'Dan!' Foolishly she shouted, although she knew he was far out of range of any voice, and her rather desperate cry brought Josie hurrying from the kitchen. 'Mr. Dan, he's gone to take them away!' she said in a gleeful voice and then her eyes fell properly on Anna. 'Oh, my dear lord!'
Anna heard her calling frantically for Abe and then she fainted
'You are going to be all right. Abe is going to catch Mr. Dan at the quay and he's going to have you in hospital so fast you won't even know it!'
There was blackness again and confusion. At one time she felt strong arms reach for her and she knew it was Dan. She was so sure that she murmured his name, but he didn't answer and she knew he was angry with her for this further trouble. She tried to explain but he wouldn't let her, he just pulled her face to his shoulder and held her too tightly.
It was allover, she knew that. She had caused so much turmoil in his tranquil life, kept him from California and Daphne, kept him from his son: She would never go back to Amara Cay. Distantly she heard herself telling him, her own words ringing in her mind. 'I'll never go back to the island, never, never!'
She awoke to a bright, sunny room, a comfortable, white bed, and at first she couldn't take it in. She moved her foot gingerly but it wasn't painful, just a little tender. How had they done it so quickly, and where was Dan?
'Hello! Awake and alert at last. We were beginning to wonder when it would happen!'
It was a doctor, and he walked to the bed to smile down at her.
'I don't seem to know where I am.'
She smiled up at him rather tentatively, the anxiety in her at the thought of Dan keeping her silent when she wanted to ask about him. She seemed to have a vague memory of Dan being there, in fact she could almost feel him in the room, but she dreaded bringing up the subject.
'You're in Nassau, in hospital.' He looked at her seriously. 'You're a very lucky young lady. If it hadn't been for Mr. Toren's servant's quick action and Mr. Toren's own speed in getting you here, I shudder to think what the consequences would have been.'
'My-my foot was so painful. Did you look at it? It doesn't hurt much now.'
'I looked at it and operated on it, and no, it won't hurt much now. You've been here for a week. It's had time to heal.'
'A week?' Dim memories flooded back, memories of Dan, talking to him, explaining. 'Was Mr. Toren here?'
'All the time. He left last night for the first time when the fever broke and you went into a sound sleep. I doubt if he's slept for the whole week more than the odd few minutes. He refused to leave. I suppose he's in some way responsible for your well-being?'
There was this look again. The same speculating look that seemed to come her way so often when Dan was mentioned, arid she longed to either lie or tell him to mind his own business. 'I sent him to get some sleep,' he continued when it became apparent that she was not about to enlighten him, 'but I've little doubt that he'll be back later.'
'What-why did my foot ...?'
'Coral. A small piece was lodged under the skin. That type of coral can cause a fever if you just get a sharp jab from it. You did better than that. You got a fair-sized piece in your foot and kept it there. It had a field day! Mr. Toren, of course, explained about the diving, but he said you had flippers on.'
'Not all the time.' She explained about her minor accident and he looked more severe than ever, every last bit of speculation leaving his eyes and a hard, reprimanding look taking over.
'It should have been attended to at once. Even then, you would have needed medical treatment. I can't understand why you told nobody!'
Pride, she thought. Pride and shame and a desire to escape from Dan's censure. She could no more stand that from him now than she ever could, and it had caused all this trouble. What would he think now? She closed her eyes before she disgraced herself completely by crying, and the doctor left the room silently.
Dan came later and she was shocked at the sight of his pale face, the tired look in his eyes.
'How do you feel?' He sat by the bed but made no attempt to touch her. 'They say you can leave in a couple of days, but you know best how you feel.'
'I feel a bit weak, but apart from that I'm perfectly fine.'
'All right. I'll make arrangements for you to leave in two days, then.'
'Will-will you fetch me?'
She was suddenly desperately anxious. He was quite cold, distant, and she felt that terrible wave of loneliness again.
