The Hellfire Club

'Get out of this bed. What are you doing here?'

'I'm trying to calm you down. Come on. There's nobody here but me.'

Nora dropped her head back on the pillow.

'Nobody's going to hurt you. Dr Dan is right here to make sure of that.' He slid closer to her and inserted an arm between her head and the pillow. A smooth cotton shirt encased the arm. 'In my medical opinion, you need a hug.'

'Yeah.' She was grateful for this simple kindness.

'Close your eyes. I'll get out of here when you fall asleep again.'

She turned into his arms and tugged a corner of the pillow between her head and his shoulder. He caressed the side of her head and began stroking her bare arm. 'Your operation,' she murmured.

'Long way off.'

'I never sleep during the day,' Nora said, and in seconds proved herself a liar.

When she opened her eyes again, Harwich passed a warm hand up her arm and tugged the sheet over her shoulder. Various, not entirely subjective internal dials and gauges informed her that she had spent a significant time asleep. What time was it? Then she wondered if Dick Dart had been arrested since they had left Mark Foil's house. Harwich circled her waist with an arm.

'Don't you have an operation pretty soon?' she asked.

'Took less time than I thought it would.'

'It went all right?'

'Except for the demise of the patient.'

She whirled around to face him and found him propping his head on one hand, smiling down 'Joke. Barney Hodge will live to tear another thousand divots from the country club greens.'

'How long have I been asleep?'

'Most of the day. It's about five-thirty.'

'Five-thirty?'

'When I got. back, I checked on you, and there you were, out cold, even quiet. I was getting the feeling that you refought the war every time you fell asleep.'

'I just about do, according to Davey.'

'Not in my house.' He leaned forward and brushed his lips against her forehead. 'My house is good for you.'

'So are you,' she said.

'I like to think so.' He raised her chin with his hand and kissed her gently on the lips.

'The perfect host.'

'The perfect guest.' He kissed her again, for a longer time and far more seriously.

'I'd better get out of bed before we do something foolish,' she said, relieved that he was in his clothes, and then noticed his bare shoulder visible above the sheet. 'You took your shirt off.'

'More comfortable. Fewer wrinkles. Besides, a shirt seemed so unfriendly.' He circled her waist and pulled her toward him to whisper, 'Pants did, too.' She stiffened, and he said, 'We're alone here. We don't have to answer the phone or open the door. Why don't we spend a little time together? I want us to be nice to each other. You re this spectacular person, and we really care for each other.'

'Whoa, hold on,' she said. 'What are you doing?'

He smiled at her. 'Nora, one of the best things about this lovely relationship of ours is that we always wind up in bed. You go out and raise hell all over the place while I stay here in my hole, marrying the wrong people out of boredom, I guess, but sooner or later you always explode back into my life and we charge our batteries all over again. Isn't that right?'

'Jesus,' Nora said.

'It's always the same, and this time you show up more gorgeous than ever! You're out of your mind with worry…'

'Hardly just worry.'

'… and come right here because you knew you belonged with me. We're in this little bubble of time made just for us. Inside that bubble we help each other, we heal each other. When we're healed, we go on and tackle all the other crappy parts of life.'

'I'm not so sure about that,' Nora said. 'Hold it, I have to tackle the bathroom before I make any decisions here.'

'All the decisions were made a long time ago,' Harwich said. 'This is the follow-through.'

Some fierce emotion she could not begin to identify gripped her, lifted her out of bed, and carried her toward the bathroom. Harwich said, 'I'll be here when you get back,' but she hardly heard him. She locked the door and sat on the toilet, her face blazing. The enormous feeling within her refused to speak its name even as it sent tears brimming in her eyes. He wanted to take care of her, she needed his care. This had seemed to be true. 'But I don't need to get laid,' she whispered to herself. 'I don't need him to fuck me.' She flushed the toilet and looked around at the objects on the bathroom shelves, the dangling shower cap, the lush hotel bathrobe, the shampoo and conditioner, the perfume. 'Oh, my God,' she said to herself, I'm an idiot.'

She stood up, washed her hands, and wrapped the thick robe around herself, all the while watching her feelings align themselves into new positions. The largest of these feelings - not humiliation, chagrin, regret, not even the ghost of her old attachment to Dan Harwich, but simple anger - sent her back into the bedroom to face him.

'What's that for?' he asked, referring to the robe.

'My self-respect,' she said. 'Battered as it is.'

'Uh oh. Come on, Nora, sit down and talk to me. I want to help you.'

'You did help me,' she said, moving toward the chair where he had deposited her clothes. His own jeans lay folded over the top of the chair, his shirt unfurled like a jacket across the back. 'You took me in, you fed me , you let me see Mark Foil. I'm grateful, so thanks, Dan.'

'You're not grateful, you're upset. I understand, Nora. You went through a terrible experience, and it's still affecting you. You don't think you can trust anybody, and when I try to comfort you, all the bells go off. You suddenly think you can't trust even me. Part of the fault is mine, I can see that.'

Halfway to the chair, she turned around and faced him, wrapping her arms around her chest. 'What part is that. Dan?'

'I take too much for granted.'

'Christ, you said it.'

'I mean, I didn't think you could misunderstand me that much. I promise you, Nora, I had no intention of doing anything you didn't want to do.'

'And one of the best things about our relationship is that we always wind up in bed, so after I felt good and safe, you'd really help me out and have sex with me.'

'Let's face it, Nora, we do go to bed together, and we do feel better afterwards.'

'You feel so much better afterwards you go out and get married. You always have girlfriends, don't you, Dan? When one wife finally figures you out and gets fed up, you have her replacement lined up to put her name on the prenuptial agreement. The first time I turned up here, you brought me home from the motel to meet Helen and give her a really good reason to get out quick so you could marry Lark. You couldn't marry me, I'm too crazy.'

'Nora, you don't want my life. There isn't enough excitement here for you.'

She turned away, went to the chair, and stepped into her jeans with her back to him.

'I'm crazy about you. I think you're an amazing woman.'

'You don't have any idea who I am. I'm your shipboard romance.' She fastened the jeans and threw the robe aside, let him gape. 'You're tantalized by the chaos I bring to your tedious, self-important existence, but you want to keep it at bay. It's whoopee time with the emotional bag lady, and when party time is over, back to the girl in the oil-deck circle, right?' She had been wrestling the T-shirt, trying to pull it right side out but in her agitation only bundling the body of the shirt into one of the sleeves. She pulled fabric out of the sleeve and tugged the shirt on inside out. The girl whose things are all over the bathroom, the one who called you twice this morning, the girl who swipes little mementos from the hotels the two of you stay in when you go away together.'