Chapter 3.5

"Who's there?" Heather's voice challenged.

"Me. Selena."

"But you went to bed. What are you doing wandering about at this time of the night?" Heather came up to her, peered up at her face.

"What tune is it?" asked Selena, repressing a sharp retort. What was heather doing wandering about?

"After midnight," Heather replied.

"I went for a walk. I couldn't rest and I thought the air would clear my headache. I walked on to the end of the beach." Selena began to walk on along the path to the courtyard in front of the building. A light over each doorway illuminated the flagstones of the yard and the leaves and blossoms of the shrubs.

"So it was you we could see. I said as much to Ben," breathed Heather, hurrying to keep up with her.

"You and Ben saw me?" repeated Selena. As they reached the courtyard, she stopped and turned to look at the other woman.

"Sure we did. He and I walked down to the jetty with Gary and Max when they left. Ben wanted a word with Keith. But he wasn't on board the ship. And then as we came off the jetty on our way back, we thought we saw two people loitering on the beach. Who was with you? Keith?"

"If you'd waited for us to reach the jetty, you'd have seen it was him," replied Selena coldly, finding her room key and stepping up on to the veranda to fit it into the lock of her door. "And then Ben could have had his word with Keith," she added drily.

She wondered if it had been Heather Keith had heard breathing in the shadows and perhaps Ben had been there too. The suspicion that all she and Keith had said to each other before he had left her had been overheard chilled her to the marrow.

"Yes, I guess he could have," admitted Heather. "But we weren't really sure it was him. Or you, for that matter. And Ben was tired. He wanted to get to bed to be fit for diving in the morning." She paused, tilting her head to one side and glanced at Selena out of the corners of her eyes. "Is it true? Are you and Ben going to be married when you go back to England?"

"It's true. Did he tell you we are tonight?"

"Uhuh. Must say I was surprised. Seems to me, it would be a most unsuitable marriage."

"Why?" Selena turned back from the opened for. "How can you say that? What do you know about us? You don't know either of us very well. You and I have just met and—"

"I don't know you, I agree," Heather retorted. "But I know Ben. He had to visit Louis often, was out here two years ago, diving and exploring wrecks with Louis. I know him well enough to know that in choosing you to be his wife, he's made a mistake. Another mistake like the first choice of a wife he made. Heather's voice rasped jeeringly and turning away, she walked off and was swallowed up by the dark shadows of the trees.