by Gloria Bevan
tourist hotels and guesthouses that were springing up in the islands of the Fiji group. Come to think of it, she hadn't yet seen Johnny to thank him for putting the commissioned work her way. She had left a message for him at the Yacht Club in Suva asking him to come to the opening night celebrations at the Islander, but so far she had heard nothing. Surely if he was back in time from his cruise on the luxury yacht with Noeline and her parents he would be sufficiently interested to make an effort to be here for that one night. But she knew the hope was a frail one.
On three occasions Kevin had rung her from Suva inviting her out. He urged her to meet him in the city. They'd take in a dinner, a dance, an island show, anything she'd care to see. Robyn had made excuses why she couldn't go. She had to complete art orders, she was tied to the craft shop. Anything but the truth that she had no heart for anything except staying here waiting and hoping for David's arrival.
On the day of the magiti Robyn met Mrs. Daley in the hall. The older woman paused with a bright smile. "Did you ever see such a difference in a place? Every unit full all the time and bookings made for months ahead ! They say everyone in Fiji is talking about the success of the Islander. They call it the most attractive place in the islands. And that special continental chef David had brought over ... those tempting creations of his would be the end of anyone not wanting to put on weight. Have you tried his coconut cream pie?"
Robyn shook her head. She hadn't sampled the sumptuous meals so attractively served in the cool, native-style restaurant, It was difficult enough for her to choke down food at all when all the time she was fighting this sense of heartache. She would be thankful when tonight was over, then David would return to Suva and she wouldn't need to see him again. No, she wasn't glad, she wanted him on any terms, even if meeting him again was only misery and pain. Besides, how could she have forgotten, naturally he would be visiting the place as much as ever, only now it would be Maria whom he came to see !
The older woman echoed her thoughts. "You have to hand it to Maria. She's got everything arranged for the opening tonight. No trouble at all. Nothing seems to put her out and she's a marvellous linguist. Just look at her now! The way she's welcoming in that party from Europe you'd think they were the most important guests ever ! She's got a real gift for reception work. David was lucky to get her !"
Lucky to get her. The lightly-spoken words sent a pang through Robyn's heart.
"It's just a pity she doesn't know as much about Island ways as she does about tourism in Europe," Mrs. Daley was saying. "The Fijian girls don't take kindly to being ordered about in that authoritative, do-it-or-else sort of way. She hasn't an idea of how to handle staff out here in the islands. They're like children, trusting and laughing and happy, and they'll do anything for you if you treat them in the right way. Oh well," she murmured philosophically, "give her time and one of these days she'll find out that you get better results with the native staff if you play it friendly, let them work along at their own pace more or less, instead of expecting them to jump every time to your beck and call."
"I suppose so." So there was one aspect of management of which the super-efficient Maria was ignorant. For a moment Selani's wistful face flashed to mind. Involved in her own emotional problems, Robyn had scarcely been aware until this moment that the big dark eyes held a shadow of late. Now she came to think of it Selani didn't dissolve into helpless giggles as often as she used to. How could Maria understand? She knew nothing of life in these unspoilt islands where the lazy beat of island music formed an endless background to sea and sand and wind-tossed palms.
"But give her time," Mrs. Daley said cheerfully. "She'll learn, after she's lost a lot of good faithful helpers. Or maybe David will put her in the picture about the relaxed way of life in the South Pacific ... that is, if he isn't too wrapped up in her to criticise anything she does."
There it was put into plain words, the truth that she had
tried to explain away, but there was no denying it any more. Robyn fled before her unsteady lips and stricken eyes could give away her anguished feelings. Blindly she went out into the brilliant sunshine, hurrying past the pool where guests lazed in the limpid water or sipped ice-cold drinks at the tables set on the grass beneath giant sun-umbrellas. Everyone appeared happy and carefree, everyone but herself. She took a path leading through the wild tangle of coconut palms David had insisted be left undisturbed when the alterations to the buildings were made. High in the branches a chorus of bird song echoed sweetly on the air and she was conscious of the fragrance of frangipani growing wild along the narrow pathway. There was everything here to make her happy — except David ! And then she saw him! For all her resolutions her foolish heart gave that too familiar leap. It was too late to turn back, he had already caught sight of her, and slowly she went forward along the path to meet him. Was his smile really so heart-catching or was it merely her own imagining? Just as all at once the sunshine seemed burnished to a higher gleam, the birdsong a wild carol of sound ... and all because David was coming along the path towards her, his face lighted with the special look he seemed to keep just for her.
"I've been looking for you, Rob ! Come along, you're just in time !" Suddenly everything was different, the misery of the past weeks swept away as he caught her hand in his warm clasp and drew her along the path at his side.
She had to hurry to keep up with his long strides. "Where are we going?" she queried.
"You'll see in a minute! Ever heard of the firewalkers of Fiji?"
