The Dirty Dozen by Nathanson E. M

Author:Nathanson, E. M. [Nathanson, E. M.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Regenesis Press
Published: 2013-01-18T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter Twenty

REISMAN FOUND HIMSELF ALONE in his room at The Butcher’s Arms when he woke up Wednesday morning. It was almost nine o’clock. He shaved and dressed hurriedly and went downstairs. Tess, looking radiant, was already at work between the kitchen and the public room where some people, military and civilian, were breakfasting. He didn’t quite know how to greet her, but she solved it for him by coming to him, flushed, and taking his hand.

“I didn’t have the heart to wake you,” she whispered. “Should I have?”

“It’s all right,” he said. “I have a little time. Can you have breakfast with me?”

“I have to work,” she answered. “What would you like?”

“Coffee, to start with, and a telephone.”

She led him to the phone and, alone for a moment, he kissed her as he had wanted to do. Then he turned her around, pointed her toward the kitchen, and said, “Coffee . . . good and hot . . . lots of it.”

It took awhile for the civilian and military hookups to be made, and while he waited impatiently Reisman had fleeting, guilty thoughts about one of the prisoners or all of them picking last night or this morning to create some new trouble or try to break out or in some way take advantage of poor Kinder. Then Kinder answered the phone, assured him everything was perfectly fine, and kidded him about behaving like a mother hen.

Tess served him his breakfast, and then nothing would do but he had to chat with her uncle, whom he had met formally that last weekend he had stayed there; and with Mrs. Culver, the cook, who clucked over him and told him how much like a daughter Tess was to her. He wondered how much they knew about Tess and him.

Then it was time to go. Tess walked outside with him to the jeep. It was cool and windy, but there was good yellow sunlight. The sky held promise and threat of almost any type of weather to come, with mountains of clouds piled high here and there on the horizons and the wind scudding cumulus squadrons at lower altitudes across spaces of blue. Tess wore the coat she had worn that first night of discovery. Her hand was under his arm and he covered it protectively with his own, rubbing it, intertwining their fingers in reluctant parting.

“Is this the spring your poets write about?” Reisman joked.

“Oh no,” she said. “There’s a saying, ‘It ain’t spring until you can plant your foot upon twelve daisies.’”

“Then we’ll go out and look for them each time I come.”

“I’d like that very much, John,” she said. “And if I find them one day when you’re not here, I’ll mark the place and take you there . . . where I found spring.”

He kissed her softly, with his hand on her cheek, said goodbye and drove away, turning just once to see her watching him and waving.

He had always had this facility for quickly wiping his mind

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.