Road to Paradise Island

by Victoria Holt

  "If you are sure ..."

  "I am indeed. Could we leave now 0 "'

  "Yes. I'll go and get my sun hat."

  "You'll need it. I'll be waiting here. Don't be longer than you can help. We want to get back before the heat of the day."

  I went up to my room and got my hat. I had been waiting for something like this since I had met Magnus Perrensen. I forgot my lethargy. He had something important to tell me. Perhaps I was on the verge of finding what I had come for. Perhaps he had news of Philip. In the excitement of everything that had happened. I had forgotten the quest which had brought me here.

  John Everton went ahead of me to the boat. Magda was still at the market. She turned suddenly and saw me. She waved.

  Then John Everton helped me into the boat and we were off.

  "Not such a bright day as the last time." he said. "The wind isn't in the right direction either, so it will take a little longer to get there."

  "Let us hope there's no mist." I said.

  "The wind would soon clear that."

  I could see the reclining lion getting nearer and nearer. Now it was looming over us and the sandy beach was in sight. He took the boat in and. leaping out. helped me to disembark.

  "Here we are. It didn't take so long after all."

  We went over the sand to the house. At the top of the steps Magnus Perrensen was waiting.

  He took my hands and smiled warmly. "Thank you for coming so promptly."

  "I was eager as soon as I heard. You have news for me?"

  "Yes. that's so. Come along in. We'll be comfortable."

  The strange uncanny feeling was creeping over me. Being with him took me back to the journal. Phrases of .Ann .Alice's seemed to go on and on in my brain.

  "We'll have a drink." he said. "They'll bring it to us."

  He took me into the room with the french windows overlooking the sea.

  "I have wanted to come to Cariba so often since we last met." he said. ".And I wanted to ask you to come here. But there was something I had to make sure of first. I wanted to wait until I could tell you of my discovery."

  "I am all eagerness to hear."

  "First the drink ... This is a very special concoction made by my

  servant. He is very clever with such things. You will like this. It is refreshing."

  I tried it. "Thank you," I said. "I do want to hear..."

  "Yes, I know. There is an island."

  "You have found it! Where is it? How far out was the map?"

  "The map was correct," he said.

  "But ..."

  "Yes, I know you went there with the gentleman of Cariba, and there was nothing there. But you didn't look closely enough. It's understandable. You shall know everything. Nothing shall be kept from you. I do admire you so much. You are so vital. Far more so than most women. You are adventurous. You have set out on a journey round the world to look for your lost brother. You are a romantic too. The journal touched you deeply, didn't it? I believe there were times when you thought you were Ann Alice. And when you first met me ... admit it ... for a moment you thought you were back in the past. You thought I was the young lover who had promised to take you away from that sinister house. You did, didn't you? Confess it."

  "Of course I never mistook my own identity."

  "Oh, but I believe there were times when you thought you were Ann Alice reborn. That moment when I took your hand and said ... What did I say? At last you have come.' That sent shivers down your spine. I know. I saw it."

  "Oh well, perhaps. I am longing to hear about the island. You say the map is correct."

  "Do drink up. It is so refreshing."

  I took another sip. I was beginning to feel a little uneasy. He was acting so strangely. It seemed as though he was mocking me in a way. He was different from the man he had appeared to be at our last meeting.

  "Tell me where the island is," I said.

  "At the bottom of the sea."

  I gave a startled exclamation. In a flash of revelation I remembered being in the boat with Milton, looking back at the lightish green water, that patch of a different colour in an expanse of blue. Had it meant that at that spot the land was closer to the surface of the sea? Could that be the meaning of the difference in colour?

  "There is a simple answer," he was saying. "Eighty or so years ago there was a change in the weather pattern ... just for one year. Most countries experienced excessive and unusual heat. A certain amount of ice at the poles melted and flowed into the oceans. Several lands suffered floods. It was even felt here, nearer the equator, though in a lesser way and some islands became just rocks jutting out of the

  sea, others were completely submerged. That is what happened to our island."

  "Oh. I see it all now. I have heard about the possibility of that happening. Someone was talking about it..."

  "In connection with the island?" he asked quickly.

  "Oh no... just generally."

  I saw John Everton walk past the window and it struck me as strange that he had not come into the house with me.

  "Is he a friend of yours?" I asked.

  "He works for me."

  "But ... I did not think he knew you. I thought we came here by chance..."

  "He brought you ... on my orders."

  "You mean the first time?"

  "Yes."

  "Then why did he pretend that he did not know you?"

  "You're going to hear everything in time. You are not drinking."

  "I am not really thirsty."

  "It is not unpleasant, is it?"

  "No, very nice."

  "You will find it so refreshing."

  "I thought at first that you might have news of my brother."

  "Oh, of course, your brother."

  "Do you know anything of him?"

  "He came here. He was a very inquisitive young man, and observant, too. He was very like his sister. And quite knowledgeable. He knew a great deal about charts and the sea. He guessed the island was submerged."

