by Ken Follett
She left the drawing room and went upstairs. There seemed to be three or four bedrooms on the second floor, with a narrow staircase leading up to a third floor where, presumably, Gaafar slept. One of the bedroom doors was open, and she went in.
It did not look much like a small boy's bedroom. Elene did not know a lot about small boys--she had had four sisters--but she was expecting to see model airplanes, jigsaw puzzles, a train set, sports gear and perhaps an old, neglected teddy bear. She would not have been surprised to see clothes on the floor, a construction set on the bed and a pair of dirty football boots on the polished surface of a desk. But the place might almost have been the bedroom of an adult. The clothes were folded neatly on a chair, the top of the chest of drawers was clear, schoolbooks were stacked tidily on the desk and the only toy in evidence was a cardboard model of a tank. Billy was in bed, his striped pajama top buttoned to the neck, a book on the blanket beside him.
"I like your room," Elene said deceitfully.
Billy said: "It's fine."
"What are you reading?"
"The Greek Coffin Mystery."
She sat on the edge of the bed. "Well, don't stay awake too late."
"I've to put out the light at nine-thirty."
She leaned forward suddenly and kissed his cheek.
At that moment the door opened and Vandam walked in.
It was the familiarity of the scene that was so shocking: the boy in bed with his book, the light from the bedside lamp falling just so, the woman leaning forward to kiss the boy good night. Vandam stood and stared, feeling like one who knows he is in a dream but still cannot wake up.
Elene stood up and said: "Hello, William."
"Hello, Elene."
"Good night, Billy."
"Good night, Miss Fontana."
She went past Vandam and left the room. Vandam sat on the edge of the bed, in the dip in the covers which she had vacated. He said: "Been entertaining our guest?"
"Yes."
"Good man."
"I like her--she reads detective stories. We're going to swap books."
"That's grand. Have you done your prep?"
"Yes--French vocab."
"Want me to test you?"
"It's all right, Gaafar tested me. I say, she's ever so pretty, isn't she."
"Yes. She's working on something for me--it's a bit hush-hush, so ..."
"My lips are sealed."
Vandam smiled. "That's the stuff."
Billy lowered his voice. "Is she, you know, a secret agent?"
Vandam put a finger to his lips. "Walls have ears."
The boy looked suspicious. "You're having me on."
Vandam shook his head silently.
Billy said: "Gosh!"
Vandam stood up. "Lights out at nine-thirty."
"Right-ho. Good night."
"Good night, Billy." Vandam went out. As he closed the door it occurred to him that Elene's good-night kiss had probably done Billy a lot more good than his father's man-to-man chat.
He found Elene in the drawing room, shaking martinis. He felt he should have resented more than he did the way she had made herself at home in his house, but he was too tired to strike attitudes. He sank gratefully into a chair and accepted a drink.
Elene said: "Busy day?"
Vandam's whole section had been working on the new wireless security procedures that were being introduced following the capture of the German listening unit at the Hill of Jesus, but Vandam was not going to tell Elene that. Also, he felt she was playacting the role of housewife, and she had no right to do that. He said: "What made you come here?"
"I've got a date with Wolff."
"Wonderful!" Vandam immediately forgot all lesser concerns. "When?"
"Thursday." She handed him a sheet of paper.
He studied the message. It was a peremptory summons written in a clear, stylish script. "How did this come?"
"A boy brought it to my door."
"Did you question the boy? Where he was given the message and by whom, and so on?"
She was crestfallen. "I never thought to do that."
"Never mind." Wolff would have taken precautions, anyway; the boy would have known nothing of value.
"What will we do?" Elene asked.
"The same as last time, only better." Vandam tried to sound more confident than he felt. It should have been simple. The man makes a date with a girl, so you go to the meeting place and arrest the man when he turns up. But Wolff was unpredictable. He would not get away with the taxi trick again: Vandam would have the restaurant surrounded, twenty or thirty men and several cars, roadblocks in readiness and so on. But he might try a different trick. Vandam could not imagine what--and that was the problem.
