The Deadly Embrace Read Online Free PDF Page B

Times or playing chess against an imaginary opponent on the board that occupied a corner of his desk. Then he would receive a written message and bolt out the door, disappearing for hours at a time before returning to resume the same indolent schedule.
    Charlie waited until they were alone one afternoon and made a halfhearted play for her. She told him firmly but in a kindly way that she wasn’t interested. He retreated with the look of a chastened puppy.
    The first few days passed in the same predictable but reassuring routine. Each morning, she would awake in the darkness, walk to SHAEF in the darkness, leave to go home in the darkness, and go to sleep in the darkness as soon as she had undressed and taken her nightly bath in unheated water. There was an air raid almost every night, but the bombers were again focusing their attacks on the docks of East London.
    She happened to be in the ladies’ bathroom at work one morning when Joss Dunbar came in and went straight to one of the sinks. After removing a handkerchief from her blouse, she ran cold water over it and held the cool compress to her forehead.
    “Are you all right?” asked Liza.
    “Just a touch of influenza, I think,” she said, her eyes tightly shut. Liza was standing alongside her when the girl uttered a sigh and her knees buckled. Liza caught Joss as she fell, eased her to the floor, and then felt for her pulse. It was slow and steady. The girl regained consciousness a few seconds later.
    “What happened?” she asked, looking up at Liza, her blue eyes muddled with confusion.
    “You fainted, Joss.”
    “I’ve never done that before,” she said, moving to sit up.
    Perspiration dotted her forehead at the hairline.
    “Have you been eating?” asked Liza.
    “Yes. I’m always hungry these days,” said Joss.
    She swayed unsteadily in Liza’s arms after regaining her feet.
    “I still feel quite nauseous,” she moaned.
    With a tremulous shudder, she turned and vomited into the sink. Liza held her shoulders until she had finished and rinsed out her mouth.
    “Have you considered the possibility that you’re pregnant?” Liza asked gently.
    As she watched, the confusion in the young woman’s eyes turned into a look of wonderment, followed by a smile of unbridled happiness.
    “Could it be possible?” Joss’s face turned giddy. “Please don’t tell anyone. Oh, that it could be true. I only … Swear you won’t tell anyone, Liza—swear to me.”
    “Of course I won’t tell anyone,” she said, noting that Joss wore no rings on her delicate fingers, and no jewelry of any kind except for a small gold locket on a thin chain. Joss’s fingers now flew to it and clasped the locket tightly.
    “Do you have a doctor?” asked Liza.
    “Of course … except … Don’t worry, I’ll have a test.”
    Back in the office, Liza buried herself in the remaining pile of letters for the rest of that day and the next. By Thursday evening, she had finished the last letter. Dozens of them were separated from the others, all flagged with neatly organized adhesive stickers. Calling for a courier, she sent the separate padlocked bags back upstairs.
    On Friday morning, she received a brief note from one of the junior officers who served under Major Taggart in the security command. It expressed his appreciation for her “gung ho” spirit in helping with the mail, and praised the thoroughness with which she had reviewed the correspondence. Accompanying the note was another mailbag, fully as large as the first one.
    She plunged right into the next batch, privately hoping that something would happen to relieve her temporarily of the monotonous drudgery, but still glad to have work to fill her waking hours. She had already come to embrace fully the English notion of teatime, and was enjoying that respite on Friday afternoon when Charlie turned to Joss and said, “I’m heading down to Rawcliff for the weekend. Sure you wouldn’t like to join me? Country air might do you