O'hara's Choice - Leon Uris [106]
Lily lifted her feet and lay back on the couch.
“Once upon a time,” she said, “I fell madly, madly in love with a Russian concert pianist. He took me places that shattered my fantasy of my own perfection. He turned me into a bitch in heat . . . a dribbling, streaky-faced, jealous clinger . . .”
“Go on,” Zach said.
“I never understood the agony you can put yourself through when you lose control. I was so crushed that my doctor and I concocted a story that I had respiratory problems and needed to go to a sanitarium in Switzerland to recover. It was the beginning and end of love affairs I could not walk away from. Life as Baroness Lilly Villiard is plenty good enough for me.
“From the start, even with your American naïveté, I knew you would be trouble. So? I am court-trained to give a man pleasure, but once in a while I get fringe benefits from that rare lover, the equal-pleasure partner. You were daring me into strange places and I came close to letting go a few times. What a mess that would have been.”
She sat up. “Are you hungry, Zach?”
“I’m fine.”
“What did Amanda Kerr make of your performance at the casino?”
“She chewed me out and dismissed me.”
“I don’t believe you,” Lilly said.
“Makes no difference,” he answered. “I’m going to be confined to quarters. I have to finish my job. I can’t bungle it.”
“And she loves you very much.”
“It has to pass. I’m going to be shipped out after I turn in my report. Probably sea duty.”
“You don’t mean to see her again?”
“No, I don’t.”
“I don’t believe you.”
“I have a thirty-day furlough coming,” he spurted unintentionally.
“And the two of you are going to do something desperate, aren’t you?”
Zach need not have given an answer. He was wearing it.
“Do you wish to marry?”
“We can’t. She is underage and her father will never give permission, so neither will the Corps.”
“Running off is even crazier.”
“We can’t help ourselves. She is strong and capable. She’ll get through and carry on.”
“And Lieutenant O’Hara?”
“We will have our time together.”
“To what avail? A court-martial?”
“If need be.”
“Sergei Zolofskovitch loved me in the same way. He was willing to leave his wife for me, and take my children. We’d have a villa in Spain or Italy and be a gossip piece for the rest of our lives. Had I your courage, I would have become the mistress of a crazy Russian. When he played a concert he’d transform his audience and bring them to tears of exaltation. That was the way he made love as well.”
“Ever sorry?”
“No, I would have ended up a drunk or a dope fiend.”
She lay back on the sofa and Zach stretched near her on the floor. She gave him a cushion and her hand dangled down, able to stroke his hair.
“Papa George does not want to lose your friendship.”
“I’m glad for that.”
“Zach?”
“Aye?”
“Have you made love to Amanda yet?”
“No.”
“It is really a dangerous game you are playing.”
“We realize that.”
“God, the places you will take each other.”
• 32 •
COME YE THANKFUL
Autumn 1891
Everyone close to the boating scene speculated that the Kerr brothers and their mongrel yawl, Lochinvar III, were up to some mischief.
Yachtsmen, when not racing, were the friendliest of old-boys’- club sorts. Donald and Malcolm Kerr were as friendly as any chaps whose crooked fingers ever held a gin glass.
This year at anchor, Lochinvar III had an armed crew aboard. At dockside there was a constant flow of new sails, masts, lines, rigging being delivered, and they were taking the boat out twice the number of times usual.
Horace was the motivator. Poor old dear was looking for speed, but a Scottish schooner could fart only so fast.
The Kerrs did draw raised eyebrows as the Newport fleet sailed south or up into dry dock. Horace Kerr was remaining at Tobermory for Thanksgiving and brazenly announced he was going to make a run to Immigrant Reef.
The damned fool was going into rough seas and flirting with a nor’easter. It was a reckless side of