"Yes, but
They emerged from the wild tangle of palms on the wide road leading to the native village. The air was acrid with the smell of smoke and Robyn caught the sound of men's voices, melodious and singing in harmony. The next moment they turned a bend in the track and came in sight of a group of Fijian men who were busily hurling great logs on to the flames curling over the huge stones that littered an old pit in the clearing beneath the trees. As a heap of brushwood was thrown over the stones, the flames crackled and leaped high and David drew her back from the intense heat. "You haven't seen the performance yet, have you?"
His touch, his smile, the warm tones of his voice were doing things to her composure. Her mouth said, "I've read about them, and Johnny told me that they'd even performed the ceremony here once or twice, ages ago, when Dad had the place." Her mind was saying, How can he look at me like that, in that deep soft loving way, as though he's missed me as much as I've missed him, when all the time...
"It's really something! The firewalkers come from Beqa, as far as I know the only island in the world where the ritual's known. You can see Beqa from here ... there it is, that tiny smudge on the horizon . .." An arm thrown lightly around her shoulders, he gestured towards a small blur on the shimmering blue of the ocean.
It was no use. His nearness was working its way under her defences. Unsteadily she murmured, "Isn't it something to do with the fire god?"
His gaze was on the men throwing a big log on the leaping flames. "That's right. The legend runs that two priests on the island have handed on to the natives there the power to withstand heat from the fire god. The warriors prepare beforehand for firewalking on white-hot stones, and so long as the particular conditions are kept to, the embers won't worry them. They simply won't feel pain or any heat!"
"Conditions?"
"That means fourteen days' preparation for the special ones. No coconuts to be eaten, no contacts with women. I was darn lucky to have managed to persuade them to come here tonight. Usually the ritual only takes place on their own island and then only once a year. Believe me, Rob, it's a spectacle you'll never forget! They say some devotees undertake to walk the fire in order for the goddess Kali to cure illness in themselves or their loved ones. They believe their immunity to fire was given them by an ancestor who spared the life of a spirit-god he caught while fishing for eels."
"It's incredible!"
"Wait till you see it happen !" He had forgotten to take his arm from around her shoulders.
She caught the imperceptible tightening of the mobile mouth and back to her old uncertain self, heard her uneven tones rushing on. "I tried to get in touch with him to ask him to come to the opening tonight, but I couldn't contact him. I rang the Yacht Club when I was in Suva, but he was away at sea and they didn't know when he'd be back. I left a message there for him, but ... I just couldn't get him," she finished lamely.
"I didn't expect you would."
She shrugged his arm away. "What do you mean?"
"You know what I mean, Rob. Why not face up to things, stop kidding yourself? He's no intention of ever coming back here, not unless he can walk in with a lot of money to back himself up. As to returning here and working for a salary —no, you won't see brother Johnny back at the Islander, unless I miss my guess ! "
"You don't know him —"
"Do you?"
He was pleasant, as always. Was it the thought of Maria that drove her on to persist in this inane argument, made her say bitterly, "You never did trust him, did you?"
"What's got into you, Rob?" He reached out to put a hand over her own. "He doesn't matter."
His touch was making her tremble inside. "He does, to me."
But he chose to ignore the low murmur. "Forget about him, he's not worth the worry. Look," his eyes were on the chanting natives as they threw armfuls of brushwood on the flames, "I want to be around when you see the ceremony tonight. I've arranged for the firewalkers to come over from Beqa by outrigger in time to perform the ceremony after the island dinner. Chances are I'll be caught up with the crowd up till then, but I'll be here with you by the pit to watch the firewalkers. Right?"
An impulse she couldn't control forced the words. "I thought ... Maria ..."
"Maria won't be seeing this particular show." The light pleasant tones were all at once stern and unyielding. His tone deepened. "It's better for her to keep away. I made her promise me she'd give it a miss."
What could he possibly mean? Could it be that Maria could not be spared from important duties on this particular night and he wanted Robyn with him as a standin, a temporary fill-in when for some reason she couldn't understand, he couldn't be with Maria at the enactment of the exotic ceremony? She didn't know who she hated most at this moment —David, who was making a convenience of her, or her traitorous self, for feeling so wildly happy at the thought of being with him again, after all these days of absence !
After that it didn't matter that groups of guests came strolling towards the singing Fijians and soon David was engaged in explaining to them the significance of the blue smoke weaving among the palms overhead. It was enough just to watch him unobserved, to take in the face she loved ... fool that she was !
That afternoon she was glad of the guests crowded in at the entrance of the gift store. The eager hands thrust towards her helped to make her forget . other things. A charming Canadian woman asked her advice in the matter of a choice in the long gaily printed sulu she intended buying to wear at the island dinner tonight. Should she settle for the brown tortoise design or the one printed in green palm trees? Robyn, wrenching her mind from her own problems, was in favour of the palms. She also suggested a matching lei of brilliant blossoms that Selani and the other Fijian girls on the staff had made in preparation of the special island night. An elderly man with a sheepish grin made a purchase of a fun-shirt patterned in dancing dusky maidens, a shy young Fijian girl bought a tortoiseshell hair clasp, a business man selected a miniature model of a carved outrigger canoe to take back with him to his home in the States.
