Sally Wentworth - Conflict In Paradise

by Sally Wentworth

  While on the island, which was about a quarter the size of Aparoa, she decided to stay on for another couple of days to check the health of the inhabitants and arranged to take back with her an intelligent youth of about fourteen to whom she could teach the rudiments of first-aid and nursing in the hope that he would be able to deal with many of the minor ailments—a policy which her father had started and they found very useful.

  When she returned this time, the view of Aparoa from the sea was vastly different, the ranks of dancing palms having gone completely. Strangely, only the small knoll with its crown of jungle trees where she loved to sit still stood. Beyond it stretched a long, unbroken area of open land that would soon lie under thousands of tons of concrete and be heavy with the noise of planes. The gap into the harbour was much wider now, large enough to admit quite a big boat, and the lagoon beyond less calm and peaceful as the ocean waves met less opposition and came thundering down on to the beach.

  The rest of the day passed busily as Tansy arranged accommodation for the youth she had brought back, dealt with patients who had turned up at the clinic, and then went on her rounds. Inara had cooked her a delicious supper of roast fish served with breadfruit, and after it Tansy sat for a long time in her father's chair in his study, gazing silently out at the changed landscape. The day turned to dusk, but she didn't bother to put on the light. Then, when the sun was soon to slip below the horizon in its eternal circle, she went quietly past the kitchen where Inara sang at her work, and slipped into the garden. Slowly she went along the familiar path between the aromatic plants that filled the night with a potpourri of scents, past the tinkling waterfall and up the hill to the plateau.

  She looked back along the deserted strip of land, the fallen trees cleared, the holes where they had stood filled in, and then lifted her head in puzzlement. It was a few seconds before she realised what was wrong; she could no longer hear the singing of the palm leaves as they danced in the breeze. They were dead and gone for ever. Turning, she made her way to the knoll and walked under the trees until she came to the cliff's edge, there to lean against a trunk and watch the sun sink into the sea.

  It was so quiet that she heard him coming from quite a distance away. He made no attempt to hide his approach, but she didn't turn round to look at him until Blake was standing just a few feet away from her. He looked different somehow, and then she saw that he wasn't wearing his uniform. Instead he wore navy slacks and shirt, open at the throat and betraying a hint of a hairy chest, with the cuffs turned back casually. It was the first time she had ever seen him in civilian clothes and they made him look leaner and even more powerful.

  'How did you know where to find me?' she said slowly into the silence.

  'If I tell you you'll probably accuse me of spying or voyeurism.' There was an ironic twist to his mouth as he answered.

  Rather unsteadily, she said, 'Why don't you try me?'

  He paused, then, 'All right. The first night I met you, after you'd told me just what you thought of me and my kind, I didn't go straight back to the prison, but wandered up this way. You walked right by me on your way here. I wondered if you were in the habit of going out alone at night, so I waited the next night. When you came again I decided I'd better keep an eye on you, so, whenever you went out alone, I followed you.'

  'So it was you who shouted after me when I swam out too far. And that's why you were on hand when the soldier attacked me,' Tansy said on a note of understanding.

  'Yes.' 'Why did you follow me?'

  'Because I didn't want any harm to come to you.'

  'After what I'd said to you? After I'd done my best to get you to go away? Why should you care what happens to me?'

  His voice changed as he said roughly, 'I care.'

  Tansy straightened up and moved a little towards him so that she could see his face. His eyes looked intently down at her, a light in them that she couldn't fail to understand.

  'Why here?' She spoke almost in a whisper. 'Why not when we were alone together on the atoll?'

  'Because then you could have accused me of trying to take advantage of the situation. Here you're free to walk away—if you want to,' he added deliberately.

  Her heart beating wildly, Tansy stared up at him. 'I hate you, you know that!'

  'Do you, Tansy? Do you really?' He had moved closer and reached out to take the clip from her hair so that it fell in cascades of silver about her shoulders.

