Authors: Pamela Kent
She was amazed that he could even suspect she had once kissed Tom Paget as she had just kissed him.
‘Of course not,’ she answered indignantly.
He relaxed, and held her close to him again. He breathed broken sentences into her hair.
‘This is a strange thing that has happened to us, Karin. Ashore it might never have happened. You might even have decided you preferred a Tom Paget.’
‘And you?’ she inquired, in a shaken whisper.
‘I don’t know. I’ve been harbouring a grievance for so long.’
‘A grievance?’
‘I’ll tell you about it some time.’
‘Had it anything to do with—’ She was about to say, ‘Sarah?’ when a noise occurred in the wood behind them, and as it was impossible to gather what was happening beyond a radius of a couple of feet she pressed nearer to him in alarm.
‘It’s all right, darling,’ he said softly, tightening his arm about her protectively and at the same time stroking her hair. ‘I’m
h
ere, and I won’t let anything harm you. In any case,’ more whimsically, ‘it was only a bird, or just possibly a monkey. So long as it doesn’t start showering us with coconuts we’ll be all right.’
Karin wondered dreamily whether this was really happening to her, or whether it was all part of her imagination. And she knew that if coconuts started falling all about them she wouldn’t mind.
The moon rose over the sea, and she was able to see his face. She found herself peering up at it anxiously. ‘Kent—’ she began.
‘Yes, my sweet?’
‘You didn’t really think I
—
wasn’t very nice to know when you first met me on the ship, did you?’
‘Of course not, you foolish child.’
‘I
— I
suppose I liked you from the beginning.’
‘Did you?’ She could see his green eyes smiling at her in the moonlight. ‘Like is rather a cool word, but I understand what you mean. You didn’t precisely learn to hate me even after I behaved so abominably to you. And now that we’re on somewhat better terms I’ll admit that I derived a kind of pleasure from being unpleasant to you.’
‘Oh, no!’ she exclaimed, as if he had deliberately hurt her.
She could feel his long index finger caressing the smooth side of her cheek.
‘Don’t worry, darling, I’m not really
a sadist ... But
you rose so beautifully to every aff
r
ont I put upon you, and your eyes were always so big and indignant when I said something out of turn. I began to enjoy that look of indignation almost as much as I enjoyed your schoolgirlish blushes when they appeared. And you do blush most beautifully,
sweetheart
...
which is a somewhat singular thing in this day and age.’
‘Is it?’ as if she thought it a doubtful compliment in any case.
‘Yes. And of course your red hair informed
me
at once that you had
a temper...’
‘There’s a certain amount of red in your hair, too.’
‘I know. That’s why we fight one another ... even when we don’t want to fight. We’ll probably go on doing so for the rest of our lives if we’re stuck on this island as long as that.’
She spoke to him thoughtfully all at once.
‘You don’t really think we’ll be stuck here very long, do you?’
‘No. Fifty years ago it could have happened.’
‘But in your opinion we might be rescued at any time—?’
‘So anxious to make contact with the world again, darling?’ with a gentle note of rebuke in his voice. ‘Isn’t it enough to be here with me?’
Her eager lips, when he touched them gently with his own mouth, informed him that it was. With a muffled exclamation he caught her close again, kissed her in a way that deprived her of breath, and then spoke jerkily:
‘If as a result of sheer misfortune we’re not taken off the island for some time I’ll have to stop making love to you, Karin..
.’
‘Why?’ she demanded breathlessly, and then blushed fierily under his somewhat quizzical regard and wished she hadn’t.
Kent sighed.
‘My dearest girl, for one thing it’s taking advantage of you—’
‘And if I don’t mind?’
‘Then it’s a slightly caddish thing to do, considering the circumstances.’ He waved a hand to indicate the loneliness and emptiness around them, closing them in on all sides. ‘And if ever we get back to civilization you might have second thoughts—’
‘You said we will, and I won’t,’ she assured him somewhat tremulously.
He smiled at her. She could see his white teeth flashing against the brown of his skin.
‘So sure?’
‘Yes.’
He sobered all at once. The slightly crooked line of white teeth vanished, and he thrust his hands into his trouser pockets and started pacing up and down.
‘Then I’ll have to advance some other reason,’ he remarked curtly. ‘Possibly one you won’t like. It’s dangerous ... playing with fire!’
‘Wh-what do you mean?’ she faltered. And then every drop of blood in her body felt as if it concentrated itself in her face and neck. ‘I — I
see...
’
she stammered.
He turned and looked at her, ruefully.
‘Do you?’ The whimsical note was back in his voice, but having put her out of his arms he made no attempt to take her back. ‘In some ways you’re quite a child, Karin, but you’re the only girl on this island, and I’m the only man who is a menace to you. Light love-making beneath the moon is touching and delightful, but I don’t think we ought to continue it. In fact, I’m very much afraid we’ll have to be very sensible in future. For your sake!’
She stood there in the shadow of the trees feeling as if a situation that had been on the verge of becoming sublime had turned to ashes, and also become a little ridiculous ... and earthy. Light lovemaking he had called it, but her lips were burning from his kisses, and her ribs still felt bruised because of the fierceness of the way in which he had held her.
Light lovemaking ... touching and delightful! And he hadn’t once said he was in love with her!
His green eyes were watching her, suddenly
anxious.
‘Perhaps I don’t phrase things very well
—
men are basically coarse, you know
—
but you must believe that I have your interests at heart, little one. On the ship it would have been different.’
‘But it wasn’t,’ she reminded him, with sudden stiffness.
‘No.’
He jingled the loose change in his pocket, and then he jerked his chin rather abruptly in the direction of the fire.
