Long Run South by Alan Williams

Author:Alan Williams [Williams, Alan]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Sapere Books
Published: 2020-11-07T05:00:00+00:00

It was late in the afternoon; the truck was almost repaired. Bates said it would do them at least as far as the border. Leila came down from the gully. She was beginning to look very tired. It was Bates’ turn now to take the watch for the next hour; she said to him: ‘The fighting’s mostly moved off now.’ He went on up the slope; and she sat down and leant against the rock. Quinn came and sat next to her; the four Algerians were looking at them across the cave. He kissed her on the cheek, but she didn’t move. ‘Please, not here,’ she said, ‘not while they’re watching.’

‘I want to marry you, Leila.’

She looked at him, puzzled. ‘Why do you ask me this now?’

‘I just love you.’

She didn’t say anything for a moment. ‘It’s because you’re frightened, isn’t it?’

‘I just want to get out of it — take you away and get out of the whole business, I feel as you did the other day on the beach before we left.’

She sat thinking about that day on the beach, her fingers steepled under her chin. He felt a little catch in the throat as he looked at her. ‘I couldn’t do without you,’ he said.

She slid her eyes round to him, ironic and unsettling. ‘You mean you could not do without my body. That’s all you want really. You want me because I am the prettiest girl you know and I am exciting to show off.’

‘That’s not true.’

‘I think it is. And when you say you want to marry me, Monsieur Quinn, you are a liar.’ She said it smiling, in the nicest way.

‘I’m not going to argue with you. We may not get out of here alive, anyway. It seems a bad time to quarrel.’ He rested against the rock; it was still very hot in the cave. He heard a helicopter throbbing somewhere; it passed a couple of times, then went away. She said: ‘I don’t like those things. They’re like wasps.’

One of the Algerians had begun tossing pebbles in front of him again. They dropped with small, sharp clicks. Quinn closed his eyes. He wondered if they could really make the border in the truck. He dozed off. Leila was still beside him. Outside the sun was beginning to go down, and the cave was cooling.

‘It’s strange those three paratroopers never came back,’ he said.

‘He was probably going on a patrol over the hill; they wouldn’t have missed him till later.’

‘They might still come back, though. I’ll be glad when we’re out of here.’ She didn’t say anything. ‘Leila, when we get out of here I will marry you.’

She took his hand and said, without turning, ‘I love you too much. You are a liar, but if you ask me to I have to say yes.’

‘I will,’ he said. He meant it. ‘As soon as we get back to Casa.’ He wondered if she believed him. She was sitting half-asleep; he eased her head on to his shoulder.

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