Passionate Choice

Chapter 4.3

   "What will you do this afternoon, Selena?" Ben asked.

   "I'd really like to phone my sister, Aubrey. I said I'd let her know if got here safely." She looked at Heather, who was beginning to collect up dishes from the table. "Is there s nine on the island? she asked.

   "Yes, at the telephone station in the village," replied Heather. "Thirty-five miles away. Keith is driving in this afternoon. He also wants to make a call to John Claes in St. Thomas. I've lent him the truck. You could go with him."

   "Will I be able to make a long-distance call to England?" asked Selena, wondering whether it would be wise to go with Keith.

   "Sure you will. Just give Liana—she's the telephone operator—the number you want and she'll get through to the exchange at Roadtown, the capital of the islands, and they'll try the English number..." Heather turned and bustled across the lounge. "Keith," she called, "Keith. Selena wants to make a phone call too. She can go in with you, can't she, to the village? You won't mind having her company?"

   Keith turned slowly and looked across at Selena, his lean, tanned face impassive although the blue eyes seemed to leap and dance with blazing light. Once before, long ago, hr had looked at her across a room and her heart had jumped in her breast as it did now.

   "No, I won't mind," he said coolly, igniting Heather and speaking directly to Selena. "How son will you be ready to go?"

   It wouldn't be safe to go with him, Selena warned herself. It would be best to stay at the resort, spend the afternoon with Ben going through the accounts of the galleon's ship-wreck. But she took no notice of the warning, acknowledging to herself that she had been longing to be alone with Keith again ever since he had kissed her the other night on the beach. She didn't want to stay with Ben or to read the copies of historical documents. She wanted to be with Keith, longed and ached in every fiber of her body to be with him, to talk freely to him, away from Heather's watchful, suspicious eyes.

   "Five minutes?" she asked lightly.

   "See you outside, then," Keith replied coolly, and turned away to say something to Gary.

   Selena turned also, to speak to Ben, but he was walking away from the dining-room towards the doorway that led to Heather's office and Heather was beside him, shirt and plump, her gilt-blonde head no higher than Ben's shoulder, and he wasn't a tall man, her right hand at his left elbow as if guiding him while she whispered to him confidentially. Heather was probably talking to him about the wreck, perhaps expressing her disappointment because no more artefacts had been discovered, thought Selena as she slid back one of the screens that covered the glass doors that overlooked the terrace and stepped outside.
Yes, Heather must be very worried about failure of the diving expedition so far.

   In her bedroom, she changed from the white trouser and T-shirt she had been wearing and into a wrap over skirt of bright, printed cotton and a plain white sleeveless blouse. Her hair was dry now, after the morning's diving operation and swung silkily about her shoulders as she left the room quickly and almost ran along the pathway under the palms. She felt light-hearted in a way she hadn't experienced for a long time, like a person feels when let out of school or work. For a short time, she was going to 'goof off' with Keith, share an hour or so if stolen delight with him.

   Oh, no. Her footsteps slowed decorously. She stopped swinging her shoulder-bag. She mustn't let it show, this joy that would keep bubbling up in her. She mustn't let him see how she felt about driving into the village with him. She must remember he wouldn't feel the same.