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‘I’m back earlier than I intended,’ he went on. 'I wanted to see how my place fared after the cyclone.’

So he had been worried about his sugar estate. His concern had nothing to do with her.

‘And how did it fare?’ she asked, although she had actually been there at the beginning of the cyclone.

He let out a long breath. ‘Fiat. Cane fields flattened —the lot. Some of my outbuildings were wiped out.’

'And the dogs?’ she asked.

‘How did you know about the dogs?’ His voice was sharp.

‘I-I was there—at the beginning,’ she stammered, not reminding him of the fact that Laurent Sevigny had taken her there before that.

‘Oh yes, I know about that, but from what I was able to gather you were not there long enough to find out about the dogs.’

‘How did you know I was there?’ Her eyes widened.

‘Nicole told me.’

‘Oh, I—see.’ But she didn’t. ‘I—I didn’t know.’

She watched him as he sat down on a peacock chair.

‘I didn’t know you hunted,’ she said, taking the other matching chair opposite him. A small round cane table divided them.

After a moment Marlow said, ‘There’s a lot you don’t know about me, let’s face it. Am I right?’ He smiled faintly.

The thought depressed her and she said, ‘Well, yes, I suppose so.'

‘From my house you went with Laurent Sevigny to his house,’ Marlow went. on. ‘I’m still trying to work that one out.’

‘There was another girl there,’ Jade said quickly. ‘Her name is Marcelle Fabre and she manages his business in Curepipe.’ She laughed lightly. ‘Everybody in Mauritius says Kuur-peep or something.’

‘I know her slightly,’ he said, ‘but go on.’

‘At first I thought she was his girl-friend—but I’m not sure.'

‘Why aren’t you sure?’

‘Well, there’s Nicole de Speville,' she replied, and suddenly Marlow laughed. There was some amusement on his face, but this amusement did not reach his eyes, somehow.

‘Are you jealous?’ he asked.

'No, of course not. Why should I be?'

'I'm asking
you.'
His light brown eyes went over her.

It was all very strange, Jade thought afterwards. After asking her whether she had enough money, Marlow had left her. His kiss had been anything but demanding. She sat for some time thinking about him. He had been wearing denim pants and a denim jacket, like a man half his age. Actually, he was the type of man who would have the power to make other men of his own age appear older. And yet he had made her feel very young and unsure of herself. Her thoughts were chaotic. While she had dreaded any intimacy on the part of Marlow Lewis she had not bargained for the preoccupied manner in which he had handled their first meeting on the island.

Because she felt unsettled and upset she decided to go for a walk before dinner along the beach, and slipping off her gold sandals she hooked the straps through her fingers. The crimson caftan she was wearing curled about her ankles in the light breeze which sprang off the sea. Even with the uprooted palms, the beach was beautiful in the sunset. It was the kind of exotic setting to make a girl feel beautiful—but Jade was feeling anything but beautiful. Nothing made sense to her. When she turned her head, she could see Laurent Sevigny’s pink-dusted chalet.

There was white spray where the breakers pounded the reef, but there was hardly any sound. All was calm.

Sea, sand and sunset, she thought, gazing at the ocean.

Back at the hotel the barman would be busily polishing glasses and the wine stewards would be handing out snacks to go with sundown drinks. It seemed foolish for her to remain here—for she knew without a doubt that she could not marry Marlow. In fact, he himself appeared stunned that he had landed himself in the position of having sent for her.

A curving, empty beach, she thought, a little wildly, and an empty, utterly drained girl—for suddenly she felt just that. Drained. Her crimson caftan blew against her thighs as she stood lost in thought, gazing at the sea lagoon and the vast Indian Ocean beyond the reef.

‘I would feel a lot easier if you knew I was here,’ Laurent Sevigny said and, wide-eyed, Jade swung around. ‘I have been standing here for some moments, just watching you,’ he went on, ‘and waiting for you to come back to earth.’ He smiled and lifted one shoulder.

‘I was—thinking,’ she stammered. She had not seen him since the day he had dropped her off at the hotel, after Cyclone Fraziska.

‘This is a moment I love,’ he said, pleasantly enough. ‘Sunset on the island. Often, like now, I take a walk along the beach. Not often do I come upon a beautiful girl in a crimson caftan, with the sea breezes blowing the garment against her and hinting at the exciting chic slimness of her.’

