s [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]

lived so long in hope that he would forget Lilli-and that, when he did, he
would finally turn to her.
For a long second, Webb looked at the hand on his arm before he lifted his
gaze to her face. The muted coloring of her hair and eyes appeared
nondescript, yet despite the blandness of her features, he saw something that
appealed to a weakness in him. Everything about her was leaning toward him,
wanting to please him and wipe out that coldness.
As he set his drink on a side table, Webb wasn't conscious of the silent
debate he had with himself. Then he turned to Ruth and heard her quickened
breath with a certain detachment . When he took her into his arms, he wasn't
seeking the gratification of his male needs. There were women who took care of
that for a living.
He wanted to bury himself in the softness of a caring woman and find a respite
from this consuming loneliness. She was yielding in his arms, her body
pressing itself to his length. Her lips were pliant to the demands he made of
them. All things were as they should be, but it wasn't enough.
The lonely ache became more intense, tinged with a bitterness. Her kiss
couldn't fill the emptiness inside him. Webb became disgusted with himself for
using her without a care for her feelings. His hands lifted to her shoulders
to push her from him. He tightened his grip and forced Ruth away from him. The
sight of the little-girl-hurt look in her expression turned him from her, and
Webb reached for the drink he had so recently discarded.
"I shouldn't have done that, Ruth," he said grimly and heard her make a little
wounded sound. "You have my apology and my word that it won't happen again."
"No, Webb-"
He brutally cut across her protest. "Ask Virg Haskell to supper. He'll
appreciate the invitation more than I do."
There was a kind of finality in the silence that followed. It was several more
seconds before he heard her slow footsteps carrying her out of the room. He
drank the rest of the whiskey in his glass in one burning swallow, but it
deadened nothing.
As she dipped the damp cloth into the basin of water, Lilli cast a worried
glance at the unconscious man in the bed. His face was unnaturally flushed and
his skin was afire to the touch. Stefan mumbled in his native German tongue,
fever carrying him to the point of delirium. She wrung out the cloth and
pressed its wetness over his face, trying to cool him.
It had begun so innocently yesterday morning with a throbbing in his head, a
Page 141
ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.html
stomachache, and diarrhea. Stefan had insisted on going out to the fields,
overriding Lilli's suggestion that perhaps he should rest. That night, he was
so weak Lilli had had to help him into bed. In the night, this raging fever
had claimed him.
Her hearing strained to catch sounds outside the shack. She thought she heard
something, but it was so faint she wasn't sure whether she had imagined it or
not. She turned her head, glancing at the blond-haired woman by the stove,
heating some broth so they could force some nourishment into Stefan.
"I think I can hear a buggy. Check and see if it's the doctor, Helga," Lilli
urged the pregnant wife of Franz Kreuger.
"Of course." Helga Kreuger left the stove and walked to the door to look
outside.
Frightened by how rapidly Stefan's condition had deteriorated overnight, Lilli
had gone to their neighbor for help that morning. She hadn't wanted to leave
Stefan alone for even that short period of time, but she had to send someone
for the doctor. Franz had ridden into town to fetch him, and Helga had left
her children in the care of her oldest daughter and returned with Lilli to
help however she could.
"It is Franz," she confirmed. "The doctor is with him."
"Thank God," Lilli murmured and blinked at the tears to keep them at bay. This
fever seemed to be shrinking Stefan right before her eyes, sinking in his
cheeks and shriveling his gaunt body.
When the young doctor entered, he didn't waste time with preliminaries and
went straight to the bed. His eyes were already making their examination of
the stricken man as he opened his black bag. He didn't appear surprised by
what he saw; rather, the straight line of his mouth seemed to indicate it was
what he had expected.
Lilli was reluctant to leave the bedside, but Helga Kreuger took her by the
shoulders and led her to the other side of the single room. She pushed a cup
of broth into Lilli's hands.
"You need your strength, too," she insisted.
It was easier to accept it than make the effort to argue. Her hands encircled
it as Lilli moved to the window. There were glass panes in it, virtually the
only improvement they had made in the shanty. A film of dust coated the glass
and blurred her view of the fallow field outside. A swirling wind ran across
the dry ground, kicking up dust devils to spin and swoop in wild abandon. The
air was so dry it sucked up any moisture it found. [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]