Part 33 (1/2)
”Let me get you some food,” Jacob said uneasily.
”No. Do you know what I need more than anything else at this moment?”
”No. What?”
”Just the touch of a human hand. Just to tell me that my eyes and ears are not deceiving me, that I am not alone.”
He sat beside her on the couch and gently took her hand between his two.
”If they could see me,” she said, tears hanging on her lower lashes.
”Who?”
”The old men of the Kremlin. They would laugh. The great Polish marshal asking a man to hold her hand because she fears being alone.”
”It must have been rough,” Jacob said.
”It didn't seem so at the time,” she said musingly. ”I was alone, and that was the situation, and there was nothing to do, short of giving up, but go on.” She sighed shudderingly. ”My mother told me when I was just a girl, Theresita, don't try to be a boy. You are a girl, and you should act like a girl.' And now, ratherbelatedly, I feel very girlish and weepy and-” Her eyes-went wide. ”I'm taking advantage. Your wife-”
”I have no wife,” Jacob said.
”Please don't think-”
”I'm thinking nothing. If I'd been alone in the jungle for months, then with those Whorsk things, I'd probably be yelling for pain pills and the nearest psychiatrist and hanging onto your skirt screaming.”
She laughed, hiccuped with a sob, and burst into a very unfeminine spasm of giant, racking sobs.
Jacob whispered soothing sounds into her ear, enfolding her, holding her tightly. ”Hush, now. You're safe with us.”
It went on for perhaps a full minute, then she swallowed hard.
”All right,” she said, straightening. ”That's that. Thank you for your shoulder.”
”Any time,” he a.s.sured her.
”Now I am going to see if this great American settlement has gallons and gallons of hot water.”
”Okay. Sounds reasonable,” he said, thankful she had gotten herself under control. He was afraid he'd have to send for a medic.
”Where do they keep the towels?”
He went into the bath and opened the linen cabinet. There was a stock of neatly folded towels. In a drawer beside the cabinet Jackie had left some plain, serviceable nightgowns. He selected one, handed it to Theresita, and turned to leave.
”Commander?” she said, panic in her voice.
”Yes?” he asked, turning.
”I'm not going to cry anymore.”
”Good.”
”May I ask you to do something very silly?”
He grinned. ”If it's not too silly.”
”I'm not really trying to seduce you...”
He waved one hand at her in negation.
”Stay until I'm out of the shower?”
”Sure.” He mixed a drink. He was remembering how she looked there on that beach as she ran toward him-lithe, a big woman, big woman's body without an ounce of fat, long-legged and graceful, and how she had felt in his arms. Oddly enough, he felt no heat, no desire, only a musing appreciation of beauty.
The shower ran, a roar of distant rain. And he grinned as she suddenly burst into song, singing a Red Army marching cadence in Russian.
After a while the shower stopped and then, five minutes later, the door opened. She had fluffed up her short, chopped hair and was wearing one of Jackie's gowns, which failed totally to conceal her slim waist, her outthrust of hip, her proud b.r.e.a.s.t.s. She seemed to be suddenly aware of her body. The gown, thin, showed the browner areolas, the thrust of nipples, the prominent vee of her pelvic bone. She walked swiftly to the bed and threw back the coverings. ”Ah, clean sheets. ” She slipped in, and pulled the sheets up to her neck.
”All snug?” he asked, standing.
”Very.” She nodded in the manner of the Whorsk without realizing it.
”Okay. Look, there's the communicator on the table. Just press the red b.u.t.ton, and you'll get the duty officer. If you need me, my quarters are still here on the s.h.i.+p.”
”Thank you.”
”Have a nice nap.”
He had opened the door and turned around to look at her. Her eyes were wide, and there was an odd look on her face.
”Not yet, huh?” he asked. He walked back to the bed, pulled up a chair, and reached under the cover to take her right hand in his. ”All right, I'll stay right here until you're sleeping.”
”I feel so stupid.” Tears welled up in her eyes.
”Close your eyes.”
”Yes, sir.”
He looked at her. Her round face was deeply tanned and totally unlined, yet she had to be at least in her late thirties to have attained such high military rank. As he looked, she started s.h.i.+vering.
”Are you cold?” he asked.
She didn't open her eyes. ”Once we jumped by parachute into the snow on a training exercise,” she said. ”The drifts were ten feet deep in places. The temperature was twenty below.Then I was cold.”
”And now? Want me to get another blanket?”
”How far will your patience last with me?” she asked with a sigh, opening her eyes. ”No, no blanket.
We slept in arctic tents. The small heaters we carried in our packs were almost worthless. We had only one way to keep warm in the night. Two crowded into one arctic sleeping bag, then we were warm.” Now ain't that a kick? he thought.I'm actually jealous .
”I was a captain then,” she continued. ”My second in command was a young lieutenant from Orel. We had to give signals when we wanted to turn over, for there was only room to sleep spoon fas.h.i.+on. He had the hottest body I have ever touched. And he was so polite. He would say, 'Comrade Captain, may we turn now, please?' And once in his sleep he put his arm around me and woke up and spent the next ten minutes apologizing. It was so cold.” She toughed. ”The poor boy would have been shocked had he knownmy thoughts.”