Leon Uris (66 page)

“How red it is,” Kitty said. “Stop the car for a moment, Ari.”

He pulled over to the side of the road and Kitty got out. She picked one of the flowers and as she looked at it her eyes narrowed. “I’ve never seen anything like this,” she whispered in a shaky voice.

“The ancient Maccabees lived in caves around here. It is the only place in the world this flower grows. It is called Blood of the Maccabees.”

Kitty examined the red bloom closely. It did look like little droplets of blood. She dropped the flower quickly and rubbed her hand on her skirt.

This land and everything about it was closing in on her! Even the wild flowers will not let you forget for a moment. It creeps into you from its very earth and its very air and it is damning and tormenting.

Kitty Fremont was frightened. She knew that she would have to leave Palestine at once: the more she resisted the place the harder it struck back at her. It was all around her and above her and beneath her and she felt stifled and crushed.

They entered Tiberias from the north through the modern Jewish suburb of Kiryat Shmuel—the Village of Samuel—and drove past another large Taggart fort and descended from the hills to the water level, into the Old City. The buildings were mostly of black basalt rock and the hills were filled with the graves and caves of ancient Hebrew greats.

Beyond the city they turned into the Galilean Hotel on the sea. It was very hot in the midday. Kitty nibbled her lunch of Galilee catfish and barely spoke a word. She wished she had not come.

“I haven’t yet shown you the holiest of the holy,” Ari said.

“Where is that?”

“Shoshanna
kibbutz
. That’s where I was born.”

Kitty smiled. She suspected that Ari knew she was disturbed and was trying to cheer her up. “And just where is this great shrine?”

“A few miles down the road where the Jordan River runs into the sea. Although I do hear I was almost born in the old Turkish police station in town here. This place is full of tourists in the winter. It’s a little late in the season. Anyhow, we have the whole lake to ourselves. Why don’t we take a swim?”

“That sounds like a really good idea,” Kitty said.

A long pier of basalt rock jutted out beyond the hotel for some forty yards into the lake. Ari was on the pier first after lunch. Kitty found herself looking at his body as she walked from the hotel. He waved to her. Ari had a lean build and looked hard and powerful.

“Hi,” she called. “Have you been in yet?”

“I’ve been waiting for you.”

“How deep is it from the end of the pier?”

“About ten feet. Can you swim as far as the raft?”

“You’ve asked for a race.”

Kitty dropped her robe and put on her bathing cap. Ari inspected her frankly just as she had measured him. Her body had not the angular sturdiness of a
sabra
girl. She was more of the softness and roundness one would expect from an American woman.

Their eyes met for an instant and both of them looked a little abashed.

She ran past him and dived into the water. Ari followed. He was surprised to find that it was all he could do to catch her and get a few strokes ahead. Kitty swam with a graceful crawl and a steady stroke that pressed him to the utmost. They climbed on the raft breathless and laughing.

“You pulled a fast one on me,” he said.

“I forgot to mention it but ... “

“I know, I know. You were on the girls’ swimming team in college.”

She lay on her back and took a deep breath of contentment. The water was cool and refreshing and seemed to wash her bad spirits away.

It was late in the afternoon before they returned to the hotel for cocktails on the veranda and then retired to their rooms to rest before dinner.

Ari, who had had little rest in recent weeks, was asleep the instant he lay down. In the next room Kitty paced the floor. She had recovered from much of the agitation of the morning but she was tired of this emotional drain and she was still actually a little frightened of the mystical power that this land held. Kitty longed to return to a normal, sane, planned life. She convinced herself that Karen needed the same therapy more than anything else. She made up her mind to face the issue with Karen without further delay.

By evening it had turned pleasantly cool. Kitty began to dress for dinner. She opened her closet and considered the three dresses hanging there. Slowly she took down one of them. It was the same dress that Jordana Ben Canaan had picked from her closet the day of their argument. She thought of Ari’s look on the pier today. Kitty had liked it. The dress was a strapless sheath which clung to her body and emphasized her bosom.

