She hurried to the room where he and Amparo had slept and looked inside. It was empty. She ran down the steps to the reception hall on the main floor. Jaime and Amparo were standing near the bolted front door, whispering.

Felix ran up to them. "I checked the back. There's no other way out of here."

"What about the back windows?"

"Too small. The only way out is through the front door."

Where the soldiers are, Megan thought. We're trapped.

Jaime was saying, "It's just our damned bad luck that they picked this place to camp."

"What are we going to do?" Amparo whispered.

"There's nothing we can do. We'll have to stay here until they leave. If—"

And at that moment there was a loud knock at the front door. An authoritative voice called out, "Open up in there."

Jaime and Felix exchanged a quick look, and without a word drew their guns.

The voice called out again,"We know there's someone in there. Open up."

Jaime said to Amparo and Megan, "Get out of the way."

It's hopeless, Megan thought as Amparo moved behind Jaime and Felix. There must be two dozen armed soldiers out there.

We haven't got a chance.

Before the others could stop her, Megan moved swiftly to the front door and opened it.

"Thank the Lord you've come!" Megan exclaimed. "You must help me."

CHAPTER THIRTY THREE

The army officer stared at Megan. "Who are you? What are you doing in there? I'm Captain Rodriguez, and we're looking for—"

"You're just in time, Captain." She grabbed his arm. "My two little sons have typhoid fever, and I have to get them to a doctor. You must come in and help me with them."

"Typhoid fever?"

"Yes." Megan was pulling on his arm. "It is terrible. They are burning up. They are covered with sores and are very sick. Bring your men in and help me carry them out to—" "señora! You must be mad. That is highly contagious."

"Never mind that. They need your help. They may be dying."

She was pulling on his arm.

"Let go of me."

"You can't leave me. What will I do?"

"Get back inside and stay there until we can notify the police to send an ambulance or a doctor."

"But—"

"That's an order, señora. Get inside."

He called out, "Sergeant, we're moving out of here."

Megan closed the front door and leaned against it, drained.

 Jaime was staring at her in stunned amazement. "My God, that was brilliant. Where did you learn to lie like that?"

 Megan turned to him and sighed. "When I was in the orphanage, we had to learn to defend ourselves. I hope God will forgive me."

"I wish I could have seen the look on that captain's face." Jaime burst into laughter. "Typhoid fever! Jesus Christ!" He saw the look on Megan's face. "I beg your pardon, Sister."

 From outside they could hear the sounds of the soldiers packing their tents and moving out.

 When the troops had departed, Jaime said, "The police will be here soon. Anyway, we have an appointment in Logroño."

 Fifteen minutes after the soldiers had departed, Jaime said, "It should be safe to leave now." He turned to Felix.

 "See what you can pick up in town. Preferably a sedan."

 Felix grinned. "No problem."

 Half an hour later they were in a beat-up gray sedan heading east.

 To Megan's surprise, she was seated next to Jaime. Felix and Amparo were in the backseat. Jaime glanced at Megan, a grin on his face.

 "Typhoid fever," he said, and burst out laughing.

 Megan smiled. "He did seem eager to get away, didn't he?"

 "Did you say you were in an orphanage, Sister?"

 "Yes."

 "Where?"

 "In Ávila."

"You don't look Spanish."

"So I've been told."

"It must have been hell for you in the orphanage."

She was startled by the unexpected concern. "It could have been," she said. "But it wasn't." I wouldn't let it be, she thought.

"Do you have any idea who your parents were?"

Megan recalled her fantasies. "Oh, yes. My father was a brave Englishman who drove an ambulance for the Loyalists in the Spanish Civil War. My mother was killed in the fighting and I was left on the doorstep of a farmhouse." Megan shrugged. "Or my father was a foreign prince who had an affair with a peasant girl and abandoned me to avoid a scandal."

Jaime glanced at her, saying nothing.

"I—" she stopped abruptly. "I don't know who my parents were."

They drove on in silence for a while.

"How long were you behind the walls of the convent?"

"About fifteen years."

Jaime was astonished. "Jesus!" Hastily he added, "I beg your pardon, Sister. But it's like talking to someone from another planet. You have no idea what's happened in the world in the past fifteen years."

"I'm sure that whatever changed is only temporary. It will change again."

"Do you still want to go back to a convent?"

The question took Megan by surprise.

"Of course."

"Why?" Jaime made a sweeping gesture. "I mean— there is so much that you must miss behind the walls. Here we have music and poetry. Spain gave the world Cervantes and Picasso,

Lorca, Pizarro, de Soto, Cortés. This is a magical country."

There was a surprising mellowness about this man, a soft fire.

Unexpectedly, Jaime said, "I'm sorry for wanting to desert you earlier, Sister. It was nothing personal. I have had bad experiences with your Church."

"That is difficult to believe."

"Believe it." His voice was bitter.

In his mind's eye he could see the buildings and statues and streets of Guernica exploding in showers of death. He could still hear the screams of the bombs mingling with the screams of the helpless victims being torn apart. The only place of sanctuary was the church.

The priests have locked the church. They won't let us in.

And the deadly hail of bullets that had murdered his mother and father and sisters. No. Not the bullets, Jaime thought. The Church.

"Your Church stood behind Franco and allowed unspeakable things to be done to innocent civilians."

"I'm sure the Church protested," Megan said.

"No. It wasn't until nuns were being raped by his

Falangists and priests were being murdered and churches were being burned that finally the pope broke with Franco. But that didn't bring my mother or father or sisters back to life."

The passion in his voice was frightening.

"I'm sorry. But that was long ago. The war is over."

"No. Not for us it isn't. The government will still not permit us to fly the Basque flag or celebrate our national holidays or speak our own language. No, Sister. We're still being oppressed. We'll keep on fighting until we gain our independence. There are half a million Basques in Spain and a hundred fifty thousand more in France. We want our independence—but your God is too busy to help us."

Megan said earnestly, "God cannot take sides, for He is in all of us. We are all a part of Him, and when we try to destroy Him, we destroy ourselves."

To Megan's surprise, Jaime smiled. "We are a lot alike,

you and I, Sister."

"We are?"

"We may believe in different things, but we believe with a passion. Most people go through life without caring deeply about anything. You devote your life to God; I devote my life to my cause. We care."