by Daphne Clair
They came to a steep incline where a long gap in the trees ran like a broad, soft path of fallen leaves down to a shallow stream of water. Tony and the other mates exchanged grinning glances and finally Tony asked innocently, ‘Anyone game for a nikau slide?’
The entire party instantly reverted to childhood. Somewhat bewildering the foreigners among them, everyone else hunted about the forest floor under the numerous nikau palms, and bore happily back several fallen palm branches with their distinctive thick, bowl-shaped ends where they had been shed from the trunks, just the right shape and size to sit in.
Grasping the tough dead stem in front of them, they took it in turns to careen down the long slope, the trick being to get up a good speed but to stop in time to avoid being dunked in the stream at the bottom.
The Japanese girls and Xianthe descended shrieking and barely escaped that fate. Reid tumbled off his nikau near the end, rolling to the stream’s lip, but saved himself and leapt up with fists held high, to ironic cheers from the onlookers. And Annys, following hot on his heels, managed to keep her balance while speeding down, and neatly brought herself to a halt by digging in her heels and pulling the stem round so that she slewed to a more or less graceful halt.
‘Good going,’ Reid said to her as she got to her feet and acknowledged the admiring applause from the others.
‘Thanks.’ She met his eyes with triumph in hers. Then Jane came rocketing out of control down the slope, slid between them, shouting, ‘Way! Aaargh! and landed with a forceful splash, showering them with water.
Together they bent to help her out, sodden and howling with mirth.
The crew had packed a picnic lunch which they ate at the foot of a formidable bluff of sheer grey rocks. Then an experienced climber among the staff took charge and gave them a brief lecture and demonstration, and invited those who wished to climb to the top of the bluff.
‘Not me,’ Xianthe said, shuddering. ‘No way. There are limits, and I think I’ve reached mine.’
‘There’s a path to the top too,’ Tony reassured her, ‘if you’d rather do it the easy way. But if you’ve climbed the mast, this is a breeze, honestly.’
Reid and Annys stepped forward, and she was aware of a few knowing smiles among the others. It was decreed that Jane, as she had some experience, would work with the crew members who were spaced among the amateurs to help them if they got into difficulties. ‘It’s an easy climb, though,’ Tony assured them.
‘What we’re doing,’ the instructor told them, ‘is free-climbing, using our bodies alone, hands and feet—and brains. We’ll be using ropes for safety, but not as aids to pull us up, unless we’re in trouble. The rock will help you.’
Annys saw Reid raise his brows in silent scepticism as he glanced at the formidable-looking grey wall before them, and she couldn’t help smiling as he caught her eye before returning his gaze to the instructor.
‘If you’re stuck, relax and focus your mind. Concentrate on what’s in front of you and on your next movement. If you’re scared that’s to your advantage. It’ll stop you making stupid mistakes.’
There didn’t seem to be any handholds or footholds on the smooth rock, but, as they began the ascent, and she watched the more experienced climbers above her and followed their movements, Annys discovered how a small crack could take a hand to haul her up, and a tiny irregularity in the rock give just enough purchase for her toes or the side of her foot, enough to get her to the next one.
When she seemed unable to find a foothold, Jane’s voice said, ‘Up a bit. You’ll find a hold there, to your left.’
She found it and experienced a thrill of satisfaction.
‘That’s right. Now jam your toes in there to give you a grip while you find the next one.’
The rope secured about her midriff gave her a sense of security, but when she saw Reid, just below her and to one side, slide several feet down the face, she stopped, clamping her lips hard on a scream. Tony had him on a rope, and he came to a halt, flattened himself against the rock for a moment and then looked up, grinning, lifting a thumb.
Annys swallowed, and breathed again, and responded to Jane’s ‘Hey, you all right there, Annys?’ with a shaky smile before resuming the ascent.
When they stood at the top, Reid coming over the lip soon after her, she saw that his hands were smeared with blood.
‘What have you done?’ she asked involuntarily.
