Ocean's Cage Read online

  His stomach rumbled. "After, lass. I've had naught but sandwiches all day, so I hope you've ordered a good dinner."

  I just smiled. Me, order Cook around? She knew what she was doing and the kitchen was definitely her domain. "I should dress for dinner." Despite my words, I didn't want to leave him, even to go into the next room.

  "You look beautiful just as you are. And if I have to see you undress, we'll never make it to the table," William replied, offering his arm.

  I thought of taking him to bed anyway, but I could wait an hour or two until we'd eaten. William was certainly worth waiting for.

  Four

  "How do you feel about a short holiday in Singapore?" William asked, popping a piece of pork into his mouth.

  "I've never been," I admitted. He didn't mean to send me alone, did he? "I hope you'll show me all the sights."

  He laughed. "I don't know about sights. The only thing I ever do in Singapore is business and shopping. If you want to do more motorcycle riding with me, we'll need to get you some more appropriate clothes. You can get those in Singapore."

  Motorcycle...oh. I squirmed in my seat, not wanting to mention the mess I'd made today.

  "I'll need to pay a visit to the motorcycle shop there, too. Damn crabs destroy everything. Last week we discovered a section of rail line that had sunk a good four feet because of the crab burrows beneath it. Good thing the new engine didn't come in before we'd filled that or it'd never have made it to Ross Hill. It seems we're at war with the crabs. First the train lines, then my Triumph...they're cutting the transport lines. Do you think they might be conspiring with the sea dragon to keep the weather so bad that no ships can dock, either?" William laughed. "Dragons that can control the weather. Sounds like one of the tales the coolies tell after they've been smoking too much opium. A battle here would be short-lived. We have no troops, no weapons and if they brought in reinforcements by sea...the island would be taken in no time. Good thing the Great War's over and there'll never be another, eh, lass?"

  I smiled wanly, struggling to swallow a piece of potato that was suddenly too dry and stuck in my throat. "I hope not."

  Cutlery clattered as William reached for me, enfolding my hands in his. "I'm sorry, lass. I forgot you saw action here when you were a child. The Emden attacked and then burned. A battle you'll never forget, I'm sure." He seemed to realise he'd said too much, so he changed the subject. "Enough about war. Let's talk about our trip to Singapore. The Diomed's finished unloading and she'll be shipping out tonight. The Islander should dock in the morning, if this calm weather holds. She'll stay in port for a few days and when she leaves, we'll be aboard. How does that sound?"

  "A holiday with you sounds lovely," I admitted, breaking into a proper smile. After all, a holiday meant no work, so I'd get to spend all my days and nights with William, just as we had on the Trevessa.

  He dabbed his lips with his napkin and threw it on the table. "How about we skip dessert tonight and head straight to bed?"

  My heart leaped. "That sounds even better. I'll just ask Amah to fill the hot water heater for me before she leaves, then. I won't be long."

  Five

  I hurried to the bathroom, undressing as I went, intending to wash quickly and make it to bed before William had finished his after-dinner glass of whisky. A swift glance in the mirror turned into a longer look of horror, though, as I realised that after my hair had been crushed and steamed under a hat all day, I needed to wash it. I ripped out the pins, throwing them into the washbasin, before turning on the bath taps. The hot water was a little over lukewarm, but I didn't have time to wait. If I had to choose between a hot bath and a hot night with William, William would win every time.

  I scrubbed at my scalp, freeing my tresses so that I could try to comb the tangles out. This was where I'd normally ask William for help, but I wanted his hands to be involved in far more intimate caresses. I yanked the comb though my hair a few more times, hoping I'd caught all the knots, before I gave it one more rinse and drained the bath. A cursory drying with the towel and I deemed myself ready. I hadn't brought a robe, but with only William and I left in the house, it didn't matter. It's not as though I wanted to hide my naked body from him.

  I padded across the floorboards, my anticipation building as I saw the dining room light was out. William waited for me in the bedroom, then. I paused in the doorway to take a deep breath, knowing this showed my breasts to their best advantage, before sauntering to the bed.

