“Hi!”Libby introduced herself with a smile that was wide, bright, and lethal.“So, you’re Henry Harrison?”Of course she’d already know the old man’s full name.She stretched out her hand.“It’s a pleasure to meet you.”
“And you’re the woman who everyone thinks is married to this man.”Henry nodded toward him.“Cheerful chap, isn’t he?”
Dan snorted.“Thanks.”
Libby burst out laughing.“He has his moments.”Then she introduced Karim, who, at the mention of his name, kicked his legs and made that grizzling noise that meant he wanted his mum again.Dan lowered him off his shoulders and handed him back to Libby, who immediately engulfed the little guy against her chest and kissed his head.“You have a beautiful place here, Henry.”
“Come and have a look around,” Henry said.
While Libby carried Karim, Dan took the stroller.As they ambled down the long driveway, the colonel launched into a summary of all the different plants he had growing around the Cabins.
“I also have pineapples,” he added, pointing over to a small patch on the right.
“Pineapples grow on bushes?”Libby asked with a surprised laugh.
Dan raised his eyebrow.“You didn’t know?”
She shot him a look that drawledsmart-assand turned back to Henry.“I always thought they grew on trees, like coconuts.”
“Ah.”Henry held up a finger.“And I bet you also thought coconuts are only eaten when they’re in hairy brown shells.”
“Aren’t they?”
“Not at all, not at all.”The colonel went on.“Cook Islanders eat them when their shells are still green.That’s when they’re freshly picked, which means after someone’s scaled up the tree to fetch them.The milk is clear, like sweet water, and the flesh is soft and easily scraped off the side, not hard and crunchy.The fallen brown coconuts are seen as pig food.And the ones that don’t get eaten go to seed.When that happens, they become like a sponge inside, and that’s what islanders used to eat, like a bread, when food was scarce.”
Libby and Karim were transfixed by the colonel talking.Maybe it was his strong, upper-crust British accent, so different to their own soft American tones, that had them enthralled.
“There was no electricity when I first came to live here forty years ago,” Henry added.
“Forty years!”Libby’s mouth dropped open.“But you must’ve been just a boy.”
The colonel made a scoffing sound.“I was twenty-eight—recently out of a job with the merchant navy and very much in love.”
“With whom?”
“Angelina,” the colonel said lyrically.His gaze drifted off toward the trees.“She smelled like the flowers and tropical sea air.Beautiful face, beautiful skin, beautiful hair…”
Dan rolled his eyes, but Libby’s were sparkling with love hearts.
The colonel sighed wistfully.“Too bad she turned out to be such a spiteful bitch.”
“All rightie!”Libby covered Karim’s ears, and Dan burst out laughing.He couldn’t help it.“That’s not quite the ending I was expecting,” she said.
But the colonel blustered on.“So, after Angelina,” he said, “I stayed on the island, and I recovered.Of course, the locals thought I was odd, and that was fine because I thought they were odd too.But slowly, they accepted me, and I built my life here, in this piece of paradise.It’s proof that some good can come out of bad things.”
“Indeed.”Libby’s eyebrows arched as she looked at Dan.He arched his own back and gave her a tight, point-taken look.Then she winked at him and turned back to the colonel to gush about how beautiful the Cabins were.
When they reached the main building, Libby asked if she could take Karim to the bathroom.The colonel told her where it was then stared at her swaying hips as she walked off.
“Splendid, woman.Splendid,” he said.
“Yeah, she is.”Dan shot the old guy a look, not at all surprised that he’d been charmed by Libby.“She’s very nice.”
“Ha!But it’s too bad you’re not into brandy, old chap.”Henry nudged Dan’s arm with a suggestive nod.“Forty years ago, I would have drunk the whole bottle, if you know what I mean.”
Tenminuteslater,Danwas lying on the grass when Libby and Karim returned.They stood over him, silhouetted against the brilliant blue sky.
“The old man fancies you,” he said, squinting.“If he had a mustache, he would’ve been twirling it like a bad pantomime character, the way he was looking at you.”
