Illyrian Summer (3 page)

“
You mean you walked all those miles there
—and
back?
”
she queried.
“
That was twenty miles, you said.
”

“
I didn
’
t pick up a pair of wings on the way and
fly
.
”

“
What about Ricardo?
”

Adam smiled.
“
Oh. I left him in the village nursing his blistered feet. Perhaps it was unkind of me to take him. I brought some food back with me. I couldn
’
t get much in the village at that time of night, but there
’
s bread and meat and some fruit.
”
He unpacked the contents of a small basket.

Having eaten nothing since midday, Sarah was almost ravenous.

The two men took turns to keep watch on the road, but when more than an hour had elapsed without any sign of a car, Adam became uneasy. He scrambled down the slope to join Sarah and Edmund.

“
Either they
’
ve sent the car up the wrong road, although I gave exact directions, or else they haven
’
t bothered to send anything at all.
”
Adam said angrily.

“
What do we do now?
”
queried Edmund.
“
Wait for daylight. I suppose, and hope for the best?
”

“
Hope alone won
’
t get us back to Dubrovnik,
”
Adam retorted testily.
“
Fortunately, I made provisional plans in case anything went wrong. A man in the village has an oxcart, and Ricardo has instructions that if nothing arrives to pick him up by four o
’
clock, then he
’
ll send the oxcart to us. We couldn
’
t expect anyone to send out a pair of oxen in the dark along these roads, but
I
hope Ricardo will remember.
”

Sarah admired Adam
’
s resourcefulness, but she was miserably aware that these plans had been made especially for her benefit. But for her injured knee, she could have walked with the others last night down to the village.

“
I
’
m sorry I
’
ve become a drag on the expedition,
”
she murmured.

In the dark she could not see Adam
’
s face, but several moments elapsed before he answered,
“
It couldn
’
t be helped. Just bad luck.
”

With the approach of dawn, a slight wind sprang up and she began to shiver but she would die of cold rather than complain in Adam
’
s hearing. Yet without any admission on her part he put his jacket over her shoulders. True, it was only a lightweight linen, but his gesture counted more than any additional warmth
.
“
Thank you, Adam,
”
she said quietly, and for the first time noticed how they had slipped so easily into Christian names. But for tonight
’
s rough adventure, they might have continued with
“
Mr. Thorne
”
and
“
Miss Catherall
”
for quite a time.

When the horizon and mountains were outlined in the faint early light, she clambered out of the car and stretched her aching limbs.

“
Could we go to meet the oxcart, do you think?
”
she suggested to the two men.
“
With some help I might be able to walk part of the way to meet it, if not the whole ten miles.
”

“
If Ricardo has let me down and is still sleeping soundly,
”
Adam replied grimly,
“
you have no guarantee that you won
’
t have to walk the whole ten miles.
”

Sarah quailed under his merciless logic. She held on to the car. Even to put the toe of her damaged leg to the ground was agony. She could hardly expect the men to carry her.

“
No,
”
she said, white-faced and trembling.
“
Forget it. We
’
d better wait.
”

She sat down on the hard stony ground and let her mind dwell on wishful fantasies. A nearby stream so that she could put a cold compress on her swollen knee
... a magic piece of camping equipment that would provide hot coffee ... the dream of a bathful of hot, scented water...

When she opened her eyes again, the men were collecting all their belongings that had not been irrevocably damaged.

“
The carriage waits, milady!
”
Edmund shouted to her.

The two men carried her to the road as the cart approached, drawn by a pair of creamy-fawn oxen like outsize Jersey cows. She was hoisted on top of sacks of grain, and Edmund and Adam clambered in after her.

The oxcart owner encouraged his animals with strange high-pitched cries and the cart lurched off.

She calculated that ox miles per hour were about the same as a normal walking pace, and she wondered how she would sustain about three hours
’
jolting.

Adam leaned toward hen
“
How much Serbo-Croatian do you know?
”
he demanded.

“
Only a few words.
‘
Please,
’
‘
thank you,
’
a few numbers and so on.
”

“
Then now
’
s your chance to learn some more.
”

Sarah opened her mouth to protest. What school-masterish mentality the man had that he chose this inappropriate time for a language lesson!

From a sheaf of papers and booklets he extracted a small phrase book and a dictionary.
“
Now, let us discuss the weather,
”
he instructed.
“
It is a fine, sunny morning.
”

He made her repeat phrases and questions, corrected her pronunciation and showed her how the words were spelled.

She was astonished when the plodding oxen reached the outskirts of the village, and only then did she realize how much trouble Adam had taken to make her forget her pain.

