The perfume of love (rain-bi)

chapter 13

some time later, after lying on her back for five minutes and on her front for another five, she retreated into the circle of shade cast by a striped sunbrella, one of two in the area surrounding the splash pool.

absentmindedly admiring the sleek contours of her sister's beautiful, glistening body stretched on a towel covered sun-bed, jenna confronted the greatest problem of her life.

the decision to devote herself to her father when even his doctor had been in favour of having him put in a hospital had been clear-cut and simple compared with the dilemma which faced her now.

whether she would find joon Dennison a pleasant man or an objectionable one was not german to the fundamental issue. whatever he was like, he was keeping hana as his mistress with, at present, no intention of regularising their relationship. that made her sister a woman who, although not the social outcast she would have been a century earlier, was still persona non grata among a great many people.

how could it be otherwise?

the sordid connotations of her sister's present lifestyle made jenna feel sick and disgusted. she wished she had never come; never found out the shaming truth.

at the same time she recognised the force of hana's retort that her own sequestered life in Seoul had kept her in ignorance of the harsher realities of the world at large.

lacking the sympathetic handling of two affectionate parents, hana had made a bad start in life. was it any wonder that, given her unstable nature, her life was still in a mess?

and the fact remains that i love her, jenna mused. i can't go off and leave her without at least trying to make her see that there are other options for her. i must get her out of this somehow. but to do that means staying on board and having everyone think I'm from the same mould as hana. jung jihoon already thinks that.... he's made it clear he has nothing but contempt for either of us. just for a short time, before lunch, he was polite and made me sit next to him, but it didn't last long. before lunch was over he was sniping at me. can i blame him? what would i think in his place?

mindful of his wearing that it could be dangerous to doze in the sun, and remembering that hana had had three strong drinks, she stood up and moved to where her sister was lying. tanned as she was, it was possible she could burn if she lay too long in these still fierce rays burning down from a cloudless sky.

"I'm going below, hana. don't fall asleep, will you?"

hana's response was a drowsy murmur. she sounded half asleep already. jenna shook her more vigorously until she rolled over, saying, in a disgruntled tone, "what's the matter?"

"sorry to disturb you. i'm going to my cabin and i didn't want you to fall asleep and get burned."

"i never burn." hana raised the end of the sun-bed into a backrest and reached for her cigarettes.

"I'll have another half hour and then I'll get ready to go ashore."

as jenna left her, she was exhaling smoke. her sister couldn't help thinking that all this smoking and drinking couldn't be good for her looks, which, on her present course, were her principal asset.

jenna was pattering along the starboard walkway, wondering what chance she had of persuading hana to abandon her current way of life, when jung jihoon came into view.

at first he didn't notice her because he was strolling towards the rails, crossing her path at an angle. instinctively she slowed, unwilling for him to see her in the arresting bikini which drew attention to her unattractive whiteness in a place where every one else was beautifully bronzed.

however, when he stopped by the rails and rested his hands in the top bar, looking towards the two other large islands not far from Maui, she knew it was unlikely she could sidle round the corner of the saloon without being spotted.

in profile his features were even more dominating than from a full-face view. the large nose, the jutting chin, the prominent slant of his cheekbones combined to form an impression of a strong, forceful, even ruthless personality. yet, as her mind registered that impression, she was also aware that it was a distinguished profile with a high forehead and finely formed nostrils and lips. his neck was long. he had nice ears.

when the Korean swung to face her, she made a nervous movement which was almost, but not quiet, a recoil.

certainly it was because she was annoyed with herself for showing that he made her nervous that she went to the other extreme and forced herself to join him at the rails, asking, "what are those islands called?"

"that one is Molokai, where a famous priest called father Damien devoted himself to looking after the lepers who used to be sent there" he told her, indicating the large island.

"the one to the south of it is Lanai. it's a plantation island owned by the Dole Pineapple Company."

"so they are both untouched by tourism?"

"Molokai is open to visitors, but not many go there. whether it will stay that way is doubtful unless the planning authorities take a much firmer stand against rapacious developers than they have in the past."

he removed his gaze from the steep, deeply-fissured mountainsides of the island some miles away and turned it on her, his dark brown eyes flicking briefly over her slender figure and the contours exposed by her sister's pin-up style bikini.

"but many people like to have shops and discos and a wide choice of restaurant when they come on holiday" he went on. "the trouble is that you can't have all those amenities and retain peace and quiet."

jenna thought it highly likely that hana would consider shops and nightclubs essential, but neither was high on her own list of priorities, and it irked her that he should assume things about her without attempting to find out what kind of person she was.