‘You're exaggerating, of course,’ she said, a little breathlessly, amazed that he appeared friendly. ‘There are always beautiful girls on the beach here, no matter what the time. This evening happens to be an exception.’

‘You look lost—and alone,' he said, coming towards her.

‘It’s quite simple. I
am
lost and alone.'

‘But your future husband, the great hunter, is back, no?’

‘How do you know?’ she asked.

‘The whole island knows that the great Marlow Lewis is back. I’ve noticed this thing about you,’ he went on easily, ‘your eyes are never quite the same colour.’

‘It’s something I've noticed about you too, as a matter of fact,’ she replied, ‘but in any case, it’s something I can’t change.’

‘I was not objecting, believe me.’ He laughed softly, easily, carelessly. ‘Tell me, what is it you were thinking about?’ he asked.

After a bitter little moment she said, ‘I was thinking about the beautiful water hyacinth which may soon strangle waterways and rivers in Australia.’

‘Really?’ He threw back his dark head and laughed, and the laughter registered disbelief. ‘So?’ He sobered. ‘You are interested in the beautiful water hyacinth?’

‘Very.’

‘So interested, in fact, that you can think of nothing else at a time when the man you are to marry has returned?’

‘I've already said that I’m very interested in the water hyacinth.'

‘I am, too. This must come as a surprise to you. But I am also interested. Did you know that recent studies of the sex life of this giant plant revealed that it can double its number in about...' he shrugged, ‘ten days? That means to say that two beautiful hyacinth blooms on the bank today can be, let us see, yes ... two hundred and forty thousand in ninety days.'

‘Yes, I knew that,’ she replied tartly. ‘I’ve made a great study of the sex life of this giant plant.'

He laughed again, his sea-green eyes going over her.

‘So? You surprise me,' he said.

There was the sound of water slapping against the glass-bottomed boat which was used to take tourists out to the reef.

As usual, Jade found Laurent’s closeness exciting.

‘Don’t be cautious with me,' he said. ‘Just be candid and tell me that the meeting up with Marlow Lewis was a disaster.'

‘Anything
but,’
she replied, in an angry voice. ‘It went off very well, actually.'

‘Oh, well,’ he said, with a deliberate, brutal carelessness, ‘it is a matter of indifference to me, anyway.'

‘I must go,’ she said.

‘I have a perfectly good Chinese dinner waiting at my chalet,' he told her. ‘It seems a pity it is going to be eaten by one person.'

‘If this is an invitation ....’ she began.

‘It
is
an invitation.'

‘Well, I’ve never eaten Chinese food. I might not like it, but thank you just the same.’ Her voice was stiff.

‘If you have never eaten it then you are in for a pleasant surprise. Chinese food can be excellent. You will enjoy it—fish and poultry, soups and excellent sauces, sweet and sour. Roast and diced chicken with walnuts, fish in bean sauce, crab fried with chilli and ginger, prawn cutlets. You can choose between bird’s nest soup and shark’s fin soup. This is Cantonese.'

‘This isn’t what your cook has prepared for one, surely?’ Her voice was sarcastic.

‘Well, no, of course not. I am giving you an example of Chinese food. I will take you to eat in Port Louis— in the Chinese quarter which never sleeps.’

‘I can see myself coming.’ Jade spoke with a touch of defiance and turned away, pushing the tears back up her cheeks with her fingers so that he would not see them.

‘You will come,’ he said casually, ‘just as you will come to my chalet now.’ He took her by the shoulders and turned her round to face him. ‘Don’t fight me. You do not want to go back to the hotel, and you know it.’

With a feeling of helplessness she said, ‘All right, I’ll come.’

‘Good. Although there is a perfectly daunting menu waiting for you at the hotel you will be doing yourself a favour by sampling my cook’s excellent Chinese dinner.’

The beach and the sea had disappeared behind the screen of darkness which had now fallen and, far out, the coral reef was just a white smudge.

In Laurent’s studio, Jade stood watching him while he fixed their drinks.

‘You go to a lot of trouble,’ she said, ‘frosting the rim of the glass and all. What is it?’

‘The white of an egg and caster sugar,’ he told her, adding a sprig of mint to the cherry in the drink. Then he sliced a tiny pineapple and slipped a piece on to the rim of the glass. ‘You and I will always be at war,’ he glanced over to her, ‘but that does not stop us from drinking together, surely?’ When he smiled, she noticed the groove in his cheek which somehow she had overlooked before.

