and he made room for her on the log beside him and offer'd her
Scotch whisky and lukewarm water in a tin mug, which she accepted
gratefully and which tasted as good as anything she had ever drunk.
In silence they sat together, almost but not quite touching, and
watched the swift coming of the African night.
They were alone, and the faint voices from the main encampment below.
them seemed only to emphasize this aloneness.
Jake, the old Ras and Gregorius had taken out two of the armoured cars
and a camel patrol on a reconnaissance back towards the Wells of
Chaldi. In the same exercise, Jake was to train the new gunners in the
use of the Vickers machine guns. Gareth, as the military expert, had
been left to survey the gorge and to judge the ground for defence in
the event of a forced retreat up the gorge under Italian pressure.
He had been doing this when he had come across Vicky and the Galla
horsemen.
Sitting now beside the fire, under a sky that was suddenly very black
and half obscured by the mountains that towered over them, Vicky was
aware of a feeling of complete acceptance, an Arabic kismet of the
spirit, as though fate had arranged this moment and the effort of
avoiding it was too great.
They were alone, and that was how it was meant to be.
The deep physical arousal and feeling of utter commitment that she had
experienced earlier, on their escape from the threatening horde of
Gallas, still lingered still filled her body and her conscious mind
with an ethereal glow.
She ate a little of the grilled meat, hardly tasting it, not looking at
the man beside her, but staring dreamily at the brilliant diamond-white
sparkle of the stars above the dark peaks, yet fully and electrically
aware of him of the nearness of him, so close that although they were
still not touching she could feel the warmth emanating from his body
upon her arm like the caress of a desert wind.
She could almost feel his eyes as he watched her quietly. His gaze was
so compelling that at last she could no longer pretend not to be aware
of it, and she turned her head and met his eyes steadily.
The ruddy glow of the coals enhanced the clean regular lanes of his
face, and gilded the red gold of his hair. In that moment, she
believed he was the most beautiful human being she had ever seen and it
required an effort to tear her eyes away from him.
As she stood up and walked away she felt her heart hammering within her
chest, like a wild -animal trying to escape its cage, and she heard the
roar of blood in her own ears.
The interior of her tent was lit softly by the firelight through the
canvas, and she did not light the lamp, but undressed slowly in the
semi-darkness and dropped her clothing carelessly across the folding
chair beside the entrance. Then she lay down upon the narrow cot, and
the woollen blanket was rough against the naked skin of her buttocks
and back. Each breath was an effort now, and she lay rigidly with her
hands clenched at her sides almost afraid, almost exultant, her head
propped on the single pillow and staring down at her body, aware of it
