The White Voyage Read Online Free PDF Page B

and she licked Nadya’s face.
    ‘A little walk,’ Nadya said. ‘A little fresh air before dinner, eh?’
    Katerina dropped back on all fours and ambled along the deck. The crew parted to give her room. A couple of them went round the other side of the hatch, and started to clean out the cage.
    ‘Do you like her?’ Mary asked.
    Annabel said: ‘I think so.’
    ‘She’s quite tame, you know.’
    Mouritzen, approaching from behind, put his hand on Annabel’s head.
    ‘Very tame,’ he agreed. ‘She’s a fine bear, too, isn’t she? Four years old. She is in her prime.’
    ‘They’ve travelled on the
Kreya
before?’ Mary said.
    ‘The Simanyis? They came out with us, in April.’
    ‘They seem nice people. And the girl is very good-looking.’
    ‘Nadya? Yes.’
    Nadya led the bear along the deck in their direction. They both had, Mouritzen thought, the same kind of awkward, powerful grace. He lifted Annabel up on top of the hatch cover.
    ‘I’m not frightened,’ she said.
    ‘Of course not. But you can see better there.’
    Mrs Simanyi was standing on the little promenade deck above and behind them. She called out to Nadya and threw an apple, which Nadya caught with her left hand. She held it in the air above the bear’s head, and Katerina rose on her hind legs and took it. Over her shoulder, Nadya called to Mouritzen:
    ‘Hello, there Lieutenant! I have had no chance to talk with you yet.’
    ‘I was on duty last night,’ Mouritzen said. ‘This morning, too.’
    Nadya let her eyes rest on the woman standing beside him.
    ‘I did not ask for reasons.’ She smiled. ‘Have you thought of us – me and Katerina – on your voyages?’
    ‘Of course. How could I not?’
    ‘We have thought of you. Katerina was sick, pining for you, I think. She is very faithful, this bear.’
    ‘She may be contented,’ Mouritzen said. ‘Since she left, there has been no other bear in my life.’
    ‘But you do not even come to embrace her!’
    Smiling, Mouritzen advanced towards Nadya and the bear, whose jaws were still working on the apple. Nadya jerked the lead slightly and Katerina turned clumsily round to meet him. She put her paws up to his shoulders, as she had done with Nadya, and reached forward to lick his face. There was laughter and some cheers from the crew members, who had moved up behind them. Mouritzen craned his neck to keep his face away from the wet tongue.
    ‘There!’ Nadya said. ‘He does not love you. He turns away from your kiss because he has found someone he likes better. It is so with men. Come to me; come to your Nadya, who loves you always!’
    She pulled the bear back towards her and leaned forward into an embrace. There was a mock sensuality in the way she pressed her body against the bear’s and moved her head in a semblance of ecstasy, rubbing her face against Katerina’s jaw. But the mockery had its deeper significance and purpose; Mouritzen felt a quickening of excitement as he watched her. She looked at him over the bear’s shoulder again, her eyes now dreamy, half-closed.
    Mary said: ‘It’s a very tame bear, isn’t it?’
    ‘Yes,’ Mouritzen said. ‘But basically still a wild animal, you understand.’ He took her arm. ‘We must not be misled by the clever tricks.’
----
    Annabel was delighted with the shower, which had great convoluted iron pipes painted white, patches of orange rust showing through, and was enclosed by plastic curtains. Mary had some difficulty in getting her out of it. At last she had the small body clothed in her pyjamas and lying peacefully in her bunk. She read a chapter to her from the book she had brought,
The Little Dutch Boy
. When she had finished, she asked:
    ‘You are going to be a little Dutch girl, you know. Will you like that?’
    ‘I don’t know. Why couldn’t we have stayed at home?’
    ‘Things were difficult.’
    ‘What was difficult?’
    ‘You couldn’t understand if I told you.’
    ‘Tell me. I will understand.’
    ‘You will