Passionate Choice

Chapter 8.7

It wasn't long before Lisa appeared again followed by a slim, black-haired, olive-skinned man whom she introduced as her husband. He was dressed immaculately in white cotton trousers and a white shirt and his sleek hair looked as if it had been polished. His lean face was dressed by laughter lines, his brown eyes snapped and sparked with a good humour and his wife white grin was welcoming as he shook Selena's hand.

"So you are the one," he said somewhat enigmatically, then added as if in an aside to Lisa, "she is a friend it Keith's."

"Are you?" Lisa looked almost surprised. "Oh, why didn't you say so? I know Keith is here, on his boat out there in the harbour. I just didn't recognize the name of the boat. Shall I call him, Emilio? On the radio. Tell him to come ashore."

"Si, si." Emilio's face creased even more into lives of impudent humour. "But do not tell him why he is to come make a big mystery out of it. Or better still, tell him the port commandant wants him at once. There is something with his papers and if he doesn't come ashore now, he will be arrested."

Lisa nodded, mischief also glinting in her face and went down below.

"The customs people here are very strict," Emilio went on to explain. "They come aboard your yacht when you enter and when you leave, you must go when they say do and they see you off the premises very often."

"When Do Keith arrive?" asked Selena. Now that she knew he wasn't far away, she was beginning to wish she hadn't come. What would he say when he came ashore and say her here talking to Lisa and Emilio?

"Yesterday afternoon. He sail all the way from St. Thomas," said Emilio.

"He isn't answering," said Lisa, appearing in the companionway that led into the pilot-house of the schooner. "Are you sure he is on board?"

"Sure, I am sure," said Emilio. "Did I not see him rowing out there in his dinghy only half an hour ago? I called to him but he did not answer me. Hand me the binoculars."

Lisa ducked back into the pilot-house and reappeared with the glasses. Emilio took them and, striding up to the bow of the schooner from where he could get an uninterrupted view of the anchorage, looked out. Hardly had he looked than he let out a yell and came hurrying back to them.

"Por Dios, he is pulling up his anchor."

"He can't be leaving already," said Lisa. "He only arrived yesterday. And he wouldn't leave without saying goodbye, surely."

"Who is a o know what Keith will do?" said Emilio. "Come," he said to Selena, "come with me. I will take you out to him in my dinghy. When he sees you, he won't leave."

"Oh. No. It doesn't matter. I only wanted to tell him something. It isn't really very important," stammered Selena.

"Of course it is important," said Emilio looking fierce. "If you have come all this way to see him, it must be important. Come on."

Taking hold of her hand, he pulled her with him towards the gangway.

"Please, Senior Mendez, Emilio," she gasped. "It doesn't matter..."

"You are the one who was with him a few years ago, in St. Thomas, hmm?" he asked, turning on her abruptly, she was forced to stop.

"Yes. But how do you know?"

"That is where I first met Keith. We had just come, Lisa and I, and our crew, across the Atlantic from Spain."

"But I didn't met you. I don't remember seeing you there."

"We were anchored offshore, in the harbour. I met Keith at the customs office. He said he had a woman crew. And then last night when he came ashore for a drink, he told me had met you again on a diving expedition in Sanada. But we waste time explaining. He will have that anchor up and he gone before we are in the dinghy. Come. This way."

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