Read Leon Uris for Free Online Page B

tears, “but I am willing to forgive and forget. There are the children to think of. There is your career... and our families. I’ll try to make a go of it with you, Bruce, but you must swear you’ll never see that woman again and that you’ll put in an immediate request for transfer from Singapore.”
    That woman—that woman, you call her, Bruce thought—is my love. She has given me something that you or a thousand Neddies never could or never will. She has given me something no man has a right to expect on this earth.
    “I want your answer now, Bruce.”
    Answer? What could the answer be? A man can have a woman like Marina for a night, for a touch, but she is not real. There is only one Marina to a man ... one to a lifetime. Answer? Throw away his career for a Eurasian girl? Bring scandal on the name of Sutherland?
    “I will never see her again, Neddie,” Bruce Sutherland promised. Bruce Sutherland never saw her again but he never stopped thinking of her. Perhaps that is where it all started.
    The sounds of the sirens were very faint now. The convoy must be quite near Caraolos, Sutherland thought. Soon the sirens would stop and he could sleep. He began thinking of the retirement that would be coming in another four or five years. The family house at Sutherland Heights would be far too big. A cottage, perhaps in the country. Soon it would be time to think about a pair of good hunting setters and gathering rose catalogues and building up his library. Time to start thinking about a decent club to join in London. Albert, Martha, and his grandchildren would indeed be a comfort in retirement. Perhaps ... perhaps he would take a mistress, too.
    It seemed strange that after nearly thirty years of marriage he would be going into retirement without Neddie. She had been so quiet, reserved, and distinguished all those years. She had been so sporting about his affair with Marina. Suddenly, after a lifetime of complete propriety Neddie burst out frantically to salvage her few years left as a woman. She ran off to Paris with a Bohemian chap ten years her junior. Everyone sympathized with Bruce, but it really didn’t matter to him much. There had been no contact and little feeling for Neddie for many years. She could have her fling. They were quite civilized about it. Perhaps he would take her back later ... perhaps a mistress would be better.
    At last the sirens from the convoy stopped. There was complete silence in the room except for the muffled shushing of the surf breaking on the shore. Bruce Sutherland opened the window and breathed in the cool crisp November air. He went to the bathroom and washed and placed the bridge of four teeth in a glass of solution. Damned shame, he thought, losing those four teeth. He had said the same thing for thirty years. It was the result of a rugby game. He examined the other teeth to satisfy himself they were still in good shape.
    He opened the medicine chest and studied the row of bottles. He took down a tin of sleeping powders and mixed a double dose. It was difficult to sleep these days.
    His heart began racing as he drank down the solution. He knew it was going to be another one of those horrible nights. He tried desperately to lock out or stifle the thoughts creeping into his brain. He covered himself in bed and hoped sleep would come quickly, but it was already beginning to whirl around and around and around in his mind ...
    ... Bergen-Belsen ... Bergen-Belsen ... Bergen-Belsen ... NUREMBERG ... NUREMBERG! NUREMBERG! NUREMBERG!
    “Take the stand and give your name.”
    “Bruce Sutherland, Brigadier General, Commander of ...”
    “Describe, in your own words ...”
    “My troops entered Bergen-Belsen at twenty minutes past five in the evening of April 15.”
    “Describe in your own words ...”
    “Camp Number One was an enclosure of four hundred yards wide by a mile long. That area held eighty thousand people. Mostly Hungarian and Polish Jews.”
    “Describe in your own words