Free Illyrian Summer by Iris Danbury Page B

amphitheater. ”
    Her eyes danced with pleasure. So he had remembered the hat she had worn! “ I ’ m very flattered, ” she said demurely. “ Most of our hats are created to be forgotten. ”
    They walked out together through the exit gates. Then she remembered that probably he had been visiting Mirjana in the hospital grounds.
    “ Is Mirjana here in this hospital? ” she asked him.
    “ Yes. I ’ ve just been to see her again. ”
    Sarah ’ s spirits, so lately soaring to pinnacles of joy, sank equally suddenly.
    “ Is she very badly injured? ” she asked evenly.
    “ She has a broken leg and a few other cuts and minor injuries, ” Adam answered. “ She will be moved away as soon as possible. ”
    Sarah was on the point of saying that quite likely she had typed out a card this afternoon for Mi r jana ’ s case, but she bit back the words. “ I saw Radmilla today, ” she told him. “ Her family is staying close by the river. They aren ’ t injured, I think, but they will lose their house and all their possessions. ”
    “ Where are you going now? ” he asked abruptly, as though Radmilla ’ s problems were no concern of his.
    “ To the car park in the public gardens. Up there on the outskirts of the town. ”
    “ You ’ re returning to Dubrovnik? ”
    She could not repress the spurt of triumph that now elated her. “ Oh, no. Not until our work here is finished. Edmund has brought a small film unit to make a documentary. ” She watched his face and added, “ You jumped to rather hasty conclusions this morning when you took Daniel and me for idle sightseers. We haven ’ t come here for a day trip. We work on our jobs and in j our spare time we do anything else we can to help. ”
    For a moment or two he stared down at her, his eyes hard and unemotional. Then he smiled and his features became less forbidding. “ It must be the hat, ” he said softly.
    “ The hat? Why? ”
    “ When you wear it, you become indignant. ” He chuckled. “ I apologize, though, for this morning ’ s mistake. Actually, I was rather concerned about your safety. Buildings fall down all the time. ”
    She was touched by his admission of error and smiled back at him. “ Thank you, Adam. I have to go up to Edmund now. There ’ s a load of typing to be done. ”
    “ May I come with you? ”
    “ Of course. Edmund will be glad to see you again. ”
    “ When it happened, were you here in the town? ”
    He hesitated for several moments, as though he were framing his reply. “ I had taken Mirjana home—we ’ d been working late at the steel plant and we had dinner at a restaurant on the other side of the town, the old part across the river. Mirjana and her mother lived on this side in one of the tall new apartment blocks, only built a few years ago. I was walking back to the hotel where I live—that ’ s on the other side, too, handy for my work—and after I ’ d crossed the bridge I felt the ground heave under my feet. ”
    “ That ’ s exactly how I felt it in Dubrovnik, but it was so slight there that I thought I ’ d imagined it, ” Sarah said. “ I ’ m sorry about Mirjana! She ’ s such a beautiful girl. ”
    She felt rather than saw Adam ’ s quick turn of his head toward her.
    “ Mmm, yes, ” he murmured. “ But apart from a scratch or two, her face will not be disfigured. ” After a pause he added, “ She saved my life, too, as well as her own. ” It was Sarah ’ s turn now to glance sharply up at his face.
    “ Mirjana lost a bead necklace and we went back to the open-air restaurant where we had dined. We spent quite a time looking for it under the chairs and tables, and all the way as far as the bridge. But for that delay, you see, I should have been back in my hotel. When I did return there, after I ’ d found Mirjana—and I spent some time helping others out of the wreckage—the hotel where I ’ d been living for two years had vanished. Nothing but a heap of ruins. ”
    “ Oh, Adam! ”