He told her of Michael, and the strange bond between them.
He told her of Dirk, and hinted at his misgivings for the boy.
He spoke of the war and of what he would do when it finished.
He told her of Lion Kop and his wattle.
But one thing he could not tell her. He could not speak of Ruth or the
man who was her husband.
During the next few days Sean and Saul reported to the headquarters of
the Regional Commander and were assigned neither billets nor duties.
Now that they had arrived no one seemed very interested in them. They
were told to report daily, and turned loose again. They returned to
Candy's Hotel and spent most of the days playing billiards or cards and
most of the evenings eating and drinking and talking.
A week of this and Sean was getting bored. He began to feel like a
stud stallion. Even a solid diet of heavenly manna begins to pall
after a while-so when Candy asked him to escort her to a reception and
dinner with which Lord Kitchener was celebrating his promotion to
Supreme Command of the Army in South Africa, Sean accepted with
relief.
'You look like some sort of god,' Candy told him as he entered her
suite through the concealed doorway which connected it with his own
bedroom in the Victoria rooms. When she had shown him this discreet
little panel and demonstrated how at a touch it slid silently aside,
Sean had thrust down the temptation of asking how many others had used
it. It was senseless to resent the nameless host who had passed
through the panel to teach Candy all those little tricks with which she
now delighted him.
'You don't look too bad yourself.' She was dressed in blue silk, the
colour of her eyes, and she wore diamonds at her throat.
'How gallant you are! ' She came to him and stroked the silk lapels of
his newly tailored evening jacket. 'I wish you'd wear your medals.
'I haven't any medals.'
'Oh Sean! You must have! With all those bullet holes in you, you must
have medals. ' 'I'm sorry, Candy.' Sean grinned. At times she was so
far from being the glittering sophisticated woman of the world.
Although she was a year older than he was, time had not destroyed that
fragile quality of skin and hair that most women lose so quickly.
There was no thickening of her body, no coarsening of her features.
'Never mind-even without medals, you'll be the handsomest man there
tonight.
As the carriage rolled down Commissioner Street towards the Grand
National Hotel, Sean lay back against the yielding support of soft
polished leather. His cigar was drawing evenly with an inch of firm
grey ash, the single brandy he had drunk before leaving glowed beneath
the starched front of his dress-shirt, a faint aura of bay rum clung
and hovered around him-and Candy's hand lay lightly upon his leg.
All these things induced in him a mood of deep contentment.
He laughed easily at Candy's chatter and let the smoke of his cigar
trickle through his lips-tasting it with an almost childlike pleasure.
When the car rage stopped before the entrance to the hotel and rocked
gently on its superb springing, he climbed down and stood by the big
