The Passionate Sinner Read Free Page B

nonya,’
    ‘Yes, perhaps I have.’ She wanted to sink down on the sand and fall weakly into the shadow of the palm tree, and that would be childish of her. She was here on Pulau-Indah and must face the consequences of her own foolhardy action in coming all this way to be with a man whose life was blighted because of her. She might as well have handed him hemlock and then at least he would have dropped dead and not been condemned to a walking darkness.
    ‘Come,’ a hand closed upon her arm. ‘The afternoon is closing in and the sun is waning and you will find that the evenings on the island are a thing of magic. Come, let me take you to the Tiger House.’
    ‘Are you being funny?’ she exclaimed.
    ‘Not in the least.’ he replied. ‘That is the name of the residence—it was so named by the owner and, of course, it does have its significance in view of what the islanders call the tuan, but we are a people wrapped up in myth and symbol. We don’t take for granted the whims of fate, nor the joys and sorrows. We know that most things are ordained and that to fight against what fate has in store for us is a waste of energy. Don’t waste energy, for it is quite a climb.’
    ‘Couldn’t you have landed on the headland?’ she asked, as they began to climb the rock stairs side by side.
    ‘There is only a strip of land leading around the rim of the tea valley,’ he informed her. ‘It would be a very aromatic landing but a costly one.’
    ‘If there’s a valley, how do we reach the—Tiger House?’ She was intrigued despite her various fears. There was no denying the colour and strangeness of the island, and if fate had her on a chain, what else could she do but submit to being led into the tiger’s den?
    ‘We cross a bamboo bridge,’ he said, ‘slung across the tea valley to the gates of the house. It is somewhat like a fortress, for in the old days the Chinese pirates used to come raiding in search of girls and spices and teakwood. The island has a history, nonya.’
    ‘I sense that strongly,’ she breathed, and into her nostrils as they climbed towards the rim of the valley came the rich scent of the tea bushes, mingling with the spice trees that still grew here, and the slightly scorched smell of sun-burned palms, so tall that they caught the full blast of the sun rays.
    Her heart beat fast from a combination of exertion, excitement, and fear.
    Very soon now, she would see again the man whom as a student nurse she had worshipped from across the chasm that separates the surgery dogsbody from the surgeon himself. Young and so romantic in those days, she had sometimes thought that it would be lovely to have an unexpected adventure with Paul van Setan, such as being trapped alone with him in the express lift of the tall hospital building, when he would look into her eyes and discover that she was a real live girl instead of just a pair of willing hands. ..
    The sharp pangs of memory clawed at her ... willing hands that in their youthful, unknowing eagerness had blinded him, the one man in all the world she would have served with her body and soul had he asked for them.

CHAPTER TWO
    IT stood among the spice and camphor trees, with a great lofty veranda standing on palm pillars, and with an enormous thatched roof so thick it had a carved look. It stood back from a courtyard set round with stone lanterns and with a central fountain like a petrified lotus, and Merlin stood gazing at the house in spellbound wonder. It sprang complete from the colonial days when the Dutch had lorded it over these islanders, the spicemasters, the tea-planters, never brutal in their treatment but ruling with the iron hand in the gauntlet.
    The casuarinas whispered, long-lost echoes of a past that still seemed to prevail as Merlin walked with the young Indonesian towards the steps of the veranda. There she paused and felt the shakiness in her legs ... now there was no turning back and she was committed to whatever fate had in store