Passionate Choice

Chapter 1.1

   The swish of the curtains being swept aside, the sibilant whisper of waves washing a sandy shore, the sigh of wind among the friends of palm trees wakened Selena Mason from a deep sleep and she opened her eyes to see, through the clear glass of a wide patio window, the pattern of palm leaves moving gently against a sky of brilliant sunlit blue.

   A voice spoke near by. "Good morning Selena." The voice was female, cheerful and loud. "I've brought you a breakfast tray, just some coffee, home-made rolls and real English marmalade. The dive-ship has arrived. Ben is up already and having breakfast with the skipper and hopes you'll join him as soon as you've eaten and dressed."

   "Oh. What time is it?" gasped Selena sitting up quickly, pushing her shoulder-length dark-brown hair behind her shoulders.

   "Half-past nine," replied Heather Langdon, owner and manager of the Pelican's Roost Club, an exclusive, remote vacation resort situated on a long tongue of land on the south-west coast of the tropical island of Sanada, the smallest and most far-flung of a chain of islands scattered like a handful of green jewels across the north-eastern part of the Caribbean Sea.

   "Good heavens," exclaimed Selena, "I intended to be up earlier than this."

   "I expect you needed the sleep after your long journey from London to here," Heather said consolingly. A small but well-built woman, with blonde hair cut severely short, her square-jawed face evenly tanned to a golden brown, as were her arms and legs, she was wearing a loose dress made from voile-like cotton that hung from straps curving over her shoulders. As she approached the bedside table she smiled brightly showing big white teeth and her smallish grey eyes crinkled at the corners. "Shall I pour your coffee?" she asked, and without waiting for an answer lifted the coffee-pot from the tray.

   "Thank you," said Selena. "It's very kind of you to bring my breakfast. I'm sure you have quite enough to do."

   "Not so much this time of the year," said Heather in a confidential way. "In April the bookings fall off and at the end of the month I close up the resort and go north to the States, searching for cooler weather. I have s cottage up in Vermont, by a lake, miles away from the sea, quite different from this. It's because the resort is almost deserted that I asked Ben to come and stay now. Also, it's the best time for diving. There is less wind and the water if very clear. Do you take cream and sugar?"

   "No, thanks. I take it black," replied Selena, sitting up further. "But you mustn't wait on me. Please tell Ben I'll join him in about fifteen minutes. I'm glad the dive-ship had arrived today. Maybe we'll be able to go diving this afternoon. I expect you were pleased to see John Claes."

   "He hasn't come," said Heather with a grimace. "It seems he's got a flu, so he sent a friend of his to skipper the dive-ship for the first week of your stay, until he's recovered. He didn't want you to be delayed."

   "Well, that was very considerate of him. Ben and I have only three weeks' holiday available," said Selena.

   "Yes, I guess it was considerate of John. But it won't be the same without him," said Heather, walking towards the door of the room. Hand on the doorknob she looked back at Selena and added in a softer, almost sad, voice, "John and my late husband, Louis, were close, very close. Louis thought the world of John as a diver and had planned to invite him to come and explore the site of the wreck with him this year, so it won't be quite the same having a complete stranger in charge of the diving. In fact, I'm not at all sure I want any strangers knowing about "our wreck" as I like to call it."

   "I'm a stranger," Selena pointed out and sipped some coffee.

   "Yes, but you're with Ben, as his assistant, so he tells me. And Ben was a great favourite of Louis's too and had known about the wreck ever since Louis found it. But I mustn't stay to talk any longer because you'll be wanting to shower and dress. You have everything you need? Nothing missing in the bathroom?" Leaving the door, Heather bustled into the small bathroom to check and came out again. "Sometimes the girl who cleans—her name is Mary—forgets to put in the clean towels. But I see there are plenty there." She skied again and opened the door. "See you in a few minutes, then, in the dining-room."

   The door closed behind Heather and Selena leaned back against the pillows stretching her legs under the cotton sheet and smiling a little to herself as she gazed with pleasure at the pattern of palms against the blue sky.