And as usual, she was putty in his hands. If youre sure you want me to.
Would I ask if I didnt? He patted her on the bottom. Id better come and see where you do put it, just in case you get knocked down in the street or anything.
I didnt need the wink he gave me over his shoulder as they went out to tell me what that meant. Poor Gudrid. Always on hand to keep him occupied in between affairs, never facing up to the hopelessness of the situation from her point of view. And yet in his own selfish way he had a genuine affection for her, and she did act as his banker on occasion, which was probably the only reason he had any money at all.
But I had enough problems of my own without worrying too much about other peoples and I finished dressing quickly and went downstairs.
As was only to be expected at that time in the morning, the restaurant was empty except for the girl sitting at a table in the bow window drinking coffee and looking out into the street. I could see at once what Arnie had meant, but he was wrong about one thing she wasnt beautiful, not in any conventional sense, but she was far from ugly.
She had a strong Jewish face, if one can use that term these days without being called a racialist a proud face with strong lines that might have been carved from stone. Full red lips, high cheekbones, hooded eyes a face that was unashamedly sensual and the straight black hair that hung shoulder-length in a dark curtain was perfectly in keeping. No Ruth in any cornfield this, but a fierce proud little queen. An Esther perhaps or even a Jezebel.
She looked up as I approached, her face calm, the dark eyes giving nothing away. I paused, hands in pockets.
Miss Eytan? Joe Martin. I understand you want to see Jack Desforge. Mind if I ask why?
She looked faintly surprised. Does it matter?
It might to him.
I sat down opposite her and waved to the waiter in the kitchen entrance who immediately produced a whale steak from the hotplate and brought it across.
Are you his keeper or something? she said without the slightest touch of rancour in her voice.
Lets put it this way. Jack has a great big sign out that says: Dont disturb. I fly supplies to the Stella once a week and he not only pays me double he pays me cash. Now I just love that kind of arrangement and Id hate to see anything spoil it.
Would it make any difference if I told you we were old friends?
Not particularly.
Somehow I thought you might say that. She opened her handbag and took out a wallet that was surprisingly masculine in appearance. How much do you charge to make the sort of flight youre doing this morning?
Five hundred krone.
Whats that American?
Call it a hundred and fifty dollars.
She extracted three notes and flipped them across the table. Three hundred. That means Ive paid in advance for the round trip if he doesnt want me to stay satisfied?
Considering that Ill be getting paid twice, how could I be otherwise? I took out my wallet and put the notes away carefully. We leave in forty minutes. The flight should take just over two hours if the wind is right.
Thats fine by me.
It was only when she stood up that I realised just how small she was not more than five feet three or four. She was wearing an expensive tweed suit, nylon stockings and flat-heeled pigskin shoes.
One more thing, I said. Youre dressed just fine for those long country weekends, but youll need something different for where were going.
Rugged country? she said. Well that should make a change. So far Ive found the whole thing just a little disappointing.
They dont wear sealskin trousers any more if they can help it, I said, and a whaleboat with a diesel motor is a damned sight handier in rough weather than a kayak, but if its the rough outdoors you want, I think Disko should satisfy you.
I cant wait, she said dryly. Where can I change?
Use my room if you like. Its on the first floor twenty-one. Ill finish here, then Ive a few things to see to. Ill pick you up in half an hour.
She went out through the archway and spoke to the porter who hurried round to pick up the suitcase she selected from the stack that stood against the wall, and she followed him across the hall to the stairs. At that distance there was something vaguely familiar about her, but I couldnt pin it down.
She walked well, with a sort of general and total movement of the whole body and in one very quick movement, I wondered what she would be like in bed. But that would have been Arnies reaction. He probably already had his campaign mapped out.
Suddenly angry with myself, I turned back to my steak, but it was already cold and I pushed it away and helped myself to coffee.
