The perfume of love (rain-bi)

chapter 10

in her shower she rinsed the salt water from her hair and skin and pondered what to wear for lunch. she had the impression that, as he had yesterday, joon Dennison was spending all day at the golf course. so it wouldn't matter too much if she wore the old T-shirt and shorts she had put on earlier. hana wouldn't approve of them, but it was the other passengers, not the officers and crew, whose opinions concerned her and they hadn't arrived yet. who were they? jenna wondered.

she had rather hoped to have hana to herself some of the time. they had such a lot of catching up to do. six years was a long time to be separated from one's only sister and although they had kept in touch by letter, it wasn't the same as seeing each other regularly.

all the time she was blow-drying her hair, her ears were alert for hana's tap on the door. but by two minutes to one her sister hadn't come to collect her and, conscious of disappointment, jenna went on deck alone.

she found hana in conversation with a short stocky officer with a moustache. the Captain and dong won and two other men formed a separate group.

"you've been swimming, i hear" said hana, her blue gaze assessing the younger girl's appearance as she approached them.

"come and meet lee yong, the first officer. yong, this is my sister jenna"

"hello, jenna. welcome aboard"

the first officer was a Korean as all the crew and she liked that, he was in his mid-forties. his manner was that of a kindly middle-aged man greeting a late-teens girl who might be shy of meeting strangers.

"thank you, Mr lee" she said, smiling at him, aware that silence had fallen among the other four men.

"you've met the Captain. let me introduce the rest of my colleagues" taking her by the arm, he led her towards the others who, from standing in a close circle, moved to form an open semi-circle.

"this is shin dong who keeps the engines in order" he said, indicating an even older man with thick grey hair and a beard to match.

"how do you do, Mr shin" she said, as they shook hands, his grip almost making her wince.

"how are you?" the engineer's accent was broad, his nod unsmiling yet somehow indicative of friendliness.

"and this is dong ha, our radio officer" continued lee yong, turning towards a ginger-haired man about hana's age.

"pleased to meet you, Miss kim"

"as there are now two Miss kims on board, i think it would be simpler if everyone called me jenna" she said, after exchanging a less bone-crushing handshake with him.

at this point young ji appeared beside the Captain.

"lunch is served, sir"

"thank you. will you sit beside me, jenna?"

as the first officer had a few moments earlier, Captain jung took her lightly by the arm and steered her in the direction of the dining saloon, which now had its windows open and folding doors pushed aside to connect it with the lounge area.

had she given it any thought, she might have anticipated that, as a new arrival and in the absence of any more important passengers, she would be seated next to him, at least for this one meal. but she had been thinking of other things and it came as a surprise, not a welcome one. she would have preferred to find herself between the first officer and dong won for lunch.

young ji had the chair on the right of the Captain's place pulled out for her. she was glad when jung jihoon removed his long brown fingers from her arm. she had found the contact, casual as it was, curiously disturbing. indeed everything about the man, his voice, the enigmatic expression on his face in repose, his whole phisical presence, made her uneasy.

the others had been having pre-lunch drinks which they had brought to the table with them. hana, she noticed, had an exotic concoction in a tall glass with a straw. all the men except the one on her left were drinking beer. the Captain's glass appeared to contain nothing but water with some ice floating in it,and the water glasses beside each place were being filled with cold water by one of the two stewards assisting young ji.

"would you care for something more interesting than water, jenna?" the first officer, who was on her right, enquired.

"your sister is having a Mai Tai, but i think you might find that rather potent. a Chi Chi is a drink which a lot of ladies enjoy. it doesn't have more than a dash of vodka in it if you'd rather not drink too much alcohol at midday"

at least he didn't seem to assume that she must be a swinger, she thought gratefully. that he and all the men round the table, except dong won who now knew the truth, regarded her sister as a gold-digging adventuress made her cringe.

"i never drink spirits at all" she answered candidly.

"although i do like wine sometimes. can a Chi Chi be made without vodka? what else is in it?"

"it's a mixture of lemon and pineapple juice with coconut milk and crused ice" lee yong told her.

"the vodka gives it a kick, but it isn't essential" he passed her request to a steward.

throughout the first part of the meal, which began with a crabmeat quiche followed by a fish called mahi mahi baked in vermouth with macadamia nuts, he continued to make pleasant small-talk.

although he had made a point of putting her next to him, Captain jung made very little effort to be sociable. from time to time the first officer included him and the engineer, sitting opposite her, in the conversation, they would then cotribute a remark or two. but for the most part both men were noticeably taciturn compared with the affable sydneysider... which, he told her, was what the natives of that city were called.

however, although neither of them had much to say, she had the feeling that it was only the engineer who for most of the meal was deep in his own thoughts. intuition told her that the Captain was giving the conversation his close attention and that every word she uttered was being weighed, and perhaps found wanting.

several times she glanced in his direction to find that piercing grey gaze focused on her as she answered the first officer's questions. not knowing what her sister might have told them about her family background and the reason why they hadn't seen each other for years, she was reluctant to say anything which might not tally with hana's version. perhaps lee yong didn't realise she was being evasive, but she felt sure the Captain was aware of it.