Keith was already sitting in the driver's seat of the dark blue truck which was parked on the wide driveway in front of the main resort building. The engine was running and as soon as she slammed the door shut after climbing up into the seat beside him, he pushed the heat lever into first, then second and the truck trundled down to the entrance of the driveway and on to the rough road, passing the small airstrip.
Rock music blared out of the radio in the dashboard. The noise irritated Selena and she wished he would switch it off. She would have asked him to do so but she wasn't going to speak first. So she sat in silence, looking out at the palms and bushes edging the bright, sunlit ribbon if the road as it curved round following the shoreline of the wide bay. It was hot in front of the truck and she could feel sweat beginning to start on her skin. There didn't seem to be any air-conditioning. She noticed the window beside Keith was wound right down so she wound down the window beside her and hoped the draught wafting in would cool her.
Bright and glittery was the water of the bay, a brilliant turquoise dotted with silver-white waves, churned up by the stiff breeze, broke. Then the road made a sudden turn to the right away from the shoreline and they bumped over its uneven surface last the gardens and gateways of houses hidden from sight among clusters of casuarinas and palms.
"The private hideaways of the wealthy," remarked Keith drily. "Sanada also has its share of escapes from the frozen north who have bought land cheaply here and had villas built where they can spend six months of the year."
"Have you ever been to this island before?" she asked.
"Once. On a diving trip," he replied shortly. He slanted a sidelong glance at her. "The professor seems to be disappointed with the lack of result from your searches under the freighter."
"So am I," she sighed.
"Has it occurred to you that you might be looking in the wrong place?"
"We've been looking where Professor Langdon indicate we should look."
"I know that. But there are the remains of a wooden ship on the other side of the reef," he drawled casually.
"How do you know?"
"What do you think I've been doing while you've been diving? Twiddling my thumbs in the wheelhouse?" His voice rasped scornfully. "I've been diving too. The first day I went down just for fun to explore the reef, look at the coral, pay with the fish. There's a big outgrowth of coral on the other side, fairly recent I would think. I dived under it and found part of a wooden hill lying on the sand. The second time I went down I poked about. This came rolling out of the wreck." He tossed something into her lap.
It was heavy. She looked down. It was a round lead ball. She touched it with one finger.
"Looks like a musket ball," she said.
"Right first time. It was encrusted with coral and other growths. I cleaned it up. There are cannonballs down there by the wreck too."
"But why haven't you told Ben? Why haven't you shown this to him?"
"Why should I? He and you have permission to search under the freighter not the other side of the reef."
YOU ARE READING
Passionate Choice
RomansSelena has made the mistake of falling in love with Keith Walker when all he wanted was a casual fling before he married someone else. Once burnt, twice shy. The new man in Selena's life was everything that Keith was not: steady, reliable and eager...
