Chapter 35

He took her by the hand and led her through the compound to a dining pavilion, which was dominated by a huge teak table with ornately carved legs. Curtains were drawn around the room. Sun Li moved Abegail to stand next to the table in the center of the room, and he circled the pavilion, drawing open curtain after curtain and revealing a large collection of paintings Abegail had rendered in her years in Malaya—six years of productivity, revealing the progression of her emotions from delight at the colors and wild life and floating architecture of the exotic country, to the monochromes of her gray period, to the sensual, lust-charged paintings of the period in which Sun Li had been her lover.

"How?" Abegail burbled, almost overcome with joy and surprise.

"My men enjoyed the outing tremendously. They swiped these from the embassy compound right from underneath the eyes of the drunken Japanese. They have never been so proud of a raid as this one. I will try to keep these safe for you and