Ricardo greeted the party with the news that a car had just arrived from Dubrovnik, thanks to his further telephone messages.
“
They sent one last night,
”
he explained,
“
but the fool went to the wrong village and when nobody arrived he went back to Dubrovnik. Thought it was a false alarm.
”

Sarah was taken to an inn, where she was glad of the chance to wash and tidy herself. Her green linen dress was soiled and crumpled, but at least she could brush her hair and put on fresh lipstick.

While Sarah gratefully drank coffee and ate buttered rolls, the innkeeper
’
s wife applied a heavenly cold compress to her knee and skillfully bandaged it.

“Thank you. That is very kind of you.” Sarah thanked the woman in her newly acquired phrases.

Half the village, it seemed, turned out to wave farewell to the party.

“They ought to have the flags out in Dubrovnik for us,” Edmund muttered.

But on arrival at the hotel, it seemed that criticisms and reproaches took the place of any welcoming celebrations.

When Sarah had bathed and dressed and had her knee attended to by the doctor, she sat on the terrace, and her first visitor was Daniel.

“
I was worried out of my wits about you,
”
he complained after the first solicitous inquiries about her leg.

“
I don
’
t suppose you missed me,
”
she answered, smiling up at him.

“
Of course I missed you! How was I to know you
’
d go chasing off with Edmund and that Thorne chap, especially when we
’
d planned to have a day together?
”

“
I left you a message,
”
Sarah protested.

“
I don
’
t know how to take you, Sarah. One minute I think we
’
re getting along fine. The next you
’
ve gone all distant.
”

“But we do get along fine,” she asserted.

He bent toward her, and his gray green eyes searched her face. “You’re not playing me off against that Thorne fellow, are you?”

“Mr. Thorne would think that very funny.”

“Melanie wasn’t very happy about Adam, either,” Daniel remarked. “She had expected him to be here last night.”

Sarah remained silent, staring beyond the balcony at the boats dotting the bay.
“
I
’
m sorry,
”
she said at last,
“
but it was Adam and Edmund who arranged the trip, not I.
”

Daniel left her, and Sarah had decided that perhaps it was time she went to bed, but just then Adam
Thorne
came out to the terrace.

He frowned at her.
“
Why aren
’
t you resting your knee?
”
he demanded.

“
But I am resting it, stuck out here in front of me,
”
she insisted.
“
I shall be mad if I lose my chances of going places while we
’
re here,
”
she exclaimed irritably.

“
Impatience will do no good at all,
”
he said with mock sententiousness.

She laughed.
“
Easy enough for you to preach. It isn
’
t
your
knee that
’
s damaged.
”

“
It w
ould it have pleased you better if it were?
”

“
Well, no. You were not to blame.
”

“
Thank you,
”
he answered dryly.
“
What was the verdict from the doctor?
”

“
Only a wrench. Just the cartilage pulled, not the kneecap broken. In a month or so I should be able to walk quite normally, I expect.
”
She spoke with heavy sarcasm.

A smile played around his mouth.
“
You take your setbacks hard, don
’
t you?
”

“
Blame my youth and immaturity for that!
”

The evening had grown dark, and perhaps the dimness gave her the courage to answer him so pertly. The bay was spangled with lights and the vine-covered terrace lit by small lanterns that only intensified the shadows.

He broke the silence.
“
I
’
m leaving tomorrow or the next day. My holiday is almost finished and I have to go back to Krasnograd. My job is on the construction of buildings. These are nearly finished, but I have to stay until some of the machinery is installed.
”

“
Where is this place?
”
asked Sarah.
“
Is it far from here?
”

“
Something more than three hundred miles, I suppose,
”
Adam said.
“
Rather a slow, long-winded journey, but that can
’
t be helped. A new main road is being started to link Krasnograd with the coast a little farther south of here, and that will be a tremendous improvement.
”

In some ways Sarah was not distressed at the prospect of Adam
’
s departure. Since that first meeting in the amphitheater at Pula he had been a disturbing influence, making her feel uncertain of herself.

When Daniel heard next day that Adam was leaving, he made no bones about his pleasure.
“
Best thing he could do!
”
was Daniel
’
s verdict.
“
I
’
ve never liked him from the first. He won
’
t be here to butt in on us or take you on dubious jaunts up into the mountains.
”

Sarah smiled and nodded absentmindedly. She was reflecting that Adam, for all his brusqueness, had occasionally shown his kinder and more solicitous side. But her opinion of him scarcely mattered; it was unlikely that she would ever see him again.