Have a go

THE next three days were mostly peaceful.

Both Jake Frost and Murad had gone back to Brisbane and the household relaxed a little.

Irene and Nicky explored the islands with Nemo, they swam, they walked to the nearest shopping village of Paradise Point with its pleasant beach and they fished off the jetty.

The pool area of the Tuscan villa was especially beautiful. Enclosed in a walled garden, the pool was surrounded by thick emerald lawn and the walls were smothered in a variety of creepers; honeysuckle and jasmine scented the air and the starry little flowers of port-wine magnolia studded the dark green of its foliage. There were beds of creamy-white gardenias and glossy-leaved camellia bushes.

In one corner sat a quaint gazebo with a cupola roof. It looked faintly oriental or, Irene thought, like someone’s ‘folly’, but Nicky loved it. He had a toy gun and it gave him a lot of pleasure to clamber around the gazebo or hide under its benches or behind its lattice screens and ambush imag