from which, he had to admit, he would like to know what was going on at the northern end of the island, and he could check out if they’d rebuilt the longhouse and if it would be suitable for Alkiri’s funeral feast—should they get permission to use it.
‘Are you going like that?’ he asked, looking at the short shift dress she wore.
‘Of course,’ she replied. ‘It’s faded so much it almost looks like camouflage, although I didn’t choose it for that—just pulled it out of the cupboard. I’ll slip on some soft dive boots in case we have to swim.’
He hoped like hell they wouldn’t have to swim, because the thought of seeing that shift wet and clinging to her body was already causing a definite stirring in his lower abdomen.
The thought of helping her down the cliff path, taking her elbow on a tricky bit, touching her at all, had been bad enough, but the wet shift image was torturous.
Yet he’d seen Caroline naked often enough, when they’d shucked off their clothes to swim in the lagoon by the house—but that had been boy-girl stuff, kid stuff—and she hadn’t had breasts then …
Dear heaven, was he losing his mind?
He knew his mother had had good reason for leaving the island—Ian Lockhart had made sure of that—but he wondered if she’d also been thinking of what might happen as he and Caroline went through puberty? Feeling as she did about Ian, his having a relationship with Ian’s niece might have been too much …
Caroline was back, soft dive boots—more like ballet slippers—on her feet and a small backpack on her back. She passed a second one to him.
‘A camera with a long-distance lens,’ she announced. ‘Apparently, Ian didn’t know of Dad’s interest in photography or he’d have found them and sold them off as he seems to have done with everything else of value in the house.’
Keanu thought of the beautiful pieces of porcelain Caro’s grandmother had collected—and Caro had loved—and knew without asking that they’d be gone.
Well, he hadn’t been able to save her treasures, but he sure as hell was going to do everything he could to keep her safe in her mad quest to save the island. At least in that quest they’d be partners once again.
He slung the backpack over his shoulder and reached out to take her arm.
‘Let’s go,’ he said. She moved away from his outstretched hand, but undeterred he added, ‘It will be like old times!’
Except all his senses were on full alert, his body buzzing just being near her, so who the hell knew what would happen if she actually swam!
THEY WALKED SWIFTLY to the clifftop, muscle memory in their feet remembering the path possibly better than their brains did. Above them, in the thick rainforest, birds were settling down for the night, rustling among the leaves. Then down the rocky track with its views out over the reef to the ocean beyond. The path they took was now overgrown in places as if it had been rarely used since two adventurous children had left the island.
‘How long have you been here?’
Caroline, following him with one hand on his backpack, asked the question.
‘Three weeks.’
The answer came easily. Three weeks of shock as he’d tried to accept the island as it was now and work out what had happened.
‘Have you seen the Blakes?’
Keanu shook his head.
‘They were long gone when I got here. The old man, your grandfather, appointed Peter not long before he died and your father was happy to leave him in charge of the mine when you were born and he had to take Christopher to the mainland for constant medical supervision.’
‘Dad liked the fact that Peter was an engineer as well as having practical knowledge as a miner, and he was as honest as they come.’
‘Probably too honest for Ian,’ Keanu said. ‘He decided he could do the job better and sacked Peter. Then, with Peter gone, Ian announced he’d take over the running of the mine as well as everything else on the island.’
‘No wonder it’s run-down,’ Caro said tartly. ‘Ian couldn’t manage his way out of an open door.’
‘Harsh!’ Keanu said, turning to take Caro’s hand and help her over a particularly tricky bit of the path.
‘Well, you know he couldn’t. The only things he was ever interested in were money and women and gambling, although I imagine the order changed according to the situation.’
And even in the dim light of early evening reflected off the sea she saw the pain on Keanu’s face, the stricken look in his eyes. She remembered something strange that Bessie had said about it being better if Kari kept her distance from Ian, and started to connect the dots …
‘Oh, Keanu, not your mother?’ She reached for his shoulders and pulled him close, wrapping her arms awkwardly around his body. ‘Is that why you left? Why didn’t she tell my father? Or the elders? Or the police? Do something to get him stopped?’
Keanu eased out of her grasp and looked down at her, his face now wiped as blank as she’d ever seen it.
‘He didn’t assault her, if that’s what you’re thinking,’ he said. ‘What he did was worse.’
Bitterness as harsh and hurtful as Caroline had ever heard leached from every word so each one was a separate prick of pain—into her skin, through her flesh and into her heart.
But worse than rape?
What could she say?
Much as she longed to know more, she knew by the cold finality in Keanu’s voice that the conversation was finished.
He had turned and was moving on and although she longed to ask him if that’s why he’d never contacted her, she knew she wouldn’t—couldn’t. In fact, she knew the answer.
Somehow or other, a Lockhart had hurt his mother—an unforgiveable sin.
They stumbled their way down to the beach then, staying in the shadows of the fringing coconut palms, made their way to the rockfall.
The tide was in, the small ripples of water inside the reef splashing up against the rocks.
‘So we swim,’ she said brightly, wishing they could get back to the not easy, but easier atmosphere they’d shared as they’d started down the cliff. ‘But I doubt Dad’s camera’s waterproof so what if I go around first then climb up on the lower rocks on the other side and you pass it to me, then you swim around?’
‘Haven’t changed much, have you? Bossy as ever!’ Keanu muttered, and Caroline hid a smile—the old Keanu was back with her again, if only temporarily.
It was far worse than he’d expected,
