A Regimental Affair

Book 1: A Military Romance Trilogy

by Kate Lace

Genres: Romance

Synopsis

When Ginny Turner arrives to take up her new post as Regimental Admin Officer, there are mixed feelings on `the patch?. Her old friend Debbie is delighted: Ginny is fun, good company, and will brighten things up no end. Alice Davies, wife of commanding officer Bob Davies, is less pleased. She remembers Ginny from an earlier posting as being `a bit fast?. Ginny herself is excited, not least at the prospect at being reunited with her old boss, for whom she has long held a candle. When the regiment embarks on an emergency tour of Kosovo - minus wives ? Colonel Bob and Ginny are inevitably thrown together. Will they put their ambition and careers first, or will they give into temptation and their mutual attraction? Either way a stormy road lies ahead for Bob and Ginny.

Release date: October 19, 2015

Publisher: Accent Press

Print pages: 325

Sample

Chapter One

Ginny Turner was surrounded by chaos. On the floor of her room was a suitcase piled high with clothes, mostly various sorts of army uniform, but with a number of skimpy outfits that bore witness to Ginny’s off-duty retail habit. By the bed was a packing case half-filled with books, CDs, walking boots and a tennis racket, while a hockey stick balanced precariously in the corner. Her skis were propped against the end of her bed until she could work out how the hell she was going to fit them in a tea chest. Music blared from her radio and Ginny herself was lying on her back on the bed wearing a T-shirt and shorts, her left knee crooked with her right foot resting on it, nattering into her mobile phone.

‘I know, it’s a pisser, isn’t it? I mean, two weeks’ notice to move. It’s all very well them saying “exigencies of the service”, but it still means I’m the one getting mucked about and this new place I’m going to is in the back of bloody beyond – although I’ll have more to do than you have where you live.’ There was a knock on her door. ‘Hang on a mo,’ she instructed. She held the phone away from her mouth as she yelled, ‘Come in!’ The door opened and an attractive young man poked his head round and tapped his watch. She looked at her own. ‘Oh shit.’ She re-clamped her phone to her ear. ‘I’m sorry, Netta. Gotta go. I’m late. Ring you tomorrow. Yeah, hugs to all the kids and love to Petroc. Bye.’

Smiling apologetically at her visitor, Ginny bounced off her bed, flicked her phone shut and switched off the radio. ‘I’m so sorry. I was chatting to my sister and forgot the time. Give me two ticks and I’ll be there.’

‘It’s your farewell party.’

‘I know, I know. But let’s face it, if you lot haven’t got used to me being late by now, when will you?’

Tim Benson nodded and gave her a lopsided smile. He wondered how could anyone so utterly organised at work be so shambolic in her social and private life?

As soon as he left, Ginny stripped to the buff and concentrated on getting ready for her final night out with the other single officers before her departure from her current unit to a new posting, via a spot of leave. She only had herself to blame for being so late this time – her excuse that a phone call had delayed her had been a fluent lie. The truth was she had spent too long going through an old photo album she’d found as she’d been packing. She instantly remembered what it contained and had flicked eagerly through it to find a few specific shots. She’d whizzed past the snaps of her earlier exploits in the army until she found what she had been looking for; pictures of the last time her path had crossed that of Bob Davies. Then, he’d been a junior captain, not long married and a new father, and in the two years that Bob, his wife and Ginny had all been together at Tidworth she had got to know them quite closely. Well, not his wife. Ginny had been wary of Alice. There had been something about the woman that Ginny had taken against almost from the outset. She had never been able to put her finger on it precisely, but she had an inkling that Alice had not entirely approved of her. Not enough to refuse her offer of babysitting Megan, but enough to subtly cut her at the few social events they attended together. It had been very hurtful, and if Ginny hadn’t liked Bob so much she would have told Alice where to get off when she’d asked her to babysit.

To start with she’d liked Bob simply because he’d been kind to her. She’d been the newbie in the unit – and the only girl – and so had been largely ignored by most of the other officers. The blokes seemed to resent a woman living with them in the mess – some sort of macho idea that having a woman around would cramp their style. Consequently she’d felt shunned and lonely, which hadn’t been helped by the fact that her sister had got a job on the Isles of Scilly and her parents had been stationed in Washington. It wasn’t her style to complain and she’d told no one just how friendless she’d felt. Instead, she’d thrown herself into her work and got on with things.

