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‘If you get closer you will see their wee purple eyes glinting in the dark’

Lavinia peered into the darkness Behind her, suddenly, she felt the strangeness of his hands under her petticoats, up between her legs Kicking, she pushed herself back into the light as she tried to fight him off

To her amazement, she was not so ainst the bracken As he held her there he supported his weight with one hand while reaching doith the other to his breeches The glint of his cutter hanging from his belt pulled at her consciousness Before she had tie, soft tearing sound, plunged it into the boy’s thigh

He screamed once like an animal She rolled from under him and for a minute, they both stared down at the buried knife Fascinated, Lavinia watched as blood began to well around the lip of the wound, staining his thin hessian breeches

‘You have fallen on your own knife, understand?’ she said softly Her cool deh the injured boy ‘If I hear mention of any other explanation, I shall have you whipped’

Lavinia wa

ited until the boy nodded, his ruddy face now ashen Then she ran, filled with a wild, thu exhilaration that she intuitively knew she would have to keep secret, perhaps for her whole life

2

Afghanistan, March 2002

THE GRANDEUR OF THE LOOMING mountains and the clear sky above contrasted sharply with the hillside where the Humvee wound its way up a dirt track

The rotors of the Black Hawk helicopter beat the air above As it swooped down, it relinting off the hardened cockpit

Two door gunners hung out of it, their M60in the back of the Huunners, their faces careen and black paint One of them blew her a kiss

The lieutenant escorting Julia followed her gaze

‘Greenhorns,’ he said ‘War’s one long glorious coame until it’s like—oh , real blood, real death’

The Hurasped the strap of her seat belt; the flak jacket she wore under her sweater was a dead weight pressed against her breasts and chest, but it was co all the same

‘Colonel told uess you’re not one of theine, he bent towards her, his breath acrid even in the cold air, and squinted at the naton,’ he read aloud ‘You a medic?’

‘I’ adrenaline and hormonal levels immediately after conflict’

‘They let you do that?’

‘Special clearance’

He looked at her strangely then spat out the open‘You think we like being here?’

She looked away On the side of the road, two Afghani boys—their heads wrapped in traditional tribal scarfs, skinny ankles thrusting out of split Reeboks, old sweatshirts pulled over their kaftans—sat in a burnt-out BMW Although they waved at the Humvee their eyes were hostile

‘Some do, some don’t’