Read Online The Iron Tiger by Jack Higgins - Free Book Online Page B

Nehru was sure that such a neutrality would be respected by all. Many men like Sher Dil, high ranking regular army officers, were not so sure and said so. When the army was reduced, they were the first to go..
     
     
'And so Sher Dil came here?'
     
     
To command an army of seventy-five men for the Khan, most of them recruited in India. The locals don't take kindly to uniforms.' He laughed. 'But a night like this.is made for love and laughter and nothing else. I will show you the delights of the garden..
     
     
'Which Mr. Cheung has already done.'
     
     
'Not with my superb efficiency.'
     
     
They left the display room and moved out to the terrace, pausing at the top of a flight of shallow steps for Harold to light a cigar.
     
     
The moon was caught in the dark meshes of the cypress trees, the night air heavy with the scent of flowers and a fountain splashed into a fish pool amongst the trees as they went down the steps, her hand on his arm.
     
     
The Hour of the Dove they call it.. He waved a hand theatrically. The time for lovers to unburden their hearts to each other..
     
     
They came to the fountain in the centre of the garden and she sat on the low wall that ringed the pool, dabbling her hand in the water, and somewhere a bird called sweetly through the night.
     
     
This place is like rinding the Garden of Eden In the wilderness. How does he do it?'
     
     
'An army of gardeners and careful cultivation and the walls keep out the winds, remember.' Hamid breathed in deeply and sighed. 'And the strange thing is that it can all die in a single night. When winter comes here, it strikes suddenly, like a sword biting into warm flesh.'
     
     
She gazed down into the moonlit water, watching the fish nibbling gently at her trailing fingers, 'Jack told me about what happened in Korea.'
     
     
Hamid raised her chin with one hand and looked into her eyes. 'You like him, don't you?'
     
     
'Very much. I've never met anyone quite like him. He's a strange man, violent and bitter, and yet he can be the gentlest person Fve ever known..
     
     
'The story of my life.' Hamid sighed, "What would you like to know?'
     
     
"We stopped at his bungalow this afternoon. There was a girl there. Famia, I think he called her..
     
     
.His housekeeper's daughter..
     
     
She seemed to hesitate and then plunged oa, sls she his mistress T
     
     
'So that's it?' Hamid chuckled gently and took her hands. 'He's a grown man, Janet, not a boy. There would be something strange if he didn't feel the need for a woman occasionally, now wouldn't there?'
     
     
Momentarily, her hands tightened on his as anger swept through her like an 'uncontrollable fire, and Hamid touched her gently on the right cheek.
     
     
'Poor Janet India makes a harsh taskmaster.'
     
     
'I think I love him, you see,' she said in a low voice. 'It's as simple as that.'
     
     
'It's never as simple as that,' he said solemnly and pulled her to her feet 'I think we'd better go back while I can still remember that fact'
     
     
'Just one more thing,' she said. 'Is he as embittered over this Korean business, as he appears to be sometimes?.
     
     
Haiaid shook Ms head..Not really. He's too intelligent to blame himself for what was really aa accident of war, but he loved the Navy. That was Ms greatest loss.9
     
     
'And what does he believe in aowT
     
     
'Nothing. At least this is what he tells himself, and spends his time living dangerously, working for the highest bidder to amass a fortune/ He chuckled gsntiy.
     
     
'Only to end by betraying all his hard won principles when he looks upon the face of suffering, as he did in Ladakb. during the Chinese invasion.'
     
     
'You like him a great deal, don't you?.
     
     
.I value real friendship,' he said simply. 'Jack Drum-rnond has shown that to me many times.'
     
     
They walked back through the garden in silence. As they mounted the steps to the terrace, Drummond came through the windows.
     
     
"There you are.