Spy in a Little Black Dress - By Maxine Kenneth Page 0,61

in Cuba that Fidel was born out of wedlock to a household servant of Angel Castro’s when Angel was married to another woman. He didn’t divorce her to marry Fidel’s mother until Fidel was fifteen. All the other children made fun of Fidel for that. But I didn’t. I liked him because he was such a smart student and a good athlete. We both played on the baseball team at El Colegio de Belén, a Jesuit school in Havana. I was an outfielder, and Fidel was a pitcher. A very good one, I might add.”

“Yes, Mr. Dulles told me about that,” Jackie said. “So you were both athletes. Were you both always interested in politics too?”

“Yes. History was my favorite subject in school. Maybe being named after Zapata had something to do with that. And Fidel’s biggest heroes were political figures.” Emiliano smiled. “Do you know what his most prized possession was as a boy?”

“No, what?”

“A letter from U.S. president Franklin D. Roosevelt, thanking Fidel for the letter that he wrote to him when he was fourteen years old.”

Jackie was incredulous. “Fidel wrote a letter to President Roosevelt when he was fourteen?”

Emiliano smiled again. “Yes, but he said he was twelve in the letter. I guess he thought that sounded more impressive.”

Jackie smiled too. “Here I thought only women lied about their age,” she said. “What did he write in the letter?”

“He was learning English, and he addressed the letter to ‘My good friend Roosevelt’ and told him how happy he was that Roosevelt got reelected. Then he wrote, ‘If you like, give me a ten dollar bill green American, because never, I have not seen a ten dollars bill.”

Jackie laughed. “I don’t suppose he got the ten dollars, did he?”

“No, but he got a very nice form letter that he still has to this day.”

“That’s a cute story,” Jackie said. “A history buff and a Roosevelt fan. I can see how you both wound up in law school. That must have made your parents very proud.”

“It did. I was the first one in my family to even go to college.” Emiliano’s voice dropped to a low tone, almost as if he was speaking to himself, but his eyes were fixed on Jackie’s, and she could see sadness pooling in them. “I wish my father had lived to see me graduate from law school,” he said softly. “That was his dream. But the life of a farmer is a hard one. My father worked ten hours a day in the broiling sun just to put food on the table, hardly eating anything himself most of the time. He died when I was in my junior year of college. My mother was devastated. He was the love of her life, just as she was his.”

“Oh, Emiliano, I’m so sorry,” Jackie said. She squeezed his hand, half expecting him to extricate it from hers the way he had the first time she had reached for it, but he didn’t seem to want to let it go. Overcome with feeling for him, Jackie inched her face closer to his until their lips were almost touching. It felt strange to know that he was waiting for her to make the next move, and yet it excited her to be the one in control for a change. She brushed his lips lightly with hers, testing him. When he didn’t draw back, she threw caution to the wind and kissed him full on the lips, drawing her arms around him as their mouths opened, and the kiss went on and on.

Finally, they pulled part, gasping for air. Emiliano had such a stricken look on his face that Jackie began to laugh. “Emiliano, it’s all right,” she said. “We’re allowed to show affection for each other if we feel it. We’re only human.”

Emiliano shook his head. “Yes, we’re only human, but in circumstances like these”—he pulled the sheet around him and glanced at the narrow space between their beds—“perhaps it would be best if we to try to be superhuman.”

Jackie had to laugh again. “Yes, I guess you’re right,” she said, pulling her own sheet around herself. “This is a pretty slippery slope we’re on here.”

Now it was Emiliano’s hand that reached for Jackie’s and held it just long enough for a warm feeling to suffuse her inside before he gently pulled it away. She took that tender gesture as a plea for understanding that Emiliano was withdrawing from her not because he didn’t find her attractive,