Every male eyebrow in the hotel lifted as Kitty drifted by, and nostrils twitched with the scent of her perfume. Ari stood like a man stunned, watching her cross the lobby. As she came up to him he suddenly became aware of the fact that he was staring at her and quickly found his voice.

“I have a surprise for you,” he said. “There is a concert at the Ein Gev
kibbutz
across the lake. We will go right after dinner.”

“Will this dress be all right to wear?”

“Uh ... yes ... yes, it will be excellent.”

Most of the full moon of the night before was left for them. Just as their motor launch left the pier it rose from behind the Syrian hills, unbelievably huge, sending a great path of light over the motionless waters.

“The sea is so still,” Kitty said.

“It is deceptive. When God gets angry He can turn it into an ocean in minutes.”

In a half hour they had crossed the water and landed at the docks of the
kibbutz
of Ein Gev—the Spring of the Mountain Pass. Ein Gev was a daring experiment. The
kibbutz
sat isolated from the rest of Palestine and directly below the mountains of Syria. A Syrian village hung above it and its fields were plowed to the border markers. It had been founded by immigrants of the German Aliyah in the year of 1937 and strategically commanded a view of the Sea of Galilee.

The
kibbutz
was set near a basin formed by the Yarmuk River, the border between Syria and Trans-Jordan, and the basin was the site of a cradle of man. Everyday the farmers plowed up evidences of human life, some prehistoric. They had found crude plows and pottery thousands of years old, proving the area had been farmed and there had been a community life even there.

Right on the border between Ein Gev and the Syrian hills stood a small mountain shaped like a column. It was called Sussita—the Horse. Atop Sussita were the ruins of one of the nine Roman fortress cities of Palestine. Sussita still dominated the entire area.

Many of the German pioneers had been musicians in former life and they were an industrious lot. In addition to farming and fishing they hit upon another idea to augment the
kibbutz
income. They formed an orchestra and bought a pair of launches to bring the winter tourists of Tiberias across the lake for concerts. The idea proved successful and the tradition grew until Ein Gev drew every artist who visited Palestine. A large outdoor auditorium was built into a natural woodland setting on the edge of the lake, and additional plans called for a covered building in years to come.

Ari spread a blanket on the grass at the edge of the auditorium and the two of them lay back and looked up into the sky and watched the enormous Lag Ba Omer moon grow smaller and higher and make room for a billion stars. As the orchestra played a Beethoven concert the tension within Kitty passed away. This moment was perfection. No more beautiful setting could have been created. It seemed almost unreal and she found herself hoping that it would go on and on.

The concert ended. Ari took her hand and led her away from the crowds, down a path along the lake. The air was still and filled with a pine scent, and the Sea of Galilee was like a polished mirror. At the water’s edge there was a bench made of three slabs of stone from an ancient temple.

They sat and looked over at the twinkling lights of Tiberias. Ari brushed against her and Kitty turned and looked at him. How handsome Ari Ben Canaan was! Suddenly she wanted to hold him and to touch his cheek and stroke his hair. She wanted to tell him not to work so hard. She wanted to tell him to unlock his heart to her. She wanted to say how she felt when he was near and to beg not to be a stranger and to find something for them to share. But Ari Ben Canaan
was
a stranger and she dare not ever say what she felt.

The Sea of Galilee stirred and lapped against the shore. A sudden gust of breeze caused the bulrushes at the water’s edge to sway. Kitty Fremont turned away from Ari.

A tremor passed through her body as she felt his hand touch her shoulder. “You are cold,” Ari said, holding her stole for her. Kitty slipped it over her shoulders. They stared long at each other.

Ari stood up suddenly. “It sounds like the launch is returning,” he said. “We had better go.”

As the launch pushed off, the Sea of Galilee turned from smooth to choppy with the suddenness of which Ari had spoken. Wisps of spray broke over the bow and whipped back on them. Ari put his arm about Kitty’s shoulder and brought her close to him to protect her from the water. All across the lake Kitty rested her head on his chest with her eyes closed, listening to the beat of his heart.