'No. I have to leave tonight for the States. The script wasn't finished, but Anita demanded to go. It has to be finished now. There's money hanging on the time factor.'
'I-I know. Dean told me. How will I get back to the island? Will Abe fetch me?'
'No. You're not going back to Amara Cay! You're going home. I'll have all your things brought here before I leave for America, and I'll have you a ticket to London waiting at the airport. I've already had money transferred to your bank. It will be ready for you when you get home.'
'You said I couldn't leave,' she reminded him in dismay. 'You said you wouldn't let me go!'
'An amorous game, Anna! I have things to do, commitments of my own, so do you. You go home as soon as you leave hospital!' His voice was harsh and cold and the tawny eyes never flinched when she looked at him.
'I have no home.' Her dark eyes seemed to fill her face and he moved irritably, a frown creasing his tanned brow. '
'You have plenty of money and a first-class honors degree. You have a life in England and I have one here. You never wanted a guardian, and heaven knows I never wanted the job anyway! I can remember when you were determined to go overseas. I can also remember that you had a career planned in any number of spheres! As to a home, you're almost twenty-two and there's Langford Hall.'
'No, there isn't, not any more.'
She slid down the bed, turning her face away into the pillow. He didn't want her. He never had, except for those few times when she had thrown all self-respect away and almost begged to be loved. He was stepping back into his own life, back to Daphne, back to a little boy called Trevor. The island days were over. Dan had never belonged to her.
She heard her own pained cry on the beach. 'You're mine!' He had said it too, but he hadn't meant it. An amorous game, a game he was used to. She closed her eyes and shut the tears inside, and he stood for a moment before walking out.
'Goodbye, Anna.' His hand touched her hair and then he was gone.
Tears never came, they would not. She asked herself what she had expected. It was no shock, really. She had always known that Dan belonged to someone else, she had known that for nearly five years. It was just that she was obsessed with him, thoughts of him filling every waking moment and most of her dreams. She would have been anything he wanted her to be. He didn't want her to be anything. He just wanted her out of his life, as he had always done.
She had never expected to have another visitor, but on her last day in hospital Josie came, her dark face round and anxious until she saw that Anna was well again. She was resplendent in her visiting clothes, her white hat sitting proudly on her head.
'You give us some shock,' she said earnestly. 'Abe and me, we thought you were a goner!'
'I'm really stupid,' Anna admitted, touched by Josie's concern. 'I made so much trouble.'
'I'm sure going to miss you, honey,' Josie confessed almost tearfully. 'I had to get here early before I go over to the island for the day. We'll be late but I wanted to see you before you go home to England. We brought your cases in last night,' she added mournfully.
'Yes. I'll have to be getting up soon ready for the flight. I'm glad you came, Josie. I'm going to miss you, too. There's not going to be much to do at the island now that Mr. Toren is in California, though. It doesn't matter if you're late, does it?'
'He isn't in California, honey!' Josie assured her, giving her an anxious look, no doubt wondering if she was still feverish.
'He's right there on Amara, as tight as a drum and as mad as hell! That there film star u
pset everything. Mr. Dan's going to be days recovering, then he was here all that week with you, not sleeping. It's not the same now. I sure wish you were coming back.'
Anna heard nothing but the one piece of information that shook her. Dan was not in America. He had lied to her. He had wanted her out of his life so much that he had been prepared to lie, told her more than any words could tell. Josie looked worriedly at the clock and said she would have to go. She had never felt so unwanted, so shunned. The time for her plane could not come soon enough.
Everything had been laid on to make her departure smooth. A taxi collected her, her ticket was waiting for her and all she had to do was keep on walking. Her foot was little more than a minor irritation now, and she had been given strict instructions about keeping an eye on it. At the last minute the doctor had looked a little surprised that she was simply going back to England, but she had kept her own counsel. She always would.
