Read Online Assignment - Mara Tirana by Edward S. Aarons - Free Book Online

the hut very warm. Her dark red hair was tied in a severe knot at the nape of her neck. There were lavender shadows under her cool brown eyes. “Do you want something to eat?” she asked abruptly. “There is only soup and black bread.”
    “Yes.” He was suddenly hungry. “That will be fine.” He watched her move to the stove. The gray dress clung softly to her curved body, outlining the symmetry of her hips. Her back was straight and proud. She made him feel guilty, because he didn’t want to endanger anyone. Yet the danger she mentioned seemed academic; the hut was safe. Through the window he could see the wild mountainside she called Zara Dagh. The October sun was tinged with yellow. Adam sat up in the bed. There was an air of security here, as if the hut were a tiny fortress in a wilderness of savage things.
    Lissa returned with a bowl of soup and bread. “Yes, you are better. I see it in the way you look at me.” Her smile this time touched her whole face, changing her expression dramatically.
    “When will your brother Gija return?” he asked. She shrugged. “When God wills.”
    “They’re looking for me, you know. They must know I came down somewhere near here.”
    “Everyone looks for you,” Lissa said calmly. “The whole world speaks of you, though you are not the first to do what you did.”
    “The first for my side,” he said.
    “Yes. But a little late, as usual.”
    “We’ll catch up. That’s why it’s so important to get back, with my instruments. Otherwise, it’s all to do over, with more lost time.” He paused. “And don’t needle me, Lissa. I only want to be friends.”
    “I’m sorry. The old people have suffered so much, and you bring it back again. They are trapped here. In the village, because of Giurgiu’s politics, we are treated as if we might contaminate the people with something the authorities cannot permit in this country.” She paused. “You understand this with your mind, not with your heart.”
    She had a quality of iron control, Adam thought, as he ate. But it was brittle, and she might snap and break if pushed too far, rather than bend and yield, and so survive. He finished the soup and watched the way the sunlight tangled in her dark red hair.
    When she took the empty bowl and carried it outside, he saw through the doorway a small clearing, with neatly stacked cordwood, and a horse tethered to a pine tree. A path wound out of sight into the woods. He heard the creak of a hand pump as the girl washed the dishes, and then he threw back the blanket and looked at his injured leg. He wore only a pair of shorts. His body was mottled with bruises, but he had been bathed clean of the mud and blood which had clung to him when he had dragged himself from the wrecked capsule. His leg was still swollen, but the ache of infection had dramatically eased. For the first time, he began to hope he might get out of this alive.
    When he looked up, Lissa was in the doorway staring at something out of sight. Tension was evident in the way she stood and looked.
    “What is it, Lissa?”
    “Nothing. Be quiet.”
    “Where are my clothes?”
    She did not look at him. “I washed them. They are in the cupboard by the bed—but you cannot walk yet.” “What do you see out there?” Adam asked.
    “The old people are coming back. And it is too soon.” He sat up and his head swam with the effort. He had to hold onto the bed with his head lowered, waiting for nausea to pass. He broke out into a light sweat, then shivered in the mountain air that spilled through the doorway where Lissa stood. A deep-throated halloo came from the old man; but Lissa remained silent, waiting. Then she stepped out, deliberately closing the door after her. Adam sat up again, fighting his weakness, and pulled himself upright with a grip on the big wardrobe. His breath whistled in his throat. Then he was erect, clinging to the door handle, and he pulled his khaki uniform in a tumbled heap upon himself before he