Antigua Kiss by Anne Weale Page B

length of its width, stitched half way along to a backing and then folded double.
    'These are a development of the rag rugs which the island seamstresses used to make from the scraps left over from dresses,'
    Bettina explained. 'I think they're nicer than most of the straw bags on sale. They're nearly all spoilt by having Antigua worked on them. Not chic!'—with a slight grimace.
    'And your jewellery—that's very unusual,' remarked Christie, glad to have hit the other girl's wavelength.
    'Have you never seen sand dollars before?' Bettina's fingertips went to the thin gilded discs attached to a chain round her neck, and matched by smaller disc ear-rings. 'In their natural state they're white shells, extremely brittle. These have been gold- plated. You'll find them on sale in most Caribbean resorts, and in New York too. I'm surprised you haven't seen them in London.'
    'I don't live in central London so I don't very often go to the top fashion stores. Hardly ever, in fact,' Christie explained.
    'Really?' Bettina looked astonished, as if she couldn't imagine anyone living in the purlieus of a city, far from the best stores and boutiques.
    'You must take some back with you. They're not expensive. Would you like to come and look round the shop? It's a quiet time now, after lunch.'
    They accompanied her back to her shop which was small but artistically arranged with a glass- topped counter in the centre to contain the more valuable pieces of costume jewellery, and rails and shelves round the walls for the dresses and accessories.

    'No word from Ash yet, I'm afraid,' said Bettina, as she changed the sign on the door from Closed to Open, 'I thought he might call me last night, but he must have been too busy.'
    Christie didn't like to say that he had rung her, in case Bettina might be piqued. With a murmured injunction to John not to touch, she had a look round, seeing many things she would have liked to add to her own very basic holiday wardrobe.
    However, she knew it would be foolish to buy anything which had no place in her real life, and few of these attractive resort clothes were really suitable for England, even in a heatwave.
    They were designed for people who could afford several holidays a year in places where the sun shone every day and the nights were warm and balmy. But when, once this trip was over, would she ever have the chance to wear an ankle-length emerald gauze beach wrap, or a backless black and white evening dress?
    'You have marvellous taste, Bettina, but I'm afraid I'm not going to be the kind of customer for whom you were hurrying back yesterday,'
    she said frankly. 'Did she come in as you expected?'
    'Yes, but only to bring back a skirt she had chosen the day before and then decided she didn't like. They're tiresome old bitches, a lot of the women who stay here, and whatever they wear doesn't make them look any less haggish.'
    Christie glanced up from bending over the jewellery counter to see Bettina studying her own reflection in the full length mirror.
    'You'd look wonderful, whatever you wore,' she said sincerely.
    The other girl shrugged. 'Perhaps, but it's maddening to sell super clothes to people who look nothing in them. Oh, here she comes now.
    You'd better go.'

    As a stout older woman entered the shop, and John and Christie left it, she heard Bettina say sweetly, 'Hello, how are you today? Did you have a good time at the Casino last night?'
    Not a happy person, Bettina, Christie thought as they strolled back to the cottage. I do hope she isn't Ash's girl-friend. She wouldn't be kind to John. He would be a nuisance in her eyes.

    * * *
    On the fourth morning after their arrival, when Christie took off her nightie before going for her early dip, there was a perceptible difference between the flesh covered by her bathing suit and the rest of her. At last, if only very slightly, she was beginning to brown.
    Whereas one or two recent arrivals who had tried to hasten the process had only succeeded in