Tears of the Moon (58 page)

‘We’ll take Maya and Georgie too,’ added Olivia hastily. ‘Oh, yes, we’d all like that.’

On the morning they planned to sail, Yusef ran down to the little jetty where Tyndall was helping stow Olivia and the gear. Yusef had been delegated to get Maya and Georgie to the boat after breakfast but arrived with bad news.

‘Georgie little bit tummy sick and hot. They no go. Maya say she stay and look out for her. You go. She say to tell you that Georgie not big sick.’

Olivia wanted to return home and stay ashore, but once they had seen Maya and were reassured that Georgie was only mildly ill, Tyndall insisted they go ahead with the trip.

‘All this preparation. And you were so looking forward to it, Olivia. And it will be useful. If we find the right place, we could think about leasing land.’

She reluctantly agreed, concerned at being thrown together with Tyndall and knowing how confusing her emotions had been since she arrived in Broome.

But once they were clear of the bay and heading up the coast in the schooner, Mist, which Tyndall had bought to replace the shipwrecked
Shamrock
, all of her reservations fell away. She found the pleasure of being at sea overwhelming. It was as if she was sailing away from her troubles.

‘Where are your sailing pyjamas?’ asked Tyndall with a cheeky grin.

‘Threw them overboard years ago,’ she laughed. ‘Won’t this do?’ She indicated the new shorter length cotton skirt, the long loose top with a sailor collar, and plimsolls. A long braid of hair fell from under her hat over one shoulder and Tyndall thought she looked as youthful as the day he’d first met her.

‘I guess you pass muster,’ he said nonchalantly.

Two days later they found an inlet that opened into a small deepwater bay with a rocky shore and a flat scrubby area suitable for a work base.

Tyndall and Olivia rowed about the bay and wandered through the scrubland, finding a small freshwater creek that had meandered down from the hills that protected the bay.

‘It’s very remote and private. Could be a smugglers’ cove,’ said Olivia.

‘If we set up an experimental pearl farm up here, I doubt anyone would know,’ said Tyndall. ‘It’s certainly worth an experiment. Our golden-lip pearl shells are much bigger than the Japanese Akoya pearl shell. Our waters are warmer too, so I reckon if we can seed our pearl shell they’ll grow pearls that are bigger, fatter and faster,’ declared a buoyant Tyndall.

‘And they’re still real pearls?’

‘Of course. We’re tricking the oyster into making a pearl. It’s just trying to get rid of an irritant, same as it would in the ocean.’

‘You make it sound easy.’

‘I know it’s not. Mikimoto and others have battled for years and still haven’t perfected it. Not to say we can’t have a go, too.’ He grinned at her, and she shook her head, amused at his boyish enthusiasm.

The sun was hot and the bay looked inviting. Several of the crew had already dived off the schooner into the clear warm water.

‘Want to swim?’ asked Tyndall.

‘What will the crew think? Though I do have my bathing costume.’ Olivia lifted her string dillybag.

‘You think of everything. Well, I don’t own one of those new fangled suits.’

Olivia disappeared into the scrub to change and Tyndall stripped off to his underwear and dived in.

They splashed and tried to dive to the bottom, though Olivia was not much of a swimmer. Treading water and floating they chatted about trying to find someone in Japan with pearl-seeding experience to come and work with them.

‘This is the way to do business, eh?’ chuckled Tyndall. ‘I seem to remember we used to do this quite a bit. But without bathers.’

‘Things are different now,’ said Olivia, her ebullience fading.

‘Are they? Really?’

She didn’t answer for a second then, not looking at him, said quietly, ‘John, please … don’t.’

‘Don’t what, Olivia? Don’t say what we both know?’

‘This isn’t fair. Not here, please … don’t.’

‘Because you can’t run away from it here. Olivia, it’s just you and me. Tell me you’ve never stopped loving me. I know you haven’t.’

Olivia sank beneath the water to avoid his words. She popped up a few seconds later and began splashing towards the shore. Tyndall was beside her in several easy strokes.

Persistently, he continued, ‘Tell me you don’t love me, Olivia. Look at me and tell me and I won’t pester you any more.’

Her toes scraped the rocky bottom and she spun around to glare at him. ‘I don’t … I don’t … ’ She looked away, angry and confused, and stumbled out of the shallows, falling to her knees. Tyndall reached out and gathered her in his arms, and fell back on the water’s edge.

‘Ouch,’ he said as his head struck the rough sand, but he didn’t relinquish his hold on Olivia. Holding her on top of him, their faces almost touching, he gave her a small grin. ‘You can’t say it, can you, Olivia?’

‘I fell over,’ she said weakly.

‘There’s nowhere left to run, my darling.’ Gently he drew her face down to his and, oblivious to the water lapping over their bodies, the rocks scattered through the sand under them, their lips, hearts and bodies came together as one, as if they’d never been two separate beings with all the differences that had kept them apart for so long.

The following day, swept up by love, enthusiasm and
joie de vivre
Tyndall decided they should dive together. The schooner was fitted with two new motorised pumps and divers’ suits.

‘All right, why not!’ answered Olivia, responding to the challenge.

As they were about to lock on the helmet Tyndall gave her a quick kiss. ‘Don’t be nervous, I’ll be right beside you.’

She did find her heart beating quickly and the rush of air told her she was breathing heavily from nervous tension. But once settled on the bottom, her air pressure adjusted and with the comforting bulk of Tyndall beside her, she relaxed. He held out a gloved hand and, matching the pace of their footsteps, they set off together.