Somehow Bob had guessed that she wasn’t the happiest person in the regiment and had wheedled out of her the reason why. She had been touched that he cared. Not only that, he was also the one who had bothered to find out that she had been a county hockey player before she joined the army, and who’d had the courage to suggest that she should be included in the regimental hockey team – a suggestion that had been vindicated when she had become the team’s highest goalscorer that season. That, more than anything, had given her status in the unit and had helped to integrate her with the men. But more than that, whenever Bob came across her he made a point of talking to her. He had a knack for making her think he really cared about her, unlike the other blokes who only just about tolerated her. She knew it was an act – he was married with a kid – but she didn’t mind. It was just lovely to have someone take an interest in her when everyone else dear to her was miles away. She knew that if it hadn’t been for him she might have easily thrown in the towel and resigned from the army. It was one thing being perfect military material – outgoing, sporty, courageous – but it was another thing entirely being able to prove it when surrounded by blokes. She knew it was directly down to Bob that her first unit had accepted her eventually, and she was incredibly grateful. Furthermore, young and naïve as she was, she had been deeply flattered that this older, good-looking man had taken the least bit of interest in her, and it wasn’t very surprising that, over the months they had been posted together, she’d found that gratitude wasn’t her only feeling regarding him.

In the ten years since, Ginny ought to have grown sufficiently in self-knowledge to understand that Alice’s antipathy towards her might have stemmed from the fact that Alice realised what Ginny’s feelings were too. And if she had been further inclined to a moment of self-examination, Ginny might have realised that, in the exuberance of youth, she had probably not been as discreet as she thought she had. Then, he had been, and possibly still was, an absolute hunk. Not only that, but he had a terrific sense of humour and shared Ginny’s thirst for extreme sports and adventurous training, which had thrown them together on several occasions. She had enjoyed his company and had searched it out – which had probably been the main source of Alice’s resentment – but never with any sort of alternative agenda. She might have been young and naïve but she wasn’t stupid, nor was she a marriage wrecker. But when looking at the photos and recalling the events of a decade ago, Ginny had not bothered with any analysis beyond wondering, yet again, what on earth had possessed Bob to marry Icy Alice and, more intriguingly, to stay married to her. She’d always felt that Bob would be sensational in bed, but Alice? Hardly. Which had led Ginny to allow herself an indulgent fantasy involving Bob. Immersed as she had been in her thoughts, Ginny had completely lost track of time, and even when her sister had called she still hadn’t realised how much of the evening had slipped past unnoticed.

Guiltily, she snapped the album shut and dumped it in the box, trying to banish her inappropriate daydream about her future boss from her mind. But, as she zipped herself into a tiny denim skirt and pulled a slinky top over her head, she couldn’t ignore the quiver of pleasure she felt at the prospect of seeing him again. Only a couple of weeks to go, she thought, as she abandoned the muddle of her room and went to join her friends.

Ginny wasn’t the only person on the move. The next morning, Alice Davies gazed at the exterior of her new quarter and felt a deep sense of satisfaction. It was as Bob had described it on the phone, only better – and bigger. Montgomery House was mock Georgian with three floors, and was by far and away the largest house she and Bob had ever been allocated in their fourteen years of married life. It looked stylish and opulent, and Alice felt that her carefully accumulated period furniture was going to look wonderful in such surroundings. She had worked long and hard for this moment; longer and harder than anyone except Bob would ever know, and at last she had achieved her ambition. She was the commanding officer’s wife. She was top of the pecking order on the patch. She had the biggest and swankiest house and didn’t she feel smug. It was rare for Alice to feel like that, as she wasn’t one for very strong emotions. She didn’t really approve of them, as strong emotions always left her feeling uncomfortably out of control. But today she didn’t care. She was unbelievably happy and she felt the fact that the weather, despite it being only March, was bright and sunny too, could only bode well for the next two years.

The door was open and Alice wandered into the cool hall. She liked the black and white chequered tiles. Very ‘stately home’, she thought. She felt a momentary prickle of irritation that Bob was nowhere to be seen, but then she supposed her husband and the camp commandant were still busy with the march-in. As so often before during the course of Bob’s military career, he had gone on ahead to the new posting, leaving her to tie up the loose ends of the previous one. This time had been no different, although on this occasion Alice had had to wait at their old quarter to allow the departing CO and his wife the courtesy of leaving without feeling that their replacements were breathing down their necks.

The hall was big, with a sweeping staircase curving elegantly down from the first floor. Alice imagined herself descending it in a stunning evening dress – the envy of the other, junior wives. She peeked through the door on her right; the drawing room. Nice enough, she thought. She didn’t much go for the colour scheme, but it had a fabulous fireplace and two big French windows that led out into the garden. Not that the fact she didn’t like the décor was the least bit of a problem. She would get Bob to repaint the walls before they got properly unpacked. She considered the curtains. They would do at a pinch but, with any luck, the quarter might be due for some new ones. Excitedly, Alice opened the doors to the rooms downstairs and found with mounting delight that the promise the exterior had offered did not disappoint. The reception rooms were all beautifully proportioned and the kitchen was like something out of a glossy magazine.

