Series

Through the branches of the tamarind trees, the light played dappled games with the surface of the pool at the Cercle Sportif. Children paddled in the shallow end, supervised by nervous nannies who were hardly old enough to bear children themselves and certainly could not swim. The French denizens of Saigon reclined in their...
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I should tell you that I resisted, shouldn’t I? That when Etienne pushed me to the foot of the bed and pressed my body into the mattress with his own, I struggled or fought or at least protested? I wish I could say I did, but I won’t allow myself that dishonesty. The caress...
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An unfamiliar sound dragged me from my oblivion. Like the bark of a dog or a piece of wood being split. When it came again, I knew that it was a cry, louder and longer than before. My head was a sluggish river of thoughts as I slid off the bed, snatched my dressing...
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We played a few hands of gin rummy on the terrace. At eight the wind foretelling an evening thunderstorm came up and, although it was cooler, the gusts threatened to blow the playing cards off the table. I suggested that perhaps Etienne was tired after all his traveling and the heat, but the brandy...
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Dominique Grimaldi was propped up against his own bar when Heraud walked in. Of course, no one ever called him Dominique, or even Monsieur Grimaldi; the Corsican owner of the La Perle Noire was generally referred to as The Pirate. Not because he had spent any significant amount of time at sea, but because...
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The day had cooled a little, but it was still very hot, and I knew that, for those recently arrived from cooler climes, this made eating difficult. The cook had prepared us a very simple dinner. Iced tomato and cucumber salad, and then chicken with mushrooms and rice, cooked in a clay pot –...
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It was almost five in the afternoon when we reached the house. My chief foreman, Le Hoang Nam, was waiting to deliver his report of the day’s operations. He narrowed his eyes as Etienne stepped down from the car. I knew what he was thinking and what he feared: that in the year since...
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The road was dry and we made good time. “Your sister told me that you and Robert had a house in Saigon proper. And yet you don’t live there?” asked Etienne. We were waiting for the ferry to take the car across the Dong Ngai river. The long drive would have been a good...
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Heraud poured a trickle of water into his third glass of Pernod, took a sip and smirked. “I’ve heard she fucks her houseboy.” For a moment none of the three other men around the table on the terrace of the Hotel Continental said a word. At a nearby table, someone dropped cutlery onto their...
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