Passionate Choice

Chapter 1.5

   "Oh, here you are," Heather said beside her in a slightly out-of-breath voice. "Isn't this exciting to be actually going out to the reef? I wish I could see the wreck of the freighter. Really see it, I mean. Of course, I've studied the photographs Louis took of it, but that isn't the same as seeing it and being able to get under it to see the remains of the other wreck. I'm really quite envious of you because you're going to dive down to it."

   "You should learn how to dive," murmured Selena.

   "I did try once but couldn't get down more than two fathoms. Sinus trouble," replied Heather. "So I'm afraid I'll have to do the exploring under the freighter vicariously, live it through your and Ben's experience. You must tell me about everything you do underwater and about what you see and find. Will you?"

   "Of course. I'll be glad to."

   "I still can't help wishing that John Claes was with he," sighed Heather. "I'd feel much happier, more confident if he were here."

   "Perhaps he'll come when he's recovered from the flu," Selena said.

   "I hope so. Have you met Keith Walker before?"

   The question coming abruptly as it startled Selena. She glanced quickly at the other woman. Heather, leaning on the rail beside her, was watching her with narrowed, shrewd grey eyes.

   "No. What makes you think I have?" she retorted quickly.

   "You seemed more than a little surprised when Ben introduced him to you."

   "I was surprised." Selena was cautious. Heather was more observant than appeared. Under that breezy friendly manner she was hiding a sharp curiosity about other people. "You see I was expecting John Claes. I was a little disappointed too, I think. You had told me so much about John last night and I was looking forward to meeting him."

   "I see," heather nodded and looked down at the swishing water. "I guess you've never been in the islands before or anywhere in the Caribbean area."

   "I visited the Bahamas a few years ago," replied Selena warily. "I have a friend who lives in Nassau, Sheryl Manton. We studied history together at university. She married a Bahamian, George Manton, who was studying medicine. He's practicing as a doctor in Nassau now and I stayed with them for the Christmas holidays about four years ago and took some diving lessons."

   "Really? Keith Walker is from Nassau, at least that's what it says in the letter John sent."

   "I wonder, I just wonder if he's a son of William Walker," mused Heather, still gazing at the bow-wave.

   "Who is William Walker?"

   "Oh, you wouldn't have heard of him, I don't suppose," said Heather. "He is, or rather he was, he died two years ago, the owner of a small shipping-line freighting goods between the States and the Caribbean Islands. He used to spend a lot of time on New Providence Island. Had a big villa near Nassau. Was married to a British woman whom he met there. He left millions when he died, I hear."

   A house near Nassau. Selena had a sudden flash of memory, of a huge room filled with people, wide windows opening on to a terrace and beyond the terrace, a beach glimmering in the moonlight and the sea lapping the sand. She had looked across the room and right into the vivid blue eyes of a stranger who had been staring at her.

   "How do you know so much about this William Walker?" she asked, trying to appear casual.

   "He was from the same neck of the woods as I am. From Charleston, South California. There have always been close trade connections between the Carolinas and the Bahamas, you know and the Walker shipping-line goes way back, to the time before the Way of Independence."

   "Oh," said Selena limply.

   "But if Keith Walker is one of those Walkers, what is he doing here skippering a dive-ship instead of John Claes?" Heather continued with her musing.

   "I don't know," said Selena weakly. "You could always ask him."

   Heather turned her head and flashed one of her brilliant smiles.

   "I intend to," she said firmly. "I intend to find out everything about him as soon as I can. Oh, look," she added as the ship's engines slowed. "We're nearly at the reef. How calm it looks for once. I guess you're going to find conditions perfect for diving today."

   The Sea Lion was anchored in a small bay close to the reef of coral than ran out from the south-western headland of the island. Selena and Ben as well as Keith and Gary made preparations to dive, fitting on tanks and weight-belts, flippers and masks before stepping off the ladder into the warm silken water.

   Floating downwards slowly Selena followed the other divers to the rusting hulk of a small freighter which was lying on two outgrowths of coral across a sort of gully, a dark space in and out of which shoals of silvery and coloured fish swam.

   She felt a touch on her arm and turned. Keith was beside her, long and lean and tanned, wearing only swimming trunks, his face covered by scuba mask. He pointed to the entrance to the gully under the freighter and indicated that she should follow him. She nodded and breathing deeply of the air in her tank let herself drift down deeper, following him as she followed him so many times when they had gone diving together, trusting implicitly in his competence and experience as a diver.

   It was dark under the freighter and torches were needed. Ben was already there with Gary. When he saw her he took her by the hand and showed her the few timbers lying almost buried under the sand: the unmistakable relics of what had once been a wooden ship.