The House on Flamingo Cay Read Online Free PDF

tonight.” Angela dropped into a chair and hunted for a cigarette. “I was afraid you’d be cross,” she said wryly.
    “Cross! I’m homicidal. Honestly, Angela, you—”
    “Now, look, I did it in our best interests. I didn’t want to cut you out of the fun,” her sister broke in. “But there’ll be plenty of other evenings and, as a matter of fact, there was a boy there tonight who I think will just suit you.”
    “Thanks very much. Your solicitude overwhelms me. Now, would you mind explaining why you had to make me a semi-invalid and pack me off to bed like a tiresome schoolgirl?”
    “Because I didn’t want Emily to start pumping you. It was obvious that when she’d finished telling you about herself, she’d start probing our background. I thought it best for me to deal with her at first. Now I’ve satisfied her curiosity, she probably won’t delve so deeply again.”
    “And I suppose your version of our background was just about as far-fetched as this mythical illness of mine?”
    “Not at all. I was just slightly more skilful at parrying than you would have been. Incidentally we’re having lunch with them on these other people’s yacht tomorrow.” Angela stretched her arms above her head, then smothered a yawn. “I must say it’s a much better start than I expected.”
    “I should have thought you’d have sheered off. They don’t strike me as being ‘top people’ particularly.”
    “They’re certainly not the cream of American society,” her sister conceded. “But it’s not social status I’m after. Surely you didn’t miss those diamonds she was wearing?”
    “I thought they were rhinestones.”
    Angela gave a hoot of laughter. “You’d probably mistake a ruby for red glass. They were whacking great diamonds.”
    “Angela—you’re not thinking of setting your cap at Conrad?”
    “He’s rather sweet—and I think he likes me, too,” her sister said carelessly. “No, as it happens I’m going to survey the whole field before actually setting my sights. Though I could do a lot worse than Connie,” she added reflectively. “He’s nobody’s dreamboat, but he’s certainly not repulsive.”
    Sara’s eyes were anxious as she watched her sister undressing and creaming her face. Angela seemed to be getting harder and more mercenary by the moment and, once again, Sara was troubled by a sense of impending disaster.
    She was almost asleep, when she heard the muffled note of a launch crossing the harbor and was reminded of the man she had met on the wharf that afternoon. He had probably gone back to the Out Islands by now and she was unlikely to encounter him again. Thinking of the lonely coral cays that tourists never visited and of translucent turquoise lagoons under whispering palmettoes, she gave a long sigh and turned her face into the pillow.

 
    CHAPTER TWO
    SARA woke at six. A fortnight ago it would have seemed wonderful to stay drowsing beneath the clothes with no breakfast preparations or hurried bed-making to worry about. Now, because there was no necessity to get up, she felt wide awake and eager to begin the new day.
    Angela had told her that tea and biscuits would be brought to their room at eight, so there was a time for an early swim before the resort came to life. This time, Sara left a note on the locker.
    With her swim-suit under her clothes and a towel in a red canvas beach-bag, she moved quietly along the corridor and down the wide main staircase. Two colored women in bright print dresses were dusting and polishing the balustrade. They returned her shy “Good morning” with friendly beams.
    The hotel did not have its own pool, and Mrs. Stuyvesant had said at dinner that everyone went over to Paradise Beach on Hog Island. But there was no one about in the reception hall to tell her how to get there, although a notice showed the way out to the sea-front.
    While looking for someone of whom to enquire the way, she wandered up towards the little jetty where she had