The other passengers barged into her, tourists going home. That was where she was going, home. She stared straight ahead and just nodded vaguely at the taxi driver when he put her bags down; even his tip had been dealt with. Dan was ruthlessly efficient. She was left standing with her luggage, lost in an island of grief as the other people washed around her with a kind of frantic energy.
She was pushed aside frequently, never seeming to get to the counter to check in her baggage, and finally she pulled it out of the way, sitting down to stare at it for no good reason. There seemed to be a panicky feeling here, but it hardly touched her. She, felt as if she was held by a strong, tight thread that wouldn't let go, the plane a monstrous thing that would take her from Dan.
Her thoughts turned homewards and were lost in dismay. The rest of her life without him was a black and horrifying thought. The thread pulled tighter and held her fast as she realized that whatever had been in her life before was now gone. Elaine and Steve, Bryan, her days at Oxford were mere dreams, hardly touching her. There was only Dan, and panic welled up in her throat at the thought of leaving him. She was prepared to beg for a little more time. One more time to see his face.
One more time to watch him walk towards her. It was little to ask. She would go back to England tomorrow. She could pay her own fare.
'I don't want to go on this plane. Can I hand the ticket in for someone else?' The woman at the desk looked at her as if she was out of her mind, but she shrugged and nodded.
'Leave your name and address and you can have a refund. We have more passengers than places. There'll be no difficulty in filling one seat. Somebody's going to bless you!'
But not Dan. He would be coldly angry. It didn't matter, what mattered was seeing him this last time, filling her memory with him to sustain her through the future. She left her bags at the left luggage and hurried out to get a taxi to the quay, not at all sure as to how to proceed from there, but filled with a great burst of nervous energy.
There were a few boats in and a few men standing around talking. It was unnaturally still, hot and dry, and they all ignored her.
'Can I get a boat out to Amara Cay? It's terribly urgent!'
She was in a white dress, a small case in her hand with enough clothes for one day. After that, Dan would throw her out, probably frog-march her up the steps of the next plane, but for now she could see nothing but his face.
The men seemed to be holding a wordless discussion, their eyes going from the sea and sky to her anxious face and back again. It was her anxiety that won, she was sure.
'I'll take her. My boat's faster than either of yours.' The man was reluctant and got her into the boat with speed, but she was not looking for gallantry, she just wanted to see Dan.
The man was silent and the boat simply flew, pushed to the limit, she was certain. She knew that these people were not at all talkative until they knew you, and that then they never stopped talking. This man was no exception, but he made no attempt to introduce any conversation, and even if he had she would have been too agitated to reply. His sole concern was speed, though, and as he came carefully to the small quay at Amara he leapt out and lifted her to the wooden landing before she had any chance to make a move.
'How much do I ...?'
Her case was beside her and he was already in gear and moving out.
'Mr. Toren pays, next time you in Nassau!' He just shouted out to her, already moving into the next gear.
She wondered what was going on in Nassau. He wasn't even interested in money. No wonder he hadn't been interested in her! He was out, turned and away before she even had her small case in her hand, and she felt quite glad. If Dan had seen her arrive, he would have paid gladly to put her back on board.
It dawned on her then that Dan's launch wasn't here; neither was Abe's. The whole place was silent, the calm of the sea, and the stillness of the air and the utter silence of the island uncanny.
She began to walk to the house, looking at it as she had once looked at Langford Hall, seeing it afresh with eyes that knew it was for the last time. The gardens looked so bright, the lawns so green, the hibiscus by the veranda brilliantly glowing. It reminded her of the one she had placed in her hair, of her words to Dan on the beach, the distressed cry that had come from her heart.
He was not here. How could he be? If he had been here, he would have heard the boat come in. She walked into the house, her own footsteps the only sound, and then she began to go from room to room. The house was deserted, and so, apparently, was the island. She stood in the hall for a second, irresolute, and unable to understand it all. Had Dan gone to California after all? Had Josie been mistaken? Perhaps she had arrived to find that Dan was preparing to leave and had then gone back to Nassau with Abe.