  'You're a soldier, and I loathe war and violence,' she went on hurriedly.

  'But there's a man under the uniform, and it's the man that matters.' Gently he began to stroke the side of her face, his touch as light as butterflies' wings.

  Tansy began to quiver, her breath uneven. 'I despise you and everything you stand for,' she managed.

  'Methinks the lady doth protest too much,' he quoted softly as his fingers slipped down to explore her throat, warm, caressing.

  Closing her eyes, she gave a half-hearted protest that somehow changed to a little moan. Then she opened her eyes. 'Blake! Oh, Blake!'

  The next second she was almost swept off her feet as he engulfed her in his arms, his mouth finding hers as he kissed her with a violence that terrified her and yet aroused emotions within her that she didn't know existed. With a choking sob, she thrust herself even closer to him and passionately returned his kiss. When eventually Blake raised his head, his breathing was heavy and uneven, his eyes glazed. He held her tight in his arms and Tansy could hear his heart hammering in his chest.

  'Oh, my darling.' His voice was slurred and unsteady, hardly recognisable. 'I've been waiting so long for you to call me by my name. I knew that when at last you did it would be because you'd realised what I've known all along.'

  She stirred and pulled away to look at him wonderingly, her hand reaching tentatively up to touch the planes of his face, to brush his lips. He gave a kind of groan and turned his head to press his lips into her palm.

  'My lovely girl, if you knew how long I've searched for someone like you.' He drew her towards him and bent his head to kiss her eyes, her cheekbones, and then hungrily sought her lips again, kissing her like a thirst- crazed man who has found water and cannot get his fill.

  At last they drew apart and Tansy gazed mistily up at him. 'I've been trying so hard to fight this. I wouldn't even let myself think of you as a man, only as my enemy. But I should have known it was inevitable. All the time I had to keep telling myself how much I hated you; even after you kissed me on the beach I wouldn't let myself admit how much I liked it, how much I wanted you to do it again.'

  'Crazy little idiot,' he said thickly, and proceeded to do just that, very thoroughly.

  Later Tansy somehow found herself sitting on the grass beside him, her head pillowed against his shoulder. 'What did you mean when you said you'd known all along?'

  He smiled. 'I was completely bowled over on that first night when I pulled you out into the moonlight and took that ridiculous turban off your head. You've no idea how lovely you looked at that moment. That's why I didn't go straight back to the prison; I had to recover from what had hit me.' Gently he ran his fingers through her hair, curling it round his fingers. 'You were in a flaming temper at the time, of course. That's probably what did it,' he said with laughter in his voice. 'But then I've hardly ever seen you in anything but a flaming temper.'

  Tansy smiled in the darkness, knowing the power she had over him. 'I'm not in a temper now,' she said softly.

  His fingers tightened in her hair. 'No,' he said unevenly. 'So you're not.' And this time when the embrace ended it was by his act, not hers. 'You know, Dr Harland, you're quite a girl.' He cupped her face in his hands and his dark eyes, lit by a light that was for her alone, looked deep into hers. 'Tansy, I want to take you with me when I leave here. Will you come with me, my darling?'

  She knew what he asked of her, knew that it would mean leaving everything she had ever loved, but it didn't matter, not beside the feelings he had awakened in her.

  'Yes
, Blake,' she said simply. 'I'll come with you.'

  The sudden flare of emotion in his eyes disconcerted her. She had fallen in love with a complete, complex stranger, and as yet she had caught only glimpses of the depth of feeling of which he was capable.

  'Oh, my beautiful, wonderful girl,' he said in a curious, wrenched voice. 'I've waited so long for you. I want you and need you so much.'

  Tansy found that she was crying. 'I love you,' she whispered. 'I'll always love you.'

  Gently he laid her back on the grass to kiss her again, his lips caressing her until his mouth became possessive, demanding, and his hands began to explore her body.

