black letters of Noeline?
"Oh!" There wasn't much else she could say. After a moment she murmured, "Wasn't that the girl who Johnny was going to marry, only he changed his mind right at the last moment before the wedding?"
"So they tell me. I wasn't here at the time. I shouldn't imagine a girl would forgive that sort of treatment, but apparently they're the best of friends now. Would you overlook a thing like that? Take him back, just as though nothing had happened?"
"Perhaps," Robyn said very low, "nothing else would matter, if I cared enough."
He grinned his easy grin. "Could be it's love — or revenge." "Revenge?" She was startled out of her thoughts. "What do you mean?"
"Nothing. Forget it. Just a crazy idea that ran through my head. I'm probably way off the beam. Anyway, what does it matter? Forget about Johnny, shall we? He's not really all that important in our scheme of things."
"Oh, but he is !"