The Isle of Song

by Hilary Wilde

  In her bedroom, Kate went out on to the balcony. It was a perfect night, the moonlight giving a strange

  new beauty to the palm trees, so still and dignified. She could see fishermen out on the lagoon in their small boats. Mike was sound asleep, she had slipped in to make sure. How well he was looking, and how happy.

  Kate thought back over the months. How she had feared and hated coming here, how certain she had been that it was a mistake, and how wrong she had been. Nancy had met Adam, and what a wonderful husband he was going to make; Mike was a sturdy boy now, able to make friends with other boys, learning to enjoy studying; Jerome had a great future before him now that his work here was being recognized the world over — for visitors had come from the United States as well as Great Britain to see the new hotels that were being built and Jerome had been highly praised.

  Kate went back into her bedroom and slowly undressed. It was early yet, but she felt absurdly weak and tired. She knew that she was postponing the moment when she must think of what had happened to her as a result of coming to the island, but once in bed, the canopy of mosquito netting enclosing her in a world of her own, she found courage enough to admit the truth to herself. She had met Simon and even though she knew that he would never love her, that she would only know heartache from loving him, yet she knew that she was glad they had met. How amazing he was, she thought, her eyes tightly closed. So changeable, so inexplicable, sometimes so sarcastic, other times kind; sometimes formal to a point of stiffness, at others friendly. How fortunate Caterina

  was to be loved by such a man.

  Kate rolled over suddenly, burying her face in the cool pillow. And how it hurt, she thought miserably. How terribly it hurt to love someone who does not know you exist!

  CHAPTER THIRTEEN

  IT seemed strange to be back at work again, Kate thought, as she took her place at her desk in Adam's office, but it had one blessing, she added mentally; it would stop her from thinking about Simon.

  Nothing but sorrow could come from thinking of him too much. Maybe it would be easier if she left the island and went back to England — yet could she bear to voluntarily walk out of his life, she asked herself, never to see him again ? She gazed blindly at the ledgers before her, asking herself which was more painful — never to see Simon again, or to stay here and dance at his wedding to Caterina ?

  Adam swung round in his swivel chair. 'I tried to tell Nancy last night,' he said, his voice quiet and urgent.

  Kate looked up. There had been no chance to talk privately before, that morning, as Simon had walked down to the office with her, once more warning her not to overwork the first day.

  Kate's face was bright with sympathetic interest. `And what did she say ?'

  Adam looked rueful. 'Refused to believe me ... and then burst into tears and rushed off.' He paused. 'Now what is there funny in that ?' he demanded as Kate smiled.

  `Simply that if she didn't love you, she wouldn't have cried,' she explained. 'Don't you see, she wants

  to believe it, but daren't, in case you were joking and she'd be so terribly hurt.'

  `Women are strange cattle ...' Adam began.

  `That may be, but is it necessary to discuss them in working hours ?' Simon asked drily, standing in the open doorway.

  Kate looked up, startled, her cheeks suddenly hot as she saw the way Simon was staring at her.

  `I think you are a disturbing element in Adam's office, Kate,' Simon went on, his voice sarcastic. 'He does double the work when you're not here . . . Adam,' his voice was curt now, 'I want you to get out the figures that Early Brothers sent us about five months ago.'

  Kate was at the filing cabinet. 'I know where they are ...'

  `Thank you,' Simon said with studied politeness. `Quite the efficient secretary. Adam and I are both fortunate in our staff,' he added, and left the coconut-log hut.

  Adam and Kate worked in silence, watching Simon walk through hot sunshine towards the big house.

  `What's the matter with him these days ?' Adam asked. 'He never used to be so sarcastic.'

  Kate shrugged. 'Love, I suppose.'

  `Love ?' Adam shrugged.

  Kate wished she had said nothing. But Adam was staring at her oddly.

  `Jerome and I think he's in love with Caterina,' she said finally.

  `Everyone has been thinking that for months, but nothing happens.' He gave a happy contented laugh.

