The Wind Off the Small Isles by Stewart Mary

Author:Stewart, Mary [Stewart, Mary]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Romance, Mystery, Classics, Adventure
ISBN: 9780340042922
Amazon: 0340042923
Goodreads: 948027
Publisher: Hodder and Stoughton
Published: 1968-01-01T08:00:00+00:00

3

… Like a mermaid in sea-weed,

Pensive awhile she dreams awake …

KEATS: The Eve of St Agnes

In the event, I went without him. That evening when Mrs Gresham mentioned the old ship in conversation with the manager of our hotel, it turned out that the next day, Sunday, would be the only reasonable chance she would have of seeing over it until the following weekend. He knew the new owner very well, he told us (a cousin of my wife, you understand?) and he would himself telephone immediately and seek permission. There would be no difficulty, no difficulty at all … Naturally, the Señora was at liberty to go any day of the week, but she must understand that there were men coming on Monday to assess its possibilities as a floating restaurant, and they would be coming and going all week. So if what the Señora wanted was to gather atmosphere, to try and visualise the ship as it had once been …?

This was certainly what the Señora wanted. We set off next morning.

Since the farm at Playa Blanca was not on the telephone, we had not been able to warn James Blair of our prompt return. And when for the second time our hired Volkswagen bumped and slithered down the abominable lane the farm seemed as quiet and deserted as it had yesterday. In fact more deserted. There were no workmen there on the cliff below the cactus slope. When my knock failed to get an answer I walked right along to where the piles of sand and cement lay covered with tarpaulins against the dew. No sign of life but a family of rosy-looking bullfinches flirting and twittering over the tamarisks.

‘Not a sign,’ I reported to my employer. ‘Sunday, of course. And the car’s gone, too. What do you bet they’re all at church?’

Mrs Gresham snorted. ‘The day George St Bernard Shakespeare darkens the door of a church I’ll eat my royalty cheque,’ she said. ‘Never mind, let’s go down to the bay. They’re probably down there swimming.’

‘Their car’s gone,’ I repeated.

‘We’ll go down anyway.’ She got out of the car with decision. ‘There’s no point in staying here. The only thing I’m afraid of is that they’ll have taken the boat away and gone fishing.’

For myself, I rather hoped they had. I had horrible visions of having to row my employer out myself to the schooner. But I said nothing, just picked up my swimming things and the picnic basket and followed her down the path.

They weren’t in the bay, but apart from that, luck was in for both of us. The boat – a boat – was there, and beside it at the water’s edge a boy, a young man of about seventeen, stood with bare feet in the creaming shallows doing something to a fishing line.

He spoke a little English, and he and Mrs Gresham very soon came to terms. He would certainly row her out to the schooner, he said, and she could stay there as long as she liked.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.