Kura, one of the Ngati Pono girls, had recently told her that he hadn’t wanted to attend Isla when she was ill because she was Pakeha. It had been an unnecessary thing to say, and Isla hadn’t understood why Kura had been so unkind until Mere explained that Kura wanted to be Tai’s wife. ‘Oh,’ Isla said. ‘Well, she’s welcome tae him.’ Noting the blood that had rushed to Isla’s face, Mere said quickly, ‘Is she? Are you sure?’ And, suddenly, Isla wasn’t. Kura was an attractive girl, with lovely big eyes and a much more lush and curvaceous figure than her own, and, now that Isla thought about it, Kura did seem to spend a lot of time around Tai, giggling and tossing her hair. The realization that Kura might be staking her claim hit Isla with rather an unpleasant jolt, and it occurred to her that, for the first time in her life, she was experiencing jealousy. But Tai had said he wanted to be her lover, hadn’t he? And that led to an even more alarming thought: what if Tai had already been Kura’s lover?