  `You honestly think Nancy likes me, Kate ? I mean, you think I should press on ?'

  `Regardless!' Kate finished for him with a laugh. `I most certainly do, Adam. Try the strong man stuff, sweep her into your arms. It never fails.'

  Adam looked at her oddly. 'You don't think she'd get mad ?'

  Kate laughed. 'She might pretend to, but I think she'd love it. Now, we really must do some work or Simon will sack me !'

  `That'll be the day,' Adam said cheerfully, and bent over his work, whistling merrily if untunefully.

  Tehutu brought them lunch on a large tray. Her pretty face was troubled.

  `Doctor had to come for Meira, the gardener, cut his foot with an axe,' she told them. 'Blood everywhere!' She moved her hands expressively as she spoke.

  `Is he all right ?' Kate asked.

  Tehutu smiled. 'He is fine. Everyone is fine when the doctor comes,' she said, and turned away to walk back with her graceful floating movement to the big house.

  `Everyone loves the doctor,' Kate said, and was ashamed to hear the note of bitterness in her voice.

  If Adam noticed, he gave no sign. 'Yes, we're certainly lucky to have her here,' he said cheerfully.

  They dozed in their hammocks during their siesta and then returned to the office.

  `You're not supposed to work in the afternoon,' Adam pointed out.

  `I've just had a sleep,' Kate protested. 'I just want to finish this job, Adam, I'm bang in the middle of it.'

  Adam hesitated. But ..

  `Adam, stop fussing,' snapped Kate, suddenly cross. `I'm not a child and it's all ridiculous nonsense, all this fuss about a spider's bite. I'll just finish this and then go up.'

  He looked at her stubborn back as she bent over the figures and gave a little shrug. Women ! And then he thought of Nancy and began to plan what he would do that evening to make her listen to him.

  Kate was startled as she walked back to the big house, choosing the shady paths, to realize how exhausted she felt. It was absurd — a few days in bed — a spider's bite, yet she had to force her legs and feet to move, almost drag them along. She ached all over and wished she had done what Adam had told her and come straight back after the siesta. As she came in sight of the big colonial-type house, she stiffened and stopped dead.

  Simon and Caterina were in the garden. Caterina's face was bright with laughter as she faced Simon. Suddenly his hands were on her shoulders and he bent and kissed her .. .

  Kate turned abruptly and walked into the glade of trees. Her eyes stung, her mouth was dry, she was stumbling over each small grassy mound or stone. At last she stood still, knowing it was madness to panic like this, for she could easily get lost. She straightened her yellow frock, patted her hair with her hands, tried to compose her face, and walked back to the big house. As she reached the door, Simon and Caterina, now sitting in chairs under a huge shady tree, saw her.

  `Kate!' Simon shouted. 'Let me have the studio key, please!'

  Kate nodded and then Caterina stood up, calling out something. Kate could not hear what she said, nor could she bear to linger, for Caterina's face was radiant with happiness and Kate felt that it was almost more than she could bear. Perhaps they had just arranged their wedding date — that would explain Caterina's radiance and Simon's cheerfulness. Why, he had not even commented on the fact that Kate should have been resting !

  In her bedroom, Kate went straight to the dressing-table drawer for the key.

  It was not there.

  Kate's legs felt suddenly weak and she sat down on the edge of the bed.

 
The key must be there. It simply must be, Kate told herself firmly. No need to panic. She had always put the key there, so it simply had to be there. That was all there was to it — she must have imagined she could not feel the key there, for it had to be. It had never been kept in any other place.

  She drew a long deep breath and tried again. The key was definitely not there. In despair, she pulled out the drawer and tipped its contents on to the bed. The key was not there.

  Again she sat down, feeling absurdly tired. She had been so careful with the key, too, feeling it a kind of trust and flattered that Simon had given it to her. How could she go down and tell them she had lost it ?

  She shivered, imagining Simon's face, his annoyance, his sarcastic smile, probably some remark he

  would make that would hurt her terribly though he might not know it. And Caterina sitting there, so lovely and triumphant. How could she bear it ?

