“Exhausted by the plaudits of the masses?” he asked.
“I guess. I don’t know. If I didn’t feel so sleepy and so contented, I’d be getting sort of angry, I guess.”
“About what, honey?”
“They act as if they’d never had the slightest doubt about you. Tom Haskell and that insurance man. Don Jennsen too. They act as if it were just a matter of time until it all came out. Heck, I don’t want medals or anything. I don’t want people apologizing to me for the things they said when it looked the worst, but...”
“Just what did put you on the right track, anyway?”
“It was the buildup people gave Lew Marlow. He was supposed to be such a horrible animal, surly and dangerous, and then he couldn’t have been sweeter to me. Courteous and helpful. Like a fool, I thought it was because I was such a nice girl. Until I thought about it the other night when I couldn’t sleep. Why had he been so nice? What was he trying to establish? And then I thought of a good reason for the forced charm, and it just... seemed to fit.”
He shook his head wonderingly. “I give you the John Foley Award for wifemanship. For unlimited incredulity.”
“For tiger blood?”
“Of the most savage and stubborn variety.”
“It’s not much fun being a tiger. It’s lonely work.” She tried to smile, but it was a small and crooked effort.
He took her hand. “What’s wrong?”
“I... I don’t know, really. This is supposed to be the happy ending, isn’t it? Name cleared, job safe and you’ll be home in ten days. Fade-out with violins. But... oh, I don’t know what’s wrong with me!” Her mouth trembled.
“Maybe the valiant Jane Ann is just fresh out of strength. All used up.”
“More than that, Johnny. Something else. A feeling of having lost something along the way and not knowing what it is.”
“Do you want me to try to tell you?” he asked.
She nodded, her eyes solemn.
“It’s a kind of loss of innocence. For both of us. We had some funny little illusions left — like believing that the world will take you at your own value. But it won’t. We know that now.”
“Then is it just you and me, Johnny? The way I value you and the way you value me?”
“Is that so bad?”
“No. But things can get cruel and cold out there.”
“When you’re alone, Jane Ann.”
She wiped her eyes. “I am a lonely woman in a lonely house, and you’d better come home, I think.”
He reached out and stroked her hair, pulled her close and kissed the salt taste of her lips.
“I shouldn’t come here and snivel at you,” she said.
He kissed her again.
“When I get rested up, I’ll be fine again,” she said.
He kissed her the third time, at greater length.
She sighed, stirred, sat up and looked at him owlishly. “What were we talking about?” she asked.
