Read The Australian for Free Online Page B

safari, you should have indulged yourself while we were lying together on the bed.”
    She flushed, and he laughed.
    “The months will pass,” he said lightly, giving her a last careless kiss. “Write to me.”
    “Could I?” she asked, breathless.
    “Of course.”
    “Will you write back?”
    He shifted from one foot to the other. “I’m not much good at letters, honey,” he confessed. “I’ll get Mother to write for me.”
    His words hurt her. They wouldn’t be love letters—he was saying as much. Perhaps he’d meant what they had just shared as a going-away present, a fond farewell. Something to make up for the times when he’d ignored her, crumbs from his table.
    She felt sick all over, but she was too proud to let it show. How could she have forgotten what her father had said, about John being glad to let her go, about his being too old to be interested in her?
    “I’ll see you at the Easter holidays,” he said. “You’ll be home then?”
    “Of course,” she said woodenly. “’Bye, John.”
    He traced her cheek lightly with his finger, and his eyes met hers in a long hot exchange, but he didn’t touch her again. “’Bye, Priss. Keep well.”
    “You, too.”
    And he was gone, leaving her with the memory of a few wild minutes in his arms. It might have been kinder, she thought, if he’d spared her that. Coming from heaven back to earth was painful. She went to the window and watched him drive away. He waved from the end of the driveway, and she knew that he was aware of her watchful eyes. He knew how she felt. It had all been a pacifier, a consolation prize. Give the girl a few kisses to thrill her.
    She went back to her suitcase and stared at it, denying her eyes the tears they wanted to shed. Well, she didn’t need John’s crumbs, thank you, she told herself. She’d go away and forget him. She’d forget him completely.
    Sure, she would. She sat down on the bed and wailed. The coverlet still smelled of the spicy cologne he wore. Her lips touched it with aching passion, and it was a long time before she could force herself to get up and finish packing.
    Hours later she said good-bye to her parents in Brisbane and climbed aboard a plane bound for the Hawaiian Islands. Despite the fact that she had promised herself she wouldn’t, her helpless eyes scanned the airport terminal for a glimpse of John. But he wasn’t there. Why should he be? He’d said his good-byes. She sat back in her seat and closed her eyes. It was going to be a long day.

Chapter Four
    Priss settled in at the University of Hawaii in Honolulu, on the island of Oahu, and found the diversity of cultures and races as fascinating as she’d found Australia. She lived off campus, with Aunt Margaret, and found her young-minded aunt a lively and delightful companion. When Priss wasn’t attending classes, her aunt toured her around the island. Priss found breathtaking beauty in the beaches and mountains and volcanos and flowers, and day by day the hurt of leaving behind her family and the man she loved began to ease.
    One of her biggest consolations was the new friend she’d found in Ronald George, a tall dark-haired Englishman with blue eyes who was studying for a degree in education, too.
    Her introduction to him had come the first day of classes, when he’d sidled up to her in the auditorium and leaned down to whisper in her ear.
    “I say,” he asked conspiratorially, “would you be interested in having a blazing affair with me during algebra? It is a bit crowded in here right now, but I do see a place just behind the curtains in the auditorium...”
    She’d looked up at him dumbfounded. “What?”
    “Just a short affair,” he continued. “Until second period class? All right, then, you’ve talked me into marriage. But you’ll have to wait until I have an hour to spare. Say, around lunchtime?” He grinned. “I’m Ronald George, by the way. You’d have seen the name on our marriage certificate, but I thought you