She returned to the hall and ran up the stairs. At the top she met Bob.

‘I saw you arrive but I was a bit tied up with the march-in. Anyway, I thought you would like to have a look round without me getting underfoot. What do you think of it?’

‘It’s wonderful. Absolutely lovely.’

‘I thought you’d like it. Good journey?’

‘Fine. No problems at all. I passed the removal van about twenty minutes ago, so I expect they will be here soon.’ There was a discreet cough from behind Alice. She turned around.

‘Hello, Mrs Davies. I’m Mr Wilkes, ma’am. I’m the camp commandant. Welcome to Salerno Barracks.’

Alice shook his hand. ‘Thank you Mr Wilkes. I’m sure we’ll be very happy here.’ And she meant it; she was certain of it.

Mr Wilkes departed, leaving Alice to explore the rest of the house and to choose a bedroom for her daughter, Megan. With six rooms other than the master bedroom, Alice hardly knew where to begin, but with only two weeks before Megan came home from school for the Easter holidays, she had set herself a deadline to have the house straight by then.

Down the road, in a much smaller quarter that had a number rather than a name, three women were watching their small children play with Duplo bricks and animals, while they drank tea.

Debbie Greenwood, plump, dark and pretty, leant forward to right a drinking beaker before juice leaked on to her carpet and said, ‘So she’s here then. Do either of you know what she’s like?’

‘Never met her,’ said Louise. ‘Somehow our paths never crossed.’ She set her mug down on a coaster and pushed her shoulder-length blonde hair behind her ears. ‘But I’ve heard things.’

‘Tell,’ said Josie.

Louise leaned forward slightly and said, ‘Well, it is only gossip …’

‘So?’ said both the others in unison.

‘I’ve heard she’s a bit of a control freak.’

‘In what way?’ said Debbie.

‘She doesn’t drink, for a start.’

Debbie and Josie exchanged significant glances. An army wife who didn’t drink! Was there such a thing? Certainly no one they knew was teetotal. Maybe they knew a few who stopped indulging when pregnant. Quite a number didn’t mind staying stone-cold sober to drive their husband home from mess functions, but not to drink – ever?

‘Anything else?’ asked Josie.

‘I don’t know if it’s true, but ages ago I heard she keeps a note of every dinner party she’s ever had, who attended and what the guests ate.’

‘You’re kidding,’ said Debbie, with a shriek of disbelief.

‘I said I didn’t know if it’s true. I’m just repeating what I heard.’

‘Scary though.’

The three women exchanged more significant glances.

‘Oh God. You don’t think she’s the sort to think any wife who doesn’t have a full-time job has to be involved in good works?’

Josie and Louise groaned. They thought Debbie was more than likely right and, as none of them had gone back to work since they had had their first children, they knew they were all equally vulnerable. They could see stints of duty on regimental committees beckoning.

Alice was busy directing the removal men when the doorbell rang. She hurried happily down the wide, shallow stairs, taking pleasure from the feel of the polished, curved banister rail under her hand. She had always longed to live in a house with such a staircase and now she did. Bliss. She ducked slightly as she got halfway down to see who was standing on the doorstep of the open door.

‘Sarah!’ She ran down the last few stairs and proffered her cheek for her visitor to kiss. Alice’s and Sarah’s husbands had both been at Staff College together, and the wives had been neighbours.

‘Hi, Alice. I thought I’d better drop round and see you, now you’ve arrived. Everything OK?’

‘It’s wonderful. Bob told me that you and Alisdair would be our neighbours again.’ Alice looked past Sarah at the row of officers’ quarters. ‘Which one is yours?’

Sarah pointed. ‘Third on the left. The one with the blue Ford Galaxy.’

Alice noticed that the quarter allocated to the regiment’s second in command was pretty small compared to hers. Well, rank has its privileges, she thought smugly. She turned her attention back to Sarah and hoped her tiny moment of gloating hadn’t shown.

‘So how long have you and Alisdair been here?’

‘About three months.’

‘Great. So you’ll be able to give me the low-down on all the other wives. I’m looking forward to meeting them for coffee.’

Sarah shifted a little uncomfortably. She knew Alice’s firmly held views about the role of army wives. She hedged. ‘Quite a few go out to work.’

