Hazel caught her attention, waving toward the receding shores. “Beautiful country—marvelous!” she exclaimed, above the noise of the motor.
“You’ll love it here.” Kitty told her. “I’ll take you boat riding, even if we have to row to save gas. You must see these intriguing marshes, and the beautiful shore lines with the wonderful live oaks draped in Spanish moss.”
“This is my first trip south, in my own country,” Hazel told her.
Palmetto Island now came into view with its many smokestacks marking the sky line. A fringe of palmettoes farther east was lost in the mists where the inland waterways met the sea. Kitty pointed to the western shore where a large white building stood on the point.
“There’s the Bernard General Hospital,” she said to Hazel. “Our house isn’t far away, and the Marine Base is farther east and south.”
“A lovely spot!”
Kitty thought she caught a wistful note in Hazel’s voice, and her eyes were almost sad as she drank in the beauty of green marshes, the blue sky, and the bluer sea.
On reaching the island docks Kitty phoned her father as they had previously arranged to send down a car. When she came out of the warehouse where she had used the phone, Lieutenant Cary was gone.
“We could have taken him up with us,” she said, embarrassed that she had failed to invite him specifically before she had gone to phone her father.
“He said he had to stop on the way up to see a friend,” Brad explained. “He left his thanks to you for giving him a lift.” Then to Kitty’s amazement Brad added in a low tone through almost closed teeth, “Good riddance, if you ask me!”