  "William? How would you like me this evening?"

  He didn't move, so I leaned over to see his face better. Damp tendrils of hair landed on the pillow beside him, but William didn't wake. He just scrunched his nose up at a droplet that had fallen on his face before starting to snore.

  Not again. This damned mine would work him to death

  Disappointed, I plaited my hair into a loose braid and climbed into bed beside him. His bare skin against mine was some consolation, at least. Soon, I promised myself, we'd go to Singapore and share all our time, in bed and out of it. And we could share our fill of sexual pleasures, too.

  Six

  I blamed William's glass of whisky and my silly desire for human hygiene. I wanted him so much and it was immensely frustrating to be so close to him and yet not be able to make love. Again. I waited until I could stand it no longer, then slipped out of the house for a swim, the only thing that could extinguish the roaring blaze of my ardour. My last one, I promised myself, before I forced myself to forget about my former life and focus on being human.

  I wondered what humans did when they were frustrated in their desires for sex. It's not a subject I'd ever heard discussed, but surely it had to happen. Who to ask, though? Not Anne, and certainly not William, because he'd only apologise and feel terribly guilty. If I were in Fremantle, I'd have asked Merry. She'd have blushed, as she had through every page of the Kama Sutra when she'd taught me to read, but she'd have answered. As a widow who had no lover, she must know. I resolved to write to her. I hadn't even told her that I'd found William yet, so a letter was long overdue, I mused as I splashed through the shallows of the rocky beach.

  The cove was empty, but I could see the dark shape of the Islander just offshore near Smith Point. Another huge shadow drifted further out – a phosphate ship, I presumed, waiting to load up. Good thing I wouldn't be swimming any more, then. Loading phosphate unleashed clouds of dust into the air and water, which floated as a thin layer of brown scum on the surface of the waves. Not to mention it got into gills and lungs alike, making it difficult to breathe no matter what form I took.

  If this was my last swim, then I'd take my true form, I decided, undulating my body through the water until I felt the stretch of skin covering my thighs, my calves and then past my toes, sealing them together into a tail that rivalled those of the dolphins I could hear playing in the open ocean. Or the whale shark making his ponderous way into the cove in search of me, though his was much bigger.

  "Where is the best plankton today?" I called to the dolphins.

  A cacophony of voices directed me through a maze of rocks, reefs and tasty fishing spots to a location I vaguely recognised as just off Jackson Point, the north-west most point of the island. It wasn't named after Anne and her husband, she'd told me laughingly when I asked, but after a different Jackson who'd designed the pier that the cyclone had carried away. With William designing its replacement, I wondered if they'd call it McGregor Point instead, or whether someone would name a different feature after him. I fancied McGregor Grotto. Perhaps I should mention it to the District Officer next time I saw him in the Club. He was due to be replaced soon, so it would be an appropriate recommendation for his final report.

  Human concerns, the naming of things that would long outlast anyone who remembered the ephemeral title of the place. My laughter at my own silliness bubbled up to the surface. I truly was becoming more human than siren, if I even thought like them. I beckoned to the whale shark and led the way around Smith Point.
r />   A pod of spinner dolphins joined us as we rounded the outer reefs that sheltered the northern beaches from the surf, squeaking their delight at seeing me again.

  I tensed as I heard their rebounding calls, the sounds they made to gauge depth and obstacles and sense their way through the water. They could determine much smaller floating bodies with these calls, I knew, for Mother had utilised their talents during several births of our kind. They could judge the size and positioning of a child in a womb – or its presence before even the mother knew of it. If I carried a child, William's child, I couldn't hide it from them, however much I wanted to.

  "Plenty of fish today," the oldest dolphin told me with considerable satisfaction.

  "Not as many as Sephira the Elder will give for news of Sirena's child!" a youngster chirped, soaring out of the water and spinning a somersault before her elder could reprimand her.