  "So you met him?"

  "He noticed the colour of the sea. It is not always like that. It happens only in certain climatic conditions. Sometimes there is no indication at all."

  "So Philip discovered it ... "

  "It was discovered long ago."

  "But when I last saw you ..." I stared at him. He raised his glass and indicated that I should do the same.

  I hesitated. Why was he so eager for me to drink? I had learned a lesson on the previous night. I believed I should not drink thoughtlessly for a long time.

  There was something very odd about this. The manner in which he looked at me, the way he spoke, not giving clear answers to my questions. I was beginning to feel very uneasy indeed. It occurred to me that he might not be quite sane.

  He looked so cold. His eyes were blue—so were Milton's. But how different! I felt an intense longing for Milton's protective presence and something like terror because an expanse of water divided us.

  "I believe you have something to tell me about my brother."

  "I know where he is."

  I rose. "Take me to him."

  "All in good time."

  "What is this all about? Why are you so mysterious? Why don't you tell me outright?"

  "I wish you would relax and drink. Then we could chat happily."

  "No," I said, "I won't drink. I don't want to drink. I am not thirsty. All I want is news."

  "Well, I'll tell you where your brother is. He is on the island."

  "But the island..."

  "Yes, it is at the bottom of the sea."

  "You mean Philip is..."

  "He's there ... or what the fishes have left of him."

  I said: "I want to go. I don't know what you are planning to do, but I don't want to stay here a moment longer."

  "That is not very polite. What would Ann Alice say to that?"

  "You have brought me here for a purpose. I want to know what."

  "So you shall ... I wish you had taken the drink.
It would have been so much easier for you. I like you. You are very attractive. I don't think Ann Alice was as attractive as you are. She would have lacked your fire. You are a young woman of great spirit. You like everything to go your way. I think it was most commendable of you to come on this quest. That is why I have decided that you shall discover what you came for... before you join your brother."

  "What?"

  He nodded. "Not yet, though. You know the love of those two was never consummated. Did you know that? Ann Alice was a simple girl. My great-grandfather was a worthy young man, idealistic at that time. He changed. I daresay Ann Alice would have changed. People do. Circumstances change them. Don't you agree?" i> "I want your man Everton to take me back immediately."

  "This is my island. I have not gone to such pains to bring you here that you shall go when the whim takes you. I like that idea of going back in the past. I like to think of myself as the young map maker coming to England and falling in love with the beautiful young girl. You have to go, but before that I want a little make-believe. We will play the lovers ... We will enjoy what they had not the opportunity to ... or perhaps the courage. Conventions were very rigid in those days ... so are they now, but here on this island 1 make the laws."

  "I think you are mad/' I said.

  "No. quite sane. I have told you that I admired you from the moment I saw you. You walked straight into the lions den, didn't you? You are rather careless. You are just like your brother. He was very gullible. He wanted to send divers down. He wanted to go himself. I had the equipment here. I took him ... and I came back without him. He knew too much ... discovered too much ... just as I was afraid he would."

  I stared at him in horror. Then I looked about me. He followed my gaze.

  "Sea all round." he said. "There is no way out. If you had taken the drink you would have been pleasantly drowsy ... that was how it should have been. I should have made love to you quietly ... tenderly, just as my great-grandfather would have done with Ann Alice. But you are stubborn. You refuse to drink."

  I said: "Did you try to kill me last night?"

  "It is not for you to ask questions. And you may drink now. It would be better so. I want a sweet acquiescent mistress. I want her to be as Ann Alice would have been. You will fight. I can see that. Ann Alice would never have fought her lover."

  I said: "You are mad."

  "No, not at all. Everything I do is founded on logic. You are a danger to me as your brother was. You came to find him. Well, that is what you have done. So now you are going to join him."

  "Do you imagine that you can kill me as you did my brother. He was unknown here. I am not. There are people who will want to know what has become of me."

  "The big man of Cariba? That is taken care of. The boat will be found... broken. Everton will disappear and so will you. That will be indisputable evidence. Someone must have seen you leave with Everton."

  "And they will know that he was taking me here."

  "Why should they? No one knows of his connection with me."

  "I have already told several people of that other occasion when he brought me over."

  "That would not mean that he brought you here a second time."

  "They will know that would be the only reason why I should go in a boat with him."

  "You quibble. No one will know that you came here."

  I was trapped. I thought. He means every word he says. He is cold and calculating. Why did I ever find the journal? If I had not Philip would be at home now ... and I should never have met Milton.

  "Milton. Milton." I said his name over and over again to myself. Where are you now? If only I could reach you ... in thought...

  I was trying to think clearly. I would not be missed for hours. Felicity and Raymond would come back and wonder where 1 was. Would they be anxious? They might think I had gone to the plantation for luncheon. Would anyone have seen me go off with John Everton. Magda had waved to me as I was about to get into the boat, but would she think of mentioning it... not until it would be too late.

  It would not be until evening that they would realize that I had disappeared. If I could run down to the shore ... get into the boat... row myself back to Cariba. How could I escape him?