I think it was General Grant who said: War is hell. He should have added that women are worse. I sipped my coffee and stared out across the wide street towards the harbour where the Otter glinted scarlet and silver in the sunlight, but all I kept getting was a disturbing vision of Ilana Eytan crossing the hall and her damned skirt tightening as she mounted the stairs. It had been a long time since a woman bothered me as positively as that.
I borrowed the hotel Land-Rover and drove down to the harbour, mainly to get the met report from the harbourmasters office. Id refuelled the Otter on flying in the night before so there was nothing to do there and at a crate of Scotch per week, Desforge had become such a valued customer of the Royal Greenland Trading Company that their local agent had supervised the loading of his supplies himself.
I drove back to the hotel and went upstairs. When I went into the bedroom there was no sign of the girl, but I could hear the shower going full blast so I went into the dressing room and started to change.
I was as far as my flying boots when the outside door opened and someone entered. As I got to my feet, Arnie called my name and I moved to the door. I was too late. By the time I reached the bedroom, he was already entering the bathroom. He backed out hurriedly and Ilana Eytan appeared a moment later swathed in a large white bath towel.
I dont know whats supposed to be going on, she said. But would you kindly send Little Boy Blue here about his business.
Arnie stood there speechless and she shut the door in his face. I tapped him on the shoulder. On your way, Arnie.
What a woman, he whispered. My God, Joe, her breasts, her thighs such perfection. Ive never seen anything like it.
Yes you have, I said. About three thousand and forty-seven times. I pushed him out into the corridor and slammed the door.
I returned to the dressing room and pulled on a sweater and an old green kapok-filled parka with a fur-lined hood. When I went back into the bedroom Ilana Eytan was standing in front of the dressing table mirror combing her hair. She was wearing ski pants, cossack boots and a heavy Norwegian sweater.
Arnie thought it was me in there, I said. He didnt mean any harm.
They never do.
There was a hip-length sheepskin jacket on the bed beside the open suitcase and as she picked it up and pulled it on, I once again had that strange feeling of familiarity.
Havent I seen you somewhere before? I said, and then the obvious possibility occurred to me. In pictures maybe?
Havent I seen you somewhere before? I said, and then the obvious possibility occurred to me. In pictures maybe?
She buttoned up the jacket, examined herself carefully in the mirror and put the comb to her hair again. Ive made a couple.
With Jack? And then I remembered. Now Ive got it. You played the Algerian girl in that last film of his. The film about gun-running.
Go to the head of the class, she said brightly and zipped up her suitcase. What did you think of it?
Wonderful, I said. I dont know how he keeps it up. After all, he made his first film the year I was born.
You make a poor liar, she said calmly. That film was the original bomb. It sank without trace.
In spite of her apparent calmness there was a harsh, cutting edge to her voice that left me silent, but in any case she gave me no chance to reply and went out into the corridor leaving me to follow with her suitcase feeling strangely foolish.
2
As we roared out of the mouth of the fjord and climbed into the sun, I stamped on the right rudder and swung slowly north, flying parallel to the bold mountainous coast.
In the distance the ice-cap glinted in the morning sun and Ilana Eytan said, The only thing I ever knew about Greenland before now was a line in a hymn they used to sing at morning assembly when I was a kid at school. From Greenlands icy mountains Looking down on that lot I can see what they meant, but it still isnt quite as back of beyond as I expected. That hotel of yours in Frederiksborg even had central heating.
Things are changing fast here now, I said. The populations risen to sixty thousand since the war and the Danish government is putting a lot of money into development.
Another thing, it isnt as cold as I thought it would be.
It never is in the summer, particularly in the south-west. Theres a lot of sheep farming down there, but things are still pretty primitive north of the Arctic Circle. Up around Disko youll find plenty of Eskimos who still live the way theyve always done.
And thats where Jack is?
I nodded. Near the village called Narquassit as I last heard. Hes been looking for polar bear for the past couple of weeks.
That sounds like Jack. How well have you got to know him since hes been up here?
Well enough.
She laughed abruptly, that strange harsh laugh of hers. You look like the type he likes to tell his troubles to.
And what type would that be?
