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.By way of answer to her question, he said, "Talk has been going around, Eleanor.I think you're playing dangerous politics.""And just what," she rephed with mock sweetness, "is that supposed to mean?"His drink sat where she had placed it on the table, untouched.His slouched posture was relaxed; long years of bone-pounding movement had trained him to treasure each available moment of inactivity and put it to best use.He said softly, "I always figured you owned a little more respect for public opinion."Her eyes flashed; he saw her hand clench white around the glass.Her words, though softly spoken, had bite in them: "You didn't seem to feel the same way a few months ago, Will.I didn't see any concern then on your part for George or for pubhc opinion.""You and I were careful," Brady said."We didn't let it get around.""And that makes everything right," she answered.He ignored the edge to her words.He said, "You've gotten careless."She leaned forward, suddenly tense, suddenly dead serious."Will, you and I were washed up months ago.You were the one who said so.Now what gives you the right to come in here and dictate my life to me?""I don't like what you're doing.""Well," she said in measured syllables, "that is just too bad."But her eyes behed the hard crust of her words; her eyes were too bright—the beginning glisten of tears.She stood, turned away, and walked across the room to the small window cut into the adobe-plaster wall; she snatched the curtains aside and leaned forward, arais braced against the sill.It was, he knew, another pose; there was nothing she could see through that window except her own reflection, and perhaps his.But her words were no pose."What do you want from me, Will?"He answered with disquieting calmness: "I want you to leave Justin Harris alone."She wheeled.Her fists again were clenched."You have no right to ask that of me.""Come on, now," he said soothingly."I don't think you understand what you're playing with, Eleanor.""Don't I?" She walked swiftly toward him and glared down at him; he had to fear his head back to look at her."Then listen to this, Will Brady.I don't know what it was that changed your mind about me a few months ago, but all of a sudden you decided you were too good for me.You dropped me, and that's fine—for you.You don't have to go on living, day in and day out, with George Sutherland.You don't have to sit and go quietly mad while he plays his stiff-backed little military games and preens himself in front of the mirror and complains every hour about the miserable administrative mistake that assigned him to this forsaken outpost.You don't have to live your life with a man who's lost all capacity for loving and feeling—you don't have to hve with a cold, dead machine.Will."He interrupted her softly: "I didn't choose to marry George Sutherland, either.We make our own beds, Eleanor.You and I have talked this out before—and you know my feelings.It would be a lot more honorable for you to leave him than to keep playing around right under his nose."Flesh rippled along the line of her jaw."Let me finish, Will.Don't talk to me about honor.I've heard more tlian I can take about honor.Pride and honor—nothing else matters any more to George.Well, I've had my fill of it-right up to here." She threw her head back and touched her throat."All right," he said mildly."That changes nothing.""Doesn't it? Will, love is something you have to keep aHve, like a fire.You've got to feed it.George quit all that a long time ago.""Then leave him.""Leave him? And go where?""You'd make out all right, I reckon," he drawIed."I was wUing to go away with you.Will.Remember that little horse ranch up in the mountains? But you didn't want it.You wouldn't have any part of it You had a sudden attack of 'honor.' And I haven't seen you since that day." She dropped abruptly to one knee; her hand moved forward, ahnost reluctantly—as though it were against her will—and her fingers toyed with his sleeve."I had to do something, Will," she said in a small voice."So you took up wdth Tucker," he replied, appearing untouched."Sergeant Emmett Tucker—quite a comedown, wasn't it?""So you knew about that.""Purely by accident.It didn't last long with Tucker, did it, Eleanor?"Her head shook back and forth.There was a light deep in her eyes—perhaps it was desperation."Emmett is a good man," she said tonelessly, 'iDut he's troubled.He's got too much in his past.There are things he's too proud to forget.It was no good between us.We both had to force ourselves.""So Tucker went back to the bottle," he observed, "and you turned to Justin Harris." "Justin is a man, Will.""Sure.And he's already got a girl."Her lips curled wryly."Do you think I don't know that? Every time I approach him, he makes it all too clear."Not without gentleness, Brady pushed her hand away from his arm and stood up.He took a restless pacing turn around the room, hands rammed in his pockets, and came back to take a stand looking down at her.She remained crouched before the chair where he had been sitting.Her body shd back slowly until she was sitting crosslegged on the floor, head thrown back, eyes shining up at him defiantly.She lifted the glass to her lips and swallowed and put the empty glass down."What do you want from me, Will?""I told you.Leave Harris be.""I can't.I've got to have somebody to turn to
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