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should go ashore if he wants to.”
    “Tomorrow,” he said decisively, “is going to be Doctor Paston’s unlucky day.”

 
    CHAPTER FOUR
    “IT’S NO USE, Greg, we couldn’t have gone ashore together in any case.” Moira continued to fold dressings with a determined air, her eyes averted from the angry look in the ship’s surgeon’s as he stood between her and the surgery door. “There’s Mrs. Knowles’ fracture to see to and the Bellinger twins have definitely got “spots.”
    “Too many bananas,” he growled. “Greedy little beasts. They've been stuffing themselves ever since they came on board, but that’s by the way. I’m not sure that I like the idea of your going ashore alone.”
    “I won’t be going alone,” she told him. “Mr. Melmore is taking me.”
    “Melmore? You must be crazy. The man’s ruthless and dangerous Moira. A man who would go off with his brother’s fiancée and then hope that everything would be overlooked when his professional help was needed is beneath contempt.”
    Moira gave a small gasp and when she looked at her companion there was no color left in her face.
    “I simply don’t believe it,” she said.
    “Whether you believe it or not,” Greg told her mercilessly, “the fact remains. I got the whole story from Mrs. Chiltern and she doesn’t appear to have much time for your Mr. Melmore. Her sympathy is all with the young brother. She’s a near neighbour of theirs, I gather, and knows them both reasonably well.”
    “I prefer to form my own opinion of people I meet, Greg,” she tried to say evenly, and then she ventured something which she never thought she would have had the courage to say. “Even if you have an interest in Jill, it doesn’t mean that you need to protect me. I’m older than Jill and I can take care of myself.”
    “Jill?” he said, laughing rather awkwardly. “Good heavens, she’s only a kid!”
    “She’s twenty-two, but she can be hurt just the same.”
    “I still don’t like the idea of your going ashore with Melmore,” he said stubbornly. “He’s too much of a dark horse. He’s never mixed with the other passengers since he came on board, and now, suddenly, he decides to take you ashore at Las Palmas. Can you tell me why?”
    “Because I’ve helped him to nurse his brother.” Her eyes were raised to his, steady and clear. “There’s nothing more to it, Greg, than that.” She had gone before he could answer, pausing at her cabin to find a white knitted cardigan to wear over her light poplin dress in case it grew cold before they returned to the ship in the evening. They had come into the harbor in the early morning and now they were alongside the quay waiting for the port authority clearance which would allow them to go ashore. There was a surging anticipation everywhere and she felt its echo in her own heart, a mounting excitement which drove the color into her cheeks and gave her whole face a shining quality of eagerness which drew smiling glances from the waiting groups as she passed. It was as if this was the first time she was about to set foot on foreign soil, and she saw Grant Melmore smiling as she joined him at his cabin door.
    He was wearing the light grey suit she had first seen him in, and he held the door open for her to say good morning to Philip.
    “Bring me back a parrot!” Philip grinned in an attempt to keep some of the wistfulness out of his voice. “How long will you be away?”
    “Not too long,” Grant said behind her.
    “I’ll give you till six o’clock,” his brother conceded.
    She went across the cabin to stand beside the bed, holding his hand for a moment.
    “We won’t stay too long,” she promised, because, suddenly, she felt that it was expected of her.
    Grant followed her down the gangway and hired a taxi to take them into the town.
    “Where would you like to go?” he asked. “It's entirely your day.”
    “I don’t know the first thing about Las Palmas,” she confessed. “I