‘A pension. You’re angling for Social Security. I’ll see what I can do.’
‘Be serious, silly boy.’
‘And not so silly …..
‘There’s no commitment, David,’ she said, interrupting him. ‘I want you to
know that…. I don’t know how else to say it. Everything happened so
fast.’
‘Everything happened very naturally. Explanations aren’t required.’
‘Well, I think some are. I didn’t expect to be here.’
‘I didn’t expect that you would be. I suppose I hoped, I’ll adn-dt that….
I didn’t plan; neither of us did.’
‘I don’t know; I think I did. I think I saw you yesterday and somewhere in
the back of my mind I made a decision. Does that sound brazen of me?’
‘If you did, the decision was long overdue.’
‘Yes, I imagine it was.’ She lay back, pulling the sheet over her. ‘I’ve
been very selfish. Spoiled and selfish and behaving really quite badly.’
‘Because you haven’t slept aroundT It was his turn to roll over and touch
her face. He kissed both her eyes, now open; the deep speckles of blue made
bluer, deeper, by the late afternoon sun streaming through the blinds. She
smiled; her perfect white teeth glistening with the moisture of her mouth,
her lips curved in that genuine curve of humor.
‘That’s funny. I must be unpatriotic. I’ve withheld my charms only to
deliver them to a noncombatant.’
The Visigoths wouldn’t have approved. The warriors came first, I’m told.’
‘Let’s not tell them.’ She reached up for his face. ‘Oh, David, David,
David.’
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25
‘I hope I didn’t wake you. I wouldn’t have troubled you but I thought you’d
want me to.’
Ambassador Granville’s voice over the telephone was more solicitous than
David expected it to be. He looked at his watch as he replied. It was three
minutes of ten in the morning.
‘Oh? … No, sir. I was just getting up. Sorry I overslept.’
There was a note on the telephone table. It was from Jean.
‘Your friend was in contact with us.’
‘Friend?’ David unfolded the note. My Darling – You fell into such a
beautiful sleep it would have broken my heart to disturb you. Called a
taxi. See you in the nwrning. At the Bastille. Your ex-regimented phoenix.
David smiled, remembering her smile.
‘. . . the details, I’m sure, aren’t warranted.’ Granville had said
something and he hadn’t been listening.
‘I?m sorry, Mr. Ambassador. This must be a poor connection; your voice
fades in and out.’ All telephones beyond the Atlantic, north, middle and
south, were temperamental instruments. An unassailable fact.
‘Or something else, I’m afraid,’ said Granville with irritation, obviously
referring to the possibility of a telephone tap. ‘When you get in, please
come to see me.’
‘Yes, sir. I’ll be there directly!
He picked up Jean’s note and read it again.
She had said last night that he was complicating her life. But
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there were no commitments; she’d said that, too.
What the hell was a commitment? He didn’t want to speculate. He didn’t want
to think about the awful discovery – the instant, splendid comfort they
both recognized. It wasn’t the time for it….
Yet to deny it would be to reject an extraordinary reality. He was trained
to deal with reality.
He didn’t want to think about it.
His ‘friend’ had been in contact with the embassy.
Walter Kendall.
That was another reality. It couldn’t wait.
He crushed out his cigarette angrily, watching his fingers stab the butt
into the metal ashtray.
Why was he angry?
He didn’t care to speculate on that, either. He had a job to do. He hoped
he had the commitment for it.
‘Jean said you barely made it through dinner. You needed a good night’s
sleep; I must say you look better.’ The ambassador had come from around his
desk to greet him as he entered the large, ornate office. David was a
little bewildered. The old diplomat was actually being solicitous,
displaying a concern that belied his unconcealed disapproval of two days
ago. Or was it his use of the name Jean instead of the forbidding Mrs.
Cameron.
‘She was very kind. I couldn’t have found a decent restaurant without her.’
‘I daresay…. I won’t detain you, you’d better get cracking with this
Kendall.’
‘You said he’s been in contact. . .
‘Starting last night; early this morning to be accurate. He’s at the Alvear
and apparently quite agitated, according to the switchboard. At two thirty
this morning he was shouting, demanding to know where you were. Naturally,
we don’t give out that information.’