  I ached to ask if I carried a child, but I forced myself to remain silent. I didn't want to remind them to check, if they hadn't already. A faint hope, but a hope nevertheless, that Mother didn't know my whereabouts and I'd be left alone to my happy life with William. My happy human life.

  "Elder Sephira asks for regular reports for the Council," the old dolphin continued. "I think she will not be content with hearsay for long. She is a mother and she misses you, as she should."

  "Mother does not miss me. She wants me to take her place on the Elder Council so that she can retire to carp at me every day," I snapped, remembering her endless lectures stretching back to my earliest memories. "The rest of the Council don't care for me. Not after I told them to..." Disappear up their own fundamental orifices, I think was the rough translation, though I wasn't going to repeat the crude vernacular to a gossip-mongering dolphin. My words would be all over the Indian Ocean by morning.

  "A mother knows what her child is capable of, especially when her power is great already," the dolphin said smugly and I stopped dead.

  Did she mean that Mother knew what my voice could do...and any child of mine would be equally powerful? She wouldn't be content with taking one child from me – she'd steal any child of William's, too. And teach them to enslave humans...

  I couldn't let that happen. I'd lock myself in a cage on land to keep from falling into Mother's hands – me and any children I might have. This swim was a mistake. I needed to return to land.

  "I will leave this place soon. I must...must go and get ready," I blurted out, hoping it would be enough to deter Mother from searching the island for me.

  I commanded the dolphins to take the whale shark to where they'd said the best plankton was, and hightailed it home.

  Human. I had to pretend to be human for the rest of my days. I'd never shift to my tail and swim again, I thought as I stumbled up the beach at Flying Fish Cove and my home.

  Seven

  If I thought I'd barely seen William before the engine arrived, I was mistaken. He left before I was awake in the morning to ride the freight train out to South Point; he no longer returned for breakfast and when he finally trudged home at the end of the day, he was too tired to even eat dinner. Or if he did manage to eat, he wasn't capable of conversation. I'd seen more of him when he'd thought I was the dragon in the Grotto. Perhaps if I turned my tail in bed he'd notice me...

  I glanced at the sleeping man beside me. No, not even then. He worked too hard and he'd more than earned a holiday. As long as he didn't sleep through the departure of the Islander.

  My steamer trunk was packed, as was his, and some men would come to collect them in the morning. This time tomorrow night, we'd be aboard and waiting for her to leave. And, if I had any say in the matter, we'd also be in bed...but there wouldn't be any snoring for many hours yet.

  I was too excited to sleep. I knew a swim would calm me – slicing through the waves, letting the cool water soothe me with its motherly caress – but I was true to my vow. The ocean was outside the bars of my invisible, self-imposed cage, and I would not leave it. Not if it meant losing the shelter of William's comforting arms, which still held me when he was fast asleep.

  As I lay there in his embrace, I thought of what I might write in a letter to Merry. That I'd found William and agreed to be his wife, certainly. Perhaps a little about island life. Or should I include more? Fill my letter with happy anecdotes about my perfect life as a Mem on Christmas Island and not bother her with my worries? Or pour out my heart, telling her about the difficulties of being the wife of one of the island's Tuans, the men in charge, who put in so many hours it was like losing him all over again, for he was never home. Not knowing what signs to look for to see if I was pregnant.

  What I'd give to be able to ask the dolphins, but I couldn't risk them betraying me to Mother. Being born as the daughter and heir of the most powerful Elder in the Indian Ocean was a curse I wouldn't visit on anyone. Certainly not my daughters. Mother could command the Council until she died, and leave her position to Duyong's daughter, Wulan. Only water knew why Mother had fixated on me instead of Duyong's chosen successor.

  William stirred beside me and I held my breath, hoping, though I knew I shouldn't.

  Warm lips pressed against mine. "I love you, lass. I'll see you aboard the Islander tonight. And see that your nightdress stays in your trunk." I gasped as his mouth dropped to my breast, but the tingling kiss to my nipple was over far too soon. Timber creaked and William levered himself out of bed. Within a few minutes, he was gone.