‘It’s nothing. Scraped them when I slipped, that’s all.’ He looked at her with a sudden gleam in his eyes. ‘Worried, were you?’
‘Not particularly,’ she said immediately. ‘As they said, it’s an easy climb, and with ropes. You weren’t likely to come to any real harm.’
They were given a choice of walking down or abseiling. The crew rigged the gear, and one by one most of the amateurs were roped down the rock face. Even Xianthe took a deep breath and decided to try, landing at the bottom with obvious relief, but clearly pleased with herself as she waved at Reid and Annys peering over the top. Reid, waving back, said, ‘She’s a plucky kid, our Xianthe.’
When Tony asked, ‘Who’s next?’ Reid turned to Annys and made a mock-courteous gesture, murmuring, ‘Ladies first.’
‘You can go,’ she offered.
He shook his head. ‘I insist.’
They were the only two left now. Wondering if his slip on the climb up had made Reid nervous, she looked at him consideringly and said, ‘OK.’
But as she stepped towards the firmly anchored rope, Reid said to Tony, ‘Actually, I thought I’d climb down.’
‘Climb down?’
‘Without the rope,’ Reid added.
Annys whipped her head around.
The climbing instructor was grinning. ‘Think you can make it?’
‘Sure I can,’ Reid said confidently.
‘He’s hurt his hands,’ Annys heard herself say loudly. ‘He can’t!’
Tony was preparing to clip on her harness for the abseil, but she pushed it away. ‘He can’t!’ she said again.
Reid was looking at her quizzically. ‘Who says I can’t?’ he asked softly.
‘Let’s have a look at your hands,’ the instructor said. ‘Maybe you’d better not-—’
‘A couple of scratches,’ Reid told him impatiently. ‘It’s nothing.’
Tony said, ‘We can’t accept responsibility—’
‘My responsibility,’ Reid told him. ‘I’m not a teenager. If I wasn’t sure I wouldn’t do it.’
‘I’ll go first,’ the instructor said.
Reid shrugged. ‘As you like.’ Turning to Annys, he said, ‘On your way, then.’
‘If you’re climbing down, so am I,’ she said.
‘Don’t be an idiot.’
‘I’m no more an idiot than you are,’ she argued. ‘I haven’t already had a fall and injured myself!’ Her eyes narrowing, she said, ‘That’s what it’s about, isn’t it? It’s because you didn’t make a perfect climb, and now you want to prove something.’ And also, she was sure, it was because he’d seen her wondering if the near-accident had shaken him.
‘And if I do,’ he said, ‘is it any of your business?’
Tony and the other man were trying to look as though they weren’t there.
‘No,’ Annys admitted finally. ‘No more than my wanting to climb down is yours.’
His mouth tightened. Then he nodded grimly and turned to the instructor. ‘Let’s go, then.’
Tony looked at her determined expression and shrugged hopelessly. He murmured something about ropes, but Annys was already following the two men over the edge.
There was a murmur from below when it became obvious what they were going to do. Then everyone seemed to be holding their breath. In dead silence, except for an occasional quiet word of advice from the instructor, they inched their way down, moving feet and hands carefully, groping with their toes, their fingers, for every small purchase they could find.
‘Use your feet,’ the instructor reminded them. Then, �
�Get your fingers into that crack there on your right, now twist them. Good, now feel with your foot, see if you can fit a toe in there—no, there. That’s right.’
Once she paused, thinking there was no way she could get any further, that there was no place she could reach any more with her fingers, her toes.
Reid’s voice said sharply, ‘What’s the matter, Annys? Are you all right?’
‘Yes.’ She took a couple of breaths, her cheek pressed against the hard stone. Concentrate on your next move, she remembered. The rock will help you...
Her toes touched something, slipped, swung. She gripped with her fingers on an inch-wide ledge above her. On the way up the instructor had said it was plenty big enough. On the way up they’d had ropes.
‘To your right,’ the instructor’s voice came quietly. She moved her foot again, searching, and found a fissure, shoved her shoe into it, cautiously moved her hands, and was climbing down again.