‘I’m grateful. As you said, I needed the sleep; Kendall would have
prevented it. Do you have his telephone number? Or shall I get it from the
book?’
‘No, right here.’ Granville walked to his desk and picked up a sheet of
notepaper. David followed and took it from the ambassadoes outstretched
hand.
Mank you, sir. I’ll get on it.’ He turned and started for the
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door, Granville’s voice stopping him.
‘Spaulding?’
‘Yes, sirT
‘I’m sure Mrs. Cameron would like to see you. Assess your recovery, I
daresay. Her office is in the south wing. First door from the entrance, on
the right. Do you know where that isT
‘I’ll find it, sir.,
‘I’m sure you will. See you later in the day.’
David went out the heavy baroque door, closing it behind him. Was it his
imagination or was Granville reluctantly giving an approval to his and
Jean’s sudden … alliance? The words were approving, the tone of voice
reluctant.
He walked down the connecting corridor toward the south wing and reached
her door. Her name was stamped on a brass plate to the left of the
doorframe. He had not noticed it yesterday.
Mrs. 4ndrew Cameron.
So his name had been Andrew. Spaulding hadn’t asked his first name; she
hadn’t volunteered it.
As he looked at the brass plate he found himself experiencing a very
strange reaction. He resented Andrew Cameron; zVented his life, his death.
The door was open and he entered. Jean’s secretary was obviously an
Argentine. A porlefia. The black Spanish hair was pulled back into a bun,
her features Latin.
‘Mrs. Cameron, please. David Spaulding!
‘Please go in. She’s expecting you.’David approached the door and turned
the knob.
She was taken by surprise, he thought. She was at the window looking out at
the south lawn, a page of paper in her hand, glasses pushed above her
forehead, resting on top of her light brown hair.
Startled, she removed her glasses from their perch and stood immobile.
Slowly, as if studying him first, she smiled.
He found himself afraid. More than afraid, for a moment. And then she spoke
and the sudden anguish left him, replaced by a deeply felt relief.
‘I woke up this morning and reached for you. You weren’t there and I
thought I might cry.’
He walked rapidly to her and they held each other. Neither spoke. The
silence, the embrace, the splendid comfort returning.
‘Granville acted like a procurer a little while ago,’ he said
247
finallk, holding her by the shoulders, looking at her blue speckled eyes
that held such intelligent humor.
‘I told you he was lovable. You wouldn’t believe me.’
‘You didn’t tell me we had dinner,, though. Or that I could barely get
through it.’
‘I was hoping you’d slip; give him more to think about.’
‘I don’t understand him. Or you, maybe.’
‘Henderson has a problem…. Me. Hes not sure how to handle it – me. Hes
overprotective because I’ve led him to believe I wanted that protection. I
did; it was easier. But a man who’s had three wives and at least twice that
many mistresses over the years is no Victorian…. And he knows you’re not
going to be here long. As he would put it: do I sketch a reasonable
picture?’
‘I daresay,’ answered David in Granvilles Anglicized manner.
‘That’s unkind.’ Jean laughed. ‘He probably doesn’t approve of you, which
makes his unspoken acceptance very difficult for him.,
David released her. ‘I know damned well he doesn’t approve. … Lpok, I
have to make some calls; go out and meet someone …..
‘Just someone?’
‘A ravishing beauty who’ll introduce me to lots of other ravishing
beauties. And between the two of us, I can’t stand him. But I have to see
him…. Will you have dinner with me?’
‘Yes, I’ll have dinner with you. I’d planned to. You didn’t have a choice.’
‘You’re right; you’re brazen.’
‘I made that clear. You broke down the regimens; I’m flying up out of my
own personal ash heap…. The air feels good.’
‘It was going to happen…. I was here.’ He wasn’t sure why he said it but
he had to.
Walter Kendall paced the hotel room as though it were a cage. Spaulding sat
on the couch watching him, trying to decide which animal Kendall reminded
him of; there were several that came to mind, none pets.
‘You listen to me,’ Kendall said. ‘Tbis is no military operation. You take