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around the clinic.
    ‘Before you go back to her office I will show you, very quickly, the hairdressing salon and the beauty parlour,’ Loreto said. ‘I love the salon. It has black Indian temple furniture in it—the chairs look like black lace, with silk hibiscus-pink cushions.’
    When it was over Jade found Nicole in her glass-fronted office. At the pool a Frenchman was coaching a tanned girl in the art of diving. Nicole was surrounded by files and brochures and people kept knocking on her door, or merely walking straight into the office to seek her advice on something. Here, the fine, see-through silk curtains were also in shades of hibiscus-pink, apricot and honey-gold, and the combination was at once exciting and sophisticated.
    ‘Darling,’ Nicole looked at Jade, ‘go and order anything you like—a drink, maybe, a sunset snack, anything. Tomorrow we get organised, no? I am so busy now. Tell me, are you disappointed that Marlow was not here to meet you?’
    After an awkward little pause Jade said, ‘I expected that, of course.’
    ‘Yes, I know—but even so.’
    ‘Do you know Marlow well?’ Jade asked.
    ‘Yes, I do. Sometimes he gives parties at his plantation house.'
    ‘What is it like?’ Jade asked. ‘Marlow’s plantation house?’
    ‘Oh,’ Nicole shrugged those slim, slim shoulders, ‘old —very old. Gracious, colonial, built of tropical wood and under the constant threat of cyclones.’ She laughed lightly, but Jade’s nerves tightened,
    ‘The thought of a cyclone scares me to pieces!’
    ‘We get warnings,’ Nicole said, ‘and fortunately they do not occur often. I myself have experienced only one severe cyclone. Anyway, we speak later, Jade?’
    ‘Fine.’ Jade moved away from the desk.
    ‘You will be at the cocktail party at the bikini bar?’
    ‘Yes, Nicole.’
    ‘And after dinner, you will have your first taste of Sega dancing,’ Nicole told her.
    'The sky at sunset was apricot, pink and pale gold, and it matched the whole set-up, jade thought. The palms and the filao trees swayed in a light breeze. She went upstairs and sat on her balcony for a while, then went downstairs again, and in the direction of the bikini bar.
    People were already gathered there. Waiters wearing white moved through the mixed Creole, Chinese, French and European crowd, carrying trays with cocktails and snacks on them. Jade helped herself to a cocktail and sipped it slowly. She did not see anybody she recognised, even though she had met a number of people at the health and beauty clinic ... and then she saw him and their eyes met across the space which divided them. She watched him as he came towards her, drink in hand.
    ‘You look completely refreshed,’ he said, ‘and very beautiful.’ Those strange eyes went over her and the soft, sexy caftan, a creation in crimson silk, swirled about her ankles in the sea-breezes. They stood crushed together in the mass of people, holding their glasses. This was the time of day, Jade was quick to notice, when Laurent’s eyes were beginning to change from a dark sea-green to almost malachite.
    ‘I didn’t expect to see you here.’ She tried not to sound pleased and excited about this.
    ‘Well, it is not surprising, after all. You can see my chalet from here ... see that leaning palm?’ He placed an arm about her shoulders and she found herself thrilling to his touch. ‘That is your landmark.' He turned to look at her face and smiled. Taking his arm away, he went on, ‘I am almost part of the hotel, anyway. You see, I form part of the hotels group.'
    ‘Oh.’ This took a moment to register with her and she was confused. Was she, as a result of this, going to see more of Laurent Sevigny at the hotel? she asked herself.
    ‘I don’t recognise any of the people I was introduced to this afternoon,' she said, helping herself to a chilli-bite from a passing tray. She began to nibble at the curried savoury. ‘I’m referring, of course, to the health clinic