movements which had been her loving with Gareth Swales, and she
compared it to this stormy meeting of passions; then the thought was
borne away on the flood, on the need to be free of confinement.
Outside the car, the chill of the desert night prickled the skin of her
back and flanks and thighs, and she felt the fine golden hairs come
erect on her forearms. He flapped out the bed-roll and spread it on
the earth. Then he returned to get her, and the heat of his body was a
physical shock. It seemed to burn with all the pent-up fires of his
soul, and she pressed herself to it with complete abandon, delighting
in the contrast of his burning flesh and the cool desert breeze upon
her bare skin.
Now at last there was nothing to prevent the range of her hands and she
knew they were cold as ghost fingers on him, delighting to hear his
gasp again at their touch. She laughed then, a hoarse throaty
chuckle.
"Yes." She laughed again, as he lifted her easily and dropped to his
knees on the bed-roll, holding her against his chest.
"Yes, Jake." She let the last restraint fly. "Quickly, quickly my
darling: It was a raging, a roaring of all her senses. It was an
aching, tumultuous storm that ended at last and afterwards the vast
hissing silence of the desert was so frightening that she clung to him
like a child and found to her amazement that she was weeping. the
tears scalded her eyes and yet were as icy as the touch of frost upon
her cheeks.
General De Bono's first cautious but ponderous thrust across the
Mareb River, into Ethiopia, met with a success that left him stunned.
Ras Muguletul the Ethiopian commander in the north, offered only token
resistance then withdrew his forty thousand men southwards to the
natural mountain fortress of Ambo Aradam. Unopposed, De Bono drove the
seventy miles to Adowa and found it deserted. Triumphantly he erected
the monument to the fallin Italian warriors and thereby expunged the
stain of defeat from the arms of Italy.
The great civilizing mission had begun. The savage was being tamed,
and introduced to the miracles of modern man amongst them the aerial
bomb.
The Royal Italian Air Force ranged the skies above the towering
Ambas, reporting all troop movements and swooping down to bomb and
machine-gun any concentrations. The Ethiopian forces were confused and
scattered under their tribal commanders. There were half a dozen
breaches in their line that a forceful commander could have exploited
indeed even General De Bono sensed this and made another convulsive
leap forward as far as Makale. However, here he stopped appalled at
his own audacity, stunned by his own achievement.
Ras Muguletu was skulking on Ambo Aradam with his forty thousand,
while Ras Kassa and Ras Seyoum were struggling to move the great
unwieldy masses of their two armies through the mountain passes to link
up with the army of the Emperor on the shores of Lake Tona.
They were disordered, vulnerable, ripe to be cut down like wheat and
General De Bono closed his eyes, covered his brow with one hand and
turned his head aside.
History would never accuse him of recklessness and impetuosity.
ROM GENERAL DE BONO COMMANDER OF THE ITALIAN EXPEDITIONARY FORCE
AT MA KALE TO BENITO MUSSOLINI PRIME MINISTER OF ITALY HAVING
CAPTURED
ADO WA AND MA KALE I CONSIDER MY IMMEDIATE OBJECTS HAVE BEEN ATTAINED
STOP IT IS NOW VITALLY NECESSARY TO CONSOLIDATE THESE SUCCESSES' TO
FORTIFY MY POSITION AGAINST ENEMY COUNTER ATTACK AND TO SECURE MY
LINES
OF SUPPLY AND COMMUNICATIONS." ROM BENITO MUSSOLINI PRIME MINISTER
OF
ITALY MINISTER OF WAR TO GENERAL DE BONO OFFICER COMMANDING THE
ITALIAN
EXPEDITIONARY FORCE IN AFRICA HIS MAJESTY WISHES AND I COMMAND YOU TO
ADVANCE WITHOUT HESITATION ON AMBA ARA DAM AND BRING THE MAIN BODY OF
THE ENENMY TO BATTLE AS SOON AS POSSIBLE STOP REPLY TO ME." ROM
GENERAL DE BONO TO THE PRIME MINISTER OF ITALY GREETINGS AND
FELICITATIONS I WISH TO POINT OUT TO YOUR EXELLENCY THAT THE
OBJECTIVE
AMBA ARA DAM IS TACTICALLY UNDESIRABLE ... THE TERRAIN FAVOURS AMBUSH
CONDITION OF ROADS VERY POOR ... TRUST MY JUDGEMENT ... URGE YOUR
EXCELLENCY TO RECONSIDER AND TO TAKE COGNIZANCE OF THE FACT THAT THE
MILITARY SITUATION MUST TAKE PRECEDENCE OVER ALL POLITICAL
CONSIDERATION." FROM BENITO MUSSOLINI TO MARSHAL DE BONO PREVIOUSLY
OFFICER COMMANDING THE ITALIAN EXPEDITIONARY FORCE IN AFRICA HIS
MAJESTY ORDERS ME TO CONVEY HIS FELICITATIONS ON YOUR ELEVATION TO
THE
RANK OF MARSHAL OF THE ARMY AND TO THANK YOU FOR THE IMPECCABLE
EXECUTION OF YOUR DUTY IN RECAPTURING ADO WA STOP WITH THE ATTAINMENT
OF
THIS OBJECTIVE I CONSIDER THAT YOUR MISSION IN EASTERN AFRICA HAS
BEEN
COMPLETED STOP YOU HAVE EARNED THE GRATITUDE OF THE NATION BY YOUR
OBVIOUS MERITS AS A SOLDIER AND YOUR STEADFAST DISCHARGE OF YOUR DUTY
AS A COMMANDER STOP YOU ARE REQUESTED TO HAND OVER YOUR COMMAND TO
GENERAL PIE TRO BADOGLIO ON HIS IMMINENT ARRIVAL IN AFRICA..
Marshal De Bono accepted both his promotion and his recall with such
good grace that it could have been mistaken, by an uninformed observer,