Alice’s mouth tightened in a small but involuntary grimace. She really didn’t approve. She knew she was old-fashioned but she’d been brought up to believe that the role of officers’ wives was to look after the wives of the soldiers. Her mother and her mother’s friends had been only too aware of that, and Alice couldn’t see why it should be different for her generation. ‘Oh. Well, I suppose it’s only to be expected these days.’

‘Boarding school fees mean most of us have to,’ said Sarah.

‘Do you work too?’ Alice was surprised. She would have thought that Sarah, as the wife of the second in command, would have been far too busy to be able to work as well.

‘Only part-time.’

‘Hmm.’

A man’s voice called down from the landing above. ‘Excuse me, missus, but do you want the bed put together?’

‘Hang on a sec,’ Alice called back. To Sarah she said, ‘Look, now I know where you live I’ll drop round when it’s a bit less chaotic. Lovely to see you again.’

Sarah returned home, duty done.

‘So, has she changed?’ asked Alisdair Milne that evening, when he got in from work.

‘What do you think?’ Sarah snorted.

‘But you used to be friends. When you lived next door you used to think her ways were quite funny.’

‘That was when she was my neighbour. Now she’s Lady Muck, swanning around as the CO’s wife, and I don’t think it’ll be quite so amusing.’

Sarah walked into the small and somewhat tatty kitchen of her current quarter. Alisdair followed.

‘Gin?’ She held up the bottle.

‘Please.’ He watched as Sarah busied herself with the glasses and the ice, ‘So what has she done to upset you?’

Sarah picked up a knife to slice a lemon. ‘Look, I know this is going to sound really bitchy, but you know I went to see her this afternoon?’

‘You said you were going to.’

‘Well, when she asked which house was ours, you could see the triumph written all over her face that we have been given this poky little box and she is there in Montgomery bloody House.’ Sarah sloshed two generous slugs of gin into the glasses.

‘Surely not.’

‘Trust me. You weren’t there.’

Alisdair sighed. It would make his life so much easier if Alice and Sarah got on. But, what the heck. Part of him knew that Sarah’s sour grapes were caused by a modicum of jealousy. Alisdair knew that she would have quite liked to have been the CO’s wife herself but Alisdair could have told her years back that it was never going to happen. Even when they had been cadets together, Bob had always shone as the star. He was always going to be the winner if it ever came to direct competition between the two of them. And now it had. Bob had been picked as the CO and Alisdair was his sidekick. Personally, Alisdair didn’t mind one bit. He really liked Bob and almost from the start he’d resigned himself to being in his contemporary’s shadow. But Alisdair didn’t envy Bob on every level. Alice, if rumours were to be believed, was a bit of an ice maiden; still, that was Bob’s problem not his. Alisdair didn’t think he would like to be married to someone like Alice. For one thing, she was so damn perfect. Everything she did, she did amazingly; cooking, flower arranging, painting, restoring furniture. She’d been a bit of a joke at Camberley – Alisdair remembered hearing from Sarah how the other wives used to take the mickey out of her when she wasn’t around. Well, perhaps Alice’s dedication to being the perfect army wife had paid off. Although, Alisdair reflected as he sipped his drink. Although Bob would have more than likely made it to the top even if he’d been married to a nymphomaniac floozy with communist tendencies.

‘And there’s another thing.’

Alisdair turned his attention back to his wife. ‘Miaow,’ he said.

Sarah had the good grace to look a little shamefaced. She laughed. ‘OK, OK. But honestly, even you’ll agree that she can’t be normal if she is directing removal men dressed like she’s about to go to a garden party at Buck House. I mean, surely if she was halfway human she’d be wearing old clothes – jeans even – but I swear the jumper she had on was cashmere and her skirt must have set her back at least a hundred pounds, if not more.’

Alisdair didn’t argue. What did he know about fashion? He was either in uniform or jeans and sweatshirts that Sarah bought for him from Marks and Spencer or some such place. But it went against the grain to hear Sarah being disloyal to his boss’s wife. ‘Well, she’s only supervising them, isn’t she? She’s not humping the boxes around herself, is she?’

Sarah took a noisy slurp of her gin. ‘Huh.’

Alisdair gazed out of the kitchen window. He thought it best not to say anything right now – Sarah probably wouldn’t appreciate it – but he would have to remind her at some stage that whatever views she expressed in the privacy of their quarter should not be voiced to the other wives. It wouldn’t be good for the regiment if the soldiers got to hear there was hostility amongst the wives on the officers’ patch. He deliberately changed the subject. ‘I don’t suppose either of the kids have been in touch today?’

‘Will might have emailed. He had a match today so he’ll probably want to let you know how he got on.’

