Ari stood up suddenly. “It sounds like the launch is returning,” he said. “We had better go.”
As the launch pushed off, the Sea of Galilee turned from smooth to choppy with the suddenness of which Ari had spoken. Wisps of spray broke over the bow and whipped back on them. Ari put his arm about Kitty’s shoulder and brought her close to him to protect her from the water. All across the lake Kitty rested her head on his chest with her eyes closed, listening to the beat of his Heart.
They walked from the pier hand in hand along the path to the hotel. Kitty stopped beneath the willow tree whose branches spread like a giant umbrella, bending clear down into the lake. She tried to speak but her voice trembled and the words would not come out.
Ari touched her wet hair and brushed it back from her forehead. He held her shoulders gently, and the muscles of his face worked with tenseness as he drew her close. Kitty lifted her face to him.
“Ari,” she whispered, “please kiss me.”
All that had smoldered for months burst into flames of ecstasy, engulfing them, in this first embrace.
How good he feels! How strong he is! Kitty had never known a moment like this with any man-not even Tom Fremont. They kissed and they kissed again and she pressed against him and felt the power of his arms. Then they stood apart and walked in quick silence to the hotel.
Kitty stood awkwardly before the door of her room. Ari moved toward his door but she took his hand and turned him around. They stood facing each other wordlessly for a moment. Kitty nodded, and turned and entered her room quickly and closed the door behind her.
She undressed in the dark and slipped into a nightgown and walked toward her balcony, where she could see the light from his room. She could hear him pacing the floor. His light went off. Kitty fell back into the shadows. In a moment she saw him standing on her balcony.
“I want you,” Ari said.
She ran into his arms and held him tightly, trembling with desire. His kisses fell over her mouth and cheeks and neck and she exchanged kiss for kiss, touch for touch, with an abandon she had never known. Ari swept her up in his arms and carried her to the bed and placed her on it and knelt beside her. Kitty felt faint. She gripped the sheets and sobbed and writhed.
Ari lowered the shoulder strap of her nightgown and caressed her breast.
With violent abruptness Kitty spun out of his grasp and staggered from the bed. “No,” she gasped.
Ari froze.
Kitty’s eyes filled with tears and she cringed against the wall, holding herself to stop the trembling. She sagged into a chair. Moments passed until the quaking within her abated and her breathing became normal. Ari stood over her and stared down.
“You must hate me,” she said at last.
He did not speak. She looked up at his towering figure and saw the hurt on his face.
“Go on, Ari … say it. Say anything.”
He did not speak.
Kitty stood up slowly and faced him. “I don’t want this, Ari. I don’t want to be made. I guess I was just overcome by the moonlight…”
“I shouldn’t have thought I was making love to a reluctant virgin,” he said.
“Ari, please …”
“I don’t have time to indulge in games and words. I am a grown man and you are a grown woman.”
“You state it so well.”
His voice was cold. “I will leave by the door if you don’t mind.”
Kitty winced with the sharp crack of the door closing. She stood for a long time by the french doors and looked out at the water. The Sea of Galilee was angry and the moon faded behind a sinister black cloud.
Kitty was numb. Why had she run from him? She had never felt so strongly for anyone and she had never lost control of herself like this. Her own recklessness had frightened her. She reasoned that Ari Ben Canaan did not really want her. Beyond a night of love he had no need of her, and no man had treated her this way before.
Then it came to her that she had been fleeing from this very feeling she had for him, this new desire for Ari which could lead her to stay in Palestine. She must never let it happen again. She was going to leave with Karen and nothing was going to stop her! She knew that she was afraid of Ari:
Ari could defeat her. If he were to show the slightest signs of really caring she might not have the strength-but the thought of his steely coldness strengthened her determination to resist, leaving her reassured and yet, perversely, at the same time resentful.
Kitty threw herself onto the bed and fell into an exhausted sleep, with the wind from over the water beating against her window.
In the morning it was calm again.
Kitty threw back the covers and jumped from bed and all the events of the night before came to her. She blushed. They did not seem so terrible now but she was embarrassed. She had created a scene and there was no doubt Ari had thought it pretty melodramatic as well as childish. The whole thing had been her doing; she would set it right by making up with him, sensibly and forthrightly. She dressed quickly and went down to the dining room to await Ari. She thought of the words she would use to apologize.
Kitty sipped coffee and waited.
A half hour passed. Ari did not come down. She snuffed out her third cigarette and walked out to the front desk.
“Have you seen Mr. Ben Canaan this morning?” she asked the clerk.
“Mr. Ben Canaan checked out at six.”
“Did he say where he was going7”
“Mr. Ben Canaan never says where he is going.”
“Perhaps he left a message for me?”
The clerk turned around and pointed to the empty key box.
“I see … well … thank you very much.”
CHAPTER ELEVEN: Dov Landau found a room in a dilapidated fourth-rate hotel on the Street of the Chain in the Old City of Jerusalem. As instructed, he went to the Saladin Cafe on the Nablus Road near the Damascus Gate and left his name and hotel to be given to Bar Israel.
Dov pawned the gold rings and bracelets he had stolen from the faculty at Gan Dafna and turned to the job of studying Jerusalem. To the ghetto rat and past master of thievery Jerusalem was simple. Within three days Dov knew every street and alley in the Old City and the immediate business districts around it. His sharp eye appraised and his deft hands lifted enough objects of value to keep him sustained. The matter of escape through the narrow alleyways and crowded bazaars was ridiculously easy for him.
Dov spent much of his money for books and art material
He walked along Jaffa Road searching the many bookstores for texts on art, draftsmanship, and architecture.
He locked himself in his room with his books and art material, some dried fruits and bottled soft drinks, and waited for contact from the Maccabees. Dov studied by candlelight. He was unaware of the pageantry that took place outside his window on the Street of the Chain which ran between the Jewish and Moslem quarters to the Dome of the Rock and the Wailing Wall. He would read until his eyes burned and he could read no more, then he would lay the book on his chest and stare at the ceiling and think of Karen Clement. Dov had not realized how badly he would miss her nor that missing her could cause an actual physical pain. Karen had been with him for so long he had forgotten what it was like to be away from her. He remembered every moment with her. Those days at Caraolos and on the Exodus when she lay in his arms in the hold of the ship. He remembered how happy she was and how beautiful she looked that first day at Gan Dafna. He remembered her kind, expressive face and her gentle touch and her sharp voice when she was angry.
Dov sat on the edge of his bed and sketched a hundred pictures of Karen. He drew her in every way he remembered her but crumpled each picture and threw it on the floor, for no picture could show how beautiful she was to Dov.
Dov stayed in his room for two weeks, leaving only upon necessity. At the end of the second week he needed some more money and he left his room with some rings to pawn. As he reached the entrance to the building he saw a man standing in the shadows. Dov wrapped his hand around his pistol and walked past, poised to spin around at the first sound.