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knew how to tell right from wrong. But then – and it seemed to have happened
     overnight – she turned into a young woman, and suddenly Mog saw new dangers. She
     couldn’t keep an eighteen-year-old locked away, conceal those womanly curves
     or make her smile less dazzling.
    Neither could she warn her what some men
     were capable of – not without telling her how she knew. Belle believed that Mariette
     was entirely safe in Russell, that no man would dare take liberties with her
     daughter out of fear of Etienne. Maybe she was right, but Mog knew Mariette was a
     little madam and she could very well be the one that did the leading on.
    ‘Well, if you must go out, be back
     by four,’ Mog said reluctantly. ‘We need daylight to sew the pearls on
     the dress but, with just an hour at it together, we could finish it.’
    Mariette agreed and hugged Mog. Then,
     before she got any further lectures, she snatched up a cardigan and raced out of the
     door.
    Mariette
was
meeting someone.
     As she walked towards Flag Staff Hill to join him, she was afraid. Her fear was not
     because she’d lied to Mog – she’d told Mog and her parents so many lies
     in the past couple of months that she was beyond guilt – but because she had to end
     it today with Sam, and she expected him to turn nasty.
    She’d first
     met him a year ago, when the cargo ship he worked on anchored out in the bay for
     some minor repairs. All the crew came into Russell and created quite a stir by
     getting very drunk and rowdy. Sam stood out because he was young, tall, blond and
     very handsome; the rest of the crew were short, tough-looking men with bad teeth and
     mainly well over thirty.
    Mariette only spoke to him once. He
     asked her what there was to do in Paihia, and if it was worth getting the ferry over
     there. She told him it wasn’t as pretty as Russell, and he laughed and said he
     was only interested in pretty girls, not scenery.
    After the ship had left the bay, she
     heard her parents talking about the crew’s bad behaviour. Not only had there
     been a fight in the Duke of Marlborough with chairs and windows smashed but several
     women and girls had been accosted, and the whole town was indignant.
    Her father appeared to have some
     sympathy with the men. He said they’d probably heard that Russell was once
     known as the ‘Hellhole of the Pacific’, and they were disappointed to
     find it had turned into such a sober place, with no loose women and not even a dance
     hall.
    The image of that handsome sailor, whose
     name she didn’t even know then, stayed with her. She kept remembering the way
     he’d looked at her, like he was seeing right through her clothes, and how it
     had made her feel all fizzy inside.
    For the remainder of last summer,
     she’d found herself thinking a great deal about boys. She had no shortage of
     admirers – she was, after all, said to be the prettiest girl in Russell – but they
     were just boys she’d grown up with, and not one of them made her feel the way
     the tall, blond stranger had. She practised on a few of them, led them on enough to
     kiss her, but it didn’t set her on fire the way she’d read about kissing
     in books.
    Mariette read
     every book she could get her hands on and, because of what she’d read about
     big cities and other countries, she considered Russell very dull. In her opinion it
     had nothing to offer other than its beauty. Apart from the odd dance now and then,
     the occasional film show or picnic, there was nothing to do. If she could go out
     fishing and sailing with her father every day, then she’d be happy. But he
     couldn’t take her with him very often, and the owners of yachts that
     frequently needed a crew would never think a mere girl was capable.
    As for old friends from school, she felt
     she’d outgrown them. They were content to help their mothers with the chores,
     to sit about giggling and gossiping; not one of them had dreams of travelling the