One Night Of Love

‘Yes.’

‘Where did you go to college?’

‘Oxford first, then I came over to America, to California for a year.’

‘And then you applied for the job with Starr Marine?’

‘No.’ Dyan shook her head. ‘First I took an engineering course so that I’d understand about lifting gear and weight ratios, that kind of thing.’ She frowned. ‘Why are you shaking your head?’

He didn’t answer directly, instead saying, ‘Are there many women in this business?’

‘I suppose you mean out at sea, actually supervising a salvage operation?’ Not waiting for him to answer, she said, ‘I’m the only one in Starr Marine at the moment, but there are other women coming into the job in other companies.’ She gave him a direct look. ‘Are you thinking that I’m the token woman, taken on to keep the Equal Opportunities Board happy?’

He gave her a lazy kind of look. ‘Are you?’

Perhaps Dyan should have been annoyed by that question, but she had just noticed how long and thick Oliver’s eyelashes were. She paused, having to gather her thoughts again, then decided to say teasingly, ‘Maybe I am. You’ll just have to find out, won’t you?’

‘I’m always reading that, to get anywhere in a man’s world, a woman has to be twice as good at the job than the average male,’ he commented. ‘And somehow I don’t think Barney Starr would risk his reputation by taking on someone who isn’t competent to do the work just to please a pack of officials.’

‘If that was supposed to be a compliment, it was so subtle that it hardly came across.’

Oliver laughed, his eyes arrested, and Dyan knew, with a surge of pleasurable excitement, that he was intrigued by her. But the warmth of the feeling brought her up short; after the last time, when she’d been so badly hurt, she had sworn off men. And Russ hadn’t had to warn her to be careful, she had known herself that falling for the wrong man was a big mistake. But how was she to have known that Crispin had just been using her for sex, that he had lied when he said he wasn’t married?

Taking a mental grip of herself, Dyan pushed the memories back into the deepest recess of her mind; not all men were the same, they weren’t all two-timing swine. But when you’d been hurt once—well, then you were always far more cautious in the future. So she put the brakes on where Oliver was concerned, and said in a calm, almost businesslike way, ‘How about you? How did you get into your job?’

Oliver shrugged. ‘Much the same way as you. University and then one or two special courses. But insurance is humdrum compared to this. Have you taken part in many exciting salvage operations?’

So he didn’t want to talk about himself. Through modesty, she wondered, or something else?

‘Quite a few,’ she answered. ‘Especially when I was working my way up through the company. My first job was to help raise an oil-rig.’ She started to tell him about it, making it sound interesting—because it had been interesting, and exciting at moments when it got dangerous. Again he listened intently, so Dyan went on to tell him of other salvage projects that she’d been involved with, ending, ‘But once I’d served my apprenticeship, so to speak, and took on jobs of my own, they’ve all been wet salvage, like this trip.’

“‘Wet salvage”?’ Oliver’s eyebrows went up.

‘Oh, sorry. Dry salvage is when you have to rescue a vessel that’s still afloat; wet salvage is when it has already sunk.’

‘I see. And where is your base?’

‘In London. But I’m not there very often.’

‘But you have a place to live when you’re not at sea?’

Dyan hesitated briefly, then said, ‘I have an aunt who lives in Highgate, near the cemetery where Karl Marx is buried, and she lets me have a room.’ She didn’t tell him about the flat that Crispin had rented for her, where she’d lived with him in the assurance that he loved her, that they would be married one day. And which she’d walked out of the moment she’d found out that he had lied to her all along. But that was getting on dangerous ground again. ‘Do you live in London?’

‘Yes, I have a flat in Chelsea.’ For the first time he opened up a little, saying, ‘But my parents live in the country and I escape there as often as I can.’

‘Do you ever go sailing?’

‘I haven’t done much,’ he admitted. ‘Mostly on holidays. I did some when I was out in the West Indies before, when I learnt to dive.’

They talked sailing and diving for a while, and Dyan found Oliver a good conversationalist. When he opened up on a subject he made it interesting and often amusing, but she sensed that he had barriers which he wouldn’t let down lightly. But then so had she; not just barriers but stone walls with red warning signs all along the top of them.