  I snorted in the pre-dawn light. My nightdress hadn't left my trunk since I arrived on the island and it could stay there and rot for all I cared. I wanted nothing between William and I tonight.

  Eight

  Anne watched as I carefully prodded the white ball, which rolled smoothly across the felt to the black one. A soft click marked the transfer of momentum from one ball to the other and the black glided into the side pocket. Her shoulders slumped in defeat. "All right, you win. Third game in a row. It's as though you've enchanted the balls. They do everything you want them to and gang up on me." She set her billiard cue in the rack.

  Even I laughed at that. I could enchant every living creature on land or sea with a song, but these pieces of ivory were beyond my influence. Just like in tennis, it was a matter of angles and force and skill, carefully calculated and acted upon. "Perhaps you should use the time I'm away to practice, so you can beat me on my return," I said lightly.

  "I might just do that," she returned, glancing up at the clock. "I suppose I should see you safely on your ship before I take the long, lonely walk home. Perhaps I should pop in and take tea at the White House, for the ladies there will be my only source of female company."

  She was taunting me, I knew, for I'd done precisely that one afternoon when Anne had turned up her nose at a Cocos-style confection Cook had made for me with coconut and rice. The prostitutes worked late into the night, but until the coolies finished work for the day, they were free to amuse themselves. And when I'd turned up with a tureen full of Cook's cold, sweet treat to share, I'd discovered that a couple of them spoke passable English...and that they could tell me things about pleasing men that weren't written in any book – no, not even the Kama Sutra.

  I couldn't imagine Anne and her husband engaged in any pleasurable bedroom activity – I still remembered the day we met, when she'd described sex as the relief of a man's needs, which took only a few minutes. I'd had a few minutes this morning, and it wasn't anywhere near enough. My anticipation had been building all day for tonight. No, for weeks.

  "Did they give you some advice for your honeymoon? Is that why you did it?" Anne asked, as if she'd guessed my thoughts.

  I'd done it because I knew they'd enjoy Cook's creation as much as I did, but Anne wouldn't understand that. "They did offer advice," I said cautiously, feeling my cheeks heat up.

  She smiled knowingly. "Then I had best get you aboard your ship. You might want to take an afternoon lie-down, because a husband expects a lot of his wife on their honeymoon."

  "Honeymoon?"
It was the second time she'd used the unfamiliar word. "I'm sorry, I don't understand."

  "Ah, I'm sure Mr McGregor will explain to you what one does on a honeymoon. It's customary for a couple who are just married to take some time together to grow used to one another. Very...closely." Her cheeks turned a faint shade of pink.

  It was on the tip of my tongue to tell her that I knew William quite well already, so we'd be using the trip to have sex as frequently as possible, but I contented myself with a smile instead.

  As we left the Club, I heard men's voices floating out of the window. Captain Hughes, the District Officer and the pilot, I thought, quickening my steps. The last time I'd met Captain Hughes, he'd told me there was no passage available on his ship, but I'd stowed away anyway. William knew what I'd done, but Captain Hughes did not. Everyone on the island believed I'd arrived on the Islander and the captain had no memory of carrying me as a passenger, so I hoped to be well away from the island before my story came apart. Away, and with William to defend me.

  Anne accompanied me aboard without hesitation, giving me a guided tour of the vessel as if she'd forgotten that I'd travelled on it before. A quick search of the cabins revealed William's and my trunks were already stowed in a well-appointed double cabin that had been crammed with supplies on my last trip.

  I wouldn't be sleeping with rats this time.

  Anne ran her hand over the corner table, then the tops of the two cane chairs arranged around it. "I wish I was going with you. But with Alan going to school in Scotland next year, I don't want to miss any more time with him. Children grow up so fast..." She sighed, then smiled. "I'm sure you'll find that out soon enough. If Mr McGregor wants children, he'd best make himself useful during your honeymoon. You'd best remember, too, that the only way you'll get children is if you...if he..." Anne's discomfiture told me she was never going to finish her sentence.