‘I think you ought to try and get some sleep,’ he suggested quietly. ‘I know you haven’t a very tempting couch to go to,’ smiling ruefully, ‘but we’ll try and do something about that tomorrow. It might be a good idea if we tried out Rolands’ caves. At least they might enable you to enjoy a little privacy.’
‘I don’t think I’d like sleeping in a cave.’
‘Well, I’m not over-keen on the idea myself, but it’s been worrying me for the last two nights that we’ve all three been sleeping in a huddle, with Rolands stretched out at your feet. I’m sure there’s something we could do about
...
’
taking her gently by
the arm and thrusting her towards the faint glow of the fire, and Rolands’ now recumbent form. She realized, with a sensation like shock, that he wasn’t going to attempt to kiss her good night. ‘Rolands is a good enough sort, but—’
‘I like Rolands,’ she said shortly. ‘You don’t have to worry about him sleeping at my feet.’
It was never very difficult to get to sleep on the yielding sand, but tonight Karin found it next door to impossible. She lay for hours feeling as if she had been rendered wakeful for ever, and all she could think about was the excessive amount of caution Kent was still displaying despite the fact that fate had cast them both up on an island, and he was obviously drawn to her sufficiently to want to make love to her. Whether or not he was in love with her only a far cleverer and more mature woman than herself would have been able to tell. She was sufficiently experienced to know that kisses, by themselves, meant little or nothing
—
except that a man was attracted. Violent kisses could mean the degree of attraction, but nothing more. Kent had called her darling, and said tender things to her. He had talked about spending the rest of their lives on the island, and probably fighting one another ... But it had seemed to upset him when she had said that she had liked him from the beginning.
‘Like’, he said, was a cool word, but he had never once said, ‘I love you!’
Surely, if he loved her
—
and she had made it so obviously that she loved him! — he would have said those three all-important words, just once. It would not have mattered after that what he said.
Towards dawn she tossed restlessly, although the one thing she didn’t wish to do was to wake either of the two men. Rolands was plainly enjoying the healthiest of slumber, but Kent was very still beside her. To her horror, as she sought to ease her position on the sand that seemed to have grown as hard as cement since she
lay down on it, and to drag the tarpaulin tip over her because she was beginning to shiver and her teeth were inclined to chatter, she heard Kent stir.
‘What is it?’ he asked, as if he, too, had been awake for some time. ‘Can’t you sleep?’
‘I’m all right.’
‘Cold?’
‘Not really.’
He bent over her. His voice was very gentle and soothing.
‘Poor little one,’ he said. ‘This is all much too bad from your point of view. I wish I could do something about it!’
‘You can’t,’ she answered decisively, and turned her face away from him.
‘You could come closer to me, and I could keep you warm ... if you’re cold.’
‘I’m not as cold as all that.’
He sighed.
‘Karin, be reasonable. I didn’t mean to hurt you last night. I was only thinking of you. And just supposing we’re taken off this island within the next twenty-four hours you might feel grateful to
me. Emotions run high in circumstances such as this, but they could return to normal as soon as you felt the deck of a ship beneath your feet. Hasn’t that occurred to you?’
‘It’s obviously occurred to you,’ she retorted crisply.
He sighed again.
‘In any case, come closer—’
‘No!
I’m perfectly comfortable.’
‘All right.’ He lay down composedly again beside her. She had the conviction that he was deliberately putting her out of his thoughts ... since he was the sort of man who was capable of doing things like that. ‘As you please!’
She felt the sharp tears sting her eyes. If only they could be taken off the island within the next twenty
-
four hours!
CHAPTER SEVEN
Rolands
was as cheerful as ever over breakfast, but Karin and Willoughby avoided one another’s eyes. Nothing more was said about removal to the caves, and they spent the morning drifting aimlessly about the island. About three o’clock in the afternoon Rolands, who had established for himself a lookout that incidentally enabled him to be the first to sight their deliverance, came running and waving his arms and shouting excitedly that there was a ship on the horizon.
Frantically Rolands built up the fire
—
and it was all a part of his forethought that a generous supply of burnable material was on hand
—
as a signal to the as yet far-away ship, and after an agonizing period when it seemed that their signal was either going to be overlooked or ignored, the ship altered its course and came steaming smoothly towards them. It was a handsome white liner of the same tonnage as the
Ariadne
,
and it had actually been on the lookout for them.
Because there was no possibility of it clearing the entrance to the lagoon it weighed anchor some distance from the bright green island with its brilliant bird life and its exotic flowers. A boat put off from the side of it, and within a matter of minutes a white-uniformed officer had greeted them with a smart salute and a cheerful grin, and Karin, because she was the fragile female amongst them, was commiserated with because she had undoubtedly had to endure a great deal. Kent, whose expression gave away nothing except when he wanted it to do so, was plainly overwhelmingly relieved because the moment of their release had come, and as she sat beside him in the stern of the boat as it returned to the ship Karin understood perfectly when he exclaimed in a low tone for her ear alone:
‘Well, this is something I hardly dared to hope for! We’re lucky!’
‘Yes.’ She turned, and her eyes were cold as they regarded him. ‘We are.’
His glance flickered over the torn remains of her dress, and he smiled.
‘At least you’ll have a few clothes to your back in a short while now ... and all the other things a young woman like you must consider indispensable. You’ve been very plucky, Karin. I really have to congratulate you on the way you’ve behaved,’ and he sounded very earnest.
She was felling so unutterably miserable at that moment
—
by no means certain that she was glad they had been taken off the island, and no longer in the smallest doubt as to the true state of his feelings towards her
—
that she simply had to reply with some acidity.