She pulled at some of the horsehair poking from the sofa arm and twisted it absentmindedly around her index finger.
“What are you charging your friend La Ponte?”
“Flavio? Nothing. You couldn’t get a penny out of him.”
“Why are you working for him, then?”
“As you put it yourself, he’s my friend.”
“Friend,” she repeated thoughtfully. “It sounds strange to hear you say that word,” she said. A slight smile, with curious disdain. “Do you have girlfriends as well?”
Corso looked at her legs unhurriedly, from ankles to thighs. Shamelessly.
“I have memories of some. The memory of you tonight might not be bad.”
She took the crude remark without blinking. Maybe, Corso thought, she hadn’t understood it.
“Name a price,” she said coldly. “I want my husband’s manuscript.”
Things were looking good. Corso went and sat in an armchair opposite Liana Taillefer. From there he could get a better view. She had taken off her shoes and was resting her feet on the rug.
“You didn’t seem that interested last time.”
“I’ve thought it over. That manuscript has...”
“Sentimental value?” mocked Corso.
“Something like that.” Her voice now sounded defiant. “But not in the way you think.”
“What would you be prepared to do to get it?”
“I’ve told you. Pay you.”
Corso leered. “You offend me. I’m a professional.”
“You’re a professional mercenary, Mr. Corso. And mercenaries change sides. I’ve read books too, you know.”
“I have as much money as I need.”
“I’m not talking about money.”
She was lying back on the sofa, and with one bare foot she stroked the instep of the other. Corso pictured her toenails painted red under the black stockings. As she moved, her skirt rode up, giving a glimpse of white flesh above the black garters, where all mysteries are reduced to one, which is as old as time itself. Corso looked up with difficulty. Her ice-blue eyes were still on him.
He took off his glasses before getting up and going to the sofa. Liana Taillefer followed him impassively with her eyes, even when he was right in front of her, so close that their knees touched. Then she put out her hand and placed her fingers with their red lacquered nails precisely on the zipper of his corduroy trousers. Her smile was contemptuous and self-assured as Corso at last leaned over her and lifted her skirt up to her waist.
it WAS A MUTUAL assault rather than a sharing. A settling of scores there on the sofa. A crude, hard struggle between adults, with the appropriate moans at the right moment, a few muttered curses, and the woman’s nails digging mercilessly into Corso’s back. And it happened in barely any space, without their taking off their clothes. Her skirt was up over her strong, wide hips, which he gripped as the studs on her garter belt pressed into his groin. He never even saw her breasts, although he did manage to touch them a couple of times, dense, warm, abundant flesh beneath the jacket, silk shirt, and bra. In the heat of the fray, Liana Taillefer didn’t have time to remove them. And now there they were, the two of them, still tangled in each other, among a mess of crumpled clothes, and breathless, like two exhausted wrestlers. Corso was wondering how to extricate himself.
“Who’s Rochefort?” he asked.
She looked at him from a few inches away. The setting sun threw reddish glints across her face. The hairpins had fallen out of her bun, and her blond hair was spread untidily over the leather sofa. She looked relaxed for the first time.
“It doesn’t matter,” she answered, “now that I’m getting the manuscript back.”
Corso kissed her disordered cleavage, bidding farewell to its contents. He had a feeling he wouldn’t be kissing it again for some time.
“What manuscript?” he said, and saw her expression harden / instantly. Her body went rigid under his.
“The Anjou Wine.” For the first time there was a hint of anxiety in her voice. “You’re going to return it to me, aren’t you, Mr. Corso?”
Corso noted the return to a formal mode of address. He vaguely remembered having been on first-name terms during the skirmish.
“I never said that.”
“I thought...”
“You thought wrong.”
Her steely blue eyes flashed with anger. She sat up, furious, pushing him away abruptly with her hips.
“Bastard!”
Corso, who was about to laugh and make a couple of cynical jokes, felt himself pushed back violently. He fell to his knees. As he struggled to his feet, fastening his belt, he saw Liana
Taillefer stand up, pale and terrifying, unconcerned by her disheveled clothes, her magnificent thighs still exposed. She slapped him so hard, his left ear vibrated like a drum.
“Pig!”
Corso staggered from the blow. Stunned, he was like a boxer searching for something to stop him from falling into the ropes. Liana Taillefer crossed his field of vision, but he didn’t pay her much attention because of the agonizing pain in his ear. He was staring stupidly at the saber from Waterloo when he heard the sound of breaking glass. He saw her again against the reddish light from the window. She had pulled her skirt down. In one hand she held the manuscript and in the other the neck of a broken bottle. Its edge was aimed at Corso’s throat.
Instinctively he raised his arm and stepped back. The danger had brought him back to his senses and made the adrenaline pump. He pushed aside the hand with the bottle and punched her in the neck. It left her winded, stopping her dead. The following scene was somewhat calmer. Corso picked the mdn-uscript and broken bottle off the floor. Liana Taillefer was once again sitting on the sofa, her tousled hair hanging over her face. She was holding a hand to her neck, breathing with difficulty between sobs of fury.
“They’ll kill you for this, Corso,” she said at last. The sun had now set beyond the city, and the corners of the room were filling with shadow. Ashamed, he switched on the light and held out her coat and hat before calling for a taxi. He avoided her eyes. Then, as he listened to her steps receding down the stairs, he stood for a moment by the window, watching the dark roofs in the brightness of the rising moon.
“They’ll kill you for this, Corso.”
He poured himself a large glass of gin. He couldn’t rid himself of Liana Taillefer’s expression once she realized she’d been tricked. Eyes as deadly as a dagger, a rictus of vengeful fury. And she meant it, she really had wanted to kill him. Once again the memories stirred, gradually filling his mind. This time, though, he needed no effort to relive them. The image was sharp, and he knew exactly where it came from. The facsimile edition of
VII. BOOK NUMBER ONE AND BOOK NUMBER
With only a few minutes to go before the departure of the express train to Lisbon, he saw the girl. Corso was on the platform, about to mount the steps to his carriage—companhia internacional de carruagems-CAMAS—when he bumped into her in a group of other passengers heading toward the first-class carriages. She was carrying, a small rucksack and wearing the same blue duffel coat, but he didn’t recognize her at first. He only felt that there was something familiar about her green eyes, so light they seemed transparent, and her very short hair. He continued to watch her for a moment, until she disappeared two carriages farther down. The whistle blew. As he