When they finally leapt to the ground there was a rousing cheer, and Tony clapped them both on the shoulders. ‘This goes into the ship’s log as a record,’ he said, before joining the others who were packing up ready to trek back to the ship.
Reid held out his hand to Annys, an odd light in his eyes, and she took it, feeling the rough, gritty palm, and the dampness of blood. When she drew hers away and looked at the pink smear on her own skin, he said, ‘Sorry. I didn’t think.’
‘You didn’t think much up there, either,’ she said, suddenly swept by an inexplicable rage. Dropping her voice, she added, ‘What the hell were you trying to prove, anyway?’
‘What the hell were you?’ he replied, and inclined his head questioningly at her, a sardonic curve on his mouth. Then he walked away without waiting for an answer.
CHAPTER FIVE
After that landfall they cleared the coast for the open sea. There was nothing, Annys discovered, quite like the sensation of being on the yards when the ship was dipping and swaying on a sunlit sea with no land in sight. Fear was outweighed by the sheer pleasure of feeling the sea breeze and watching the gulls beating silently alongside, their ringed eyes on a level with hers. Sometimes on her off-watch she climbed up there just to experience it, and once stayed there for an hour.
When she came down, Reid was lounging against the rail at the bottom of the shrouds.
‘Enjoy yourself?’ he asked her.
‘Yes. It’s peaceful up there.’
He looked up, and then back at her. ‘Good.’
She wouldn’t have been surprised if he’d gone up himself and spent two hours aloft just to show her that he could.
A lot of Reid’s time, Annys noticed, was spent helping Xianthe deal with tasks she found difficult, from rigging a block and tackle to stowing the sails. And she seemed to thrive on his attention. She’d gained confidence and was pulling her weight on the watch more effectively every day. ‘This is great, isn’t it?’ she said, sitting on the deck housing with Annys and Jane while the wind cooled their faces and filled the white sails above them. ‘Worth it all?’ Annys asked.
‘Worth being terrified out of your mind, and getting seasick, and going without showers and having to wash your hair in salt water?’ Xianthe grinned. ‘Just now, yes. This is how I imagined it. My great-great-grandmother was married to a whaling captain; she went on one of his whaling voyages with him. They used to take years. I read her diary when I was fifteen, and ever since I’ve had a hankering to experience a sailing ship for myself. It just makes me feel that I’m—sort of reliving her life.’
Jane said, ‘Creepy!’
Xianthe laughed. ‘No. But I reckon it’ll make me a better actor. All this new stuff. And new people. I’m having so much fun. People have been awfully good about me being an absolute fool at knots and things.’ Her eyes wandered, and Annys, following her gaze, saw that she was watching Reid walk along the deck to stand with one hand on the ropes, bracing himself against the rise and dip of the ship as it rode through the waves.
Maybe she ought to warn Xianthe that she might be riding for a fall. But of course she couldn’t do anything of the sort. Xianthe was old enough to look out for herself, and a warning from an ex-wife would seem like nothing less than the revenge of a woman scorned. Or worse, simple jealousy.
And jealousy, of course, had nothing to do with it.
It was Xianthe herself who brought the subject up, the following day.
Dressed in a pair of shorts that showed off her long, tanned legs, and a skimpy tube top, she approached Annys where she’d been standing alone at the prow letting the wind blow her hair back off her face, and said quietly, ‘Can I talk to you?’
‘What about?’ Annys tightened her hold on the rail, suspecting what was coming.
‘Well...’ Glancing at her and then away, to the rippling sea before them, Xianthe said, ‘Reid. You used to be married, he said.’
‘Used to be,’ Annys agreed.
‘I just wondered...’ Xianthe’s voice trailed off unhappily.
‘You’re not asking me for a character reference, are you?’ Annys asked crisply. ‘Because if so you’ve come to the wrong person.’
