inlaid with ebony and mother of pearl, to eat off. The rest of the
furniture would come when they could find it for sale, or, failing that,
have it custom-made by an Arab cabinet-maker that Debra knew of. Both
the bed and the table were enormously heavy, and they needed muscle to
move them, so they called for Joe. He and Hannah arrived in his tiny
Japanese compact, and after they had recovered from the impact of the
Morgan palace they fell to work enthusiastically with David supervising.
Joe grunted and heaved, while Hannah disappeared with Debra into the
modern American kitchen to exclaim with envy and admiration over the
washing-machine, dryer, dish-washer and all the other appliances that
went with the house. She helped to cook the first meal.
David had laid in a case of Goldstar beer, and after their labours they
all gathered about the olive-wood table to warm the house and wet the
roof.
David had expected Joe to be a little reserved, after all it was his
baby sister who was being set up in a fancy house; but Joe was as
natural as ever and enjoyed the beer and the company so well that Hannah
had to intervene at last. It's late, she said firmly.
Late? asked Joe. It's only nine o'clock. 'On a night like tonight,
that's late. 'What do you mean? Joe looked puzzled. Joseph Mordecai,
diplomat extraordinary, Hannah said with heavy sarcasm, and suddenly
Joe's expression changed as he glanced from Debra to David guiltily,
swallowed his beer in a single gulp, and hoisted Hannah to her feet by
one arm.
Come on, he said. What are we sitting here for? David left the terrace
lights burning, and they shone through the slats of the shuttered
windows, so the room was softly lit, and the sounds from the outside
world were so muted by distance and stone walls as to be a mere murmur
that drifted from afar, and seemed rather to accentuate their aloneness
than to spoil it.
The brass of the bedstead gleamed softly in the gloom, and the ivory
lacework of the bedspread smelled of lavender and moth balls.
He lay upon the bed and watched her undress slowly, conscious of his
eyes upon her and shy now as she had never been before.
Her body was slim and with a flowing line of waist and leg, young and
tender-looking, with a child's awkward grace, and yet with a womanly
thrust of hip and bosom.
She came to sit upon the'edge of the bed, and he marvelled once again at
the lustre and plabticity of her skin, at the subtlety of colouring
where the sun had darkened it from soft cream to burned honey, and at
the contrast of her dusky rose-tipped breasts and the dark thick bush of
curls at the base of her softly curving stomach.
She leaned over him, still shyly, and touched his cheek with one finger,
running down his throat on to his chest where the gold star lay upon the
hard muscle. You are beautiful, she whispered, and she saw it was true.
For he was tall and straight with muscled shoulders and lean flanks and
belly. The planes of his face were pure and perfect, perhaps its only
fault lying in its very perfection. It was almost unreal, as though she
were lying with some angel or god from out of mythology.
She twisted her legs up on to the bed, stretching out beside him upon
