Lilah crawled out of the hut, blinking as the brilliant sunlight hit her eyes. She got to her feet and stood looking around, pushing her hair back from her face. It tumbled free, bleached to an even paler shade by the sun, a thick curtain of silk that reached to her hips. Despite her careful wearing of her petticoat-turned-sunbonnet, she knew her face had to be bloomed with color. The thought of pinkened cheeks was not so bad, but a pinkened nose? Still, Joss did not seem to find any lack in her appearance, and Joss was the one she was concerned about.
Where was he?
"Joss!"
"Over here!"
His voice came from behind the promontory. Lilah made a quick trip into the trees, then picked up her skirt and climbed the hill, stopping at the top to get a drink of water from the puddle and wash her face. There was barely any water left now, and she knew that the day had come when they would have to explore the interior of the island.
Joss was sitting cross-legged in the sand beneath the coconut palms, intent on something he held in his lap.
"What are you doing?"
"Making us both a pair of sandals. See?" He held up an object that had been resting in the sand beside him. Lilah took it, looked at it, and saw that it was really an ingeniously made sole woven of supple vines around a bent twig frame with more vines attached to secure it to the foot.
"I'm all admiration," she said, handing it back.
"Come here. I want to try these on you to see if they work."
Lilah obediently stepped closer, and he picked her foot up by the ankle and guided it into the sandal, carefully adjusting the restraining vines. Then he did the same to her other foot. His hand was warm on her ankle and foot, his touch gentle. Lifting her skirt the few inches necessary for him to work, looking down at his black head bent over her bare foot, Lilah marveled at how natural such intimacy with him seemed. She had known him only a scant two months, but she felt as if she had known him all her life.
"Well? What do you think?"
He looked up as he secured the second sandal, proud of his handiwork. Lilah smiled down at him with warm amusement. His eyes narrowed, and he abruptly dropped her ankle and stood up.
"They're wonderful," Lilah said, moving her feet up and down experimentally.
"Mmmm." He was already pulling on his own pair and wasn't looking at her. Lilah smiled to herself. Clearly, he was still determined to be a gentleman, in accord with what he thought were her wishes. But just touching her ankle made him uncomfortable.
"We're going exploring today. At least, I am. You don't have to come if you'd rather not." His words were abrupt.
Lilah made a face at him. "You're not leaving me behind!"
He grinned, relaxing, and the familiar flash of white teeth dazzled her. "I didn't think so. Come on, then, let's go."
Making their way through the forest proved harder going than Lilah had expected. The trees grew so closely together that the branches intertwined overhead, shrouding the interior of the island in an eery green glow. Beneath her feet were centuries of debris fallen from the trees, degenerated over time into a spongy mulch. Small twisted trees bursting with huge flowers ranging in shade from milky white to deep crimson sprang up everywhere, their pungent scent spicy as it filled the air. Vines twisted across the bushes like fat snakes. Monkeys, disturbed by their presence, chattered as they fled before the human intruders. Brilliantly colored parrots flew into the air with loud squawks. An orange spider the size of Joss's hand ignored them, busy weaving a huge and intricate web between the branches of two trees. Seeing it, Lilah shuddered and shrank closer to Joss's side. He instinctively took her hand and she clung gratefully to his warm fingers, trying not to imagine what other creatures might be lurking out of her sight. Snakes were her biggest fear, but the only one they saw was a small green one that slithered harmlessly away as they approached.
The island was actually the tip of an undersea mountain thrusting through the surface of the ocean, and for that reason their walk was uphill. The air seemed to get thicker and steamier the farther they went. At last they came across a small stream trickling over a bed of black rock. Joss grinned at Lilah triumphantly.
"Ahah!" he said, and dropped her hand as he moved toward the stream.
Joss bent down to scoop up the water for a sample taste. As soon as he touched the surface of the creek an odd look came over his face and he drew his hand back, sniffing at his fingers and then cautiously tasting the dampness on them.
"What's wrong?"
From the expression on his face he didn't quite believe what his senses were telling him.
"It's hot! The water's hot!"
"Hot!" Lilah moved forward to stand beside him, then knelt beside the stream to gingerly touch the water. It was indeed hot, about the temperature of a bath she might have had Betsy prepare for her at home. All of a sudden she understood the reason for the odd bubbling noise that had been niggling at her consciousness since they had stopped.
"Come on." Lilah stood up and caught his hand.
"But…" He resisted, looking as if he might be inclined to argue, so she gave an insistent tug. He capitulated then and allowed her to lead him along the trail formed by the black rock, following the trickle upstream.
"Where are we going?"
"You'll see."
In a few minutes they found what she'd been seeking. Lilah saw it first, saw the steam rising from behind a veil of flowering mimosa vines starred with delicate mauve blossoms. Pulling the vines aside, she gestured for him to look.
There, in a crater carved out of the black rock, bubbled a small lake. The water frothed and foamed, obviously fed by a powerful underground spring. From the steamy miasma that hung about it, and the abundance of lush green flora that grew around it, it was clear that the water in the lake was as hot as that in the stream.
"What the devil…?" Joss asked, staring.
Lilah looked over her shoulder at him, smiling at his evident astonishment. "On Barbados we call it a firewater pool. This island must be the tip of a volcano, and the spring is heated by the molten rock deep underground. Most of these islands have them, I would imagine. The water's perfectly good, you know. We can drink it. It's just hot."
She pushed the curtain of vines aside, and stepped out onto the moss-covered rock surrounding the pool. Joss followed her, looking doubtfully at the water.
"If you want to swim, this is the place," she told him. "A firewater pool is like a giant natural bath. Betsy and I used to play around in one near Heart's Ease all the time when we were children. We were strictly forbidden to, of course, but we did all the same."
"One more barbaric custom?" he said with a crooked grin.
Lilah laughed. "If you must put it that way, yes. Would you mind turning your back?"
"What? Why?"
"Because I'm going to have a bath, that's why. This will be the first hot bath I've had in a month, and I wouldn't miss it for the world."
"You're joking." He regarded her, narrow-eyed.
Lilah lifted her eyebrows at him. "No, I'm not. Why should I be?"
"You actually mean to take off your clothes so that you can take a bath in this-cauldron? Here and now?"
"Yes, I do. Now would you please turn around?"