It wasn't until later when Selani arrived to relieve her at the counter that Robyn realised she had made no preparation in the way of special clothing for the evening ahead. She supposed she should make an effort to match the festive occasion in spite of her own feelings. She sighed. Just one more thing she owed to David. Maybe one of the long sulus the Fijian girls wore to such advantage would help her to look like everyone else at the makiti tonight, gay and island-orientated and carefree, no matter how she felt deep down.
In a temporary lull of customers Selani smiled down from her greater height. "What are you going to wear to the makiti, Miss Carlisle?" she asked shyly.
Robyn raised her heavy glance to the great dark eyes. "I haven't thought. Would you care to help me choose something?"
Selani's broad face broke into a teeth-revealing smile. "I know. This one for you — the butterfly frock." Turning towards the stand with its cluster of vividly patterned cotton fabrics, she extended towards Robyn a short frock.
"I'll slip it on." Robyn took it into the diminutive fitting room still littered with the piles of cardboard cartons she never seemed to find time to sort out and slipped the frock over her head.
In the mirror her face stared back at her with drooping lips
and shadowed eyes. She would have to do better than this.
"So lovely !" Behind her Selani's approving glance eased for a moment the sense of heartache. Robyn lifted her arms and the wide butterfly sleeves fell about her. The white-and tan patterning of the cool fresh cotton accentuated the translucent apricot of her skin.
"Wait!" Selani slipped away to the big refrigerator in another room, returning with a lei of creamy frangipani. She slipped the flowers over Robyn's shoulders and at once the perfume rose around her, heady and evocative, taking her back to David ... a deserted beach ... his kiss ... a flower lei she had tried to keep alive long after the blossoms had lost their freshness. Just as she was now trying to keep alive a fleeting lost love. Roughly she lifted the flower circle from around her neck. "Put it back, Selani." Then seeing the girl's face fall, she added, "Don't worry, I'll come and get it again later."
"What do you think of this, Robyn?" Maria had entered the room, a length of glittering spangled silk falling from her hands. In a few expert twists she had draped the flame-coloured material around her shoulders and moved to the mirror to study the effect.
Even in a sarong, Robyn thought uncharitably, Maria appeared as though the material were specially woven with her in mind. Aloud she murmured reluctantly, "It suits you." But she knew the other girl wasn't really interested in her opinion. With Maria's undoubted confidence in her powers of attraction, her near-perfect figure, she had no need of anyone else to tell her how well the bright silk with its silver embroidery complemented her appearance.
Robyn made her escape, snatching up the cotton butterfly frock that all at once seemed childish and cheap and ordinary.
The sun had set in a flaming ball over the horizon when a native boy blowing a conch shell gave the signal for young Fijians to light the torches throughout the grounds. From the window of her unit, Robyn watched as guests sauntered towards long trestle tables set out on the grass. The women wore vividly printed shifts and sarongs, bought for the occasion, woven scuffs on their feet, a hibiscus blossom in their
hair or a flower lei swinging around their shoulders. The men had twisted lengths of printed material around their waists, some wore a blossom behind an ear, and all were in holiday mood. And David ... from the shelter of the darkening room she saw him move across the shadowed lawns. Casually elegant in putty-coloured shorts, cream silk shirt, a bright cravat, he reached the tables, splashed at intervals with great mounds of hibiscus blossoms. He stood still surveying the guests milling around and obviously searching for someone. Maria, probably, she mused bitterly. It was unlikely that he would notice or even care particularly whether or not she herself was there
.
At last when she could delay no longer she moved along the flare-lighted path, a tall girl with long fair hair lifting on her shoulders in the breeze that was blowing the wide wings of the butterfly sleeves of her frock back from her bare arms.
"Robyn! I've been looking all over for you!" Kevin was beside her, his boyish face alight with pleasure. "I was just coming up to the house to ask Mum where you were —" He stopped short, aware of her expression of bewilderment. "Don't tell me you weren't expecting me tonight?"
"Oh yes, I was !" She gathered her wits together. How could she have forgotten their conversation on the telephone only last evening?
He led her towards a table where a party of air crew and hostesses were already seated. Robyn's swift glance raked the group, but neither Pam nor Bruce, the flight-engineer whom she had met on the occasion of her first island dinner, were amongst the party. How could she expect to see Pam here? What would be the use when Johnny had shown her only too plainly that he wanted to finish any emotional ties between them? Pam and Johnny, herself and David. Oh, why was everything so wrong?
She realised Kevin was touching her arm. "Any special seat?" She shook her head, scarcely realising what he was saying as her eyes searched the shadows. Then she caught sight of David as he strolled into the fitful light of the flares, a radiant glittering Maria at his side. At once his glance singled Robyn from the crowd and the other two came towards her. David drew her to his feet. "Just a word to mark the opening of the new motel, folks. First of all I'd like to introduce you all to the owner, Miss Robyn Carlisle ! "