Paradise Calling: PREVIEW

3. From strangers to survivors

Andrew Grant had taken survival courses before. He'd run the Outward Bound programme at his previous school. But the last thing he expected was to ever have to employ those skills while stranded on a desert island.

His primary instinct was to ensure the safety of those in his charge, which in this instance meant Caroline. She was a student and he had a duty of care towards her. The same duty applied to Derek Ferguson, but Andrew privately considered the man to be absolutely useless. The headmaster was more concerned with himself than anyone else, even his wife.

Andrew gazed around at the scene. It all felt like a strange dream. The only thing to do was to focus on the task at hand and work his way through it.

The absurdity of it struck Andrew: being stranded on a palm-strewn island with a girl. Like some fantasy story. But this was not a fantasy and heaven forbid they ended up stuck here for months or years.

It could have been worse. At least when he considered some of the other students who might have ended up here. He had been impressed with how well Caroline was coping. Many other girls her age might have gone to pieces, but she had shown remarkable initiative and resilience. Thousands of miles from school and normality, Andrew had to make sure he reminded himself that she was a student. He couldn't help noticing how attractive she was. But it was absolutely off limits to think about her in any non-professional way.

Not that he should be thinking about anything like that, of course, while in these dire circumstances. Right now Caroline was gathering shells, palm fronts, pebbles and driftwood: anything that made a contrast with the sand. The plan was to lay it on the beach in the form of a huge S.O.S. that a helicopter might see.

"How is this looking?" She was calling him over to assess her work.

Andrew went to take a look. "It should stand out. So long as we don't get a very high tide that washes much of it away."

Caroline looked out at the sea and then up at the sky. "I haven't seen any planes or anything since we've been here," she said.

Nor had Andrew, and it had concerned him. "There's bound to be a seaplane sooner or later. There's a lot of tourism in the wider area." The issue was how wide the area was. To a rescue craft, they might be something of a needle in a haystack. Andrew chose not to mention this.

Derek and Irene Ferguson were currently resting. A lot had been made of Irene's "nerves" which had become a convenient excuse for either of the couple to avoid any exertion.

Caroline looked over at the boat-rock shelter where her headmaster and his wife had taken residence. "I wish they weren't here," she said.

Andrew was still too much in teacher mode to agree openly with this. "Not everyone handles shock well," he said, trying to be diplomatic. "Some people cope better than others." Caroline had coped admirably, he thought.

"It would be a lot easier if it was just us," Caroline said. Then she blushed. "I didn't mean..."

Andrew laughed. "It's alright. I know what you meant. Right now they're a hindrance rather than a help. But give it a day or so and it might be a different story."

Inwardly he doubted this.

Andrew also found he couldn't help glancing at Caroline more than he should. It was probably a psychological thing, the pressure of being stranded. The contrast of her tanned shoulders with the light blue straps of her sundress, that matched her eyes.

He needed to cool off. "I feel like a swim."

He stripped off his shirt and jeans, and it was Caroline's turn to try and avert her eyes from his bronzed, muscular body. She pretended to busy herself with the S.O.S. sign, trying not to notice.