Innocent Virgin, Wild Surrender by Anne mather

Author:Anne mather [mather, Anne]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter Nine

To BEGIN with, Rachel enjoyed the outing.

It was so good to be with people who knew nothing about her.

Who accepted her story that she’d planned to come on holiday

with a girlfriend, but the friend had been taken ill at the last

moment and been unable to come.

And Mark and Lucy were a nice couple. Mark did most of the

talking, but Lucy seemed not to mind. A placid girl, with long

dark hair and pretty features, she seemed quite content to leave

everything to him.

It was only when her husband went to talk to the skipper of the

vessel that she confided to Rachel that they were on their

honeymoon. She became quite animated when she described the

elaborate wedding dress she’d worn.

They anchored off a small cove, and most of the young people

on board dived into the water and swam to the beach. The older

members of the party were ferried ashore in a dinghy. Then time

was allotted for swimming and snorkelling before a picnic lunch

was served.

The food wasn’t great, but the scenery was spectacular. In any

case, Rachel wasn’t hungry. Despite her determination to leave

her problems behind her, she couldn’t help thinking about her

father. What was she going to tell him the next time she called?

Chewing on a skewer of jerk chicken and pimento, she wondered

what Matt was doing today. Probably making up with her

mother, she mused ruefully. She hoped he wouldn’t bring Sara to

the hotel.

So far, they hadn’t actually discussed his association with her

mother. She would find it hard—no, make that impossible—to

bring the subject up. How could she ask him his intentions

towards the other woman when she herself was in such an

impossible situation?

They sailed back into the harbour soon after three o’clock. It was

later than Rachel had expected, and she could feel her skin

prickling with the heat. She had taken precautions, covering her

arms and legs with sunscreen as soon as she came out of the

water, staying under the parasols the ferry company had

provided while she ate her lunch. But the sun was relentless.

Still, it had been a nice day. It had kept her away from the hotel

for over six hours and that was good.

It was only as they were driving back to the hotel that Rachel

was forced to review her opinion of Mark Douglas. He’d hired a

buggy for the duration of their stay on the island, and it was this

they’d used that morning to get down to the quay.

Rachel had been seated in the back, of course, but on the return

journey Lucy had insisted that she should take the front seat

beside Mark.

‘It’s only fair,’ she said easily. ‘I’m quite happy to sit in the

back.’

Rachel would have been quite happy to sit in the back, too. But

it would have been churlish to refuse the young woman’s offer.

So, despite some misgivings, she climbed into the front of the

buggy, aware that the beach wrap she’d had to put on over her

wet swimsuit clung to her body like a second skin.

The first half of the journey passed without incident. It wasn’t far from the harbour to the hotel. And, although it was hot, the

breeze generated by the open-topped vehicle was welcome relief.

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