Clothes Maketh The Man — Part 76.

In the days that followed I found myself falling into a routine to break the boredom of this captivity. In other circumstances my situation could have been almost described as idyllic. Sun, beach, sea.

Each morning I would get up and swim in the warm waters of the Gulf Of Mexico. After a light breakfast I would walk up to the airstrip and run up and down the strip half a dozen times. A walk back to the beach house would complete my exercise regime, and would be followed by a shower. Then I would find one of the novels that lined the shelves of our little house.

Annabel seemed quite resigned to the situation, and untroubled by it.

“Mrs. Gravely will sort it out,” she’d say.

She clearly felt the people back at Stoneleigh, the farm, were part of a family that wouldn’t abandon her.

Around mid day Miguel would wander down the beach with one or two supplies for us if things were running short, and just check in on us. He’d replenish the fridge, and comment that there was ‘no news’, but that was the only reference to the fact that we were being held against our will. If we needed anything, from hair conditioner to coffee, he’d retrieve it from his store of supplies.

Miguel had no objections to my exercising the way I did, but made it clear that going further up the…