Page 148

Room 802

Hotel Michelangelo

Palermo, Sicily

0725 1 June 1943

SS-Obersturmbannführer Oskar Kappler was gently awakened from a deep, contented sleep by soft snoring and warm breath on his chest. He looked down at the naked young woman wrapped in his left arm—and suddenly had extremely conflicting feelings.

Lucia, sound asleep, had her left leg intertwined with Oskar’s. She rested her head and left hand on his chest, her fingertips lost in his chest hair and her wavy dark hair. The sensation of her warm body weight rising and falling with his breathing and the peacefulness of her beautiful face made him long for them to be in a far different time and place.

Would such a loving and innocent young woman be selling herself were it not for this damn war?

He inhaled deeply. The aroma of her delicate lilac fragrance mingled with the husky, sensual smell that had come from their repeated couplings—energetic, exhilarating, and ultimately exhausting—over the course of the last two nights.

Then he felt more than a little angry at himself—disgusted, even embarrassed.

I am an intelligent and educated man—yet now I really am acting no better than that bastard Müller.

The first night with a whore I could perhaps excuse to the alcohol and my weakened emotional state.

But now?

Now, I not only willingly went back to bed with a whore, but I went back enthusiastically.

Which means that I shamefully personify what it says in P

roverbs 26 . . . and Father never believed that I’d actually read the Bible . . . “As a dog returneth to its vomit, so a fool repeateth his folly.”

He looked down and stared at her peaceful, almost angelic face.

But this . . . this is different, is it not?

Lucia has been so wonderful, and being lost in this moment is sublime.

I never want it to stop.

But . . . with a whore?

Am I indeed a fool and this my folly? Am I losing my mind?

God damn this war for destroying so much!

And now what? What about Father? And my family?

Who knows what today will bring?

But at least we have right here and right now. . . .

He inhaled deeply, then slowly exhaled.

Because of the movement or because she felt his gaze, Lucia slowly opened her warm dark eyes, looked up at him, then made a small sweet smile.

She has the timeless beauty of a goddess.

He smiled back, then leaned down and gently kissed her on the lips.

As he started to pull away, she smoothly moved up a little to keep contact—and they remained with their lips softy locked for minutes that seemed to drift into hours.