and watched it also and she took his arm, tucking her small dainty hand
into the crook of his elbow.
He stayed such a short time/ Peter said, and overhead the big airbus
turned steeply on to its crosswind leg.
We will have him with us again soon, Chantelle promised, and then she
went on. Where were you, Peter? We hunted all over when it was time
for Daddy to go? I was in the forest, he said evasively.
He had heard them calling, but Peter was hidden in the secret place, the
smuggler's cleft in the yellow rock of the cliff; he would have killed
himself rather than let Nicholas Berg see him weeping.
Wouldn't it be lovely if it was like the old times again?
Chantelle asked softly, and the boy stirred beside her, but unable to
take his gaze from the aircraft, Just the three of us again? Without
Uncle Duncan? he asked incredulously, and high above them the aircraft,
with a last twinkle of sunlight, dove deeply into the banks of cumulus
cloud that buttressed the northern sky. Peter turned at last to face
her.
Without Uncle Duncan? he demanded again. But that's impossible., Not
if you help me, darling. She took his face in her cupped hands. You
will help me, won't you? she asked, and he nodded once, a sharply
incisive gesture of assent; she leaned forward and kissed him tenderly
on the forehead, That's my man, she whispered.
Mr. Alexander is not available. May I take a message? This is Mrs.
Alexander. Tell my husband that it's urgent.
Oh, I'm terribly sorry, Mrs. Alexander./ The secretary's voice changed
instantly, cool caution becoming effusive servility. I didn't recognize
your voice. The line is dreadful, Mr. Alexander will speak to you
directly., Chantelle waited, staring impatiently from the study windows.
The weather had changed in the middle of the morning with the cold front
sweeping down off the mountains, and now icy wind and rain battered at
the windows.
Chantelle, my dear/ the rich glossy voice that had once so dazzled her,
is this my call to you? It's mine, Duncan. I must speak to you
urgently., Good, he agreed with her. I wanted to speak to you also.
Things are happening swiftly here. It's necessary for you to come up to
St Nazaire next Tuesday, instead of my joining you at Cap Ferrat. Duncan
But he went on over her protest, his voice as full of self-confidence,
as ebullient as she had not heard it in over a year.
I have been able to save almost four weeks on Golden Dawn.
Duncan, listen to me. We will be able to launch on Tuesday. it will be
a makeshift ceremony, I'm afraid, at such short notice. He was
inordinately proud of his own achievement. It annoyed her to hear him.
What I have arranged is that the pod tanks will be delivered direct to
the Gulf from the Japanese yards.
They are towing them in their ballast with four American tugs. I will
launch the hull here, with workmen still aboard her, and they will
finish her off at sea during the passage around Good Hope, in time for
her to take on her tanks and cargo at El Barras. We'll save nearly
seven and a half million Duncan! Chantelle cried again, and this time
some thing in her tone stopped him.