  The singing of the wind in the coconut palms had gone for ever, but instead there was the music of the waves sliding over the sand, and above them a full moon shed its brilliance over the island; an immense moon that turned from silver to pale green, showering a pathway of diamonds and turning the sea to molten silver as the day passed into eternity.

  CHAPTER NINE

  The sun was already high in the sky when Tansy finally awoke the next morning, but she didn't rush to jump out of bed as she normally would have done. Instead she turned over to stare at the beamed ceiling, her eyes bright and her mouth curved into a smile of happiness. She was in love with Blake—so few words to describe the most momentous thing that would ever happen in her life. For from this moment nothing would ever be quite the same again; for the rest of her life there would be someone else whose happiness would mean more to her than her own. Dreamily she lay there as she recalled every detail of the previous night. She had known instinctively when she saw the knoll still intact that he had left it there for her sake and that if she went there he would come to her. And, although her mind had rebelled, her heart had led her there to wait for him.

  Then she remembered that they were meeting again today, so she jumped quickly out of bed and ran downstairs. Inara was in the kitchen and Tansy breathlessly asked her to prepare a picnic for two before taking her usual bathe under the waterfall.

  Inara smiled knowingly at her when she came back, but Tansy didn't care. Hurrying upstairs to put on a pretty summer dress, she turned towards the mirror with a hairbrush in her hand, and then stopped short—she looked so different! Her eyes sparkled brighter than any jewel and there was a radiance about her that enhanced her delicate loveliness. She positively glowed! And all because a man has told me he loves me, she thought happily. Well, no, that wasn't quite right, because he hadn't actually said it, not in so many words, but he had certainly demonstrated, very convincingly, how he felt about her. And she was to leave Aparoa and go with him, be his wife. But he hadn't said that either, now she came to think of it. But it didn't matter; there was plenty of time—they had all the time in the world.

  Blake picked her up just before noon and they drove deep into the heart of the island, away from the villages, and left the jeep on the valley road while they walked to a sunlit clearing in the jungle near to a small lake adorned by giant lily pads. He wore civilian clothes again, beige slacks and a matching loose-knit shirt, as if he had left the soldier behind at the prison. Suddenly Tansy felt shy of this big stranger who was capable of arousing feelings in her that frightened her by their depth and passion. Spreading a rug for them to sit on, he turned and held out his hand to her, but she hung back a little.

  Sensing her need for reassurance, he crossed to her and said in mock complaint, 'Do you realise you haven't kissed me all morning?' and bent his head to find her mouth, to cover her lips with little kisses that intoxicated her and left her clinging to him weakly when at last he released her.

  Scooping her up, he carried her across to the rug and dropped her gently down on to it. 'Come on, wench, I'm hungry. Where's the food?'

  Tansy wrinkled her nose at him. 'Just like a man! All you care about is filling your stomach.'

  He grinned as he dropped down beside her. 'One must get one's priorities right from the start,' he told her teasingly. 'If you don't hurry up and unpack that hamper I shall have to start on you.' And he leant over to gently bite her earlobe.

  Laughingly she turned to push him away—then found herself clinging to him in fear as the ground beneath them began to shake violently. There was a terrible grumbling, groaning sound deep within the earth, a tree came crashing down into the lake, its still waters already overflowing its banks as yet another earth tremor shook the island. The quake lasted only for seconds, but to Tansy it seemed an age before the earth was still at last and Blake released her from the protection of his arms as she raised frightened eyes to look into his.

  'It's all right, it's over now. That was some…'

  'No, it isn't all over! We have to get away, quickly!' Jumping to her feet, she pulled him up beside her and began to run back through the jungle towards the jeep.

  'Wait! Tell me what's the matter.' Blake caught hold of her arm and made her stop.

  Agitatedly Tansy tried to draw him on. 'It's the tsunami. We have to get to higher ground quickly!'

  'Tsunami?' he repeated in bewilderment. 'What on earth's that?'

