I
‘THEY GOT HIM,’ I whispered.
‘Or he turned us in?’
‘He wouldn’t do that! Would he?’
‘One would certainly hate to think so.’ John’s voice was so soft I could scarcely hear it. ‘There are other possibilities, I suppose . . .’
‘The hell with other possibilities! We have to assume the worst, as you keep telling me. What are we going to do?’
‘You may do as you like,’ said John. ‘I am going to – er – lie down.’
And he proceeded to do so, though ‘fall over’ would have been a more accurate description.
He looked rather peaceful with his head pillowed on his bent arm but when I touched his cheek he didn’t move. His skin was burning hot.
In a way, it was a relief to have no more choices left. I covered him with the coat and brushed the hair away from his temple. ‘Goodbye, John,’ I whispered. ‘I love you.’
I stood up.
His hand wrapped around my ankle and brought me thudding to the ground. ‘Where the hell do you think you’re going?’ he demanded.
Sand is a lot harder than it looks, and this variety of desert is littered with rocks. By the time I recovered my breath it was too late to get away; he had rolled me over onto my back and was lying across me.
‘You low-down skunk!’ I gasped. ‘You did that on purpose!’
‘Is that any way to talk to the man you love?’ His voice was almost back to normal; I knew the slight unevenness was due to suppresed laughter. ‘I’m deeply hurt that you would think I’d resort to a childish, melodramatic trick like that one.’
‘John, are you crazy? Those people out there – ’
‘There’s plenty of time. Were you really going to dash out and lead the hunters away from me, risking capture and a fate worse than death?’
His lips were hot and dry. At first. I wrenched mine away. ‘You’re not crazy, you’re delirious. Let me go. It’s the only sensible course of action.’
‘No, it’s not.’
‘Yes, it is. Stop doing that.’
‘No, it’s not. Why should I?’
‘Because . . .’ I had lost my grip on the conversation, not to mention the whole situation. ‘Look – ’
‘I can’t I’m busy.’
‘They won’t do anything to me,’ I said, giggling insanely. I do that when I’m upset, and his lashes were tickling me. ‘I’ll tell them – ’
‘It is not a sensible idea,’ said John, ‘because that may not be the police. And if it isn’t, and if they catch you, I’ll go after you and then we’ll have to repeat the whole tedious performance.’
‘Would you?’
‘I told you not to ask silly questions. Say it again.’
‘I love you.’
‘That’s what I thought you said.’ He lifted himself on his elbows, freeing my hands. I wrapped them around the back of his head and drew his face down to mine.
I was a trifle distracted, however, not only by the unnatural heat of his skin but by a far-off sound. Turning my head I murmured, ‘We’d better stop this.’
‘Discretion would seem to suggest a more responsible course of action.’ Instead of moving, he kissed the corner of my mouth. ‘I couldn’t tell you the truth. I couldn’t even let you begin to wonder. They had me so boxed in – ’
‘I know. Feisal told me.’
‘I must have missed that part. I hope he portrayed me in a favourable light?’
‘You came out looking like Sir Galahad and me like something that had crawled out from under a . . . Oh, God. John – ’
‘Sorry. Did I hurt you?’
‘Yes. Do it again. No! No, don’t, we’ve got to – ’
‘I did hurt you – that night, after you danced with Feisal. While you were laughing and giving him languishing glances,
‘John,’ I said desperately, ‘isn’t that a dog I hear?’
‘Probably. There are dozens of them around and they howl at . . . Oh.’ He lifted his head and listened. ‘You mean a dog, as opposed to dogs in general. Damned if I don’t think you’re right. That puts a different complexion on things. We might elude human searchers but man’s best friend is another matter. I’m beginning to detest the bloody creatures. First that diabolical hound of yours – ’
‘Get up this minute!’
The lights were closer now. Three separate beams – flashlights, I thought. Not the police, then. They’d have more effective equipment, and they’d be making a lot more noise.
‘How could they know we’d end up here?’ I demanded.
‘Good question.’ John got to his feet. Another outburst of canine commentary floated across the desert, and John echoed it with an outburst of profanity. ‘My brain seems to have crashed. We’d better get into hiding. It may not be necessary, but – ’
My brain wasn’t working any better than his. It had gone back to basics, driven by the same primitive instincts that move all hunted creatures. ‘Right. Hide. Where?’
‘I know a place. I hoped we wouldn’t have to resort to it since I know how you feel about – ’
‘Oh, no. Not a tomb. I can’t, John, I really can’t.’
‘Not a tomb. We couldn’t get into them anyhow; they’ve all got locked gates. Come on.’
The surface under our feet cracked and crunched with every step. The shadows through which we moved weren’t dark enough; the rocks between us and the plain weren’t thick enough or hard enough. If John hadn’t kept shoving at me, I might have sat down on the ground and waited in fatalistic acceptance like some poor cornered rabbit. In a way it was worse for me than it would have been for the rabbit. I knew exactly what would happen if we were caught I had seen what Mary could do when she was just amusing herself. She’d be really annoyed by now.
The face of the cliff was weathered and uneven; I saw a dozen crevices big enough to offer concealment, but every time I headed mindlessly towards one, John pulled me on. I could have handled a nice shallow crevice, no problem. I had a feeling he had something less comfortable in mind. He seemed to know where he was going. How? The question, like a lot of others, ran through my head and out the other side, without hanging around long enough to inspire an answer.
After passing around a low ridge he headed for one of the openings in the cliff. The moon was down but those impossibly bright stars cast enough light for me to see how dark the opening was. Really dark. Very, very dark. He had to drag me through it. The space beyond was devoid of light but not of sound. Things squeaked and flapped. The blackness moved.
I flung myself at him, clutching at his shirt. Not such a smart move, that one, but there was a wall behind him; otherwise we’d have both fallen to the ground. His breath went out in a sound that would have been audible a long way off if compressed lips hadn’t contained it. Then his arms closed around me and his mouth brushed my