Xianthe looked shocked. ‘Oh, no! No, it’s just—well, I like him. I don’t like very many men, as a matter of fact, and I just wondered...’ she repeated. ‘I mean, do you mind? Not that he’s—nothing’s happened between us. Only if he liked me too and if anything came of it— I wouldn’t want to make you—you know— uncomfortable.’
‘Why should you worry?’ Annys asked.
‘Because we’re all on this ship together,’ Xianthe pointed out.
‘In the same boat,’ Annys agreed drily. ‘And it’s not a very big one. You don’t want to rock it, you mean?’
Xianthe nodded. ‘Yes. You do see what I mean.’
‘It’s good of you to be so concerned,’ Annys told her, ‘but you needn’t bother. Everything was over between Reid and me ages ago. Believe me, you’re welcome to him.’
She turned and saw Reid standing by the companionway, staring towards them. Their eyes met for a moment, and she was surprised at the depth of hostility in his. Then he spun round and disappeared below decks.
The wind had freshened, and the captain headed for land, expecting what Tony called a ‘willawaw’. In no time, it seemed, black clouds had raced up from the horizon to cover the sky, the blue sea had broken up in grey, choppy swells, and several people were hanging over the lee rail.
Volunteers were called for to lay aloft, and Annys found herself climbing the shrouds just behind Reid. The rain hit them as they reached the yards, and, while a dozen people fought to contain the sails and secure them, the ship bucked and shuddered and the wind tried to hurl them off their precarious footing on the ropes.
She scarcely registered that it was Reid working shoulder to shoulder with her until the task was done and some of the others were already climbing down. He looked at her with rain streaming down his face and plastering his hair to his forehead, and grinned and held out a hand, palm out.
Unthinkingly she grinned back, feeling the rain run into her mouth, her hair dripping, and slapped her hand against his in mutual congratulation.
He momentarily gripped it in his. ‘OK?’
‘OK!’ Annys confirmed.
‘Better get yourselves down!’ Tony was shouting to them from the deck, and Reid looked down and waved a reassurance.
Annys shook back her soaked hair, her eyes still on Reid. She had a wild, fierce urge to stay where they were and enjoy the coming storm, and when he returned his gaze to hers she knew he felt it too, but she nodded and moved her feet along the rope to make the descent.
The squall harried them for several hours. Safety lines were rigged on the deck, and everyone who wasn’t being sick was needed to work the ship. They were given rainproof gear, but Annys was already wet underneath the bulky yellow parka. Walking near the rails, she got soaked in spray, and waves washed across the deck, filling her shoes with water and dragging at her ankles. Once the s
hip heeled broadside to the waves, the remaining sails flapping, and she lost her footing and went down, sliding feet first along sloping deckboards towards the churning sea.
A hard arm stopped her, pulling her back, and she grabbed for the safety rope, then turned to find Reid still with one arm clamped about her midriff.
‘Thanks,’ she said, raising her voice against the gusting of the wind and the hissing of the water. ‘You can let go now.’
He looked down at her and suddenly bent his head, finding her cold lips with his.
The kiss was brief and hard, and his lips tasted of salt water and were cold, too, but as they parted hers she felt his warm breath enter her mouth, mingling with her own, and a quick, dizzy heat warmed her body.
Then he had moved away, and she stood up and struggled along the deck with him, holding the safety rope and forcing herself to concentrate on what Tony was asking them to do.
The captain started up the diesel engine, and the ship motored to Great Barrier Island, scurried into a bay and lowered anchors to ride the storm out. Annys went below to rub herself down and put on dry, warm clothes. On one of the bunks, Xianthe was clutching a stainless steel bucket in one arm, her face almost as pale as the cream-coloured pillow beneath her, her dark hair tangled. Her other hand pressed a dampened facecloth against her forehead, and her eyes were closed.
‘Can I get you anything?’ Annys asked as she did up her jeans and pulled on a thick woollen jersey.
Barely opening her mouth, Xianthe murmured, ‘No, thanks.’
Annys dragged a brush through her hair. A drink of water?’ she suggested. ‘You don’t want to get dehydrated.’