Part 36 (1/2)

7.

The sound of the water running in the shower woke him up. For a moment he lay listening to it, then, slowly, he rolled over on his back. He had been sleeping on his stomach. He opened his eyes. The bathroom door was open and through it came the sound of the running water.

He sat up and reached for his watch on the table next to the bed. It was almost six o'clock in the morning. He reached for the crutches that lay next to the bed and lifted himself up. The bed squeaked as his weight came off it.

Dulcie's voice came from the shower. ”Darling, are you up?”

He grinned to himself. If he hadn't been awake before he heard her voice, he was now. He was suddenly alive. Alive in every part of his body in a way he hadn't been for many years. ”Yeah,” he called back.

”There's a note on the dresser for you,” she called in to him. ”I found it under the door this morning when I woke up.”

He went to the dresser and picked it up. It was a white square envelope with the hotel's imprint up in the left-hand corner. On it was his name scrawled in Rocco's familiar handwriting. He opened it.

”Dear Johnny,” it read, ”I ordered the car to pick you up at seven fifteen downstairs as you wanted and took the five ten this morning back to New York. There's no place for an extra man on a honeymoon. Good luck.” It was signed: ”Rocco.”

He tapped the letter thoughtfully against the dresser. He thought Rock had been acting strangely yesterday when they had been married at that whistle stop just inside the California border. They had got off the train at Pasadena at ten thirty last night and had come directly to the hotel.

He had told Rock to have a car ordered for seven fifteen in the morning. Rock had looked at him and laughingly said: ”Do you think you'll be up that early?”

He had grinned back at Rocco foolishly. ”Sure,” he had said. ”I told Peter I'd be out at his house for breakfast.”

Awkwardly they had shaken hands and bidden each other good-night. He had gone up to their room and knocked on the door.

”Come in.” Dulcie's voice was small.

He had gone into the room. She was in bed already, a small robe flung across her shoulders. The light from a small table lamp next to the bed was the only light in the room. She was watching him.

He smiled rea.s.suringly at her. ”Nervous?” he asked.

She nodded her head. ”A little,” she replied. ”I was never married before.”

He laughed at her small joke and sat down on the bed next to her and put his arms around her. She turned her face to his and he kissed her. He looked down at her; her eyes were closed. He kissed them tenderly. ”Don't be afraid, darling,” he whispered. ”I'll be gentle with you.”

He didn't know it, but the shoe was on the other foot. She was gentle with him. So gentle he hadn't suspected her experience.

She came out of the bathroom, a robe hanging loosely around her shoulders. ”What is it?” she asked.

It was a moment before he realized she was referring to the note he held in his hand. The robe hung open and she was lovely beneath it. ”From Rock,” he said looking at her.

She tied the robe around her and walked toward him. ”What does he say?”

He handed her the note and she read it swiftly. A feeling of elation ran through her. There was something about Rock and his devotion to Johnny that she was afraid of. She gave it back to him. ”It's funny, he didn't say anything last night,” she said.

”Yes,” he said slowly, ”it is funny.” He laughed shortly. ”I feel strange.”

She had turned and was running a comb through her hair. At his words she turned back to him. ”How?”

He was uncomfortable. ”This is the first time since the war Rock hasn't been around.”

She came to him and put her arms around him. ”You don't need him any more, darling,” she said. ”Now you've got me.”

He smiled down at her and kissed the lobe of her ear where it peeked out from under her hair. ”It's not that, sugar,” he said. ”It's something else.” There was a guilty feeling inside him. Strangely he couldn't help thinking he had let Rock down.

She snuggled closer to him. ”What else?”

He laughed embarra.s.sedly. ”Like who's going to drive the car to take us out to Peter's house this morning?” and was ashamed of his words as soon as they were out of his mouth, for that wasn't the way he felt at all.

She kissed him. ”I'm quite talented, darling,” she said, taking him at his word. ”I can drive, too.”

She was curious about Peter and his family and asked him many questions about them as they drove out to his house. She asked him so many questions he didn't realize most of them were about Doris.

At last he turned to her and laughed. ”Don't be such a busybody, you'll meet them for yourself in a few minutes.”

She kept her eye on the road. ”I'm only asking because they have known you so much longer than I,” she said in a hurt tone of voice. ”And I wonder if they'll like me.”

He kissed her cheek. ”Stop acting, darling,” he said, smiling. ”You know they'll love you.”

She drove silently, following his directions. She was no fool. When she had made up her mind to marry Johnny she decided to learn all she could about him. Warren had told her as much as he knew. She added to that by careful questioning of some friends of hers who worked on theatrical papers. From them she had learned all about Peter and his family. She had especially been interested in Doris. An instinct told her to learn more about Doris. She had checked and found out that Doris had written a novel that had been published just a few months before. She read the book. When she finished it she knew she was right about Doris. The man in the story was enough like Johnny to be him.

Johnny's voice interrupted her thoughts. ”This last turn here and we're right at the house.”

She looked at him. His face was intent, watching the side of the road for the first sign of Peter's home. There was also a look of happy antic.i.p.ation there. For a moment she was very fond of him. He was such a nice guy; he had acted toward her like a schoolboy with his first love. She took a hand off the wheel and placed it on his. ”Happy, Johnny?” she asked.

He looked at her. ”What do you think?” he asked in return, squeezing her hand.

Doris looked at them blankly. Her mind was still numb, her heart seemed to have turned into a lump of ice within her breast.

His words still hung in the air. ”We were married last night!”

She watched her father jump up and go around the table and excitedly pump his hand. Hours seemed to go by. What was Johnny saying? She tilted her head a little to one side as if to hear better. He was talking to her. Desperately she tried to hear him.

”Ain't you comin' over and kiss your Uncle Johnny?” he was asking as if she were a little girl.

Stiffly she got to her feet. She wished she was a little girl again. Little girls didn't hurt inside the way she did.

8.

Conrad von Elster put his elbows on his desk and his head in his hands and stared at the photographs spread out before him. He was unhappy. And he was worried too. He was looking for a woman and couldn't find one.