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trying to marry one’s grandfather,’ said Rory unemotionally.
        ‘Hamish looks terrible too,’ said Coco. ‘He’s suddenly gone all hip, growing his hair, not eating meat, and dancing in the modern way - trying to keep up with Marina, I suppose. He looks twenty years older. Oh well, it’s no use wasting sympathy on Marina. She’s made her bed.’
        ‘And now she’s about to lie in someone else’s,’ said Rory.
        ‘Oh look, here comes Buster.’
        ‘I should like to get dressed,’ I said plaintively. ‘Oh, nobody dresses for Buster,’ said Rory.
        Buster Macpherson, when he arrived, turned out to be the kind of man my mother would have gone mad for. He had well-brushed blond hair and blue eyes that let out a perpetual sparkle. He looked like the hero in a boys’ comic. He showed a lot of film-star teeth.
        He was absolutely not my type. He had none of Rory’s explosive feline grace, but he obviously exerted considerable fascination over Coco who, although she didn’t look a day over thirty-five, must have been nearing fifty, and a good ten years older than Buster.
        ‘Congratulations, you chaps,’ said Buster. He peered through the gloom at me under my sheet.
        ‘May I kiss the bride?’ he asked.
        No,’ said Rory. ‘You’d better watch Buster, he’s going through the change of life.’
        Buster shot him an unfriendly look, helped himself to a large glass of champagne and sat down.
        ‘Ah, honeymoons, honeymoons,’ he said, shaking his head.
        Did you buy that aeroplane?’ asked Rory.
        ‘I think so,’ said Buster.
        Coco gave a crow of delight.
        ‘Where are you going to land it?’ asked Rory. ‘In the High Street?’
        No,’ said Coco. ‘We’ve got a little runway on the island now. I knew I had something to tell you, darling, Finn Maclean is back.’
        Rory’s eyes narrowed.
        ‘The hell he is. What’s he poking his nose into now?’
        ‘He’s thrown up his smart Harley Street practice and come back to Irasa as Medical Officer overseeing all the islands,’ said Buster. ‘He’s persuaded the Scottish Medical Board to build him a cottage hospital in the old church hall and buy him an aeroplane so he can hop from island to island.’
        ‘Our own flying doctor,’ said Rory. ‘Why the hell has he come back?’
        ‘I think he wanted to get out of London,’ said Buster. ‘His marriage broke up.’
        ‘Not surprised,’ said Rory. No woman in her right senses could stand him.’
        ‘Finn Maclean is Marina’s elder brother,’ Coco explained to me. ‘Rory and he don’t get on, you understand. He never got on with Rory’s father either - he kept complaining about the poorness of the tenants.’
        ‘He’s an arrogant sod,’ said Rory. ‘You won’t like him.’
        ‘I rather like him,’ mused Coco. ‘He does not have the bedroom manner, but he is all man.’
        Life on Irasa, I decided, certainly wasn’t going to be dull. The unpredictable Marina running rings round her ancient husband; Rory feuding with Finn Maclean, who was ‘all man’; plus Buster and Coco, a knockabout comedy act in themselves.
        ‘This is a nice hotel,’ said Coco meditatively, trying on some of my scent. ‘Can you get Buster and me a room here, Rory?’
        No I can’t,’ said Rory. ‘I happen to be on my honeymoon, and I’d like to get on with it without your assistance.’

CHAPTER FIVE
        
        AFTER a fortnight, Rory started getting restless and decided to return to England. We stopped in London and booked in at the Ritz. I must say I did enjoy being rich - it was such bliss not having to look at the prices on the menu.
        We were in the middle of dinner, I lingering over a crępe suzette because it was so delicious and Rory halfway through his second bottle of wine, gazing moodily out at Green Park, where the yellow leaves whirled and eddied away from the wet black