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“Is somebody following us?” she asked, a little breathlessly.
“No idea, but we have to assume they are, or at least that they are watching. They will have found Ferdie by now. He was against us, but we don’t know who he was for. The Fatherland Front, yes, but perhaps somebody else as well.”
As if to answer her question, there was a loud shout behind them, and another response over to the left, as if in reply. Aiden began walking toward the sounds.
“What—” she started to say, but he pushed her so sharply the words turned into a grunt of pain. She ran a little to keep up with his longer strides. Then, as they rounded the corner and saw a bunch of armed and uniformed men, she felt a wave of remembrance wash over her, and a fear she could taste, bitter in her mouth. They were exactly like the Gestapo in Berlin.
Aiden jerked her upright, then hiccuped loudly. “Sorry,” he said to the nearest man. “Celebrated a little too well.”
One of the soldiers laughed. “Go and sleep it off, brother,” he said loudly. He looked Elena up and down. “Have one on me,” he added with a lewd gesture.
Aiden guffawed, and promised he would. He gripped Elena at arm’s length with one hand and used the other to push with a hard, even pressure on the small of her back.
She held on to him, even as they staggered past the soldiers and into a different, nameless street away from the harborside.
Aiden stopped. “Good,” he said so softly she barely heard him. “They didn’t suspect anything. We’ll go another block this way, then straight to the waterfront and the first boat we can find going out on the evening tide. I’m afraid it doesn’t matter where to; we’ve got to get out of here. Damn Ferdie! I knew he was getting close to me in order to…” He touched her head gently. He had often told her how he liked her hair, even when it had been an ordinary light brown. It had a softness that pleased him, the way it ran through his fingers like silk.
They moved past huge buildings, no more than shapes looming in the darkness. By the time they had walked in a huge half circle and got back to the dockside, her legs ached and her heel had rubbed a blister. This was not where they originally intended to be, but it was a far less likely place from which fugitives would be trying to escape.
Aiden stopped on the road across the street from where fishing boats were tied up alongside small freighters and tramp steamers looking for any cargo to carry down the eastern coast of Italy.
“We’re lovers escaping your jealous husband,” he said, his face in the pale lamp bright with amusement. There was urgency in his voice, but also the edge of laughter, as if this new idea had added zest to the affair.
“Why not your jealous wife?” Her words were out before she thought about them.
He shook his head. “Wouldn’t have to run away from a woman.”
“She has a rich father,” she shot back. “And brothers, very protective, family honor and all that.”
This time his amusement was undisguised. “You chose me?”
Her mind raced. “No, you’re probably right,” she said straight back at him. “More believable that you stole me.”
This time he laughed outright and pretended to wince. “When the chips are down, you will fight.”
She opened her mouth to snap back, then changed her mind and started out across the street, and then down the narrow path toward a sailor who was standing and looking at the water, a cigarette in his mouth. She sauntered over to him with no idea what she was going to say.
Aiden caught up with her, slipping his arm round her easily, but his grip was strong. “Not him,” he whispered, then laughed as if whatever he had said were a joke.
She forced herself to laugh as well.
They went another fifty yards until they were alongside a tramp steamer long enough to carry several tons of cargo, and possibly an extra passenger or two eager to travel discreetly and very suddenly and pay the appropriate cost. There was a sailor swabbing the deck.
Aiden pulled Elena to a stop. He leaned forward and kissed her again gently. He moved until his mouth was just in front of her ear. “I assume you brought all the money you have with you.”
“Of course,” she answered. “Not much point in freeing you if I can’t afford two tickets out, or half a dozen on this crate, if necessary.”
“Don’t play it down, it floats,” he replied. “Just…let’s go and do our best. Let me do the talking, and for God’s sake don’t speak English.”
She nodded and walked beside him down toward the stone steps of the quay. The sailor looked up.
Aiden spoke to him casually in Italian, indicating Elena beside him. The sailor laughed and looked at Elena with very obvious admiration.
Elena moved even closer to Aiden, as if they were long-time lovers. Weren’t they…?
Aiden went on, speaking quickly.
After a few more moments, the sailor invited them on board and they were conducted to the captain’s cabin. He was a stocky man with thick arms, a barrel chest, and a wind-burned, crooked-nosed face that had seen its share of fights. He came straight to the point and asked for money.
