The Sheltering Sky - Bowles, Paul [15]
“Really?” she said, turning back to the mirror. “He can’t have had much sleep, then, because he’s already gone out.”
“You mean he hasn’t come in yet,” said Tunner, staring at her intently.
She did not answer. “Will you push that button there, please?” she said presently. “I think I’ll have a cup of their chicory and one of those plaster croissants.”
When she thought enough time had passed, she wandered into Port’s room and glanced at the bed. It had been turned down for the night and not touched since. Without knowing precisely why, she pulled the sheet all the way down and sat on the bed for a moment, pushing dents in the pillows with her hands. Then she unfolded the laid-out pajamas and dropped them in a heap at the foot. The servant knocked at her door; she went back into her room and ordered breakfast. When the servant had left she shut the door and sat in the armchair by the window, not looking out.
“You know, Tunner said musingly, “I’ve thought a lot about it lately. You’re a very curious person. It’s hard to understand you.”
Kit clicked her tongue with exasperation. “Oh, Tunnet! Stop trying to be interesting.” Immediately she blamed herself for showing her impatience, and added, smiling: “On you it looks terrible.”
His hurt expression quickly changed into a grin. “No, I mean it. You’re a fascinating case.”
She pursed her lips angrily; she was furious, not so much because of what he was saying, although she considered it all idiotic, but because the idea of having to converse with him at all right now seemed almost more than she could bear. “Probably,” she said.
Breakfast arrived. He sat with her while she drank her coffee and ate her croissant. Her eyes had assumed a dreamy expression, and he had the feeling that she had completely forgotten his presence. When she had nearly finished her breakfast, she turned to him and said politely: “Will you excuse me if I eat?”
He began to laugh. She looked startled.
“Hurry up!” he said. “I want to take you out for a walk before it gets too hot. You had a lot of stuff on your list anyway.”
“Oh!” she moaned. “I don’t feel-” But he cut her short. “Come on, come on. You dress. I’ll wait in Port’s room. I’ll even shut the door.”
She could think of nothing to say. Port never gave her orders; he hung back, hoping thereby to discover what she really wanted. He made it more difficult for her, since she seldom acted on her own desires, behaving instead according to her complex system of balancing those omens to be observed against those to be disregarded.
Tunner had already gone into the adjacent room and closed the door. It gratified Kit to think that he would see the disheveled bedclothes. As she dressed she heard him whistling. “A bore, a bore, a bore!” she said under her breath. At that moment the other door opened; Port stood there in the hall, running his left hand through his hair.
“May I come in?” he asked.
She was staring at him.
“Well, obviously. What’s the matter with you?”
He still stood there.
“What in God’s name’s wrong with you?” she said impatiently.
“Nothing.” His voice rasped. He strode to the center of the room and pointed to the closed connecting door. “Who’s in there?”
“Tunner,” she said with unfeigned innocence, as if it were a most natural occurrence. “He’s waiting for me while I get dressed.”
“What the hell goes on here?”
Kit flushed and turned away vehemently. “Nothing. Nothing,” she said quickly. “Don’t be crazy. What do you think goes on, anyway?”
He did not lower his voice. “I don’t know. I’m asking you.
She pushed him in the chest with her outspread hands and walked toward the door to open it, but he caught her arm and pulled her around.
“Please stop it!” she whispered furiously.
“All right, all right. I’ll open the door myself,” he said, as if by allowing her to do it he might be running too great a risk.
He went into his room. Tunner was leaning out the