As if she were reading his mind Elene said: "I don't want to spend another evening with him."
"Why?"
"He frightens me."
Vandam felt guilty--remember Istanbul--and suppressed his sympathy. "But last time he did you no harm."
"He didn't try to seduce me, so I didn't have to say no. But he will, and I'm afraid he won't take no for an answer."
"We've learned our lesson," Vandam said with false assurance. "There'll be no mistakes this time." Secretly he was surprised by her simple determination not to go to bed with Wolff. He had assumed that such things did not matter much, one way or the other, to her. He had misjudged her, then. Seeing her in this new light somehow made him very cheerful. He decided he must be honest with her. "I should rephrase that," he said. "I'll do everything in my power to make sure that there are no mistakes this time."
Gaafar came in and said: "Dinner is served, sir." Vandam smiled: Gaafar was doing his English-butler act in honor of the feminine company.
Vandam said to Elene: "Have you eaten?"
"No."
"What have we got, Gaafar?"
"For you, sir, clear soup, scrambled eggs and yoghurt. But I took the liberty of grilling a chop for Miss Fontana."
Elene said to Vandam: "Do you always eat like that?"
"No, it's because of my cheek, I can't chew." He stood up.
As they went into the dining room Elene said: "Does it still hurt?"
"Only when I laugh. It's true--I can't stretch the muscles on that side. I've got into the habit of smiling with one side of my face."
They sat down, and Gaafar served the soup.
Elene said: "I like your son very much."
"So do I," Vandam said.
"He's old beyond his years."
"Do you think that's a bad thing?"
She shrugged. "Who knows?"
"He's been through a couple of things that ought to be reserved for adults."
"Yes." Elene hesitated. "When did your wife die?"
"May the twenty-eighth, nineteen-forty-one, in the evening."
"Billy told me it happened in Crete."
"Yes. She worked on cryptanalysis for the Air Force. She was on a temporary posting to Crete at the time the Germans invaded the island. May twenty-eighth was the day the British realized they had lost the battle and decided to get out. Apparently she was hit by a stray shell and killed instantly. Of course, we were trying to get live people away then, not bodies, so ... There's no grave, you see. No memorial. Nothing left."
Elene said quietly: "Do you still love her?"
"I think I'll always be in love with her. I believe it's like that with people you really love. If they go away, or die, it makes no difference. If ever I were to marry again, I would still love Angela."
"Were you very happy?"
"We ..." He hesitated, unwilling to answer, then he realized that the hesitation was an answer in itself. "Ours wasn't an idyllic marriage. It was I who was devoted ... Angela was fond of me."
"Do you think you will marry again?"
"Well. The English in Cairo keep thrusting replicas of Angela at me." He shrugged. He did not know the answer to the question. Elene seemed to understand, for she fell silent and began to eat her dessert.
Afterward Gaafar brought them coffee in the drawing room. It was at this time of day that Vandam usually began to hit the bottle seriously, but tonight he did not want to drink. He sent Gaafar to bed, and they drank their coffee. Vandam smoked a cigarette.
He felt the desire for music. He had loved music, at one time, although lately it had gone out of his life. Now, with the mild night air coming in through the open windows and the smoke curling up from his cigarette, he wanted to hear clear, delightful notes, and sweet harmonies, and subtle rhythms. He went to the piano and looked at the music. Elene watched him in silence. He began to play "Fur Elise." The first few notes sounded, with Beethoven's characteristic, devastating simplicity; then the hesitation; then the rolling tune. The ability to play came back to him instantly, almost as if he had never stopped. His hands knew what to do in a way he always felt was miraculous.
When the song was over he went back to Elene, sat next to her, and kissed her cheek. Her face was wet with tears. She said: "William, I love you with all my heart."
They whisper.
She says, "I like your ears."
He says, "Nobody has ever licked them before."
She giggles. "Do you like it?"