The magic of the strange world of underwater cast its spell over Olivia once more. The mysterious beauty of the underwater growths, the landscape of reef formations, the oblivious darting quest of coloured fish, the activities of shellfish and coral was like looking from space at a miniature planet. They kept pointing things out to each other, exchanging delighted smiles through the glass panels of their helmets. Olivia had the strange sensation that this was the beginning of time, that for she and Tyndall this love of theirs was being born and they were not only connected to the umbilical cord of the real world above them by their air hoses, but they were somehow connected by an invisible glue like the water that surrounded them. Beneath the sea was a world of its own, an escape to a world of different creation where one could leave the everyday human
world behind. Tyndall had always understood the lure of underwater for certain kinds of men. Men who could cope with the solitary, intensely personal self-sufficiency required for the loneliness of underwater work. Fear and claustrophobia affected many who could not take the long hours alone on the seabed.

A large brightly coloured fish with rainbow eyes touched Olivia’s helmet, peering in curiously at her, making her smile. Then Tyndall took her hand, put his fingers to his helmet indicating she should be still. A shadow changed the colour of the water and Tyndall pointed slowly upwards. Passing above them were two devil rays, each almost a ton in weight and close to twenty feet across. They lazed and swayed their bat-like black wings as if balletically choreographed. The flash of white belly, a glimpse of horny mandibles, the trailing whip and razor-sharp tail and they were gone. Tyndall knew the horrors and tales of devil ray attacks where divers were swept up in their powerful wings, lines severed by the tail, the gnashing of a giant mouth. They could breach close to a lugger, landing like a thunderclap when hunting fish and in a pack were a powerful enemy. But to Olivia they were a fascinating sight, just one of many that made her lose track of time. They watched an octopus stalk and devour a shellfish, squirting a cloud of ink as it scuttled away after a kick from Tyndall’s boot. They trudged through clouds of weeds whose blades all faced the direction of the tide, and other small plantations of weird sea plants.

When Tyndall indicated they should rise, she was reluctant, but they gently rose in tandem on opposite
sides of the boat. Olivia broke the surface and was helped up the ladder. As her helmet was unscrewed and she took her first gasp of fresh air, Olivia felt a strange depression. Which was the real world? Down there, she and Tyndall were safe, together and unobserved. Now reality hit her and she sat quietly on the deck sipping tea as Tyndall changed and regaled the crew with devil fish stories.

When, two days later, they returned to Broome, the time beneath the sea, Olivia’s time with Tyndall, seemed a dream. She was prepared to pretend nothing had happened; that the rekindling of their passion was a lapse under bewitching circumstances. However, in the privacy of Olivia’s house they shared sunset drinks and fell into each other’s arms. She was helpless in the face of this overwhelming love and passion. Her devoted but pedestrian relationship with Gilbert was pushed to the recesses of her mind. Tyndall dominated, swallowed her up, and swept her away.

They talked of the cultured pearl farm experiment, of Maya working in the company, Georgie starting school, travelling to Europe to investigate further sales potential for mother-of-pearl.

‘You know they started using it for compass faces in the war. It doesn’t have to be just for buttons,’ said Tyndall.

‘Do you really think plastic will take over completely?’

‘We’re going through a bad patch. Things will get better, you’ll see. Broome isn’t bust yet.’ Tyndall leaned over and tweaked her nose and gave her a quick kiss.

How different Tyndall and Gilbert were, Olivia thought. Gilbert was always very balanced, objective, quietly consultative and, in his own way, loving. While she was devoted to their work, Olivia realised how much she’d missed the thrill of pearling. The dangers, the unpredictability, the characters, the challenges, the wild and almost intoxicating lifestyle of the north-west coast. No wonder it attracted the people it did. People like Tyndall.

Weighing up the attitudes and lifestyle of Tyndall and Gilbert was like looking at chalk and cheese. And yet both had good qualities as well as less appealing ones. Subconsciously, Olivia was allocating points for and against both of them. Tyndall certainly had flaws and Gilbert’s faults were less irritating, but there was simply no contest if she was honest. Tyndall’s physical and emotional pull was magnetic. He was the love of her life and she paradoxically cursed him for it.

Walking along the foreshore after the men had left the camp, Tyndall took Olivia’s hand and said simply, ‘So. What are we going to do?’

‘I don’t know,’ she said miserably.

‘I do. We have to stay together … it’s meant to be. You will have to tell him. You can’t live a lie.’

‘Gilbert has been so good to me … ’

‘Olivia, my dearest love … if he’s the decent man you say he is, all he would want is your happiness.’

She didn’t answer, knowing this was true.

Tyndall took her in his arms and said quietly, ‘Olivia, go and talk to him, then pack up and come back. Come home, my darling.’

With Tyndall’s strong arms about her, it all seemed so easy.

Tyndall tipped back her face and looked into her eyes. ‘Olivia, I’ve said it before, we only get one chance at happiness, and you know I’m right. You might try to cover it up, but you wear your heart on your sleeve. I suspect Gilbert has always known you love me, that there was always a chance you would come back to me. Listen to your heart.’

With this, all resistance melted away.

In the dusky mellow twilight Maya held on to Olivia as they said goodbye on the deck of the old steamer. ‘Dear Olivia, come back soon. I know it will be hard, but you only find a great love once in your life … ’

Olivia smiled softly into the young woman’s hair. ‘And only if you’re lucky. You had it once, I pray you will again, dear girl.’

Maya lifted her tear streaked face. ‘Olivia, all that matters to me now is that I’ve found my family, thanks to you. I’ve always felt you were special to me, now you’re going to be part of my family too. You and Tyndall belong together … ’