  I thought: He is mad. He is as obsessed by the past as I was. I had felt myself caught up in it— and so had he. Ann Alice had brought her tragedy to me just as his great-grandfather had caught him into his life.

  When I looked into his cold blue eyes I thought I was looking at death.

  And how I longed to live! I wanted to be with Milton forever. I wanted to enjoy that life he had talked of... going home to England, having children. I had wanted that for a long time ever since in my heart I had known that I loved him—but never had that seemed clearer to me than now.

  Perhaps if I called to him. I felt my whole being trying to reach him. It must find some response. He must sense that I was in danger. Milton, Milton, where are you now? He would be there on the plantation supervising the cutting of the scorched canes. Milton ... Soundlessly I called to him.

  I wanted to cling to life. Every moment was important.

  There was something coldly dedicated about this man. He was enjoying the scene too much to want to bring it to a speedy conclusion. There was no heat of passion in him, no over-riding sexual desire; it was to be a sort of ritual, a culmination of the story of Ann Alice and her lover.

  If I could keep him talking ...

  "You promised to explain," I said. "You said I deserved to know."

  "Well?"

  "What is the secret of the island? Why do you want no one to know that it is there under the sea?"

  "I will tell you," he said. "My great-grandfather, lover of Ann Alice, came out here searching for it. He never found it; but he was caught up in the fever of the search for gold. Gold, you see. There was gold on the island ... so much gold that it was everywhere. He became obsessed by gold ... and he found it in Australia. He became moderately wealthy. He married there and had a son... my grand-

  father who followed in his father's footsteps. But a gold mine is not a bottomless pit. The gold runs out. The affluence fades. My grandfather was no longer young when he went in search of the island. To find the island was an obsession in my family ... as it became with your brother and yourself."

  "Yes?" I prompted. I was looking for some way of escape. Could I get out of this room? Where could I hide. I suppose in moments of acute danger one's senses become more alert. My ears were straining. Did I imagine I heard the sound of movement... something out there...

  He was intent on his story. "My grandfather bought this island to be near where he believed that other island might be. He made it his object in life to find the island... and he did. He sent divers down there. It was true about the gold. It seemed... inexhaustible. For fifty years we have been bringing up that gold."

  "That is why you are one of the few successful gold miners in Australia. The gold comes from the island."

  He nodded.

  "It doesn't belong to you."

  He shrugged his shoulders. "We do not want people prying into our affairs."

  "You mean someone might try to get a share of the gold? Does it belong to you? I don't believe that it does ... by law ... "

  "It belongs to my family," he said firmly. "And it is going to remain in my family. That is why we cannot have clever little spies probing around."

  "I am beginning to understand."

  "It is very clear... and logical, you must admit."

  I blinked, I saw a ship close to the island. I did not betray my exultation. He would not be able to see out of the window from where he sat. I must go on talking as though I had seen nothing. I must keep his attention focussed on me. The relief was almost unbearable. Someone was coming.

  Surely some of his men had seen the ship. How many men were there on the island besides Magnus Perrensen and John Everton? The divers, I supposed; they would be necessary to bring up the gold, and the servants. There must be quite
a few of them.

  I said: "Suppose I offered to go away and say nothing about the island?"

  "How could I trust you?"

  "If I gave my word."

  "What of your brother?"

  "He is dead. I can't bring him back."

  "I don't like violence," he said.

  i

  "Really? You surprise me."

  "There was nothing violent about your brother's death. He wanted to go down with the divers. I sent him down and simply cut the ropes. We left him down there. It was very simple."

  "Is that what you propose to do with me?"

  "I wanted you to take the drink. That would have made it easy."

  "I should have been asleep and you would have simply thrown me over. Yes, that would have been quick and easy."

  "Why not drink it now?"

  "It is not easy to drink to one's death."

  "It has to be, you know."

  Was that the sound of a boat on the sand?

  "Nothing is certain," I said.

  "This must be. I have thought of it since you came here the first time. Perhaps it should have happened then. But there was much to be discovered. You had the map. You told me that. I did not want the map to be found."

  "So you stole it from my rooms. How?"

  "Never mind. There is no map now ... and soon there will be no one who has an interest in the island."

  I heard a shout from outside.

  I rose and ran to the window. I wrenched it open and was out before he caught me.

  Wild joy possessed me.

  Milton was striding up the beach and he was not alone. Men were scrambling out of the boat.

  "Milton!" I cried. "Milton!"

  I ran to him. He caught me in his arms. He was laughing, but I could see it was the laughter of immense relief.

  I was safe—as I always would be with him.

  He took me back to the plantation. Raymond was there with Felicity, Magda and George.

  I knew the whole story now and how he had arrived just in time.

  As soon as he had left me that morning he had found Maria. He had conjectured that she would be the one who could most likely have stolen the map and put the pills in my milk.

  He had bullied her, threatened her, reduced her to such terror that he had forced the truth out of her.