Passionate Choice

Chapter 1.4

   "Seems quite simple to me."

   The deep, slightly drawling voice was Keith's. Her glance served back to him. Across the table his eyes met hers. A slight smile warmed their blue iciness. A debt appeared in his right cheek as his lips quirked. She looked away from him quickly, aware again of her colour changing.

   "I suggest you and Selena five every morning and afternoon while the weather is calm," he was saying. "If you need help Gary or I will come with you." He paused, frowning slightly. "It's as well you've decided to explore this spring. Another hurricane like the one that swept through the islands last November will probably knock the wreck of that freighter, which is lying across the crevasse where the remains of the Spanish galleon are supposed to be, right off the ledges of coral on which it was wrecked. The sea surge about that reef in a storm is more than rough and probably caused the wrecks in the first place."

   "But how do you know?" exclaimed Heather. "No one had dived there since Louis diver last year."

   "I went down with Gary yesterday afternoon. We anchored in the cove for the night and came in here this morning," Keith replied.

   "But you had no right," Heather almost shouted. "Only myself and Ben Have exploration rights to that reef. We have permission from the chief minister of the islands to explore and search under the freighter for the wreck of the Santiago. You had no right to go exploring there yesterday. No right at all." Bosom heaving, cheeks scarlet, Heather was obviously furious, but Selena couldn't help wondering if the bluster was to cover fear. The fear that Keith might have seen something Heather didn't want him to see?

   "I didn't say we explored, ma'am," said Keith patiently. "All we did was to have a look at the position of the freighter as John suggested we did first, to make sure that it was safe for Professor Hunt and his assistant to dive under it. You did hire us as consultants, you know."

   "I still don't think you had any right to dive down without Ben being with you," said Heather huffily. "I'm sure John would have come here first and would have asked my permission before diving."

   "Mr. Walker was only concerned about our safety, Heather," put in Ben diplomatically.

   "That's right. I wasn't looking for, or hoping to find, treasure and make off with it," drawled Keith, his lips curling sardonically. "Is that what is worrying you, Mrs. Langdon?" He added provocatively.

   "No. No. Of course not," Heather denied hastily. "I just want to make it clear to you and your crew that you have no rights to anything that might be found in the way of Spanish artefacts. Both wrecks are registered with Professor Hunt's university museum and anything found will be taken there for inspection and cataloguing."

   "There won't be any treasure," said Ben thoughtfully. "If it is the ship we think it is, the Santiago, it had already been looted by a British privateer, that was lurking in this bay, and was deliberately scuttled and sunk off the reef. The privateer's name, you might be interested to know, was Walker, Daniel Walker. An ancestor of yours?"

   "Probably," said Keith with a grin. "Would you and Selena like to go and have a look at the wreck site now? It's a great day for diving. Clear skies and hardly any wind."

   "An excellent idea," said Ben enthusiastically. "What do you think, Selena?"

   "I can hardly wait to get down there," she replied. "Are you coming with us, Heather?"

   "Well, I don't dive, but I would like to go aboard the dive-ship and go out to the reef," said Heather. "You're sure you won't mind having me on board the ship, Mr. Walker?"

   "You'll be most welcome, Mrs. Langdon," he said smoothly and it seemed as if the hostility that had flared so briefly between them was over.

   Half an hour later Selena stood on the foredeck of the dive-ship which was called Sea Lion and leaned over the protective rail watching the bow-wave sparkle in the bright sunlight. When they had come aboard the ship Keith had kept aloof from her while he had shown them around, pointing out the rows of yellow and grey scuba tanks, the compressor for filling them with air, and introducing them to Gary and Max, the crew. Now he was with Ben in the wheelhouse, steering the ship out of the bay.

   She was glad he was ignoring her, she told herself, because she didn't want either Ben or Heather to know that she and Keith had met before. Once they knew there would be too many questions asked, questions she would find difficult to answer without betraying that her relationship with Keith had once been intimate—for almost nine months. Her lips curled wryly as she recalled how intimate they had been, as intimate and as close a woman and a man could get. Lovers, they had been, without the commitment of marriage.