What he fondly believes to be the rugged man of action. Hes played bush pilot himself so many times in pictures over the years that he imagines he knows the real thing when he sees it.
And Im not it?
Nobodys real not in Jacks terms. They couldnt be. He can never see beyond a neatly packaged hour and a half script. She lit a cigarette and leaned back in her seat. I used to love the movies when I was a kid and then something happened. I dont know what it was, but one night when the hero and the girl got together for the final clinch I suddenly wondered what they were going to do for the next forty-three years. When you begin thinking like that the whole house of cards comes tumbling down.
Not for Jack, I said. Hes been living in a fantasy world for so long that reality has ceased to exist.
She turned, the narrow crease between her eyes a warning sign that I failed to notice. And whats that supposed to mean?
Considering the way shed been talking I was more than a little surprised at her reaction. I shrugged. Hes playing a part right now, isnt he? The rugged adventurer cruising the Greenland coast? Hell spend the day in a dory helping to bait and hook a three-thousand-foot line or hell go seal hunting among the pack ice in a kayak, but theres always the Stella to return to each night, a hot shower, a six-course dinner and a case of scotch.
A neat strip, she said. They could use you at Metro, but what about your own fantasy life?
I dont follow you.
The tough bush pilot act, the flying boots, the fur-lined parka the whole bit. Just who are you trying to kid? I wouldnt mind betting you even carry a gun.
A .38 Smith and Wesson, I lied. Its in the map compartment, but I havent had time to shoot anyone lately.
Id managed a nice bright reply, but she was hitting a bit too close for comfort and I think she knew it. For a little while I busied myself unnecessarily with a chart on my knee checking our course.
About five minutes later we came down through cloud and she gave a sudden exclamation. Look over there.
A quarter of a mile away half a dozen three-masted schooners played follow-my-leader, sails full, a sight so lovely that it never failed to catch at the back of my throat.
Portuguese, I said. Theyve been crossing the Atlantic since before Columbus. After fishing the Grand Banks off Newfoundland in May and June they come up here to complete their catch. They still fish for dories with handlines.
Its like something out of another age, she said, and there was genuine wonder in her voice.
Any further conversation was prevented by one of those sudden and startling changes in the weather for which the Greenland coast, even in summer, is so notorious. One moment a cloudless sky and crystal clear visibility and then, with astonishing rapidity, a cold front swept in from the ice-cap in a curtain of stinging rain and heavy mist.
It moved towards us in a grey wall and I eased back on the throttle and took the Otto down fast.
Is it as bad as it looks? Ilana Eytan asked calmly.
It isnt good if thats what you mean.
I didnt need to look at my chart. In this kind of flying anything can happen and usually does. You only survive by knowing your boltholes and I ran for mine as fast as I could.
We skimmed the shoulder of a mountain and plunged into the fjord beyond as the first grey strands of mist curled along the tips of the wings. A final burst of power to level out in the descent and we dropped into the calm water with a splash. Mist closed in around us and I opened the side window and peered out as we taxied forward.
The tip of an old stone pier suddenly pushed out of the mist and I brought the Otter round, keeping well over to the right. A few moments later we saw the other end of the pier and the shore and I dropped the wheels beneath the floats and taxied up on to a narrow shingle beach. I turned off the mast switch and silence enveloped us.
Where are we? she asked.
A disused whaling station Argamash. Like to take a look round?
Why not. How long will we be here?
Depends on the weather. One hour two at the most. Itll disappear as unexpectedly as it came.
When I opened the door and jumped down she followed me so quickly that I didnt get the chance to offer her a hand down. It was colder than Frederiksborg, but still surprisingly mild considering we were twenty miles inside the Arctic Circle and she looked about her with obvious interest.
Can we explore?
If you like.
We followed the beach and scrambled up an old concrete slipway that brought us to the shore-end of the pier. The mountain lifted above us shrouded in mist and the broken shell of the old whale-oil processing factory and the ruins of forty or fifty cottages crouched together at its foot.