But, when she eventually went down to the ops room to check the log, Dyan had to admit that the couple of hours she was on deck with Oliver had been the most pleasant she’d spent for quite some while. And not only because she’d enjoyed talking to him; being a woman, she’d known instinctively that he found her attractive. Whether he, as a man, had known the same about her, Dyan wasn’t so sure. She’d tried not to give him any encouragement, to put out any vibes. Once bitten had made her more than twice shy, and there was no way she wanted to go rushing headlong into another relationship, another love affair. She had thought herself head over heels in love the last time and had been much too precipitate, given herself to Crispin too soon. So she had vowed to be careful in the future, to make her head rule her heart. But her head, unfortunately, couldn’t keep her stupid heart from feeling excited and full of hope.

The rest of that day and most of the following two were spent mostly in Oliver’s company, although Dyan made sure that Russ or some other member of the crew were often with them, or else she spent an hour or so alone in the ops room. She didn’t want Oliver to think that she was monopolising him, although it was mainly the other way round; he sought her out. This was natural enough as he was a sort of guest on board and she was his host on the company’s behalf, but she knew it was more than that. The smile he gave her, his eyes warm and interested, wasn’t the same smile that he gave to anyone in the crew. And when she changed for dinner in the evenings into one of her new dresses, his appreciative glance told her a great deal.

But Dyan also had her reputation with the crew to consider and didn’t want to get herself talked about, so she was circumspect and would often call Hal or someone over to join them as they sat out on the deck or in the rest-room after dinner.

Late in the afternoon of their third full day at sea, they motored quietly into the harbour at Antigua to pick up the other four members of the crew. But here they met the first snag of the voyage. One of the divers they were to pick up had been involved in an accident on the way to meet them. Dyan went ashore with Russ and Hal to visit him, but found that he wouldn’t be fit to work for at least a month.

The three of them had a conference after they left the hospital.

‘It could be a month before we find the boat we’re looking for,’ Hal pointed out. ‘He could join us then.’

‘Or we could find it straight off. We need a full complement of divers on this job. I’m going to call Barney and have him fly someone else out to us,’ Dyan said decisively.

‘It will mean staying in Antigua for a couple of days,’ Russ warned her.

‘Well, that can’t be helped. I’m not going to risk this lift without enough men.’

So, instead of immediately putting out to sea again, they found themselves having to wait at one of the most lively tourist resorts in the Caribbean.

‘Will it be OK to let the guys go ashore tonight?’ Russ asked her.

She nodded. ‘I don’t see why not. It will be some time before we’re back on land again so they might as well make the most of the delay.’

Russ made the announcement to the men as soon as they got back to the ship. He gave them no warnings about keeping their mouths shut, or not getting drunk, because these were all well-paid, responsible men, who wanted to keep their jobs. He knew they could be relied on to enjoy themselves without getting into trouble. The men gave a cheer and went off to get ready to go ashore. Even the cook got the evening off.

Afterwards, Oliver came over to Dyan. ‘Have you been to Antigua before?’

‘Oh, yes, several times.’

‘Then perhaps you know somewhere good where we can eat?’ He gave her one of his slow smiles. ‘That’s if you’ll have dinner with me, of course?’

Dyan felt her heart flutter a little, but she said offhandedly, ‘Thanks. We may as well keep each other company, I suppose.’

An amused glint came into Oliver’s eyes as he said smoothly, ‘Of course.’

Dyan went to change, unable to stop the zing of excitement bubbling in her veins. She brushed her hair into a loose mane around her head, put on make-up, and a cream dress that accentuated her tan and clung in all the right places. Looking at herself critically in the mirror, Dyan saw that she was looking her best, and deliberately stifled mental reminders that she wasn’t out to encourage Oliver. Well, tonight was time out; tomorrow she would be back to normal again.

Oliver was waiting for her in the rest-room, wearing a white dinner-jacket and dark trousers, smart but casual clothes. He turned round as she came in and his eyes widened very satisfactorily. ‘You look—stunning,’ he said as he let out his breath. Then he grinned. ‘You ought to be a fashion model. No one in the world would ever think that you’re in charge of “this expedition, this ship and these men”.’

‘Aren’t you ever going to let me forget that?’ she asked, laughing.

‘Well, I certainly won’t.’ He paused and added teasingly, ‘And one day maybe I’ll tell you why.’

Intrigued, she immediately became terribly feminine, giving him a wide-eyed look. ‘Tell me now,’ she coaxed.

Taking her hand, Oliver laughed. ‘Oh, no. Come on, let’s go ashore.’