A strong breeze began to blow from the sea and Anna welcomed the suddenly cooler air, the end of the unnatural stillness. It was blowing sand into the hall, a thing that had never happened before, and almost absent mindedly she walked across to shut the door, her eyes not really seeing anything, her mind too puzzled. What was she going to do now? She sat down on the edge of a chair, trying to think it all out, jumping alarmingly as the front door opened and then banged shut.
As she hurried into the hall, her heart leapt to see Dan dusting sand from his clothes, his thick hair untidy and windswept. At first he didn't see her, but she took one hesitant step forward and he looked up in surprise, his eyes widening in shock as he saw who was there.
'Anna!'
He was like someone carved from stone and her nerve deserted her entirely. Words refused to come. She could neither move nor look away.
'What the hell are you doing here?' His face was furious and he took one menacing step towards her. 'Why aren't you on that plane?'
'I-I let it go. I wanted to....'
He strode across and grasped her shoulders, shaking her, his eyes blazing down at her, anger in every fiber of his body.
'What did you want? Answer me! I told you that you weren't coming back here. I don't want you here! Why have you come back?'
His hands were hurting, biting into her shoulders, and her head fell before the force of his furious rejection. 'I wanted to see you. I wanted to ... just once more.. .'
It was only a whisper, there were too many tears choking her, and his whole body went still. Slowly he released her shoulders, and she thought he was going to walk away and leave her standing there. She had been prepared to beg, and it seemed that she would have to. But he gave a strange, deep sigh and pulled her into his arms, holding her tightly, and his face against her hair.
'You crazy little thing!' he said harshly. 'Why did you have to come back? Why now?'
There was no sign of the rueful humor and she nodded quickly, his urgent words reaching her even through her feeling of elation that he had clasped her so tightly to him, although it had been preceded by a shaking.
'Let me stay tonight, Dan,' she pleaded, unable to raise her head, his arms holding her too tightly. 'Tomorrow I'll go and never come back!'
'Maybe you'll get more than you bargained for,' he w
arned in a gruff voice, his hand tilting her face. He shook his head ruefully, his lips twisted wryly. 'There's no alternative but to stay now, whether I want you to or not. I've got the launch anchored out at the other side of the island, everything lashed down as tightly as I can. That's where I was when you came, obviously. There's no other way of leaving Amara Cay. By the time I got the boat back round here and you into it, it would be too late!'
'Too late?' He was so deadly serious, and she looked at him urgently.
'You've come back to face a hurricane, Anna!' His eyes ran over her strained face, the long black hair and her slender neck. 'Now we'll find out just what sort of mermaid you are! Let's hope that Neptune realizes you're here and remembers that you're one of his own.'
He let her go and stood away, glancing at his watch. 'We've got about two hours, if that ... Let's move!' She didn't much care what she was facing so long as Dan was there, and as he strode into the kitchen she almost ran behind him.
'As you're here, you may as well make yourself useful. Don't count on two hours, either. At the moment we've, got power. Make a meal, make sandwiches for later, and find any vacuum flasks we have and fill them with hot drinks.' He turned and gripped her arms. 'And from now until this is over, when I tell you to do something you do it at once! Is that clear?'
'Whatever you say.'
He glanced at her ironically and walked out, and she soon heard banging coming from the back of the house; but she got on resolutely with her own tasks. There were plenty of them.
She had no idea what a hurricane was, other than the stormy scenes she had seen on films. It would have been exciting, but right now the excitement of being near Dan was uppermost, and his attitude to the coming storm had been too serious for her to take it lightly. She hurried with everything, only taking off a few minutes to slip to her room and change into the jeans and shirt she had brought with her.
She finished her other tasks while the meal was cooking and went into the hall as Dan came striding back, grimfaced.
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