To love and to honor Read Online Free PDF

"Grab my arm and I'll pull you up."
    A black head appeared. A voice shouted. "Get back. I'm all right. Hold on. Another giant swell coming."
    One hand gripping the iron ring, the other clutching the edge of the float with all her strength, she clung while the water swept over her and knocked the breath from her body. She opened her eyes as a man with her blue cap in one hand pulled himself up beside her; sat back on her heels, shook water from her hair, and looked up into clear gray eyes in a tanned face. The bracelet man.

    "You? I thought it was the Hfeguard. Thank heaven you're safe. If anything had happened to you because you came to my aid—"
    "Forget it. Here's your cap. O.K?"
    "Yes. Still a trifle jittery. I was frightened. I had visions of appearing in the future with my head tucked under my arm like the headless horseman when in pursuit of Ichabod. Don't look at me as if you suspected I'd gone haywire. Talking like a house afire helps me relax. It seems painfully inadequate to say 'Thank you.' I wouldn't have made it without you."
    "Stop imagining gruesome possibilities. The crazy craft is now shooting toward the open sea. Just escaped piling up on the ledge. Out of our lives forever."
    "How far will it run?"
    "Till the gas gives out."
    "What do you suppose became of the skipper? Drowned?" She shivered.
    "It is more probable that a new owner, wet behind the ears, started the engine, then stepped out of the boat for something, and the cagey thing shot off on a little joy ride of its own. Why didn't you turn back when I shouted?"
    "I thought it was the brand-new lifeguard getting bossy. We have had two showdowns. I've been bathing on this beach all my life, it's more fun than going in alone off The Castle shore. I thought the hum I heard was from the plane overhead."
    "I was the lifeguard, pro tem, while the boy went for his lunch. Ready to go back?"
    "I'll sit here and sun for a while. Don't let me keep you."
    "Thanks for the suggestion, but I like to finish a job I start. You are still shaking."
    She had hoped he had not noticed her poorly suppressed shivers.
    "It's a silly reaction I have after fright. I acknowledge I was scared stiff. I couldn't move. It really doesn't mean a thing. It's just the way I'm made." She kicked the water into foam to emphasize indifference.
    "If you feel that way about it I'll go. I can see Jim

    d'Arcy's white cap. He's back on the job. I'll leave you and report to him." He dived.
    "Don't—" she snapped her lips together before the word "go" escaped. The thought of being left alone panicked her. Never before had she been afraid of the ocean. Slowly she pulled on the turquoise blue cap. The yellow beach where the tide ruffled whitely seemed miles away. Could she make it?
    A brown hand with a seal ring gripped the edge of the float. A sleek wet head appeared. A shoulder with an ugly jagged reddish scar followed. White teeth gleamed in a strongly lined bronzed face.
    "How about it? Ready to be good and come along with me?"
    "Am I? Watch me. Just watch me." She slid into the water.
    He fitted his stroke to hers. They swam toward shore side by side till they could touch the sand with their feet, then waded in. They walked up the beach to the music of "Good Luck and the Same to You" coming from a portable radio.
    "I saw British Tommies marching to that tune just before I left London," he said. "Better stop a minute. You are still.breathless."
    She sank to the sand beside a colorful plaid beach robe, and pulled off the turquoise blue cap.
    "The stiffening appears to have oozed from my knees temporarily. I'll sit here till it returns to normal. A million thanks for your help. Don't feel you must wait for me."
    "When I go in for a rescue stunt I hang around till I am sure my patient is O.K." His straight body was as brown as the lifeguard's, his trunks as blue as the sky. He pulled on the gay beach robe. "As you see, I like exuberant colors. With your permission." He dropped down beside