Free The Takamaka Tree by Alexandra Thomas Page B

said.
    “Then I’m glad I haven’t any memories,” she shivered.
    Their packed lunch was simple but sophisticated. Cold chicken, pâté, rolls, tomatoes, cheese, fruit. Sandy was delighted with the change in diet and ate hungrily. Afterwards Daniel swam. The water was deeper here and the reef teeming with fish. He wondered what the afternoon would bring. Would Sandy emerge as Gabrielle Webster, a rich young woman, but with the loss of father and fiancé to bear? It would almost be better for her not to know.
    “You are so serious today,” Sandy chattered as she packed up the debris left from their lunch. “You haven’t said a word for hours.”
    “I’ve always admired the way you have coped with the strangeness of your situation,” Daniel began, “and the way you have trusted me. Will you be very brave and courageous now, and trust me again?”
    “I don’t know what you mean.”
    “I’ve arranged for you to see a Dr. Lefanue this afternoon. He may be able to help you.”
    Sandy felt the world shrink around her. It became an area of two square feet of sand. He was casting her adrift. Daniel was loosening his involvement. She did not want to know who she was. She wanted to stay with Daniel, and for him to look after her.
    “Courage,” he said, tilting her chin.
    “You are going to leave me,” she trembled.
    He shook his head, slowly and with some amusement. “No, I’m not, young lady. I will keep my word.”
     
    The sunshine poured from the day and Sandy was silent as they walked back to where Daniel had left the buggy parked in the shade. The views on the scenic drive to La Misère, the road still climbing like a snake, failed to register on Sandy’s mind. She sat, sullen and in a trance. Daniel hoped she would shake herself out of it before she met the medico. He might come to quite the wrong conclusion if Sandy showed no signs of cooperation.
    The doctor’s bungalow was in a garden riotous with red hibiscus, and a huge mango tree dropped its ripe fruit on the path to the veranda. The doctor’s wife, a kindly middle-aged woman, took charge of Sandy, and Daniel was left to cool his heels in the garden.
    He watched his sea waif disappear inside the bungalow. She cast one despairing look behind her, as if she were about to be executed. He tried to think of something to say, but there was nothing.
    The view from the terrace was magnificent, with bright colours undimmed by dirt or pollution. From this height, the shades of the sea indicated the coral reefs and the deeper channels of water. The two main islands of the Marine Park, Ste. Anne and Cerf, lay among a cluster of baby islands, rich and green in their watery cradle.
    The heat slid away and the mango tree began to cast a pale shadow on the verdant grass. Daniel waited anxiously, wishing he knew what was going on. He felt he needed to be near Sandy, so that she could turn to him if the going was too hard.
    It was some relief to see the stocky figure of the doctor coming out of the bungalow. He was not an intimidating figure at all, with thinning gray hair, his face tanned with sun and sea and lined with a network of expressions. He did not look like a doctor in his casual gray slacks and flower-patterned beach shirt.
    “She is all right,” he said immediately, seeing Daniel look past him to the bungalow. “The young lady is helping my wife make some tea. She is a little tired, naturally, after all the questions.”
    “And, well, is she…has she remembered anything?”
    Dr. Lefanue began to walk alongside Daniel.
    “I’m afraid I have not been able to help much. I feel she needs hypnosis to unlock her mind. There are certain areas which seem to cause her a great deal of distress, and it did not seem safe to pursue these lines of enquiry without the proper medication close at hand.”
    “What areas?”
    “The sea, extreme heat, flying—though all these can trigger normal anxiety attacks and it could be that we are attaching too much