Read Wealth of the Islands for Free Online Page B

of the moment.
    Helen ’ s smile fell from her face and she turned away so that they would not be able to see the sudden tears which had rushed into her eyes. “ I ’ m his widow, not his wife, ” she said huskily.
    Na - Tinn shook his head sadly. “ Same thing, ” he muttered. “ Why you come here? ”
    “ Now that ’ s a good question, ” Gregory agreed under his breath.
    “ Does it matter? ” Helen said pugnaciously. “ That ’ s my business. As long as I can dive properly, I don ’ t see that you need to know anything else! ”
    Gregory shrugged. “ We ’ d better get going, then, ” he said. “ Cast off, will you, Na-Tinn? ”
    Everybody had their own task once the boat was under way and Helen felt frankly in the way. As yet, no particular task had been assigned to her and she felt excluded, by Gregory and by the others, for something that was not her fault and which she didn ’ t understand.
    “ Do you want to take a turn at the wheel? ” Gregory asked her, when they were clear of the little harbour and its flotilla of fishing boats and canoes. It was uncanny the way he was able to read her thoughts! But on this occasion she didn ’ t mind. She went aft as quickly as she could and squeezed into the cockpit beside him.
    “ May I really? ” she asked eagerly.
    “ May as well see what use you ’ re going to be on the boat as well as in the water, ” he grunted.
    He took one hand away from the wheel, steering it casually with the fingers of one hand while she got herself into position. She had to get very close to him to put her own hands on the wheel at all and she was surprised by the hardness of his body and the disturbing quality of his warm breath on the back of her neck.
    “ Have you got it? ” he asked her almost immediately.
    “ I think so, ” she said. It was hard to concentrate with him being so close to her, and that annoyed her. She had thought that she had long ago outgrown such adolescent reactions.
    “ Good, ” he said briefly, and was gone, a faint smile on his face, leaving her to steer the Sweet Promise out and away from the main island towards the reef where the Navy ship had come to grief so many years before.
    It was a wonderful sensation to feel a deck under her feet again, to feel the lifting of the timbers straining against deep waters. She had forgotten how good it was, how much she loved the salt water on her face and the smell of the billowing canvas when the engine had been shut off, and the creaking sound of rope against tackle, augmented by the slapping of the boat ’ s hull against the deep green waves .
    Na-Tinn came and relieved her at the wheel after a while, when the wind had caught their sails and they were slipping through the sea with an easy lilt that delighted her.
    “ Taine-Mal will give you a cup of coffee if you go below, ” he told her with his wide, shark-faced grin. “ Time to get ready to dive too. Boss, he say that! ”
    Helen was reluctant to give up the wheel that was tugging gently in her hands as if it were a living thing, but when he pointed ahead the water was so clear that she thought she could make out the tip of the reef they were aiming for and knew that it was indeed time for her to get ready for her first dive in the Pacific Ocean. She was nervous, but not abominably so. She was glad though of the hot coffee that Taine-Mal liberally supplied her with, grinning like his brother to show pointed teeth, all neatly filed in some terrible ceremony in his youth.
    Gregory was already sitting on the edge of the deck with his feet dangling over the edge when she went back up on deck, her bathrobe pulled tightly about her. His body was burned gold in the sun and made hers seem whiter than it really was.
    “ Hi there! ” he greeted her. “ You ’ ve made it! ” His smile was more friendly than she had expected.
    “ I do my best to please, ” she smiled back.
    His eyes crinkled with sudden laughter. “ You please all right, ” he