Chapter 5.3

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   "Funny that he thinks he's met you before," said Heather. "And in these islands too. I thought you told me you'd only been to Nassau."

   "Have you, Selena? I didn't know that," exclaimed Ben. "When were you in Nassau?"

   "Oh, about four years ago. I stayed with an old school friend who had married a Bahamian." She pressed the back of her hand against her forehead. Her skin was damp with sweat and she felt strangely exhausted, physically and emotionally drained. Deceit had never come easily to her and now she was beginning to wish she hadn't decide to pretend she had never met Keith before. It would have been better if she had told Ben the truth from the beginning. "Ben, do you think we could go somewhere to talk...alone," she whispered, glancing at Heather, who had turned away to talk to one of the guests. "There's something I have to tell you. About the wreck site," she added quickly when she saw him frown hesitantly.

   "I suppose we could go for a walk. Or sit on the terrace outside your room or mine," he said slowly.

   "Don't you ever want to be alone with me?" she chided him lightly, thinking his unloverlike he was, wondering if he would ever catch her up in his arms. Or pull her down beside him as Keith had done that afternoon... Ah, no, no, she must forget the sudden savagery of Keith's love-making that afternoon. It hadn't been love-making. It had been more like a punishment, a punishment for wanting him when she was engaged to be married to Ben.

   "Of course I do," said Ben, but he sounded diffident.

   "Then let's go now to my room terrace." She slipped off the stool. "It's so nosy in here now. We can't hear ourselves speak."

   "All right. You go ahead and I'll follow you in a few seconds. I'll just tell Heather..."

   "Why? Why do you have to tell her?" she demanded swinging back to him.

   "She might wonder where we've gone."

   Selena didn't wait. She turned on her heel, went to one of the sliding screen doors, slammed it open, stepped outside and slammed it shut. The slamming relieved her feelings a little but she was still irritated by Ben's lack of urgent desire to be alone with her. Why did he want to marry her if he didn't want to be with her? And why did he have to tell Heather where he was going? Did the woman have some hold over him? Was it possible he and Heather were partners together in some sort of conspiracy to hunt for treasure as Keith had suggested?

   She marched down the steps from the terrace and along the path through the trees. The sub was setting, streaking the western sky with rainbow colours, glowing fiercely behind the black silhouettes of the trees. Insects sang in the undergrowth and a few bubbles at her bare arms and legs. The wind had died down and where the sub was setting a planet had appeared in the sky, a bright star blazing brilliantly with white fire.

   Then suddenly, the serene silence was shattered by a commotion of voices on the terrace behind her. Deciding that the charter party and the other guests had spilled noisily out of the bar on to the terrace, she continued on her way wondering when Ben would catch up with her. A few seconds, he had said he would be. Had Heather prevented him from joining her? She wouldn't be at all surprised if the woman had coaxed him into staying in the lounge, maybe with another offer of a 'drink on the house'.

   But she didn't care, she realized. She didn't care if Ben didn't follow her or if he preferred Heather's company and integer Planter's Punch to herself...

   "Selena. Selena. Come back. Come now. Ben's had an accident." Heather's voice was shrill and penetrating, carrying through the purple, rose-shot gloom.

   Oh, God, what now? Why couldn't she get away from them, have some time to herself to reflect, to try and unravel the tangled web that had been spun about her ever since she had arrived on the island four days ago?

   "Selena." Heather came surging out of the shadows. "Come back. Ben sent me to fetch you. To tell you he can't follow you." She paused to catch her breath then went on in a leer acid-toned voice, "Yes, he sent me to get you. As if you cared for him. As if you'll worry because he's hurt himself."

   "What has he done?" exclaimed Selena, starting off along the path, back the way she had come. Heather panted beside her.

   "Oh, he was following you, running after you. Why couldn't you have waited for him? He was running down the terrace steps and fell. I think he may have twisted his ankle. Fortunately, one of the sports fishermen is a doctor. Oh, it's all your fault," hissed Heather. "You should have waited for him. You're not fit to be his wife. You're too young, to thoughtless. Ben needs someone to coddle him, wait on him."

   "Someone like you, I suppose," said Selena drily.

   "Right. Someone like me," asserted Heather and bounced up the terrace steps.

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