Merger By Matrimony by Cathy Williams Read Free Book Online Page A

snake-like river coiling its way lazily into the heart of the jungle. At certain times during the day she could smell the fragrance of food being cooked. Sometimes, when she closed her eyes, she could almost seem to detect the smells of the sky and the clouds and the stillness.
    Here, she felt stuffy. Pollution, of course. Not as severe as she had seen in Mexico years ago, where the pollution bordered on contamination, but there nevertheless, unseen but ever-present.
    â€˜Thank you for what?’ she asked innocently, playing him at his own game, and his mouth turned down darkly at the corners.
    â€˜You know what for,’ he accused, looking away briefly from the empty road to glare at her. ‘I’d hoped Stephaniehad forgotten all about that damned dinner party. Now I’m going to have to go and spend at least three agonising hours being bored to death by Rupert and his cronies.’
    â€˜Oh, dear,’ she said unsympathetically, which provoked another blistering look.
    â€˜Where,’ he asked, ‘did you get that?’
    â€˜Get what?’ Her voice was genuinely surprised.
    â€˜Your sarcasm. I always thought that missionaries were supposed to be glucose-sweet.’
    Destiny bristled. ‘I am not a missionary, actually. If you’d done your homework properly, you might have discovered why we’re on a compound in the heart of Panama, and it has nothing to do with converting anyone to any kind of religion. We’re there to help educate people in desperate need of education, and I’m not really talking about reading, writing and arithmetic.’
    â€˜What, then?’ He could feel himself reluctantly being drawn in, like a fish on the end of a line, curious to find out details of the background that had produced the creature sitting next to him. It felt peculiar to find himself hanging on to a woman’s conversation when normally he was the one playing the conversational game, digging into his reserves of wit and charm without even realising it. He wasn’t sure whether he liked it or not. He felt himself relax his foot on the accelerator so that the car meandered along.
    â€˜We teach them how to use the land they have to maximise their crops—how to be self-sufficient, in other words. We help them with distributing crafts. Some of them make things for the tourist market in the city. And naturally we teach them the usual stuff.’
    â€˜We?’
    â€˜Yes. All of us. We work together. I’m a qualified doctor, but I’m also responsible for the formal classes.Of course, we have specialists on the compound as well. Not just the children need education; so do the adults. How to use their resources to their best advantage, how to rotate certain crops so that the land is never unused. How to take advantage of the rains when they come. Our agricultural expert is responsible for that side of things, but we all chip in.’
    â€˜Like one big happy family.’
    Destiny narrowed her eyes on him, but she couldn’t read his expression and his voice was mild.
    â€˜Something like that.’
    â€˜Cosy.’
    â€˜Yes, it is. Why are you driving so slowly? I want to get back.’
    Callum pressed his foot marginally harder on the accelerator and muttered something inconsequential about speed limits, fines and points on a driving licence.
    â€˜What points?’
    â€˜Never mind. It doesn’t matter.’ He felt his jaw begin to ache and realised that he was clenching his teeth. ‘So what do you do on those long, balmy evenings, anyway? On your compound?’
    â€˜ Long, balmy evenings? It’s not a seaside resort.’
    â€˜No, of course not.’ Clenching again. He relaxed his jaw muscles and realised, with a twinge of disappointment, that her house was now within view. The guard barely glanced at them. He just waved them through and he pulled up very slowly in front of her house.
    â€˜Thank you very much,’ Destiny