  'Tidal waves! The seismic disturbances under the sea generate shock waves that make huge waves in the sea, higher than a wall, and they sweep right across the islands destroying everything in their path. Come on, we have to get to the jeep and drive to higher ground before they come. We don't stand a chance here in the valley!'

  Grimly Blake took her hand and led the way through the trees, using his shoulders to shelter her from the branches in their way. Soon they were back at the jeep and Tansy thankfully clung to its side as Blake drove at speed towards higher ground, but when they came to a fork in the road he swung the vehicle back towards the main village.

  'No, this is the wrong way,' Tansy called out over the noise of the engine. 'The other road leads to the mountain.'

  'I've got to get back to my men and warn them,' Blake returned as he gunned the jeep down the track.

  'But the villagers will take care of them. They'll be safe in the prison—everyone always shelters there. Please, Blake, there isn't time!'

  'You're sure they'll be safe?'

  'Yes!'

  'All right.' He swung the jeep round in a circle of screaming brakes and plunged up the mountain road.

  The jeep was built for rough terrain such as this, but even the jeep couldn't withstand the boulder dislodged from the hillside, that came bouncing and crashing down to crush the radiator. Blake cursed but wasted no time in examining the damage; one look was enough to tell him that the vehicle would take them no further.

  'We'll have to run for it.' Taking her hand, he ran her fast up the track. Tansy considered herself to be pretty fit, but the way was steep and she was soon panting for breath as she tried to keep up with him. Blake took her left hand in his and put his right arm round her to help her along and thus make it a little easier.

  The road veered off to the right, downhill again, but Tansy, her breath coming in quick gasps, pointed to a tree-lined track that led upwards. Hardly had they started up it, however, before she heard a faint noise in the distance. 'Listen!' She clutched his sleeve and then Blake heard it too. A swishing, rushing noise that gradually became louder, began to grow into a roar.

  Desperately they ran on, Blake almost carrying her as her strength began to fail. But the sound was like thunder now, the mortal groan of trees being uprooted in its path adding to the terrible surging roar. The first giant wave could only be yards away from them now and Tansy knew with a horrifying certainty that they weren't going to make it. Blake, too, must have realised how close it was, for he suddenly swung off the track towards a stout tree. Tansy found herself holding tightly to the trunk and then Blake's arms came round to encircle her and the tree, his hands locked into one another in a grip that couldn't be torn apart while he still had life in his body.

  Then the wave was upon them. A great, crashing wall of muddy water that swept their feet from under them and sent branches of trees and debris to knock and bruise them and tr
y to dislodge their hold. For a brain- chilling moment Tansy thought the tree was going to be swept away, but its roots went deep into the ground and it held, but under the immense pressure she lost her hold on the trunk and found herself slipping down within Blake's arms. The sea water cascaded over her head as she tried to regain her grip on the tree, but then his arms tightened as he exerted all his strength against the great force that tried to take them in its giant maw.

  When the wave passed at last, Tansy found herself lying entangled in the exposed roots of the tree, the sea having washed away the earth round them. Slowly, numbly, she extricated herself and then looked round for Blake. He was lying a few feet away, on his back, his eyes closed and face deathly white. Tansy gave a little choking cry of fear as she crawled across the muddy ground towards him.

  'Blake!' With trembling fingers she felt for his pulse.

  He opened his eyes. 'I'm—all right.' But his breath was ragged and uneven. 'Something hit me. Took the—the wind out of me,' he gasped. Slowly he sat up and rubbed his shoulders; the battle with the wave had almost torn his arms from their sockets. 'Will there be any more waves?' he asked through clenched teeth.

  'There might be, but not as big. Are you badly hurt?' she asked anxiously.

  'No, it just knocked me out for a bit.' He staggered to his feet and pulled her up beside him. 'We'd better try to get a bit higher.'

  Draggingly they started to climb up the track again. The tidal waves came again, twice more, but this time they were well clear and could stand and watch as the mighty torrents of water swept past to die away in the middle of the island, over three miles inland.

  'Which is the best way to get back?' Blake asked her grimly.