The World We Wish by John Moody

Author:John Moody [Moody, John]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Brick Tower Press
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter 31

There Goes The Bride

Rav and Henry didn’t say good-bye because she didn’t leave.

“The Embassy here reserved me a hotel room, but it is ... not pleasant,” she said from her side of the bed.

“This isn’t exactly five-star accommodation,” Henry replied, stroking her un-ringed left hand.

“There are many things I want to tell you and want to hear from you,” she said. “The months without you were challenging for everyone.”

“You mean Hui?”

She stiffened. “The Colonel was in a dangerous position. He managed to ... is the correct word ‘extricate?’ himself.”

“And he’s running the Institute again?”

“It was being mismanaged. He has corrected course.”

“Mismanaged by General Deng-tal? The one I called Tanteeth?”

She smiled. “Until you ... left China ... I never told anyone that name. It makes me laugh to think of it now.”

“I like making you laugh.”

“Actually, you taught me how to.” Her look was penetrating and, he believed just then, genuine.

“Will the Embassy know you’re not in your hotel?”

“Probably.”

“Will they know where you are?”

“Probably.”

“Will they come looking for you?”

“Probably.”

“Do you want to stay here?”

“Definitely.”

Her wedding was scheduled for the next day. He had not yet committed to attend, but both knew he would. What choice, really? Take this enormous chance, or wonder for the rest of his life, what might have been. A near-year had done nothing to diminish her startling beauty. Her British-accented English was crisp as ever, although she thought otherwise and explained she had had little opportunity to use it of late.

“The Party now frowns on the English language,” she said. “School children are encouraged to learn Spanish, or Russian, or one of the dialects of Arabic.”

“By ‘encouraged,’ you mean...”

“Assigned. Choice is also frowned upon now.”

“Why are you part of that whole apparatus?”

Her look hardened instantly. “Why are you part of the CIA?”

He had not told her. But since she knew where he lived, it was not difficult to figure that she knew what he did. And that meant the Party did. And that meant that Hui did. Not good.

Nor had they discussed what would happen once he shouted Tou zou xinniang – steal the bride – and she accepted, and the wedding came to a shattering, premature end. Henry didn’t care about the groom. Why should he, since Rav obviously didn’t either? She didn’t even know the groom, she assured him. The incongruity of this accomplished, Western-educated woman submitting to millennia-old tradition was hard to accept. But unless he did, Rav would be out of his life for the second, and final, time.

Later, in the afternoon, she said, “I have to go now.”

“Why?”

She hesitated. “To buy a wedding gown.”

He said, “You’re going to buy clothes for a wedding that you don’t intend to see through? That will not be consummated?”

“If I appear in regular clothes, no one will believe that I had any intention of getting married. What is that famous Greek story? The Trojan Horse? My gown will be my horse.”

“And what will I be?”

“You will be the soldier hiding inside the horse. Once your

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