Читать книгу An Affair of State онлайн

78 страница из 86

At four he woke her with his lips, and she responded to him, her eyes still closed.

"One for the road?" she whispered.

"One for the road."

They left her apartment at five, at an hour when all else in the city was still, and even the drying August leaves slept silent, waiting for the morning breeze from the river to shake them into life. They walked together without speaking, their footsteps strangely distinct on the empty pavement, her hand under his elbow, her shoulder pressed close to his arm. Jeff's legs felt hollow and numb. They didn't feel like part of him. They moved of themselves.

He thought, this is a dream. I'm going to wake up in a minute and find I've got what's left of the night to toss and want her, and try to bring back this dream. She didn't call me. I didn't possess her all the night. Girls like her don't do things like that for guys like me.

He saw a bus stop ahead, on Dupont Circle, and heard the squeal of its brakes. This was real, all right, but it didn't seem credible that she should be walking at his side now, and in twenty-four hours he would be in Budapest. It was unreal and frightening that he might never have her again. He would not come home for three years, and in that time anything could happen, and something was almost sure to happen. Now that she had overcome her fear, conquered her phobia, she might find someone else. Probably would. Almost certainly would.