"Annalice," he said. "I like it. It's unusual. It suits you."
"Thank you for the compliment ... if it is a compliment. Unusual, I suppose, could mean unusually unpleasant."
"In this case it means quite the reverse."
"Then I will renew my thanks. How long will this weather last? Do you travel often?"
"One can never be sure about the weather. It could be a rough passage or a smooth one. It's in the lap of the gods. The answer to your second question is Yes. I do the journey frequently. I go home on average once a year."
"To England?"
"Yes. I own a sugar plantation. I come to London periodically on marketing matters. Why are you going to Australia?"
"I'm travelling with a friend and her aunt. She is going out to get married."
"I don't think I have ever made a crossing yet when there was not at least one young lady who was going out to get married. Men get lonely away from home. Then they go home to find a bride and bring her out to share their solitude. At first I thought you must surely be going to join some lonely man."
"Well, you are quite wrong."
"I'm glad of that."
"Indeed?"
He laughed. "Oh yes, indeed I am. I could not bear to think of such a young lady grappling with all that has to be done on a property in the outback. The beautiful English skin would become ravaged by the pitiless sun. You don't know how lucky you are in your rainy home where the sun doesn't dry up the crops and kill off the stock and hurricanes don't blow away the work of years, where you don't have plagues of locusts..."
"You make it sound like the plagues of ancient Egypt."
"That's exactly what it is like."
"Then why do people stay there?"
"It is not easy to pack up and walk to the Promised Land."
"Is that why you are there?"
"I don't live in the outback of Australia. I live on Cariba. That's an island more than a hundred miles off the coast of Australia. My father was out there and from him I inherited a sugar plantation. Sugar grows well in Cariba. But one day I am going to sell the plantation and I'm coming home to acquire a manor house with a large estate... farms, the lot... and I'm going to be an English squire."
"Squires have usually been on their land for generations."
"I'll get round that," he said. "Tell me, what are you going to do when you get to Australia?"
"I am going to attend the wedding of my friend. Stay for a while and then I suppose go back with her aunt."
"I come to Sydney quite frequently. Shall we be friends?"
"How can we say? Friendship is not something which is decided at a brief meeting. It has to be nurtured. It has to grow."
"We'll nurture it then."
"That is a hasty decision," I told him. "We only boarded the ship yesterday. We saw each other for the first time in the dining room."
"When I was rather bold. You will discover, when the nurturing begins, that that is a trait of mine. Do you like it?"
"So much would depend on when it occurred."
"You and I are going to get along well. We're two of a kind, you know."
"So you find me bold?"
"Boldness lurks beneath the refined manners of the perfect lady. I can see it peeping out. For instance, what are you doing, sitting out here on deck with someone to whom you have not been formally introduced?"
"I would call it extenuating circumstances. The weather drove me to sit here and as it was the only place where a traveller could be seated, it was inevitable that you should sit here too. I don't own the ship, so can't order you to leave me."
"Logical reasoning. But I still think I was right about the boldness. Time will show whether I was right or wrong, I daresay."
"I think the wind is abating a little."
"Perhaps ... just a little."
"And I shall go in and see how my fellow travellers are faring."
"They are prostrate, are they?"
"I'm afraid so."
"It will be some time before they recover."
"Nevertheless I shall go to see them."
I stood up and almost fell, reeling against the deck rail. He was beside me, holding me, his face close to mine. He was the most disturbing man I had ever met.
"Be careful," he said, "one wild wave could carry you overboard. You should not come too near this rail. Allow me to escort you down."
He put his arm about me and held me tightly against him. We rolled rather than walked along the deck. I felt breathless and rather glad of his strong arm.
"When I left England, I thought Ah, Paradise Lost," he said. "Now I am thinking Paradise Regained. I was not called Milton for nothing."
I laughed again. It had been a stimulating encounter.
I staggered down to the cabins. Miss Cartwright looked very wan and Felicity was not much better.
She said: "This is terrible. How much of this do we have to endure? I thought I was going to die."
"It is getting better, I think."
"Thank Heaven for that."
"Where have you been?" asked Miss Cartwright.
"On deck. My cabin mate said it was the best thing to do."
"You look so rosy," said Felicity. "Almost as though you enjoyed it.
I smiled and thought: Yes, I believe I did.
After two days the weather improved. Miss Cartwright was shaken. She had suffered more than Felicity and I was sure she was wishing she had never come on such a hazardous journey. Here we were, only three days out and the whole voyage stretched before her. She was really quite perturbed at the prospect.
By this time I had become well acquainted with Milton Harrington, who seemed to appear like the genie of the lamp wherever I happened to be.
I shall not pretend that I did not enjoy being sought after, particularly by a man who was treated with such respect throughout the ship. He appeared to be a friend of the Captain and well known to other members of the crew; and I believed that special privileges were accorded to him.
When we arrived at Madeira, our first port of call, he asked if we were going ashore. I said, Yes, of course. But Miss Cartwright put in very firmly that she was not at all sure that it was right for ladies to go unaccompanied.
He regarded her gravely and said: "Indeed, Madam, how wise you are! It would be unseemly for ladies to go alone and I am going to beg you to allow me to escort them."
"Oh but Mr. Harrington, I could not allow that. Our acquaintance is so brief."
"But, Madam, you and I between us could make sure that no harm befell the young ladies."
He gave me a mischievous glance for he knew me well enough to realize how infuriated such a conversation would make me.
Miss Cartwright, however, I noticed with some amazement, was rather fascinated by him. That surprised me. I should have thought such boldness, such arrogant masculinity, would not have found favour in her spinster's heart. Quite the contrary. She thought he was what she called "A real man," and she respected him for it.
She appeared to hesitate but the prospect of such a jaunt in his company was irresistible. "Well, Mr. Harrington, if we were both there..."
"Leave it to me. I will show you the island. It is ideal as a first port of call. It is so beautiful. Always a favourite port of mine. Now I shall share my appreciation."
It was a happy day. He took charge of us and was so courtly to Miss Cartwright, always considering her comfort first, that she blossomed and I believe thought her days of prostration were worth while since they had brought her to this.
He hired one of the bullock carts and we drove round the town. We went into the market to admire the magnificent flowers for sale there; we explored the dark red, stone Cathedral; we drove past the Governor's palace, the old fortress of Sao Lourenco and on to the site of the old Franciscan monastery where beautiful gardens had been made.