"Yes, yes." He sighs. "Can I ... ?"
"Undo the buttons--here--that's right--aah."
"I'll put out the light."
"No, I want to see you--"
"There's a moon." Click. "There, see? The moonlight is enough."
"Come back here quickly--"
"I'm here."
"Kiss me again, William."
They do not speak for a while. Then:
"Can I take this thing off?" he says.
"Let me help... there."
"Oh! Oh, they're so pretty."
"I'm so glad you like them ... would you do that harder... suck a little... aah, God--"
And a little later she says:
"Let me feel your chest. Damn buttons--I've ripped your shirt--"
"The hell with that."
"Ah, I knew it would be like this ... Look."
"What?"
"Our skins in the moonlight--you're so pale and I'm nearly black, look--"
"Yes."
"Touch me. Stroke me. Squeeze, and pinch, and explore, I want to feel your hands all over me--"
"Yes--"
"--everywhere, your hands, there, yes, especially there, oh, you know, you know exactly where, oh!"
"You're so soft inside."
"This is a dream."
"No, it's real."
"I never want to wake up."
"So soft ..."
"And you're so hard... Can I kiss it?"
"Yes, please... Ah ... Jesus it feels good--Jesus--"
"William?"
"Yes?"
"Now, William?"
"Oh, yes."
"... Take them off."
"Silk."
"Yes. Be quick."
"Yes."
"I've wanted this for so long--"
She gasps, and he makes a sound like a sob, and then there is only their breathing for many minutes, until finally he begins to shout aloud, and she smothers his cries with her kisses and then she, too, feels it, and she turns her face into the cushion and opens her mouth and screams into the cushion, and he not being used to this thinks something is wrong and says:
"It's all right, it's all right, it's all right--"
--and finally she goes limp, and lies with her eyes closed for a while, perspiring, until her breathing returns to normal, then she looks up at him and says:
"So that's how it's supposed to be!"
And he laughs, and she looks quizzically at him, so he explains:
"That's exactly what I was thinking."
Then they both laugh, and he says:
"I've done a lot of things after... you know, afterwards... but I don't think I've ever laughed."
"I'm so glad," she says. "Oh, William, I'm so glad."
18
ROMMEL COULD SMELL THE SEA. AT TOBRUK THE HEAT AND THE DUST AND THE flies were as bad as they had been in the desert, but it was all made bearable by that occasional whiff of salty dampness in the faint breeze.
Von Mellenthin came into the command vehicle with his intelligence report. "Good evening, Field Marshal."
Rommel smiled. He had been promoted after the victory at Tobruk, and he had not yet gotten used to the new title. "Anything new?"
"A signal from the spy in Cairo. He says the Mersa Matruh Line is weak in the middle."
Rommel took the report and began to glance over it. He smiled when he read that the Allies anticipated he would try a dash around the southern end of the line: it seemed they were beginning to understand his thinking. He said: "So the minefield gets thinner at this point... but there the line is defended by two columns. What is a column?"
"It's a new term they're using. According to one of our prisoners of war, a column is a brigade group that has been twice overrun by Panzers."
"A weak force, then."
"Yes."
Rommel tapped the report with his forefinger. "If this is correct, we can burst through the Mersa Matruh Line as soon as we get there."
"I'll be doing my best to check the spy's report over the next day or two, of course," said von Mellenthin. "But he was right last time."
The door to the vehicle flew open and Kesselring came in.
Rommel was startled. "Field Marshal!" he said. "I thought you were in Sicily."
"I was," Kesselring said. He stamped the dust off his handmade boots. "I've just flown here to see you. Damn it, Rommel, this has got to stop. Your orders are quite clear: you were to advance to Tobruk and no farther."
Rommel sat back in his canvas chair. He had hoped to keep Kesselring out of this argument. "The circumstances have changed," he said.
"But your original orders have been confirmed by the Italian Supreme Command," said Kesselring. "And what was your reaction? You declined the 'advice' and invited Bastico to lunch with you in Cairo!"
