When at last she had said good night to him and was once more in her own stateroom, she dropped down on the side of the bed, her face in her hands. She had the feeling that she had been rushed headlong through space and was only now being given a chance to get her thoughts in order.
She got ready for bed at last and lay wide-eyed, staring into the moonlight that shimmered through her porthole. It was a gorgeous tropic night; the deck would be awash with moonlight; there might be flying fish to see!
She glanced at the clock on the small bed-side table and saw that the hands pointed to two A.M. She slid out of bed, walked to the porthole and looked out. Then, moving very quietly, she got into slacks and a thin shirt, thrust her bare feet into brown leather scuffs and walked to her door.
She opened it very cautiously, thoughtful of the slumber of her fellow passengers. And then she stood rigid, speechless, dazed. Curt was standing at the door of the Barclay cabin, which obviously he had just eased shut behind him.
She watched him with wide, incredulous eyes as he stood there for a moment, his head bowed. And then he went swiftly, cautiously away from the door toward the stairs that led up to the deck.
Claire watched until he had vanished, and then she closed her own door and dropped down on the edge of the bed. She was dazed and bewildered. What did it all mean? Just a little while ago, Curt had held her close in his arms and had asked him to marry him. He had said that he had never before asked any woman to marry him. Yet now he was hurrying stealthily away from Vera Barclay’s cabin!
Suddenly her thoughts fell into place and she could even laugh a little, though shakily, at her jealous suspicions, because it was jealousy that made her so angry at seeing Curt leaving Vera’s cabin at two in the morning. Now she told herself that Vera had not been alone in the cabin. Nora was there, of course. Vera had been very upset when she had learned that they were putting in at the port in British Honduras; she had left the salon in a fury. No doubt Nora had summoned Curt when she had been unable to quiet her mother.
That, Claire told herself with a relief so complete that it made her smile radiantly, was the whole explanation. Vera wasn’t ill; if she had been, Curt would have summoned Claire to attend her. No, Vera was merely indulging in a tantrum and Nora, unable to quiet her, had asked Curt’s help.
It was no more than that, Claire told herself, and was ashamed that within so short a time after Curt’s protestation of love, she should have plunged into such an abyss of doubt. She knew now that she was going to say “yes” to his proposal. And the thought brought a warm sweetness that made it lore than ever necessary for her to get out on deck in the glorious moonlight. The cabin seemed suddenly too small to hold her great happiness, and once more she opened her door, cast a swift glance along the empty corridor, and moved with a nurse’s accustomed silence toward the companionway.
She was passing the salon, which lay in darkness save for the moonlight that felt its way through the windows, when she heard the sound of sobbing, half-muffled, so desperate, so desolate that it stopped her in her tracks.
Somewhere in the salon someone was weeping heartbrokenly; someone whose grief was so deep that only tears could ease the unendurable tension. And Claire instinctively moved into the salon, intent on offering solace.
She traced the sound of weeping to a big leather-covered lounge that stood against the wall, and there, in the light from the moon and in the darkness to which by now her eyes were becoming accustomed, she saw a small, huddled heap of dim white. As she spoke softly, the sobbing broke off with a small, frightened gasp, and she realized the small heap of glimmering white was Nora.
“Why, Nora,” she said softly, and sat down on the lounge beside the girl. “What’s wrong, honey?”
“Claire?” stammered Nora.
“Of course, dear,” Claire said gently, and put her arms about the girl. “What’s wrong, dear? Why are you out here like this?”
“Oh, Claire,” Nora barely managed to keep her voice down from a wail, “Mother turned me out. We had a terrific battle — look!”
She extended her hand to a beam of moonlight and revealed in its palm the broken fragments of the necklace of shells that MacEwen had given her.
“She jerked it off my neck and threw it down and stamped on it.” Nora’s voice rose, choked with sobs, as though at an outrage that was beyond recounting. “She said Mac was a no-good and I mustn’t ever speak to him again, and that the necklace was a cheap, tacky thing I should be ashamed to wear — ”
She hid her face against Claire’s shoulder and clung to her, sobbing wildly.
So this, Claire told herself, was why Curt had been leaving Vera’s cabin. Nora had gone for him, and he had — She heard herself asking, “How long have you been out here, Nora?”
“Oh, since midnight, maybe earlier,” Nora answered, and Claire felt as though a sudden numbing blow had fallen upon her.
“And did you go for Curt and ask him to quiet your mother?” Claire asked steadily, because she had to know.
Nora lifted her head in surprise.
“Why, no, Claire, of course not. Why should I?” she asked wonderingly. “I didn’t want anyone to know about our fight — we’ve had a lot of them, but never one like this. Because for the first time, I stood up to her. That’s why she turned me out of the cabin. She was so surprised that I talked back to her. I never did before — only she said such awful things about Mac. She’s never let me have any friends; not even girl friends — ”
Claire listened, and something died within her. So there had been no sane, logical reason for Curt to be leaving Vera’s cabin at two in the morning. She had been so sure of him — and then a small, biting thought like the darting of a tiny, venomous snake reminded her, you were sure of Rick, too — remember?
“Oh, Claire, what am I going to do?” wailed Nora, and once more her head was hidden against Claire’s breast and Claire’s arms held her closely.
“We’re going to put you to bed — ” Claire began.
“Oh, no, she won’t let me in,” Nora protested, and shivered.
“We’re going to put you to bed in my room, chick,” Claire comforted her. “And in the morning, you’ll find that things aren’t nearly so bad as they seem at night. Come along, and I’ll give you a sedative. And when you wake up you’ll find everything is fine. I promise.”
She guided the girl down the corridor to her own room. Nora paused uncertainly in front of her mother’s door and listened; and then, her tremulous mouth thinning a little, she walked on with Claire.
Claire turned down the covers of the bed and made herself smile at Nora’s tear-sodden face, though she felt that, given the slightest encouragement, she herself could have wept as forlornly as Nora.
“In you go,” she said briskly. She brought a cold washcloth and wiped the tears away and kissed Nora’s brow lightly.
“But if I take your bed, Claire, where will you sleep?” Nora hesitated even as Claire waited to tuck her in.
“Oh, nurses are trained to sleep standing up, if necessary,” Claire assured her briskly. “It’s only a few hours until morning, anyway, and this chair is very comfortable. Now you take this tablet and get to sleep like a good girl. Do you hear?”
Nora’s hand caught Claire’s and held it tightly, and her young face was touched with shyness as she said awkwardly, “Oh, Claire, you’re just the greatest! I hope some day I can be just exactly like you.”
“Well, now, that’s very sweet of you, Nora,” Claire said smiling.
“Maybe I could even be a nurse?” Nora asked eagerly.
“You go to sleep now, and we’ll talk about it in the morning,” Claire promised.
Nora rested her cheek for a moment against Claire’s hand, and then like a child snuggled down against the pillow and her eyes closed.
Claire sat down in the deep, comfortable chair in the warm darkness, safely out of reach of the vagrant moonbeams that spilled through the open portholes.
And aren’t you the smart one, my girl? she asked herself savagely. Falling for this handsome devil, after the treatment you got from Rick! Being so sure this time that it was love, and so sure that he loved you! Oh, how big a fool can you be!