Eagle in the Sky - Smith Wilbur - Страница 27

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the military.

At the last count we have five generals and eighteen colonels on the

list, Joe told him, to which add most of the cabinet, even Golda has

promised to try and be there.  So you see, it's going to make a nice

juicy target for our friends in Black September.  Joe scowled and lit

two cigarettes, passing one to David.  If it wasn't for Hannah, you know

how women feel about weddings, I would just as soon go down to a

registry office.  You are fooling nobody, David grinned.  You are

looking forward to it.  Sure, Joe's scowl cleared.  It's going to be

good to have our own place, like you and Debs.  I wish Hannah had been

sensible.  A year of pretending, he shook his head.  Thank God it's

nearly over.

He dropped Joe in the lane outside the Brig's house in Em Karem.

I won't bother to invite you in, Joe said.  I guess you've got plans.

Good guess, David smiled.  Will we see you and Hannah?  Come to dinner

tomorrow night.

Joe shook his head again.  I'm taking Hannah down to Ashkelon to visit

her parents graves.  It's traditional before a wedding.  Perhaps we'll

see you Saturday Right then, I'll try and make it.  Debra will want to

see you.  aloin, Joe.  Shalom, shalom, said Joe and David pulled away,

flicking the gears in a racing change as he put the Mercedes at the

hill.  Suddenly he was in a hurry.

The terrace door stood open in welcome, and she was waiting for him.

Debra was vibrant and tense with expectation, sitting in one of the new

leather chairs with her legs curled under her.  Her hair was freshly

washed and shimmering like a starling's wing.  She was dressed in a

billowing kaftan of light silk and subtle honey colours that picked out

the gold in her eyes.

She came out of the chair in a swirl of silk, and ran barefooted across

the rugs to meet him.

David!  David!  she cried and he caught her up and spun on his heels,

laughing with her.

Afterwards she led him proudly about the rooms and showed him the

changes and additions that had turned it into a real home during his

absence.  David had convinced her that cost was not fundamental and they

had chosen the designs for the furniture together.  These had been made

and delivered by Debra's tame Arab and she had arranged them as they had

planned it.  It was all in soft leather and dark wood, lustrous copper

and brass, set off by the bright rugs.  However, there was one article

he had never seen before, a large oil painting on canvas, and Debra had

hung it unframed on the freshly painted white wall facing the terrace.

It was the only decoration upon the wall, and any other would have been

insignificant beside it.

It was a harsh dominant landscape, a desert scene which captured the

soul of the wilderness; the colours; were hot and fierce and seemed to

pour through the room like the rays of the desert sun itself.

Debra held his hand and watched David's face anxiously for a reaction as

he studied it.  Wow!  He said at last.  You like it?  She was relieved.

It's terrific.  Where did you get it?  'A gift from the artist.

She's an old friend.  'She?  That's right.  We are driving up to

Tiberias tomorrow to have lunch with her.  I've told her all about you,

and she wants to meet you.  'What's she like?  She's one of our leading

artists, and her name is Ella`Kadesh, but apart from that I can't begin

to describe her.

All I can do is promise you an entertaining day.  Debra had prepared a

special dish of lamb and olives and they ate it on the terrace under the

olive tree.  Again the talk turned to Joe's wedding, and in the midst of

it David asked abruptly, What made you decide to come with me, without

marrying?  She replied after a moment.  I I discovered that I loved you,

and I knew that you were too impatient to play the waiting game.  I knew

that if I didn't, I might lose you again.  Until recently, I didn't

realize what a big decision it was, he mused, and she sipped her wine

without replying.  Let's get married, Debs, he broke the silence.  Yes,

she nodded.

That's a splendid idea.  'Soon, he said.  Soon as possible.  Not before

Hannah.  I don't want to steal her day from her.

Right, David agreed, but immediately afterwards.  Morgan, you have got

yourself a date, she told him.

it was a three-hour drive to Tiberias so they rose as soon as the sun

came through the shutters and tigerstriped the wall above the brass bed.

To save time, they shared one bath, sitting facing each other,

waist-deep in suds.

Ella is the rudest person you'll ever meet, Debra warned him.  She

looked like a little girl this morning with her hair piled on top of her

head and secured with a pink ribbon.  The greater the impression you

make on her, the ruder she will be, and you are expected to retaliate in

kind.  So please, David, don't lose your temper.

David scooped up a dab of suds with a finger and smeared it on the tip

of her nose.

I promise, he said.

They drove down to Jericho, and then turned north along the valley of

the Jordan, following the high barbedwire fence of the border with its

warning notice boards for the minefields, and the regular motorized

patrols grinding deliberately along the winding road.

It was hot in the valley and they drove with the windows open and Debra

pulled her skirt high around her waist to cool her long brown legs.

Better not do that if you want to be in time for lunch, David warned

her, and she smoothed them down hurriedly.

Nothing is safe with you around, she protested.

They came at last out of the barren land into the fertile basin of the

Kibbutzim below Galilee, and again the smell of orange blossom was so

strong on the warm air that it was difficult to breathe.

At last they saw the waters of the lake flashing amongst the date palms

and Debra touched his arm.

Slow down, Davey.  Ella's place is a few miles this side of Tiberias.

That's the turnoff, up ahead.

It was a track that led down to the lake shore and it ended against a

wall of ancient stone blocks.  Five other cars were parked there

already.

Ella's having one of her lunch parties, Debra remarked and led him to a

gate in the wall.  Beyond was a small ruined castle.  The tumbled walls

formed weird shapes and the stone was black with age; over them grew

flamboyant creepers of bougainvillaea and the tall palms clattered their

fronds in the light breeze that came off the lake.  Other exotic

flowering shrubs grew upon the green lawns.

Part of the ruins had been restored and renovated into a picturesque and

unusual lakeside home, with a wide patio and a stone jetty against which

a motor-boat was moored.  Across the green waters of the lake rose the

dark smooth whale-back of the Golan Heights.

It was a crusader fortress, Debra explained.  One of the guard posts for

traffic across the lake and part of the series leading up to the great

castle on the Horns of Hittern that the Moslems destroyed when they

drove the crusaders out of the Holy Land.  Ella's grandfather purchased

it during the Allenby administration, but it was a ruin until she did it

up after the war of independence.

The care with which the alterations had been made so as not to spoil the

romantic beauty of the site was a tribute to Ella Kadesh's artistic

vision, which was completely at odds with the woman herself.

She was enormous; not simply fat or tall, but big.  Her hands and her

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