The Doomsday Testament(61)
‘All in good time,’ she whispered hoarsely.
He was never quite certain what came off when, but it happened after a prolonged period when the eroticism of his fully clothed body against her nakedness drove him almost to the brink of violence. His hands were able to rove at will over her nakedness, while hers teased at his shirt and his jeans, now plucking at a button, now moving a zip half an inch downwards. At one point she moved away from him and he noticed the raw red mark where his belt buckle had forced itself into the taut flesh of her stomach. It was an age before she allowed him to reach down and stroke her, but when he did it was like touching molten fire.
He had his revenge when they finally came together. Now it was he who controlled the rhythm, taking her to the brink, then back again; first slow, then fast, then faster still, inspiring an earthy profanity he wouldn’t have believed could come from that sweet mouth. When they arrived together at that moment of mindless oblivion it seemed entirely natural. Her eyes rolled into her head and her lips clamped on his and she began to buck and heave beneath him until he was driven to an equal, stallioned frenzy and their frantic cries mingled.
Afterwards, they lay entangled for a few minutes, still touching and stroking, whispering the endearments and compliments that are the expected aftermath of love in the afternoon, before the ludicrousness of lying naked on a hardwood floor when there was an alternative available struck them and they moved to the bed.
The second time was even better.
When Jamie opened his eyes, he could tell by the fading light that it was still only early evening. He turned to find her on one elbow looking down at him, pert breast peeping out from under the bedcover like an interested spectator. She smiled demurely.
‘Now we should pack.’
7 May 1945 It just came across on the radio. The war is OVER. The Germans have agreed to surrender unconditionally. It will not come into effect until tomorrow night but everyone agrees the fighting is finished. Strangely, the mood among the men is sombre. After a moment of celebration everyone went silent, almost crushed by the unreality of it. This has been our life, this constant fear, days and weeks without proper rest, and the tension that eats you from the inside like a cancer. To have fought for so long and seen so many friends die and to have survived? It scarcely seems believable. Despite the fact we’ve known it was coming, our minds are having difficulty accepting that there isn’t another battle to fight or another man to kill. We’ve been living on benzedrine pills and hot tea for two weeks, averaging about two hours’ sleep a night. For the past few days I’ve been able to feel the fractures developing in my brain. Little fault lines cracking through the thin membranes, as if someone has stepped on a sheet of ice. But I can’t give in now. The war may be over, but I still have a mission to complete. Tonight I watched the distant mountains turn smoke blue in the twilight, then fade to pale silver before transforming into insubstantial wraiths which finally vanished entirely, like soldiers marching into cannon smoke. I experienced a strange, dizzying, unnatural sense of lightness and it was only later that I realized what it was. For the first time in five years I can close my eyes without wondering whether I will be alive to open them in the morning. The sun will rise, the mountains will return, the guns will be silent.
XXX
STARTING EARLY NEXT morning, they retraced their route fifty miles due north to Kassel, a sprawling district capital on the Fulda River that owed its startling modernity to the fact that it had been wiped off the map by Allied bombers in 1943. When they arrived in the city centre, the shops were just opening and the streets lay empty apart from a few early-bird office workers and the street cleaners without whom no German dawn is complete. Sarah bought a few basics to replace the clothes and toiletries they’d been forced to leave behind in Paderborn, while Jamie watched her from a distance until he was satisfied she wasn’t being followed. Still, he had an uneasy feeling. Someone like Frederick would undoubtedly have contacts in the Bundespolizei. Their little hired Toyota was as anonymous as any car on the road, but it could only be a matter of time before someone noticed it. Sarah had suggested abandoning the Japanese compact in Fulda, and he’d considered it. But the car would have had to be replaced by something else and if the opposition were looking for it, they’d also be checking the hire firms. On balance, it was better to stay below the radar for as long as they could.
From Kassel the road took them on a long sweeping curve through Gottingen and Gleboldehausen, until about another hour into the journey they could see the Harz Mountains on the horizon.