The Last of the Kintyres by Catherine Airlie Page B

rarely pays,” Hew returned dryly. “I’ll go along with you if you think it will help, though.”
    “I’m sure it wi ll !” There was triumph in her tone. “And Commander Friend can amuse Elizabeth while she’s waiting for you.”
    Hew turned to look at Elizabeth.
    “I’m sorry about this,” he apologized. “But I think it ought to be cleared up right away, if we can manage it.”
    “Of course,” she tried to smile, but her lips felt stiff and, somehow, Caroline seemed to have won a victory. “I don’t mind waiting.”
    “Come along and see my boat,” Stephen invited, taking her by the arm. “In spite of what Hew says about her, she’s a beauty!”
    “I can see you’ve entirely lost your heart to her!” Elizabeth smiled as they went out into the sunshine together.
    “To Caroline? Good heavens, she’s the last person on earth I would care to trust with a heart—or anything, else!”
    “I didn’t mean Mrs. Hayler,” Elizabeth said in a small, tight voice. “I was thinking about your yacht— Naomi, isn’t it?”
    “But you do agree—wholeheartedly—about Caroline,” he reflected without answering her question. “She’s a first-class nuisance, to say the least of her, and I’m sorry if Hew has forgiven her for what she did to him four years ago.”
    “Perhaps he never really fell out of love with her,” Elizabeth suggested.
    “He should have done, by all the rules. And Hew’s not the type to forgive and forget easily. It was a sort of nine days’ wonder in these parts when she went off and married someone else. Of course,” he added dryly, “the old chap had plenty of money.”
    Elizabeth did not want to go on talking about Caroline, and Hew and the past, not even with kind, generous Stephen Friend.
    “ Tell me about Naomi ,” she prompted.
    His smile was quick and boyishly pleased.
    “Come and see for yourself,” he invited. “Hew is likely to be some time with the police.”
    And Caroline, Elizabeth thought. Caroline had wanted Hew to herself and she had won her point, but perhaps she had a right to claim his services and his attention.
    Stephen handed her into the trim white launch which lay moored at the jetty steps and they cut through the calm water of the bay.
    “Here we are!” Stephen said, throttling back the engine as they picked their way between the trim craft dotted all over the anchorage. “The good ship Naomi at your service, ma’am!”
    “She’s utterly lovely!” Elizabeth’s eyes were bright with admiration for the graceful little ketch riding at anchor just ahead of them. “Like a white, floating bird!”
    He surveyed her with deepening interest.
    “You sound as if you might be my sort of girl!” he told her laughingly. “Come aboard and I’ll show you how she sails.”
    Elizabeth hesitated, not quite sure what to do.
    “Do you think we ought to? Today, I mean. You see,” she explained impulsively, “I don’t want to keep Hew waiting unnecessarily. Tony and I have caused so much trouble already—coming to Ardlamond. Hew couldn’t have wanted to take on the responsibility of having Tony as a ward, and now there’s been this accident and he finds himself involved quite deeply right away.”
    Stephen caught hold of the yacht’s gunwale to steady them as he shut off the launch’s engine.
    “So that’s the way of it,” he mused. “I wondered why you looked so concerned about everything.” He gave her a brief, thoughtful look. “Hew would take on all his father’s commitments, I guess. He’d settle for the lot. What about you?” he asked abruptly.
    She looked puzzled.
    “Have you no say in the matter?” he asked.
    A faint colour stained her cheeks.
    “Not really,” she confessed. “And I don’t suppose I should interfere. My mother thought that Tony might benefit by a steadying hand.”
    He put his own hand out to cover hers.
    “Don’t worry,” he advised. “These sort of things invariably straighten themselves out in the end,