The James Bond Anthology

Bond thought with dismay that she must be going into a ‘vin triste’. Too much champagne had made her melancholy. But suddenly she gave a happy laugh. ‘Don’t look so worried.’ She leaned forward and put her hand over his. ‘I was only being sentimental. Anyway, my island feels very close to your island tonight.’ She took a sip of champagne.

Bond laughed, relieved. ‘Let’s join up and make a peninsula,’ he said. ‘Now, directly we’ve finished the strawberries.’

‘No,’ she said, flirting. ‘I must have coffee.’

‘And brandy,’ countered Bond.

The small shadow had passed. The second small shadow. This too left a tiny question-mark hanging in the air. It quickly dissolved as warmth and intimacy enclosed them again.

When they had had their coffee and Bond was sipping his brandy, Vesper picked up her bag and came and stood behind him.

‘I’m tired,’ she said, resting a hand on his shoulder.

He reached up and held it there and they stayed motionless for a moment. She bent down and lightly brushed his hair with her lips. Then she was gone and a few seconds later the light came on in her room.

Bond smoked and waited until it had gone out. Then he followed her, pausing only to say good night to the proprietor and his wife and thank them for the dinner. They exchanged compliments and he went upstairs.

It was only half-past nine when he stepped into her room from the bathroom and closed the door behind him.

The moonlight shone through the half-closed shutters and lapped at the secret shadows in the snow of her body on the broad bed.

Bond awoke in his own room at dawn and for a time he lay and stroked his memories.

Then he got quietly out of bed and in his pyjama-coat he crept past Vesper’s door and out of the house to the beach.

The sea was smooth and quiet in the sunrise. The small pink waves idly licked the sand. It was cold, but he took off his jacket and wandered naked along the edge of the sea to the point where he had bathed the evening before, then he walked slowly and deliberately into the water until it was just below his chin. He took his feet off the bottom and sank, holding his nose with one hand and shutting his eyes, feeling the cold water comb his body and his hair.

The mirror of the bay was unbroken except where it seemed a fish had jumped. Under the water he imagined the tranquil scene and wished that Vesper could just then come through the pines and be astonished to see him suddenly erupt from the empty seascape.

When after a full minute he came to the surface in a froth of spray, he was disappointed. There was no one in sight. For a time he swam and drifted and then when the sun seemed hot enough, he came in to the beach and lay on his back and revelled in the body which the night had given back to him.

As on the evening before, he stared up into the empty sky and saw the same answer there.

After a while he rose and walked back slowly along the beach to his pyjama-coat.

That day he would ask Vesper to marry him. He was quite certain. It was only a question of choosing the right moment.

25 | ‘BLACK-PATCH’

As he walked quietly from the terrace into the half-darkness of the still shuttered dining-room, he was surprised to see Vesper emerge from the glass-fronted telephone booth near the front door and softly turn up the stairs towards their rooms.

‘Vesper,’ he called, thinking she must have had some urgent message which might concern them both.

She turned quickly, a hand up to her mouth.

For a moment longer than necessary she stared at him, her eyes wide.

‘What is it, darling?’ he asked, vaguely troubled and fearing some crisis in their lives.

‘Oh,’ she said breathlessly, ‘you made me jump. It was only … I was just telephoning to Mathis. To Mathis,’ she repeated. ‘I wondered if he could get me another frock. You know, from that girl-friend I told you about. The vendeuse. You see,’ she talked quickly, her words coming out in a persuasive jumble, ‘I’ve really got nothing to wear. I thought I’d catch him at home before he went to the office. I don’t know my friend’s telephone number and I thought it would be a surprise for you. I didn’t want you to hear me moving and wake you up. Is the water nice? Have you bathed? You ought to have waited for me.’

‘It’s wonderful,’ said Bond, deciding to relieve her mind, though irritated with her obvious guilt over this childish mystery. ‘You must go in and we’ll have breakfast on the terrace. I’m ravenous. I’m sorry I made you jump. I was just startled to see anyone about at this hour of the morning.’

He put his arm round her, but she disengaged herself, and moved quickly on up the stairs.

‘It was such a surprise to see you,’ she said, trying to cover the incident up with a light touch.

‘You looked like a ghost, a drowned man, with the hair down over your eyes like that.’ She laughed harshly. Hearing the harshness, she turned the laugh into a cough.

‘I hope I haven’t caught cold,’ she said.