Griffin W.E.B. - The Corps 08 - In Dangers Path

«Thank you,» he said.

«Don't be silly,» she said.

«And thank you for not being offended by my call last night.»

«Were you drinking?» Milla asked.

«Not then, except for the wine we had at dinner. Afterward. Yeah.»

He let go of her hand and walked to the door.

Milla suddenly knew what she wanted to do. Had to do. No matter what the ultimate cost.

«Just a minute, please, Ed,» Milla said.

«What?»

«It won't take a minute,» she said, then walked into her bedroom and closed the door.

And then she stared at the closed door and glanced around the room.

It was, of course, insane.

Her eyes fell on a faded photograph of her father.

»

Life is a gamble, Milla

,» the former Lieutenant General Count Vasily Ivanovich Zhivkov had told her many times. «

Sometimes, if you want something very much, it is necessary to put all your chips on the table, and wait to see where the wheel stops. If you understand that the ball will probably not fall into your hole, you will know, when it does not, that you at least tried. It is better to risk everything and lose than not to take the chance

.»

Looking at herself in the faded mirror of her dressing table, she unbuttoned her blouse and shrugged out of it and let it fall to the floor. Then she slipped out of her skirt and underwear and leaned over to pick up her only—and nearly empty— bottle of perfume. She dabbed perfume behind her ears and between her breasts and then—embarrassed, averting her eyes from her reflection—between her legs.

Then she threw the cover off her bed, crawled in, and pulled the sheet up under her chin.

She called his name. She didn't seem to have control of her voice. She wondered if he had heard her through the closed door.

«What?»

«Would you come in here, please?» she called.

He opened the door, and asked «What?» again when he saw her in the bed.

When she didn't reply, he said her name, «Milla?» and she saw that he was having trouble with his voice, too.

«I have been in love with you from the moment I saw you drive up in your car,» she said.

And then she threw the sheet away from her body and held out her arms to him.

«Oh, Jesus H. Christ, Milla!» Ed said softly, and then got in bed with her and put his arms around her.

She had, she knew, just put her last chip on the table.

note 1

«I got a cable from my father today,» Captain Ed Banning announced a week later.

They were in his apartment. He was on his back, his hands folded under his head. She was on her stomach, her face on his chest, her right leg on top of his. Their coupling had been intense, and he had been sweating. Even though she could smell his underarms, she didn't mind that at all, but worried—because she'd been sweating, too—that her own odor might offend him.

«Is something wrong?»

«No, as a matter of fact, things are looking up.»

«I have no idea what you're talking about.»

«First things first,» he said. «Will you marry me, Maria Catherine Ludmilla Zhivkov? Will you promise to love, cherish, and obey me, in sickness and in health, et cetera, et cetera, so long as we both shall live?»

She felt the tears come.

«Don't do this to me, Ed,» she said softly.

«What is that, a no? After I spent all that money—it's twenty-two cents a word—cabling my father about you?»

«You cabled your father about me?»

«Uh-huh.»

«What did you tell him?»

«Not much. I told you, it's twenty-two cents a word, but I did tell him that if he wants to be a grandfather, he'd better go see good

ol'

Uncle Zach and ask him to pass a special law allowing the future mother of his grandchild into the States.»

«Ed, I have no idea what you're talking about.»

«You haven't answered the question,» Ed said. «Let's start with that.»

«What question?»

«Will you marry me, Milla? Would you rather I got out of bed and got on my knees?»

«We can't get married; you know that as well as I do.»

«Well, for the sake of argument, if you could, would you?»

«Ed, for the love of God, don't start saying things you don't mean, or making promises you won't be able to keep,» Milla said. «Please.»

«I never do,» he said, a little indignantly. «Answer the question.»

«Oh, Ed, if it were possible, I would try very hard to be a good wife to you.»

«I didn't detect a whole hell of a lot of enthusiasm.»

«How can I be enthusiastic about something both of us know will never happen?

«You don't seem to understand, Milla,» he said. «I'm trying to tell you that the Marines have landed, and the situation is well in hand.»

«Damn you! Stop this. I don't think it's funny. It's cruel. It's perverse!»

«Before I cabled my father,» Ed said. «I went down to the legation and asked the consul general some questions.» He caught her eye. «He's a nice guy and won't run off at the mouth about that.»

«Questions about us?»

«About you,» he said. «Your Nansen status. Specifically, I asked him how I can get you into the United States.»

«And he told you that that's impossible. I'm surprised you don't know that. You can't immigrate to the United States on a Nansen passport.»

«Unless you get a special law passed by Congress, is what he told me.»

«What do you mean, a 'special law'?»

«The Congress of the United States in solemn assembly passes a law stating that so much of the applicable laws pertaining are waived in the case of Maria Catherine Ludmilla Zhivkov, and the Attorney General is hereby directed to forthwith issue to the said Maria Catherine Ludmilla Zhivkov an immigration visa.»

«That's possible?» she asked incredulously.

«We can't get married here. I'd need permission, and the Colonel would never grant it. And I can't resign from the Corps now. Resignations have been suspended for what they call 'The Emergency.' «

«So what are you talking about?»

«What we have to do is get you to the States,» he said. «Once you're in the States, we can get married. I won't be the first Marine officer with a foreign-born wife. And I really want to stay in the Corps.»

«You're dreaming the impossible. Didn't your consul general tell you what we both know? I can't get into the United States on a Nansen passport.»

«That's where good old Uncle Zach comes in with his special law,» Ed said. «My father's cable said that he had gone to see Uncle Zach, and Uncle Zach came on board.»

«Your Uncle Zach has political connections?»

«He's not really my uncle. He and my father were classmates at The Citadel. But I've known him all of my life.»

«But he has political connections?»

«The Honorable Zachary W. Westminister III has the honor to be the Representative to the Congress of the United States from the Third Congressional District of the great state of South Carolina.»

«And he will help?»

«The way my father sounded, it's a done deal. It won't happen next week, but it can be done.»

Oh, Holy Mary; Mother of God, is it possible ? Has the wheel stopped spinning and the ball really dropped into my hole ?

Milla started to weep.

He raised his head to look down at her and saw the tears running down her cheeks.

«Hey,» he asked, very tenderly, touching her cheek with his fingers. «What's that all about?»

«Ed, I want so much to believe, but I'm so afraid.»

«I told you. baby, the Marines have landed, and the situation is well in hand.»

«What does that 'Marines have landed' mean?» she asked, confused.

«It means that between now and the time the next Pan American Clipper leaves for the States, we have to go to the legation and get certified true copies made of all your documents, including your Nansen passport and what they call a 'narrative of the circumstances' by which you wound up here. Then we stuff everything in an airmail envelope and send it off to Uncle Zach. Who will get a special law passed for us.»