Free Garden of the Moongate by Donna Vitek Page A

elevator doors. As soon as they opened onto the fourth floor, she stepped out without another word, but she could hear him laughing softly as the doors closed again.
    Standing beneath the shower to shampoo her hair cooled her temper somewhat, and she attributed to hunger the vague irritability she still felt as she wrapped herself in a large yellow bath sheet. Settling herself in the chair by her bed, she nibbled a granola bar to stave off a hunger headache and waved a blow dryer at her hair until it looked presentable enough for her to go to lunch. After putting on a grass-green skirt and a new white T-shirt, she slipped her feet into comfortable espadrilles. A touch of red-tinted gloss to her lips and some brown mascara and she was ready. Not a moment too soon, since her empty stomach was beginning to protest loudly. As she went toward the door to leave, however, someone knocked, and she opened it with a questioning smile for the petite redheaded girl on the threshold.
    "Hi, I'm Kathy Hill," the girl introduced herself. "Deb Hopkins told my friends and me that you might want to go to Hamilton with us tonight, since you're here all by your lonesome. I just wanted to tell you that we'd be happy to have you come along. There's a really super disco just this side of Hamilton, and we've been having a great time there every night since we arrived. The boys from the naval base crowd in there, so we never lack for male companionship. Want to go with us tonight? We're going early so we can have dinner in town."
    "Oh, I have plans for dinner tonight," Allendre said, relieved that her dinner date with the two older women gave her a gracious way to refuse the invitation. Though Kathy seemed a likable, friendly girl, her idea of a great evening and Allendre's didn't exactly coincide. Allendre had never been one to enjoy late nights at discos or singles bars. "But it was nice of you to ask me."
    "How about tomorrow night, then?"
    "Probably not," Allendre answered candidly. "I'm not really much of a partying person. You know, I prefer a relaxing stroll in the moonlight."
    "Don't we all—if we have somebody terrific to stroll with," Kathy quipped, grinning. "Is your dinner date that really super-looking man I noticed you with last night? Well, to be honest, I didn't really notice
you
all that much, but I certainly noticed him. I always notice good-looking men, and if your plans for the evening are with him, I sure don't blame you for not going with us."
    "My plans aren't with him," Allendre answered, smiling at the other girl's unabashed curiosity.
    "Well, better luck next time," Kathy said with a shrug. "Hey, I'd better run. My friends are waiting. See you around sometime—and if you change your mind about going to Hamilton some night, just let us know."
    As Kathy bounded away with a good-natured wave of her hand Allendre stepped out into the hall, pulling her door closed behind her. Maybe she was just an old stick-in-the-mud, but a rip-roaring evening in a Hamilton disco just didn't appeal to her.
    After a light lunch of shrimp salad remoulade, Allendre wandered down to the lobby to the shops. When she finally tired of strolling between shelves laden with Bermudian souvenirs, she went into a small jewelry store. She nearly choked when she noticed the price of a gold necklace, then ambled out again.
    Mr. Meredith had cautioned her to act like a typical tourist, so she knew she couldn't loiter conspicuously in the lobby all afternoon, waiting to hear what kind of complaints guests made at the desk. On impulse, she went to an unobtrusive livery booth in the lobby's far corner and rented one of the small motorbikes she had seen parked outside.
    It had been three or four years since her last excursion on a motorbike, and though an attached basket held her straw purse, freeing both her hands, she didn't feel very secure as she buzzed up Shannon House Drive, then down the curving hill that led to the main road. "Keep to the left, keep to the