Leon Uris (37 page)

Ben wondered whose uninvited horse was hitched to his post. He stepped up on his porch and ran directly into Amanda Kerr, fuming with tenacity.

“I would have called you by phone, but our switchboard has an operator on it and I wish to speak privately.”

“I see. It’s chilly out here. You should have waited inside. It’s open.”

“I’d rather not take that liberty.”

“Come in.”

A fire had been laid. Ben set a match to it and rustled up tea. The tea took the chill off.

“I hear your father is sailing to Immigrant Reef.”

“Yes.”

“Nasty business this time of year.”

“I must see Zach,” she said abruptly.

“I thought you two split up?”

“We have, but something unforeseen has come up.”

“Well, you can’t see him. He is confined to quarters. He’s persona non grata.”

Amanda closed her eyes and hit each word, hard. “I . . . must . . . see . . . him.”

“About what?”

“It’s a personal problem about that day at the casino.”

“Oh, that problem. Sorry.”

She insisted, yet again, switching, trying to change her tone. Ben wore no mischievous twinkle this day. He was a sudden, abrupt character she did not know.

“Zach said if I ever got into trouble, I could come to you. You could be trusted.”

“I am his commanding officer, not his uncle Ben.”

“Will you hear me out?”

“Lady, that boy was one punch away from a summary court-martial. Just count his luck, this time.”

Amanda set the beggar in her aside and spoke up with clarity. “I love him!” she said.

“You don’t get it, Miss Kerr. Lieutenant O’Hara is a very gifted young officer. Do you have any idea what he is doing?”

“No, none.”

“The man is working on sensitive material, highly confidential matters. If you really loved him, then you’d leave him alone. He has a big career ahead.”

She stared at the fire, which was popping now. “Sometimes,” she said wistfully, “I wish he was dealing in something other than blood and death.”

“That is right amiable of you. I am from a hillbilly family who ran a station on the underground railroad to help slaves escape. My kin were strung up for it. I know you want to create that perfect world of love and peace for one and all, but it doesn’t work that way. It never has. Thank God we have men like Zach to defend us. Now please leave.”

Amanda stuffed it and stood to go, but was not quite able.

“Zach and I have not been forthcoming,” she blurted.

“What do you mean?”

“I did not send him packing.”

“Zach lied to me?”

“Yes . . .”

“And you lied to your father.”

“Yes . . .”

“He lied to me?”

“Yes.”

“And you’re planning to do something crazy?”

Amanda froze at the door and chewed at her finger . . .

“Come back and sit down,” Ben said.

She did, and looked up at him with Amanda eyes; few had ever seen such a set. She spoke with calm. “Who am I talking to?” she asked.

“Uncle Ben,” he said after a time.

“Sorry, I did not hear you. Who am I talking to, his commander or his uncle Ben?”

“Uncle Ben,” he repeated.

“All right now. At Thanksgiving, my father announced to a huge family gathering that he was turning over the deed for eight hundred acres of land for me to start up a college. And then he pulled Glen Constable to his feet and held our hands up to the crowd, not quite subtle, to say there is going to be a future announcement. I don’t know exactly what he is doing making this sail on the
Lochinvar,
but the way his mind works, it is all part of the same plan.”

Ben’s left hand shook her shoulder.

“What gave Kerr these notions?”

“I promised my father I’d get Zach out of my system.”

“And ascend the bloody throne?”

“Yes.”

“It’s panning out real well. Lies, deceit, conspiracies, the way you people do it.”

“I really tried to stay away from Zach . . . I really tried, Ben.”

“And you want him to go over the hill with you.”

“No, I want him to do his work, and at the end of the year he says he has thirty days’ leave coming.”

“Jesus Christ! How old are you, Amanda?”

“God’s sake, Ben, it’s been three months since the casino. I haven’t seen him or spoken to him or written to him.”

“Get out of his life!”

“No! We are going to have our time togther.”

“Jesus Christ, woman! Where are you going with him?”

No answer.

“Out of state?”

Again, her silence.

“ ‘How do I love thee, let me count the ways.’ Statutory rape, crossing a state line for immoral purposes, kidnapping. Your pictures posted in every post office and railroad station and every bloodhound in the East hunting you down. Jesus Christ, woman! Are you willing to die for this, the two of you?”

“Aye, we are.”

Ben walked to the fire, dazed, poked at it, flopped into his easy chair, and stared at nothing for minute after minute. He found his water pitcher in the icebox and uncaked his throat.

He finally groaned. “I sensed something like this. I’ve spent a lot of nights thinking about you two.”

“Help us!”

Ben knew what would be and his house of cards collapsed.

“There is only one way you can go off together and possibly . . . I mean just possibly, make it stand. Afterward, you may not be able to carry on, together.”

“Just our time, that’s all I beg for.”

“With the way Horace Kerr is tightening the screws, you can’t hold out for another three or four months, either of you. How’s your guts, Amanda?”

“Try me.”

