A World Between Us by Lydia Syson

Author:Lydia Syson [Lydia Syson]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Hot Key Books
Published: 2012-08-08T04:00:00+00:00

23

Felix removed her hand. She felt a little dizzy. Nat looked away, and began to feel in his jacket pocket. He took out a packet of cigarettes, Spanish ones. All the soldiers were issued with the same kind. He held the packet in his half-bandaged hand, and used the good one to take out a cigarette. Felix shook her head as he held out the packet to her. Matches? she panicked, hoping he wouldn’t have to fumble it with one hand and need help, but luckily he leaned into the candle and took a light from that.

Her own hands were folded back in her lap. She sat and fretted. He looked so serious. Had she been too forward again? She shouldn’t have touched him like that. She hadn’t been able to help herself. And now the atmosphere had changed, just when it was all going so well. At least she thought it was. Was it too late? All she’d done was talk about herself – nerves, she supposed – and there was so much she wanted to ask him.

Then he exhaled, smiling.

‘Don’t look so worried!’ he said lightly. ‘I was just thinking. It’s so hard to hear you with all these people around. Do you really fancy a drink? We could always just go for a walk . . . while the skies are still clear?’

‘Oh yes, let’s,’ said Felix, standing up immediately.

Nat rose too, and straight away a voice called out: ‘¡Los internacionales! ¡Benvenido a los internacionales!’ and they were pulled into the knot of people at the bar. Everyone plied them with drinks, clapped them on the back, thanked them profusely for coming to Madrid, and generally made them feel they’d saved the city from Franco without a helping hand. The barman thumped the counter and struck up a war song. ‘Los Cuatro Generales’. The noise level rose.

Eventually they escaped, followed out by more thanks and cheers. The old man at the door checked the skies and pronounced the all-clear, then raised a clenched fist salute.

‘This way,’ said Nat.

Felix let him lead her around some wooden struts that were holding up a bomb-damaged building.

‘I reckon we’ve got a couple more hours,’ he said, taking her arm again. Her hip brushed against his leg.

‘Until the bombardment begins?’

Nat nodded, and tightened his grip on her.

‘They time it,’ he said. ‘It usually gets going just as the theatres and bars are shutting. When the streets are most crowded.’

They both looked up. Nothing but stars. From far away, the thin whip crack of rifle fire urged them on. From the west, a deep rumbling.

‘The dinamiteros. They tunnel under the lines at night. Both sides.’

Felix and Nat walked on, watching where they walked, avoiding fallen masonry, alert to possible shelters. Watching how they talked too. All the time Felix kept wondering how she had survived all these months without seeing him. His presence felt like a drug to her now. She was addicted. She didn’t know how she could ever bear to say goodbye again.

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