Nothing infuriated Rommel more than orders from Italians. "The Italians have done nothing in this war," he said angrily.
"That is irrelevant. Your air and sea support is now needed for the attack on Malta. After we have taken Malta your communications will be secure for the advance to Egypt."
"You people have learned nothing!" Rommel said. He made an effort to lower his voice. "While we are digging in the enemy, too, will be digging in. I did not get this far by playing the old game of advance, consolidate, then advance again. When they attack, I dodge; when they defend a position I go around that position; and when they retreat I chase them. They are running now, and now is the time to take Egypt."
Kesselring remained calm. "I have a copy of your cable to Mus solini." He took a piece of paper from his pocket and read: "The state and morale of the troops, the present supply position owing to captured dumps and the present weakness of the enemy permit our pursuing him into the depths of the Egyptian area." He folded the sheet of paper and turned to von Mellenthin. "How many German tanks and men do we have?"
Rommel suppressed the urge to tell von Mellenthin not to answer: he knew this was a weak point.
"Sixty tanks, Field Marshal, and two thousand five hundred men."
"And the Italians?"
"Six thousand men and fourteen tanks."
Kesselring turned back to Rommel. "And you're going, to take Egypt with a total of seventy-four tanks? Von Mellenthin, what is our estimate of the enemy's strength?"
"The Allied forces are approximately three times as numerous as ours, but--"
"There you are."
Von Mellenthin went on: "--but we are very well supplied with food, clothing, trucks and armored cars, and fuel; and the men are in tremendous spirits."
Rommel said: "Von Mellenthin, go to the communications truck and see what has arrived."
Von Mellenthin frowned, but Rommel did not explain, so he went out.
Rommel said: "The Allies are regrouping at Mersa Matruh. The
y expect us to move around the southern end of their line. Instead we will hit the middle, where they are weakest--"
"How do you know all this?" Kesselring interrupted.
"Our intelligence assessment--"
"On what is the assessment based?"
"Primarily on a spy report--"
"My God!" For the first time Kesselring raised his voice. "You've no tanks, but you have your spy!"
"He was right last time."
Von Mellenthin came back in.
Kesselring said: "All this makes no difference. I am here to confirm the Fuehrer's orders: you are to advance no farther."
Rommel smiled. "I have sent a personal envoy to the Fuehrer."
"You ... ?"
"I am a Field Marshall now, I have direct access to Hitler."
"Of course."
"I think von Mellenthin may have the Fuehrer's reply."
"Yes," said von Mellenthin. He read from a sheet of paper. "It is only once in a lifetime that the Goddess of Victory smiles. Onward to Cairo. Adolf Hitler."
There was a silence.
Kesselring walked out.
19
WHEN VANDAM GOT TO HIS OFFICE HE LEARNED THAT, THE PREVIOUS EVENING, Rommel had advanced to within sixty miles of Alexandria.
Rommel seemed unstoppable. The Mersa Matruh Line had broken in half like a matchstick. In the south, the 13th Corps had retreated in a panic, and in the north the fortress of Mersa Matruh had capitulated. The Allies had fallen back once again--but this would be the last time. The new line of defense stretched across a thirty-mile gap between the sea and the impassable Qattara Depression, and if that line fell there would be no more defenses, Egypt would be Rommel's.
The news was not enough to dampen Vandam's elation. It was more than twenty-four hours since he had awakened at dawn, on the sofa in his drawing room, with Elene in his arms. Since then he had been suffused with a kind of adolescent glee. He kept remembering little details: how small and brown her nipples were, the taste of her skin, her sharp fingernails digging into his thighs. In the office he had been behaving a little out of character, he knew. He had given back a letter to his typist, saying: "There are seven errors in this, you'd better do it again," and smiled at her sunnily. She had nearly fallen off her chair. He thought of Elene, and he thought: "Why not? Why the hell not?" and there was no reply.