The Passionate Sinner by Violet Winspear

days are over?’ His hands were holding a mandarin orange and suddenly his fingers tightened and the fruit was squashed and oozing juice over his skin. ‘Damnation!’ He flung the fruit across the veranda rail in the direction of the trees. ‘Each day I tell myself that I won’t let it eat into my brain like a worm, but today, as you see, the worm bit.’
    Merlin watched him as he dragged a handkerchief from his pocket and dried his hands ... how strong those hands ... they could break a woman’s neck if he really let go and lost control of himself.
    ‘I think there’s a wind getting up.’ He raised his voice to a shout. ‘Ramai, will you come here this instant!’
    The boy evidently thought the tuan was impatient for his breakfast, for he arrived with a laden tray and apologies that Paul waved aside. ‘Do I hear and smell a big wind?’ he demanded.
    ‘The palm fronds are restless, tuan.’ Ramai put down the tray and glanced towards the left of the house, where the trees thickened and the jungle began. ‘We will know in an hour or so, if the devil starts drumming in the forest.’
    ‘Typhoon?’ Paul asked, his face raised as if he were testing the wind against his skin.
    ‘Could be, tuan, this time of year.’
    ‘Damnation.’ Paul glanced about him in a sudden lost way. ‘This is when I start feeling like a useless log—still, it might only be the threat of a storm, but go find Lon and tell him to get in radio contact with the mainland. We had better be prepared for the worst.’
    ‘Ja, tuan.’ The boy nodded, as if Paul could see him. ‘Your makanpagi on the table. Mevrouw will pour coffee, eh?’
    ‘Ja, she will see to things. Scatter and find Lon, and if the news is bad, then get down to the village and warn your people. They know what to do better than I, but it will help if we get confirmation by radio in advance.’
    The boy darted down the veranda steps and loped off in search of Lon, who for the past weeks had been assisting with the supervision of the tea valley, Paul’s cousin not being due back for a fortnight. Merlin dreaded his return ... unlike Lon he wasn’t an Indonesian who rather liked intrigue; nor was he Ramai, a boy who could be talked into playing a game of makebelieve. Paul’s cousin was Dutch like himself and he’d want to know all about her, or as much as she liked to tell him, and if anyone was going to let out to Paul that she was a girl in her twenties and not a woman in her forties, then the cousin was the most likely candidate.
    ‘Come, let us have breakfast,’ Paul said, and he gestured in the general direction of the table. ‘I hope we haven’t unnerved you with our talk about a typhoon? You mustn’t worry. This house is built to withstand a strong blow and the houseboys will bring back their families here, or take them down to the valley.’
    ‘I should think it would be safer, mynheer.’ She lifted the coffee pot and poured for both of them, adding sugar to his cup and just a dash of thick cream. She placed the cup exactly where he could reach it without knocking it over, and felt an inward tightening of her nerves as she heard for herself the restless fluttering of the palm and casuarina leaves. She had learned since coming here that those trees were invariably planted in pairs as they represented the male and female principle, the palm towering and strong, the casuarina graceful and somehow compliant in its aspect.
    ‘Ja, the valley is safe, mevrouw, if this should be only a big wind, but if the sea should throw a tidal wave then it isn’t so good. We stay here at the house. Do you mind?’
    ‘I do whatever you think is best, mynheer.’ She served him with the delicious coconut jelly, after which there were fried oysters and rice balls. ‘It will be a new experience for me to see a typhoon.’
    ‘It is more to the point to say that you will hear it, mevrouw. At its height the big wind sounds like an express train rushing through a tunnel, a long,