“Gin and tonic twice.”
Sutherland arose and walked into the full light. He was wearing a deep red velvet smoking jacket. He settled into a leather chair before the high shelves of books. “Did you see Mark Parker?”
“Yes, sir.”
“What do you think?”
Caldwell shrugged. “On the face of it we certainly can’t accuse him of anything. He is on the way to Palestine … here to see that American nurse, Katherine Fremont.”
“Fremont? Oh yes, that lovely woman we met at the governor’s.”
“So I say, sir, it all appears quite innocent … yet, Parker is a reporter and I can’t forget that trouble he caused us in Holland.”
“Oh, come now,” Sutherland retorted, “we all made blunders in the war. He just happened to catch one of ours. Fortunately our side won, and I don’t think there are ten people who remember.”
The gin and tonics arrived. “Cheers.”
Sutherland set his glass down and patted his white walrus mustache. Fred Caldwell wasn’t satisfied.
“Sir,” he persisted, “in case Parker does become curious and does decide to snoop around, don’t you think it would be wise to have a couple of CID men watching him?”
“See here, you leave him alone. Just tell a newspaperman ‘no’ and you’re apt to stir up a hornet’s nest. Refugee stories are out of style these days and I don’t believe he would be interested in their camps here. None the less we are not going to run the risk of arousing his curiosity by forbidding him to do anything. If you ask me I think it was a mistake for you to see him today.”
“But, Brigadier … after that trouble in Holland …”
“Bring the chess table, Freddie!”
There was something absolutely final about the way Sutherland said “Freddie.” Caldwell grumbled under his breath as they set up the chessmen. They made their opening moves but Sutherland could see that his aide was unhappy. He set down his pipe and leaned back.
“Caldwell, I have tried to explain to you that we are not running concentration camps here. The refugees at Caraolos are merely being detained on Cyprus until those blockheads in Whitehall decide what they are going to do with the Palestine mandate.”
“But those Jews are so unruly,” Caldwell said, “I’m certainly in favor of some good old-fashioned discipline.”
“No, Freddie, not this time. These people are not criminals and they’ve got world sympathy on their side. It is your job and mine to see that there are no riots, no outbreaks, and nothing that can be used as propaganda against us. Do you understand that?”
Caldwell didn’t understand. He damned well thought that the brigadier should be much tougher with the refugees. But no one wins an argument with a general unless he happens to be a bigger general and it was all so deep-so Caldwell moved a pawn forward.
“Your move, sir,” he said.
Caldwell looked up from the board. Sutherland seemed completely withdrawn and oblivious of him. It was happening more and more lately.
“Your move, sir,” Caldwell repeated.
Sutherland’s face was troubled. Poor chap, Caldwell thought. The brigadier had been married to Neddie Sutherland for almost thirty years, and suddenly she had left him and run off to Paris with a lover ten years her junior. It was a scandal that rocked army circles for months, and Sutherland must still be taking it hard. Terrible blow for the brigadier. He had always been such a decent sort of chap. The white face of Sutherland was lined with wrinkles, and little red veins on his nose turned bright. At this moment he looked all of his fifty-five years and more.
Bruce Sutherland was not thinking about Neddie, as Caldwell believed. His mind was on the refugee camps at Caraolos.
“Your move, sir.”
“So shall your enemies perish, Israel . , .” Sutherland mumbled.
“What did you say, sir?”
CHAPTER FIVE: Mark led Kitty back to the table, both of them breathless. “Do you know the last time I danced a samba?” she said.
“You’re not so bad for an old broad.”
Mark looked around the room filled with British officers in their army khakis and navy whites and their high and low English accents. Mark loved places like this. The waiter brought a new round of drinks and they clicked glasses.
“To Kitty … wherever she may be,” Mark said. “Well ma’am, where do you go from here?”
Kitty shrugged, “Golly, I don’t know, Mark. My work is finished at Salonika and I am getting restless. I’ve got a dozen offers I can take around Europe with the United Nations.”
“It was a lovely war,” Mark said. “Lots of orphans.”
“Matter of fact,” Kitty said, “I got a real good offer to stay right here on Cyprus just yesterday.”
“On Cyprus?”
“They have some refugee camps around Famagusta. Anyhow, some American woman contacted me. Seems that the camps are overcrowded and they’re opening new ones on the Larnaca road. She wanted me to take charge.”
Mark frowned.
“That’s one of the reasons I couldn’t meet you at the airport. I went to Famagusta to see her today.”
“And what did you tell her?”
“I told her no. They were Jews. I suppose Jewish children are pretty much like any others but I’d just rather not get mixed up with them. It seems that there’s an awful lot of politics connected with those camps and they’re not under UN auspices.”
Mark was silent in thought. Kitty winked mischievously and waggled a finger under his nose. “Don’t be so serious . . , you want to know the other reason I didn’t meet you at the airport?”
“You’re acting tipsy.”
“I’m starting to feel that way. Well, Mr. Parker, I was in Famagusta seeing my boy friend off. You know me … one lover leaves by ship while another lands by airplane.”
“As long as you brought it up … who was this guy you came to Cyprus with?”
“Wouldn’t you like to know?”
“Uh-huh.”
“Colonel Howard Hillings of the British Army.”
“Anything dirty between you two?”
“Dammit, no. He was so proper it was disgusting.”
“Where did you meet this guy?”
“Salonika. He was in charge of the British mission in the area. When I took over the orphanage we were short of everything … beds, medicine, food, blankets … everything. Anyhow, I went to him and he cut wads of red tape for me and we became friends for ever and ever and ever. He really is a dear man.”
“Go on. It’s getting interesting.”
“He got notice a few weeks ago that he was being transferred to Palestine and he had leave coming and wanted me to spend it with him here. You know, I’d been working so hard I’d completely forgotten I haven’t had a day off in eighteen months. Anyhow, they cut his leave short and he had to report to Famagusta to sail to Palestine today.”
“Future prospects as Mrs. Hillings?”
Kitty shook her head. “I like him very much. He brought me all the way to Cyprus to find the right setting to ask me to marry him …”
“And?”
“I loved Tom. I’ll never feel that way again.”
“You’re twenty-eight years old, Kitty. It’s a good age to retire.”
“I’m not complaining. I’ve found something that keeps me content. Mark, you’re going to Palestine too. There are a lot of officers here leaving for Palestine.”
“There’s going to be a war, Kitty.”
“Why … ? I don’t understand.”
“Oh, lots of reasons. Lot of people around the world have decided they want to run their own lives. Colonies are going out of vogue this century. These boys here are riding a dead-horse. This is the soldier of the new empire,” Mark said, taking a dollar bill from his pocket; “we’ve got millions of these green soldiers moving into every corner of the world. Greatest occupying force you’ve ever seen. A bloodless conquest … but Palestine … that’s different again, Kitty, there’s almost something frightening about it. Some people are out to resurrect a nation that has been dead for two thousand years. Nothing like that has ever happened before. What’s more, I think they’re going to do it. It’s these same Jews you don’t like.”