They took their drinks out to the balcony. The stars were thick and one in particular looked as if it was about to plop into the blackness of the sea. Down on the lawns the lanterns were lit and there were people walking on the paving stones as they made their way to the hotel dining-room from the chalets which they occupied.

'So?’ said Laurent, when they were seated on the cane chairs with their silk cushions. ‘I take it you did not set the date?’ It was difficult to judge, by the tone of his voice, whether he was being sarcastic, or not.

Pretending ignorance, she said, 'The date—for what?’

‘For your marriage to the hunter.’

That will follow. He was worried. After all, his cane fields had been flattened by the cyclone.'

‘For sure.’ He made a face and shrugged. All very casual, she thought bitterly, with the thought of getting away from this part of the island growing stronger in her mind.

After a moment she felt compelled to go on. 'It was strange, you know—I mean, I haven’t seen him for quite some time. He—he seemed so cut out for Australia—I—can’t describe it.’ She placed a thumbnail against her teeth. ‘Australia seems to be made for Marlow. Well, he is Australian, after all. I understood him there—the farmer, the sheep station....’

'He is still a farmer. He owns a sugar plantation, after all, no?’

'Yes, I know. He seemed to have forgotten how— how young I am.’ jade broke off quickly, annoyed with herself for playing into Laurent Sevigny’s hands. ‘But it's the privilege of the bride to have butterflies, after all.'

'For sure,' he said again. He sounded almost uninterested.

Something drove her on. 'I can't marry Marlow,' she said. 'I—don t love him. I was a fool to come here.'

'Now that you have actually confirmed what I already understood,’ he said, ‘I just can’t believe it. You don’t love him?’ There was astonishment in his voice. ‘You have gone out of your way to prove to me that you did.’

To hide her humiliation she said, ‘I’m in love with someone else ... in Australia. As soon as I can get some money together, I’m going back, with my pride in my pocket.’

‘You seem like a girl who goes through life taking chances,’ he said, and he spoke with such indifference that Jade despised herself for having confided in him in the first place. He turned his glass round and round in his fingers and then he looked up. ‘And you, of course, still have to tell Marlow Lewis all this?’

'Yes.’ Her mind raced ahead. ‘He looked so tired that I didn't tell him.’

‘Oh, I don’t know.' Laurent lifted his shoulders. ‘Perhaps he was merely looking his age?’

Abruptly he stood up and went into the studio, where he poured himself another drink. When he came back to the balcony again Jade said, ‘I don't want to talk about it any more. I'm sorry I started all this. We never talk about
you
—it’s always about me.'

‘By that you mean that we never talk about my love life? Is that it?’ His eyes met hers.

Suddenly she could stand it no longer. ‘Yes,’ she said. ‘I’m very much aware that it exists.’

‘So you are aware of this?’ He regarded her face with something like amusement. ‘I don’t mind telling you a bit about myself. My father made me a partnership to an extensive range of investments, directorships and chairs on various boards. I travel a lot, but I have made Mauritius my base. Above all this I have, as you already know, my own personal business here on the island.’

‘Which Marcelle runs for you.’

He ignored the remark and went on easily, ‘Did I tell you about my beautiful sister?’

Hurt, because he apparently could not remember what he had told her and what he hadn’t, Jade said, 'No, you didn’t.’

‘Well, she is very classy, very cool and elegant and she has a smart address. She is married to a successful man.’

‘The successful Sevignys,’ she said, in a hard little voice.

‘So you are going back to Australia—to this man?’ His eyes went over her.

‘Yes.’

‘And in the meantime?’

'In the meantime I’m going to enjoy the island sun, palm-fringed beaches, turquoise sea. I’m going to eat fruit at breakfast time and drink daiquiri cocktails in the evening before dinner, and later, I’ll dance to one of your twing-twang Sega bands. While I’m doing all this, I’ll be earning money to go back. However, I’ll be moving to another part of the island. I don’t want to go on staying here.’

‘Already you sound happier.' He came for her glass and she felt a hopeless fury build up inside her that he seemed oblivious to the fact that she was at breaking point. 'You are a girl who takes chances and one who gets over things quickly. However, you could do all those things on this part of the island. Why move?’ He sounded merely polite.