  There must be some way of finding it. Where could she have put it ? She closed her eyes, trying to remember. As she had only returned from hospital the day before, then she must have used the key last on the day she was bitten by the spider.

  She tried to retrace her steps that day. She had been reading the diaries and feeling miserable and had read the part where Mrs. Scott had found the smiling tiki. Kate could remember her own feelings at the time —maybe a smiling tiki could help her, she had thought. Now what had she done ? Had she come upstairs after locking the door and put away the key? Or had she locked the door, popping the key into her pocket and gone straight out to find the tiki?

  If only she could remember, she thought despairingly. Which dress had she been wearing? She went to the wardrobe and searched all her frocks, feeling in the pockets, but there was no key — and then she realized that, in any case, the frock she had been wearing on the day she was bitten would have been washed by now, and if there had been a key in the pocket, Tehutu would have found it and placed it on the dressing-table, just as she had done in the past when Kate had left a pencil or a letter in her pocket.

  Kate glanced at her watch. It was late afternoon already — soon it would be dark, but somehow she must find the key, she told herself. The only alternative she could think of was that she must have dropped the key when she ran back after the spider had bitten her.

  She had kept to the path all the time, so the key must be close by it, if it had fallen out of her pocket.

  She hurried down the back staircase and out of a side entrance which was not visible from outside the drawing-room where Simon and Caterina were sitting. As she passed the kitchen door, she saw Tehutu's startled face, but she hurried, not wishing to be delayed, as soon the short tropical twilight would fall and the night be there.

  The trodden path seemed wider than Kate had remembered as she walked along it, bending down, glancing searchingly in the hope of finding the key. As she reached the clearing where the temple was, she straightened up and looked round her, seeing with surprise how changed it was. The loose vines that had clung so persistently to everything had been cut back so that the temple was plainly visible, and Kate turned round, looking for the smiling tiki. That, too, had been cleared of all creeping, clinging vegetation and stood alone, majestic, hideous and yet with that suggestion of a smile on its ugly mouth. The tikis were stern gods, Simon had said. But Mrs. Scott had been right, Kate thought; this one was smiling. She stepped backwards to get a better view and the ground seemed to give way beneath her feet. She screamed as she fell — landing on soft green rushes and creepers.

  For a moment she lay very still, shocked and shaken. Gazing up, she could see the sky clearly. Gingerly she moved, testing her limbs. Luckily it was soft stuff she had fallen on, for no bones were broken. Slowly she stood and found that the top of the hole she had fallen in must be about fifteen feet above her. There was

  nothing on the stone-lined walls for her to use as footholds. She stood very still, trying not to be frightened, keeping her thoughts away from what might lie under the green stuff she stood on — spiders, scorpions, even snakes . . .

  She gave a little gasp of fright she could not overcome and screamed.

  It sounded faint even to her ears and she doubted its sound would carry above the hole. She pressed her hands against her mouth. Soon it would be dark. No one would miss her for hours. They would think she was dutifully resting until dinner time, and only then would they find she wasn't in her room. No one would think of looking for her here.

  Something seemed to be crawling up her leg. She looked down, but nothing was there. Soon it would be dark in the hole and...

  She pressed both her hands against her mouth and fought the panic that filled her. How furious Simon would be, for how stupid it had been of her to come here alone after what had happened before. She leant against the stone wall — had this been a well once ? she wondered — trying not to cry, but the weakness and fear that filled her was too much and she could feel the tears sliding down her cheeks.

  How long she stood there she had no idea. It might have been minutes, but it seemed like years, then suddenly she heard a voice . . .

  It was the most beautiful sound she had ever heard in her life — Simon's voice.

  `I'm here!' she screamed, but how faint it sounded. She shouted again and again.

  `Kate !' Simon shouted, and his voice sounded closer.

  It was quite a while before she saw his face as he knelt on the ground and looked down at her.

