Elianne by Judy Nunn

will be sad to leave Efate, and sad to leave you, Pavi, but I will not be sad to leave Papa.’
    ‘And James Durham? The man himself, how do you feel about him?’
    Again she answered truthfully. ‘I have to admit that, despite the rumours, I have always found him to be charming.’
    She is attracted to him, Pavi thought. I can see it in her eyes. She could love this man. ‘Then do not listen to the rumours,’ he said, ‘they may well be hearsay. And even if they are not, James Durham would have been very young in those days and obeying orders from others. Men change with time.’
    She smiled gratefully, feeling somehow absolved of a crime she had not yet committed. ‘I shall miss you so, Pavi.’
    ‘And I you. But we have left our childhood behind, Elianne. It is time to move on.’
    James Durham arrived in Port Vila three weeks later. André picked him up at the docks in a horse and trap and transported him to the plantation. His visits as a rule were of only two or three days’ duration, but this time he planned to stay for a full fortnight while preparations were made for the wedding. It was his intention that these two weeks should serve as an opportunity to become better acquainted with his future wife, and she with him. He had informed the Frenchman that he would not stay in one of the guest rooms at the main house as he usually did, for propriety demanded he should not sleep under the same roof as his fiancée. Instead he would reside at the modest guesthouse a quarter mile away. Upon his further instruction the guesthouse, which was normally reserved for those visitors considered of secondary importance, was to be freshly refurbished as that was where he and his wife would spend their wedding night. James himself would pay for the costs incurred.
    All of these arrangements had been set in place during his trip to Efate a good month previously, when the two men had come to their arrangement. The debt that André Desmarais had accrued over the past two years, a debt which could have crippled him had James chosen to demand immediate payment in full, was to be cancelled upon the marriage agreement.
    ‘Do you think she will accept me?’ James had asked.
    A giant of a man, with a build that matched the six feet four inches of his height and a nature that appeared fearless, James Durham had seemed curiously unsure of himself.
    ‘Hah! Why should you doubt it?’ The Frenchman had scorned the very notion. ‘What woman of sound mind could possibly refuse the life of privilege you offer?’
    ‘But perhaps she would not welcome me as a husband. Perhaps she thinks me too old – I am more than a decade her senior.’
    ‘An excellent age difference in a marriage,’ André had assured him, ‘and you’re wrong, my young friend. She likes you very much.’ Then he’d added suggestively, ‘I’ve seen the twinkle in her eye when she’s in your company, believe me I have.’ André had seen no such thing, but then he hadn’t been looking. James Durham’s offer, welcome and timely as it was, had been completely unexpected. ‘In fact I get the distinct impression that she may be in love with you.’
    James had known the man was lying, but he’d left Efate praying the old rogue would prove right and that Elianne would accept him. He’d been besotted with the girl from the instant he’d met her, a green-eyed beauty of fifteen, blossoming on the threshold of womanhood. He’d vowed then and there to make her his wife, and he’d been quite content to wait until she was of age. The wait had in fact proved convenient. It had allowed him time to steadily embroil her father in debt, which had not been difficult given the Frenchman’s propensity for gambling and his careless ineptitude under the influence of alcohol. James himself could drink any man under the table, not that he ever tried, for he had no wish to best others in such a common pursuit, but many a wager and many a card game had been won taking advantage of