The Secret Path by Karen Swan (summer beach reads TXT) 📕

She stewed as she watched him head back up the steps again, still moving with that same languid lope, that easy SoCal manner. She felt furious, resentful. And guilty – because as much as he was the last person she had ever wanted to see again in this life, anywhere on this planet, as much as she detested him . . . she still couldn’t put that above a sick child who needed her help.

His hand was on the door handle now, ready to get her off this mountain and back in time for dinner. Was she really going to allow her personal feelings to colour her professional actions? She well knew that in this medical instance, to do nothing would be to do harm.

She sighed and shut her eyes, feeling the resentment burn. No. No. No.

‘. . . Alex, wait.’

Chapter Nineteen

Tara looked down from the microlight, her stomach feeling liquid at the sight of the jungle right below her feet. Giant, sprawling trees which from the ground blocked out the very sun, here looked like nothing more than broccoli florets. It was like travelling by bubble and felt no more secure, but Alex, sitting immediately in front of her, handled the controls with relaxed skill. Irritatingly, it made her feel safe. She wondered how many times he had flown one of these machines. Apparently, he had told her as they’d climbed in, it was the most efficient method for crossing the national park when the dense tree cover meant even helicopters couldn’t land. It would take half a day off their trek, enabling them to land in a spot only thirty miles from where they were trying to get to; she supposed that had to be considered a blessing – so long as they weren’t killed en route first. At a certain point, after they crossed the river, he told her, the jungle became a cloud forest, and there would be no hope of landing even a drone there; they would have to walk the rest of the way on foot. But half a day saved was half a day saved. She was grateful for whatever shortcuts they could find.

She looked down and as the minutes ticked past, began to relax. It was beautiful up here; the wind on her face stripped away the humidity momentarily, the mist of cascading waterfalls billowed above the trees, brightly coloured birds flew below and alongside them. She watched their own dramatic shadow glide silently over the ever-twitching, ever-shrieking jungle; her gaze traced the silhouetted peaks and folds of the land, saw how it pillowed up and sank again. Somewhere in her mind, a small voice pointed out that this was all hers – or technically, her family’s. They owned everything the eye could see. It was a dizzying thought. Fantastic, overwhelming, visionary.

She wondered vaguely whether Alex thought the same thing when he surveyed it like this too; he had to be proud of the achievement, surely? It had been his dazzlingly simple, revolutionary idea, after all – convince a billionaire to invest his fortune in one global problem. Protect one of the planet’s most fragile ecosystems by buying half a country! Why not!

She admired the concept itself. Philanthropy was big business, not just big charity, and there were always far too many egos and agendas, too many pies, too many middlemen. Her father had explained his reasoning for going with Alex’s pitch many times over the years, and she always nodded and smiled and agreed that it was a great idea. She had let him assume she had set up the introduction because she believed in the concept; that she hadn’t seen Alex since that night and their ‘friendship’ had suddenly dissolved simply because her part had been played, that that was why she hadn’t even bothered to be around for Alex’s pitch that weekend.

But she knew he – and certainly her mother – had suspicions too, wondering whether there was a connection between this legacy project and their daughter’s abrupt withdrawal from them. Her father despaired that she hadn’t been back to Costa Rica since, always citing weight of studies and work. He had no idea she had only agreed to come out here for the handover, ten years later, as a show of support for him, because she loved that he had done this and she loved him. That love was the only thing to outweigh the dread of seeing Alex at the ceremony and she had been careful to make sure she would have Holly and Dev and Rory by her side – not to mention Miles, who would deck him if Alex so much as looked in her direction. She didn’t like to think how her brother would react to the sight of her sitting half a metre from Alex in a plastic bubble in the sky.

He pointed out the vague direction of Alto Uren and where they would be trekking. It looked much the same as all the rest of the park – a long way down, steep, lots of trees – and she wondered how exactly they were supposed to find this one special plant. She also wondered why, if Alto Uren was over there, they were now travelling in the other direction?

Further and further away they flew, finally coming to land in an area with enough clearance. It was a bumpy stop, and she had to suppress a small cry of fright as they rolled along the ground on their small wheels – more like bike stabilizers than aircraft equipment – only just stopping in the shadow of a large boulder.

Alex unbuckled his harness and jumped out, offering her his hand; but she ignored it and got herself out. She was an adult like that. She could do things on her own.

She looked at their equipment, now packed in two large rucksacks. They had had something of an upgrade from the first leg. Holly’s enthusiastic Girl Guide packed lunch efforts had been replaced by something far more Bear