Helga Tells How Lieutenant Edward Ware And I Quarreled

      So you see, I told you how Lieutenant Edward Ware and I became lovers in the Syrian Desert long ago. He even humored me about the Moslem marriage ceremony. I got him to sign the certificate. I still have it, of course. Won't Dora be surprised to see her husband's signature next to me on so incriminating a document? It is enough to make you wonder who is the wife and who is not and who bore the illegitimate child, me or Lady Ware?
    Lawrence of Arabia took his troops to Petra and prepared for battle against the Turks and Germans. Edward was in those days still fighting the Germans, though Hitler was but a corporal. I followed him there. That was easy. Mohamed and I lived right next door in the mud brick village. I preferred Edward's nice, comfortable tent with the pillows and cots. I liked taking a hot bath there, too. I can't claim to have cooked the food, but I often served it to him. So what I told Leopold about meeting Edward as a serving maid at Petra is true. You may call me many bad things, but not a liar.
    But one day my luck ran out. Edward caught me with a message from Mohamed. He found out that I was the wife of his moral enemy who had been paid to track his footsteps and kill him. He threw me out of his tent. This time he acted as if he meant it. No amount of crying or wailing on my part seemed to do me any good. Really I think he was just feeling guilty because he was two-timing Dora. This Sir Edward fancied himself oh so honorable!
    I decided to get my revenge. If he would not take me willingly, I would take him. I had to do it anyway, because as Allah would have it, he had not yet gotten me with child. Mohamed told me that Edward had arranged to meet with him to bribe him into leaving Dora and him alone. I told Mohamed to bring Edward to me in the shed behind our house.
    If you want to hear the truth about what happened there, I will tell you everything tomorrow. I am nothing if not a modern day Scherezade. Don't you think?