O'hara's Choice - Leon Uris [153]
The immediate situation called for fresh air and a rasher of bacon. Zach followed himself down a set of swaying stairs. Mr. Prichard nodded almost bashfully as Zach bumbled his way outside, attaching himself to the fence. Between gasps of pain and gasps of wonderment, Zachary O’Hara near broke into tears at the thought of his new life. For the hundredth time, he assured himself that in order to purge his da’s secret, he had made an honorable decision to leave the Corps. Yet something annoyed him. Perhaps it was just touchiness. She seemed to have things so well planned out—where they would sail, where they would land, and how they would live thereafter. He’d given it all to her, but somehow a bit of a nasty urge crept in from Amanda’s vibrancy.
A distant sound.
Zach heard something from the direction of Quantico. The horse Marines were not in a class with the army cavalry, but, by God, they had their own prance and smell. The oils and liniment they mixed were different from the army stuff and . . . What the hell, I don’t smell anything.
Colors! Little Zach O’Hara was whisked from his feet to his da’s shoulders as the color guard lowered the standard and that certain stillness followed by an instant of grace. Da’s eyes met those of his son. They said nothing, but Zach always remembered the smell of saddle soap and the liniment on Da’s hands as the last of the horsemen trotted by.
This time the stairs got him and he was out of it as he hit the pillow.
He felt over the bed. Amanda was not there. Zach bolted up, then saw her sitting across the room. The basin was filled. He dunked his face, cleared his head, and saw her dressed and sitting there.
Zach scratched his belly and cracked his back and allowed himself a huge “phew.”
. . . then noticed Amanda had not budged in her seat, her back erect and she was dressed to go.
He knew the next five minutes were going to be the worst of his life.
“I know you are leaving me,” she said. “We are not going off together.”
Zach stood up, shocked.
“What the hell is coming off!” he demanded.
“You tell me,” she said.
“How can you know something like that when I don’t know that myself?”
“Oh, I’ve known since I rushed past you when you were guarding the secretary of the navy’s office, over four years ago.”
“You’re thinking like a crazy woman. Paddy O’Hara no longer has his hold on me,” Zach cried. “We can live the life we’re both hungering for.”
“All I really begged of God was for us to have our time in Nebo.” The words stuck, trying to find their way out of Amanda’s wavering voice. From the first night at Nebo, the game had changed forever. Not only had she conquered this grand fellow but more. Now she’d carve him into the perfect cavalier, walking one step to her rear, and after one month or two or three, he would begin to lose his steel and would submit, always submit.
Amanda had bedeviled herself into believing that their union was equal, but it never had been so since the first day in the secretary of the navy’s office. Amanda’s will was insatiable. It was like her to be so. No kind tears for the Marine Corps now. She’d won the field.
“I’m going alone,” she said tersely.
The pallor of the moment lingered. Zach tried to come to her but was unable to move.
“Come on, Zach,” she cried. “Lift me up in your arms and carry me away.”
“I can’t,” he cried. “What the hell’s the matter with me?” He was still unable to move; her command flooded him. “You are dismissing me,” he said.
Her answer: “Or are you dismissing me?”
“Why,” he cried, “why, why, why?”
“You’ve drunk your fill from the most potent cup of all. You are smitten by the aphrodisiac of a patriot. That is how men like you come about.”
Their time was done.
“What will you do?”
“I’ll cry for a year and a day or however long it takes, and then I’ll wake up one morning and it will be different, and I’ll get along and see what there is. I’ll make out fine. I’ll live a worthy life.”
He dared gaze upon her and he gave