Chu. We didn’t know who was really leading the Congs in this area. And Paio never trusted me enough to reveal his identity to me.”
“Don’t talk too much,” Durell said. “Save your strength. We have along flight ahead of us.”
He went out in the corridor and found Anna-Marie seated in a chair in the hospital anteroom. She looked small and patient, like a child, with her hair in twin braids, her hands folded in her lap. The sisters had given her a simple blue frock that made her blue eyes seem even more luminous than before. She jumped up as Durell appeared.
“How is he, Sam?”
“Not too well.”
“Oh!”
“He misses you. He loves you. He wants you with him”
“But they won’t let me —”
“Go on in. I’ll take care of it.”
She started instantly for the door, then checked and looked back at him. In that moment, the Way she smiled and her eyes shone, he knew she was not a little girl at all, but a woman desperately in love.
“Thank you, Sam,” she whispered.
“I’ll see what I can do about arranging passage tickets and an entry permit to the States with him.”
She looked as if she were going to kiss him. Then she thought better of it and went quickly into Lantern’s room. In her haste, she left the door open.
Durell closed it quietly.
Afterward, there had been a long discussion with the Thai military commander in Giap Pnom, and by nightfall of that first day, there was the thunder of Thai Air Force jets coming down the coast of the southern provinces and then swinging upriver to the Cong Hai fortress areas deep in the jungle. They came and went all the next day, while Durell did the paperwork to Wind up the assignment. Now it was dusk, and he heard still another strike pass overhead. He sighed and shoved himself deeper into the cooling water of his tub.
There was a knock on the door and he called to the Thai bellhop to come in with his bucket of hot water.
Deirdre entered, instead.
She looked different. From somewhere she had obtained a white linen dress that clung with expert lovingness to the fine, proud lines of her body. She wore her hair like a crown of raven glory above her head and slender throat. A touch of her familiar perfume reached him as he submerged into the tub again. He said nothing as she paused in the doorway. He thought he had never seen a woman more beautiful or desirable.
“Yo, Sam,” she said quietly.
“You’ve been to see Orris Lantern.”
“Yes. And now I’m here. Do you mind?”
“Foolish question. You’re being very feminine.”
“Why not? Who knows me better than you?”
Durell’s face was burned dark by the jungle sun. His black hair, touched with gray at the temples, was disheveled. There were many old scars on his chest and shoulders. Deirdre regarded them with tenderness.
“Do you forgive me, Sam?”
“Nothing to forgive.”
“I gave you a bad time.”
“No worse than other partners have given me.”
“I didn’t mean that, although that’s some of it. I know I was an extra burden to you. Unfortunately, I guess I have too much pride for a woman —”
“How well I know it.”
“—and I wanted to prove that I could be useful in the business. Didn’t I do well?”
“You got Colonel Paio’s charts. I doubt if I could have made it myself.”
She smiled with pleasure and leaned back against the pale orange tiles of the bathroom. Her gray eyes studied him. “That’s a high accolade, coming from you, Sam.”
“I meant it.”
“But what I’m really sorry about is that I went so feminine on you before we even got to Dong Xo. Practically before we left Washington. Sam, darling, I was so awfully stupid. I never even let you kiss me.”
“We can make up for that.”
“I want to,” Deirdre said. “Right now.”
Durell sighed and felt his tensions ease out of him, to be replaced by a familiar impetus to let her know how much he loved her. He checked her next words with a gesture, recognizing the softness of her mouth, the quickening of her breath, the soft shine in her eyes.
“What did you do with the bellhop and my hot water?” he asked casually.
“The pail is outside,” she said quietly. “But I do wish, darling, that you’d get out of that tub. I don't think you’ll need it now.”
He did as she suggested.
It was like coming home again.
Assignment - Cong Hai Kill Page 18