Amanda's Blue Marine by Doreen Owens Malek Read Free Book Online Page B

married. When I learned that piece of information I didn’t pursue it any further. She’s still miffed about it.”
    “It’s nice to know you have standards,” Mandy said lightly.
    “Not too many,” he said. “But that’s one of them.”
    “You speak Spanish,” Mandy said.
    “Nah. I can barely speak English, as I’m sure you’ve noticed. I had to do two summer sessions of it just to get out of high school. The Spanish I picked up on the job. I just get by with it, and Janet Grady helps me. Her mother is Mexican and her family speaks Spanish at home.”
    “Your accent is very good.”
    He looked at her. “Yeah?” he said, doubtfully. “You can tell that from one sentence?”
    “Yes. You’re a good mimic. Most gringos don’t draw out the vowels and they clip the syllables too much. They sound like this.” She repeated the Spanish sentence with the wrong phrasing and he grinned.
    “That’s how my partner Donatelli sounds,” he said. He sat back in his seat and surveyed her.
    “So how many languages do you speak, professor?” he asked dryly. “Hindi, Croatian, Martian?”
    “Just the two, English and Spanish. Oh, and Latin, if that counts, since I don’t think Julius Caesar is going to show up any time soon to discuss his ‘Commentaries’ with me.”
    “I’ve read the ‘Commentaries’,” Kelly said. “Some parts, anyway. ‘De Bello Gallico.’”
    Mandy’s eyes flashed to his face.
    Kelly dissolved into laughter. “Look how amazed she is,” he said, delighted by her surprised reaction. “I’m telling you the truth, Amanda. I took a tactical class in combat training and we had to read the translations of all the journals: Caesar, Hannibal, Napoleon, Rommel.”
    “No Americans?”
    He nodded. “Lafayette, Daniel Morgan, Francis Marion, some others from the Civil War like Sherman and the major ones from World War II. I could hardly get through most of them, but Caesar was the easiest. It was like a diary and the language was simple.”
    “Simple for you, maybe. You were reading it in English, not translating the damn thing for an entire year,” Mandy said darkly.
    “I really liked that rebel who gave old Julius so much trouble. Caesar was always plotting to get him, and eventually he did, big time. His name was Lepidopterix or something like that. Sounds like a dinosaur.”
    “Vercingetorix.”
    “That’s him! That guy, he never gave up. Caesar would thump him and he would go away and hide, reassemble his boys or capture some slaves or annex some other tribe, and then come back at Caesar again. In the writing you could just hear Julius getting fed up with the whole thing. Didn’t what’s his name eventually surrender?”
    “In front of all his followers he rode in on his decorated war horse, stripped off his armor, and knelt at Caesar’s feet. Caesar let him live for five years and then executed him. But first Caesar paraded him around in chains before all the locals to show them what would happen to them if they got similar ideas.”
    Kelly nodded sadly. “Caesar should have shown more class there. A worthy opponent should be treated with respect.”
    “Napoleon respected Vercingetorix. He built a statue to him some place in France, where his tribe lived in Caesar’s time. It’s still there, I think.”
    “I can’t believe this conversation,” Kelly said. “How the hell did we get to ancient Rome from your car accident?”
    “ I think you were trying to steer me off that subject,” Mandy said gratefully. “What do you usually talk about with …” she stopped.
    “Women?” he supplied.
    “Yes.”
    “Them,” he said, grinning. “Their beauty, intelligence, sterling character, compelling personality. You know, fascinating topics like that.”
    Mandy eyed him warily. She knew he was teasing her but she also knew there was an element of truth in what he was saying.
    Be careful, she thought. And then, too late.
    She was already captivated.
    He patted his pockets and