Redemption - Leon Uris [323]
“Oh, my dear chap.”
“I tried to carry on before bringing this up, but I’m afraid the way it’s going, I won’t be able to carry out my duties much longer.”
“This is a bloody blow, Landers!”
“When the old vision started getting more blurry, I conferred with Wandsworth Hospital in London. My doctor there tells me there are two medical facilities the Army has, as well as a very fine civilian surgeon in Scotland, who specializes in concussive optic nerve damage. It appears that medical advances are coming forth by leaps and bounds, as they are apt to do in a war. I’m afraid I’m going to ask to be released from your command as soon as it is convenient.”
“Hell, it never will be convenient, but we can’t have you walking around with a cane.”
“Thankyou, sir.”
“Sign off with Colonel Hunt and get to England as soon as you can.”
“God bless you, General. I thought I’d travel to England via Belfast after I visit Lady Caroline.”
“Does she know?”
“No, sir. I couldn’t tell her this time. She’s had so much grief. I hope she finds some real happiness soon.”
“Yes,” the General said, “so do I.”
85
The sliding section of the roof opened.
“Are you down there?” Atty called.
“Aye, I’ll send the ladder up,” Rory said.
He set it into position, then he realized he had a clear look up her skirt. He satisfied himself with a quick glimpse, then turned his head away and steadied the ladder with his good hand. Atty caught the by-play and she smiled to herself.
How many times had she come down the ladder to Conor that he ran his hand clear up her leg or she leapt into his arms and pushed him over on the bed.
“Been waiting long?” she asked.
“Not to bother,” Rory said.
“The trouble with safe-house life is the waiting. I thought I spotted a couple of detectives canvassing the Tara Street Station. It took a while before I could get into the tunnel.”
They sized one another up with an unspoken overlay from the previous meeting. They knew that personal animus had to be set aside.
“We’re in,” Atty said.
Rory shook his head and let the built-up anxiety ebb. “Let me catch my breath.”
“Aye.”
“We’re not moving any too soon on this. Brodhead and staff are starting to draw up a master plan for the pacification of Ireland by the numbers…and it’s ugly.”
Atty automatically made tea. Making tea in hideaways was a way of life returned. Once she could follow Long Dan Sweeney by his trail of dirty teacups.
“I have to know, Atty, if this decision comes from you and Theo alone or if it has the approval of the Brotherhood.”
“I have been able to contact eight people, the highest-ranking survivors of the Rising, and the ones who will most likely make up at least part of the Supreme Council. It is as official as I can get.”
“How did you put the proposition to them?”
“I didn’t name Brodhead. I said we’ve a fair whack at an important British official. Yea or nay. The vote was ten to nothing, including Theo and myself.”
“Caroline came to the Merrion Square townhouse last night, saw me for a few hours, and returned to Belfast after midnight. We went over it hard to make certain she was making the right decision. She’s a contained woman, much like yourself, but, as the reality of Brodhead gets closer, the rage is unlike anything I’ve ever known before.”
Rory paced, so much like Conor, clarifying his thoughts.
“From the moment of the Gallipoli Commission of Inquiry when she knew Brodhead was lying, she began to set out her snares. When he came to call on her after Gallipoli, she held him blameless, which took a bit of doing. Bit by bit she’s been putting…shall I say delicious moves on him. The stars are lined up right. She’s been a long-standing fantasy of his. His own marriage is a shipwreck.”
“I can’t believe that Brodhead isn’t suspicious.”
“Why? His past experience with women shows him using Asian girls as concubines, mistresses, or whores, sort of par for the course out in the colonies. I don’t think