  `Well now,' he said quite cheerfully, 'how did you get down there ?' His voice was so matter-of-fact that some of the fear left her.

  `Oh, Simon—' Kate gasped, choking on the words, half laughing, half crying. 'I was looking at the smiling tiki and...'

  `Walked backwards and fell down,' he finished for her. `My fault. I had to clear all this myself as no Polynesian would come near the place. I meant to have the well filled in later, but . .

  It's my fault,' Kate said unhappily. 'I shouldn't have come here again and . .

  `Why did you ?' he asked.

  Somehow it was easier to confess the truth, now. Maybe because there was no Caterina looking on. 'I lost the key, Simon. I'm terribly sorry,' she said.

  `But the key isn't lost. We thought you heard what Caterina called out. She borrowed the key this morning. She told me you told her she could have it and also where you kept it.'

  Kate leant against the side of the well, her legs weak. Surely Caterina could have called louder – had it been a trick to frighten her and make her look a fool?

  `Look, Kate,' Simon went on, 'it's getting dark so there isn't time to go and get help, but I'll soon have you out. I'm getting some vines and making a rope of them, so don't be scared and think I'm leaving you here.'

  `Talk to me — Simon,' Kate called, suddenly fearful. be all right if I hear your voice.'

  `I'll sing to you if you like,' he said cheerfully, and sing he did.

  Kate stood very still, trying not to think of the creepy frightening insects and reptiles that might be lying amongst the green climbers under her feet, and Simon's voice singing was close and then distant and then close again.

  `I'm not as good as the islanders at this weaving,' he called down cheerfully. 'Luckily you're a light-weight.'

  It seemed hours before he lowered a slender but tough rope of woven creeper to her.

  `Now listen carefully, Kate,' he told her, his voice changing, becoming curt and authoritative. 'I'm tying one end to something firm up here and the end you have must be tied round your waist. I don't want you cut in half when I pull you up, so listen to my directions carefully and tie the knot as I tell you — repeat after me everything I say, so that I know you're doing it properly.'

  She obeyed, repeating his instructions, tying the knot so that it could not tighten as her weight went against it.

  `I'm ready!' she called. She was more than ready, she thought, fighting the hysteria that kept filling her as things seemed to be crawling on her legs and arms.

  It was a bad few moments as
he hauled her up —Kate vainly trying to get a grip on the smooth walls of the well, swinging with a frightening pendulum movement as Simon hauled her up — at last she felt his warm hands on her arms, hauling her up the last part

  and then holding her close. His arms were warm and strong and she closed her eyes as she rested her face against his damp shirt. She was trembling and she knew that if he had not been holding her, she must have collapsed on the ground. She had never felt so limp in her life.

  She hated it when he took his arms away from her, but he kept one arm round her and led her to a stone bench. They sat down, Simon still supporting her. Suddenly she turned to him, burying her face in his shoulder and feeling the tears run.

  She tried to stop, for Simon had told her once he hated women who wept, but it must have been the shock and fright and the effort of keeping from screaming so that now she felt as if she would never stop crying again.

  `My poor Kate,' said Simon, and she was startled by the gentleness in his voice. He tried to dry her tears with his handkerchief as he went on: 'You've been unlucky ever since you came here. How you must hate the island. Did you know the six months are up, Kate ? You've won our wager. You remember ?'

  Vaguely she knew that he was talking to her in order to give her a chance to gain control of herself, and the word 'wager' seemed to ring a bell in her mind.

  `Our wager ?' she echoed.

  His arm tightened round her. 'Yes. I bet you that you'd all be happy on the island and I promised your favourite charity a thousand pounds if you were unhappy here.'

  Kate's tears stopped as if a switch had been flickedoff. But I'm not unhappy here,' she said.

  In the dim light, Simon looked startled. 'You're not ?'

  Kate shook her head vigorously. 'I most certainly am not. Simon,' she went on earnestly, 'you were right and I was wrong. This is a wonderful place and we're all happy. I love it here — the beauty — the music — the ... well, everything.'