Free They Met in Zanzibar by Kathryn Blair Page A

“But now we are to have baby and our own home.”
    “Good for you,” she said. “Let me know if your wife needs anything.”
    She wanted to tell him that she would ask Tuan Maldon to let him have a house all to himself, but she knew she couldn’t approach her father on a matter of that sort, just now. So she gave Nosoap a couple of the flannelette blankets which her father called “sweat sheets”, and a basket of groceries. The boy finished his tidying and went off cheerfully, and Peg changed from her house-frock into black jeans and a flowery cotton blouse. She sat down to wait for Steve, waited fully half an hour before he drove up. Her growing resentment dissolved swiftly; dangerously so, if she had but known it. She met him in the doorway.
    “Terribly sorry to be late,” he said. “There was a boy injured just as I was ready to leave and I had to attend to him.”
    “Seriously?”
    “No, but I had to sterilise the wound; it took longer than I thought it would.”
    “It didn’t matter,” she said, stiff with the restraint she had imposed upon herself. “I hardly noticed the time.”
    “It was one of those things - couldn’t be helped.” He gave her a raking glance. “You look like a boy in that get-up. Very sweet. Come on, let’s go.”
    The car was crunching down towards the gravel road when Steve gave her another look and said appreciatively, “I like the modern girl. She may have lost the touch of mystery, but she’s gained a sort of airy companionableness that’s just right. Who wants to make love to a mystery, anyway?”
    The trouble with Steve, thought, Peg despairingly, was that he too often said something that challenged; and the trouble with herself was that she couldn’t fail to rise to it.
    “I like the idea of a little mystery in a love affair,” she commented. “The other way it could be too matter-of- fact.”
    “You mean too earthy. You’ll grow out of wanting a fairytale to happen to you. Where men are concerned, your life has been too narrow.”
    “That’s not such a bad thing.”
    “It is. It’s no compliment to a man if you marry him without knowing any others. Still, as I’ve said before, you’ve all the time in the world'.” A pause. “How is your father this morning?”
    “If you mean has he said anything about the future, no, he hasn’t.”
    Steve sighed gustily. “He’s going to be difficult. But we won’t talk about it today.” He turned the car down towards the river. “Ever thought what this island must have been like before the white Man came? You get a good idea of it from the bridge. Mangroves, Flame of the Forest trees, and dumps of wild banana with the tufts of the palms rising here and there. Now, there’s only a narrow strip of jungle alongside the river and a bit of forest on the north coast. All the rest is given over to the almighty coconut palm.”
    “And very beautiful they are,” she said, as the car slowed on the bridge and she was able to look along the sunshot river running between densely grown banks. “I feel as if no one has lived till he’s seen a South Sea island.”
    “You felt the same about Zanzibar,” he teased her. “That’s what new places do to you when you’re young.”
    “It’s a gorgeous feeling. Where is this place we’re going to - Nabanui?”
    “About eighteen miles. It’s a bay adjoining the port; good bathing in clear water and at low tide you can wade out as far as the corals.”
    “Lovely,” she murmured. “Do they dive for pearls there?”
    “They did,” he said laconically. “All gone now.”
    “Oh dear. I long to find a pearl myself.”
    “They still find them near the western reef, but it’s more dangerous - or they’d all be gone too. You’ll have to make do with corals today.”
    After that they drove much of the way without speaking. The immensely tall and graceful coconut palms reached up on either side, most of them leaning slightly away from the trade wind. Steve didn’t point