They walked from the pier hand in hand along the path to the hotel. Kitty stopped beneath the willow tree whose branches spread like a giant umbrella, bending clear down into the lake. She tried to speak but her voice trembled and the words would not come out.

Ari touched her wet hair and brushed it back from her forehead. He held her shoulders gently, and the muscles of his face worked with tenseness as he drew her close. Kitty lifted her face to him.

“Ari,” she whispered, “please kiss me. “

All that had smoldered for months burst into flames of ecstasy, engulfing them, in this first embrace.

How good he feels! How strong he is! Kitty had never known a moment like this with any man—not even Tom Fremont. They kissed and they kissed again and she pressed against him and felt the power of his arms. Then they stood apart and walked in quick silence to the hotel.

Kitty stood awkwardly before the door of her room. Ari moved toward his door but she took his hand and turned him around. They stood facing each other wordlessly for a moment. Kitty nodded, and turned and entered her room quickly and closed the door behind her.

She undressed in the dark and slipped into a nightgown and walked toward her balcony, where she could see the light from his room. She could hear him pacing the floor. His light went off. Kitty fell back into the shadows. In a moment she saw him standing on her balcony.

“I want you,” Ari said.

She ran into his arms and held him tightly, trembling with desire. His kisses fell over her mouth and cheeks and neck and she exchanged kiss for kiss, touch for touch, with an abandon she had never known. Ari swept her up in his arms and carried her to the bed and placed her on it and knelt beside her. Kitty felt faint. She gripped the sheets and sobbed and writhed.

Ari lowered the shoulder strap of her nightgown and caressed her breast.

With violent abruptness Kitty spun out of his grasp and staggered from the bed. “No,” she gasped.

Ari froze.

Kitty’s eyes filled with tears and she cringed against the wall, holding herself to stop the trembling. She sagged into a chair. Moments passed until the quaking within her abated and her breathing became normal. Ari stood over her and stared down.

“You must hate me,” she said at last.

He did not speak. She looked up at his towering figure and saw the hurt on his face.

“Go on, Ari ... say it. Say anything.”

He did not speak. Kitty stood up slowly and faced him. “I don’t want this, Ari. I don’t want to be made. I guess I was just overcome by the moonlight ...”

“I shouldn’t have thought I was making love to a reluctant virgin,” he said.

“Ari, please ...”

“I don’t have time to indulge in games and words. I am a grown man and you are a grown woman.”

“You state it so well.”

His voice was cold. “I will leave by the door if you don’t mind.”

Kitty winced with the sharp crack of the door closing. She stood for a long time by the french doors and looked out at the water. The Sea of Galilee was angry and the moon faded behind a sinister black cloud.

Kitty was numb. Why had she run from him? She had never felt so strongly for anyone and she had never lost control of herself like this. Her own recklessness had frightened her. She reasoned that Ari Ben Canaan did not really want her. Beyond a night of love he had no need of her, and no man had treated her this way before.

Then it came to her that she had been fleeing from this very feeling she had for him, this new desire for Ari which could lead her to stay in Palestine. She must never let it happen again. She was going to leave with Karen and nothing was going to stop her! She knew that she was afraid of Ari: Ari could defeat her. If he were to show the slightest signs of really caring she might not have the strength—but the thought of his steely coldness strengthened her determination to resist, leaving her reassured and yet, perversely, at the same time resentful.

Kitty threw herself onto the bed and fell into an exhausted sleep, with the wind from over the water beating against her window.

In the morning it was calm again.

Kitty threw back the covers and jumped from bed and all the events of the night before came to her. She blushed. They did not seem so terrible now but she was embarrassed. She had created a scene and there was no doubt Ari had thought it pretty melodramatic as well as childish. The whole thing had been her doing; she would set it right by making up with him, sensibly and forthrightly. She dressed quickly and went down to the dining room to await Ari. She thought of the words she would use to apologize.

Kitty sipped coffee and waited.

A half hour passed. Ari did not come down. She snuffed out her third cigarette and walked out to the front desk.

“Have you seen Mr. Ben Canaan this morning?” she asked the clerk.