Wealth of the Islands Read Online Free

Anita. She was ashamed to admit that she had done little enough to befriend Anita in the past. The girl had seemed little more than a pale shadow of her mother, following after her wherever she went, fetching and carrying for her and generally making herself useful, with no friends of her own, and apparently very little desire to live a life of her own. Helen had been all the more shocked therefore when, out of a sense of duty she had visited her mother-in-law to discuss the terms of Michael ’ s will. Anita ’ s face had fallen away into shadowed, tightly drawn skin stretched over bones, and her eyes were little more than two pools of sheer misery.
    “ Anita, what ’ s the matter? ” Helen had greeted her.
    “ Ssh! ” Anita had warned her. “ Mother is listening. ”
    H elen had stood in the front doorway and had frowned at the pale, fair girl before her. “ Why don ’ t you ever stand up for yourself? ” she had asked her i rritably.
    Anita had sighed. “ You don ’ t understand, ” she had whispered.
    “ Oh yes, I do! ” Helen had snapped back. “ I understand a great deal too well! But if you let it go on you ’ ll spend the rest of your life being nobody but poor little Anita ! Is that what you want? ”
    Anita had winced. “ Perhaps that ’ s what I am, ” she had said.
    “ Rubbish! ” Helen had said, much as she would have done to a tiresome child at the school where she taught. “ Where is the old witch? I ’ ll soon fix her! ”
    “ Oh, but you mustn ’ t! ” Anita had pleaded. “ She ’ s so unhappy about Michael. She keeps on and on— ”
    “ And I suppose his death meant nothing at all to you? ” Helen had asked her witheringly. “ Or to me either, come to that! ” she had added with a touch of bitterness that was normally quite foreign to her nature. “ You ’ d better leave me to see Mrs. Hastings alone, ” she had told Anita imperiously. “ Go and make some tea or something, and for heaven ’ s sake put on some make-up. You look like a little ghost! ”
    Mrs. Hastings had not been an easy proposition. She had, apparently, taken it upon herself to go into Michael ’ s financial affairs, and it seemed that he had left virtually nothing. “ So you see, ” she had told Helen with ill-concealed triumph, “ he ’ s left you almost penniless! ”
    Helen had said nothing at first, then finally she had burst out with, “ Mrs. Hastings, I have quite a bit of money saved. I ’ m going out to the Melonga Islands myself to find out what really happened to Michael, and I want Anita to come with me. ”
    “ It ’ s out of the question! ” Mrs. Hastings had gasped. “ What should I do without her ?”
    “ I ’ m more worried about Anita, ” Helen had observed dryly. “ Have you looked at her recently? ”
    It had been a long battle before Michael ’ s mother had given way. She had refused to pay so much as a penny towards Anita ’ s fare to New Zealand and had made the poor girl ’ s life quite miserable before they had finally left, but leave they had on the long exhausting flight right round the world to New Zealand. Yet, despite the tiring, non-stop flying, the eating of meals at unheard-of hours, and the hours of sleep snatched here and there at curious times, Anita had looked a great deal better on arrival than she had when they had left.
    Twenty-four hours after their arrival in Auckland, Anita had gone down with appendicitis, and so it was that Helen had come on to the Melonga Islands alone. And now, she thought with satisfaction, she had got the chance of getting the job she wanted, the job that was going to keep them while they were there . There was the sound of shouting on the deck above her head and she flew up the companionway to see what was happening. The last light of the sun lit the small harbour and the island beyond, silhouetting the palm trees that fringed the silver sands. She had finally arrived.
    The jetty had been built from roughly felled trees,