“Here’s what we’ll do. I will keep Zach under house arrest so no one can get near him. You will go to your father now and tell him the
truth, then leave Tobermory and wait for Zach, somewhere. But before you go, tell your father where and when you are going and write a dozen friends and tell them you will be vacationing with Zach, where and when. In that manner, he will not be able to brand you as runaways.”

“I’ll do it.”

“And let your mother know as well.”

“Aye, but I’m not certain of how she’ll respond to this.”

“She must know as well.”

“All right.”

“And you must let Zach go at the end of his furlough. Maybe you can come with him afterward. Maybe you’ll have to wait a long time. Maybe your month will be the end of it.”

“Yes,” she said.

“Swear it on Zach’s life,” Ben said.

“I’ll swear it on my life, not his.”

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If one looked up to Tobermory, he could see that the pumpkins in the windows had been replaced by Christmas wreaths.

If one could look inside the corner apartment on the second story, he’d see an elegant gentleman leaning on the mantel and swirling a snifter of cognac. Across the room, a gorgeous woman in silk taffeta was seated on a large ottoman. Together they made a cameo of beauty, peace, success, and comfort.

Dixie Jane’s absence over Thanksgiving weighed heavily on Glen.

“I had a talk with Nini. The child put on a tantrum. I can’t believe Dixie Jane preferred to stay in Richmond.”

“She is trying to tell anyone who will listen that she does not like being bounced about.”

“I hoped the effects of the divorce would disappear over time.”

“Sometimes they never do. Dixie Jane is in a position not of her
own making, so when she hears anything slightly unpleasant, she takes it as personal rejection.”

“We’ve a beautiful Irish hunter on the farm, as perfect as I’ve ever seen, ready to be saddle-trained. I’m going to pressure Father to let me give the horse to Dixie.”

Pleased with his largesse, Glen rolled a cigar between his palms to soften it. At this time in the procedure, the lady generally took the cigar, nipped the ends, and lit it for him. Lord, even Nini did that! After a moment Glen took the cutter from his vest pocket and did his own decapitating.

“Well, don’t you think this will settle her account? I mean, an Irish hunter of her class.”

“Glen, your family has a very large horse farm. Dixie Jane has been up to the top of her boots in horse caca all her life.”

“Then surely she knows the value of such an animal.”

“She is not looking for something gift-wrapped. She is protesting being abandoned.”

“How the devil can you say that, Amanda? Despite her obvious faults, Nini is a devoted mother. That Dorfman fellow will take some getting used to, but he has a very kindly attitude toward the child. As for me, I intend to spend every living moment making certain she will be with us at Inverness for Christmas.”

Sip, puff, sip, puff.
If only Amanda were not so beautiful!

“I am the one Dixie is protesting to,” she said.

“Yes, to hell, I’ll say it. She wants you, almost as much as I want you.”

Amanda heard and watched his discomfort.

“When I saw you and Dixie wrestle, how I wanted to jump in, and how I prayed I could slow the moments watching you sleep on the beach, and how I loved to watch your eyes stop a man in his tracks. What must I do, Amanda? If we make our engagement announcement over the New Year’s, all the gods will shower the earth with passing comets.”

Amanda went to him and lifted his fallen chin.

“I do not love you, Glen.”

He reached about, light-headed, and backed into the sofa, half his life suddenly sucked from him.

“I know that. I’ve always known, but I know that you will grow to love me. At Christmas . . .”

“We are not going to share Christmas or anything further,” she said.

“O’Hara?”

“Yes.”

“What in the name of God is it that you want!” he cried.

“I need to know that I’ll not have to spend my life turning into every corridor looking for him.”

“I feel totally crushed!”

“I cannot imagine anyone being more cruel to you than I am now. And I’ve badly hurt Dixie Jane.”

“Amanda, I beg you . . .”

“No, Glen. I despise myself. I have used you deliberately, from the beginning.”

“And I’ve used you, Amanda. I used Dixie Jane, praying you’d grow inseparable.”

“I love her and I hurt her,” Amanda said, “but Dixie Jane is not enough. Zach and I tried to purge each other from our souls. We have lost the strength to fight it any longer.”

Glen’s worst fears were here. He floundered about and lost the dignity to stave off a flood of self-pity.

“What a peacock I was to have this magnificent creature on my arm. How I long for your body. See here, gentlemen, I’ll not have you baboons slobbering at the sight of her. Amanda Kerr will be mine, belly, breasts, and ass.”

He grunted, emptied his cognac snifter in a gulp, and nearly gagged over it. “Your father know?”

“He will when he returns from his run to Immigrant Reef.”

The terribleness of the moment hung.

“You are going away with him?”

“I plan to leave my father’s home, forever.”

Glen pressed his hands together in a gesture of prayer. “When
the madness ends, and it will end—when O’Hara is shipped out for months and years and when you’ve spent your passion, I’ll be waiting.”

“I’ll not have you wait. You are too fine a man to take this. In due course, you will come to hate me, and my reputation will be skewered.”

When he realized the full impact of her rejection, his hurt turned to anger.

He suddenly poked out his chin and balled up his fists. “Well, Amanda, it appears you’re well on your way to becoming a Marine’s whore.”

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