She was leaning over me still and I thought for a moment she was going to hit me again. Her face was twisted with passion. ‘Because I tell you I am born in the slums of Napoli—’ She stopped herself and turned quickly to the drink table. She came back with cognac in a balloon glass. ‘Drink that,’ she said. ‘Then you must go to bed.’
I didn’t want the cognac. I’d sobered up a little and I was beginning to feel uneasy. ‘Why did you bring me out here?’ I asked. My voice sounded slurred and I couldn’t get her properly into focus.
She sank down on to the couch beside me. ‘I am sorry, Dick. I do not want to hit you like that. Something get into me, I think. It is the heat.’
‘Whose villa is this?’
She pulled my head down on to her breast. ‘You ask so many questions. Why are you not content to take things as they come?’ Her hand was stroking my hair again, her fingers caressing my temples. It was very soothing. ‘Close your eyes now and I will sing to you.’ She chose a soft Neapolitan lullaby. My eyes felt heavy with sleep. Somehow I found the glass in my hand and I drank. Her voice came and went, the drowsy murmur of a bee, the soft lilt of water. I closed my eyes for the room was pulsing to the sound of her voice.
Then I was being helped up the stairs to bed. I heard her say in Italian, ‘He will sleep now.’ Her voice sounded very far away. It was Roberto’s voice that answered her. He just said, ‘Bene.’
Some sixth sense told me I mustn’t become unconscious. I fought to get control of my reeling brain. Then I was lying on a bed in complete darkness. No breath of air stirred in the room. It was suffocatingly hot and I felt sick. I rolled out of bed and felt my way to the farther wall. I found the basin just in time. I broke into a cold sweat then, but I felt better and my head was clear. I cursed myself for a fool. To come out to a lonely villa with a girl like Zina and then get so drunk that I had to be put to bed!
I stood there leaning on the basin and wiping the sweat from my forehead with a towel. The villa was very still. The gentle putter of the electric light plant had ceased and I could hear no sound of voices. I glanced at my watch. The luminous face of it shone bright in the utter darkness. It was just after one.
I was feeling much better now. I rinsed out the basin and had a wash. As I dried my face I was wondering why Zina had given me so much wine to drink. Had she wanted to get me drunk? Was that the way she liked her men? Maybe she’d been in the room with me. Then I remembered the expression on Roberto’s face and her sudden blaze of anger. And I began to feel uneasy again.
I put the towel down and turned to feel my way towards the door. Her room would be somewhere along the passage. I was feeling fine now. Halfway across the room I remembered there was a torch in my suitcase which was on the window seat. I found the case and was just slipping back the clasps when I noticed a vertical red line where the shutters were swung across the window. I lifted the securing bar and pulled the shutters back.