Secret Harbor Read Online Free PDF Page A

the brilliance of the poinsettias which on the island grew to over forty feet.
    Now the moonlight was fading the stars seeming to recede into the darkness of the sky.
    Soon it would be dawn and already she could feel a breeze coming from the sea to sweep away the heaviness of the air enclosed by the tropical plants which grew sometimes like green cliffs on each side of the path.
    Then at last the jungle was left behind and they had reached her father’s plantations.
    Even in the dimness of the fading moonlight she had the idea they looked neglected. Then she told herself she was being unnecessarily critical.
    Now she could smell the nutmegs, the cinnamons and the chives, while mixed with the scent of them all was the fragrance of thyme which she remembered was always sold in bunches with the chives.
    As they moved on she thought she could recognise the strong fragrance of the Tonka bean, which her father grew because it was easier than some of the other crops.
    “The island spices,” she said to herself with a smile and was sure she could distinguish allspice or pimento which Abe had pointed out to her when she was very small, their smell combining the fragrance of cinnamon, nutmeg and cloves, all mixed together.
    Now the dawn was breaking and as the sky became translucent Grania could see in the distance the roofs of her home.
    “There it is, Abe!” she exclaimed with a sudden excitement in her voice.
    “Yes, Lady. But you not disappointed if dusty. I get women soon clean everything.”
    “Yes, of course,” Grania agreed.
    At the same time she was sure now that her father had never intended to take her home.
    He had meant them to stay with Roderick Maigrin and if there had not been a revolution she would doubtless have been married very quickly, whatever she might say, however much she might protest.
    “I cannot marry him!” she said beneath her breath.
    She thought if her father came home alone she could explain why it was impossible for her to tolerate such a man, and try to make him understand.
    It would be easier, she thought, if she could talk to him without that horrible, red-faced Roderick Maigrin listening and plying her father with drinks.
    She sent up a little prayer to her mother for help and felt that she would somehow save her, although how she could do so Grania had no idea.
    As they drew nearer to the house, it was easy to see that the windows were covered by wooden shutters, and the shrubs had encroached nearer than they would have been allowed to do in the past.
    It flashed through Grania’s mind that it was like the Palace of the Sleeping Beauty.
    Bougainvillaea covered the steps of the verandah and had wound its way up onto the roof of it, while the pale yellow blossoms of the caccia and a vine which was called “Cup of Gold” had crept prolifically over everything within sight.
    It was beautiful but had something unreal about it, and for a moment Grania felt as if it was only a dream that might vanish and she would wake to find it was no longer there.
    Then she forced herself to say in what she hoped was a matter-of-fact tone:
    “Put the horses in the stable, Abe, and give me the key of the house, if you have it.”
    “Have key back door, Lady.”
    “Then I will go in at the back,” Grania smiled, “and start opening the shutters. I expect everything will smell musty after being shut up for so long.”
    She thought too without saying so that there would be lizards running up the walls, and if there had been a crack anywhere in the roof birds would have nested in the corners of the rooms.
    She only hoped they had not damaged the things her mother had prized—the furniture she had brought from England when she was first married.
    There were other treasures which she had accumulated over the years, buying them sometimes from planters who were going home, or receiving them as presents from their friends in St. George’s and other parts of the island.
    The stables at the back of the house