It was the excuse Alisdair was looking for to stop this conversation. ‘I’ll go and check, shall I?’

‘Please.’ Sarah reached forward to the radio on the window sill and flicked it on. The voice of a Radio Four announcer told them it was six o’clock. Sarah took another sip of her drink and began to get supper ready while Alisdair wandered into the dining room that doubled as his study when the kids were away at school.

As always, the room was in chaos; bills, letters and papers were strewn across the centre of the army-issue oak table. The telephone directory was lying open at one end of the table and the computer dominated the other. It was no wonder they never had people round to dinner. It was too much effort to clear the room so everyone could eat at the table. Alisdair walked round to the machine and switched it on.

As the system booted up, he wondered briefly what sort of fist Bob would make of being CO. He certainly had a hard act to follow. His predecessor had been immensely popular, and his wife, a dizzy blonde, had by all accounts endeared herself to all and sundry by throwing outrageously boozy and amazingly fun parties. Alisdair and Sarah had arrived just in time to be present at the previous New Year’s Eve bash, which had served to prove that the reports had not been exaggerated. Somehow, Alisdair didn’t think that Alice was going to plough a similar furrow. He reckoned things were going to be very different on the patch from here on in.

Chapter Two

Megan Davies removed the towel from her head and studied her reflection in the mirror on the wall of the bleak bathroom.

‘Shit!’ said Zoë with a mixture of awe and horror.

Megan felt a frisson of nerves jangle her stomach. This was going to cause trouble – trouble in a big way. She’d known that it might from the moment she opened the bottle of dye, but she hadn’t expected the end result to be quite so … what? Dramatic? Outrageous? Well, it was certainly that. Her auburn hair was now jet black.

‘What is Miss Pink going to say?’ whispered Zoë.

Megan met her eyes in the mirror and said coolly, ‘She can say what she likes. It’s done now.’

‘She’s going to be mad, though.’

Megan shrugged. ‘So what’s the worst she can do? Gate me? Big deal. Term ends in a fortnight, there’s no more exeats, and I’m broke, so I can’t afford to go out anyway.’

‘Well …’ began Zoë cautiously. She stopped and wondered if she ought to continue.

Her apprehension, despite her outward bravado, made Megan snappy. ‘Spit it out.’

‘Expulsion?’

Megan’s eyes widened in horror for a split second. Then, ‘Nah. No way.’

Zoë looked sceptical.

‘Of course not,’ emphasised Megan, more for her own benefit than Zoë’s.

‘She expelled Tasha’

‘Yeah, but she was very drunk.’

True.’

‘And she’d been caught smoking twice.’ But even so, Megan’s confidence wavered. She had been no angel in her time at Downton Manor. OK, a couple of things had been unintentional. The broken window really hadn’t been her fault, nor had she meant to drop the block of sodium into the water, it had just slipped out of the tongs. Still, on the positive side, the explosion had been quite spectacular and worth the enormous rifting she’d had afterwards. But the rigging of the school’s public address system on sports day so that Nirvana had belted out over it was entirely down to her, as was her idea of writing HELP! SAVE US! in three-foot-high letters in weedkiller in the middle of the hockey pitch. Still, smoking was still considered almost the worst thing Miss Pink’s young ladies could get up to, with drinking just pipping it to the post. None of the girls thought that Miss Pink even knew what drugs were – except possibly as the American term for medical preparations.

‘And what will your mother say?’ Zoë voiced a thought that was already present in Megan’s mind.

‘She’ll be cool.’

Zoë’s eyebrows shot into her hairline. She’d met Mrs Davies on several occasions and knew precisely what she was like.

‘Well, she’ll get used to it.’

Zoë’s eyebrows stayed up.

‘Eventually.’

Zoë remained silent.

‘When it grows out.’

‘Yeah, that’s more like the truth.’

At Montgomery House, Alice had cleared away the supper things and was now sitting at the table in her kitchen surrounded by half-unpacked boxes, piles of china, crumpled newspaper and other evidence of the chaos of moving. Part of Alice wanted to get on and clear up the mess but she had firmly decided that she had another task taking priority that evening. Accordingly she had dispatched Bob off to the scullery to plumb in the washing machine and dishwasher, while she got on with organising her first social occasion. Even before she had moved in, she had ascertained the best days for ‘borrowing’ the mess staff to help her out, and now she was checking those dates against her diary and the regimental forecast of events. She sighed as she went through the possibilities of one date after another. Eventually she decided there was no alternative; she would have to have her coffee morning for all the officers’ wives the day after Megan got back from school. It was that, or postpone meeting them for nearly a month. She hoped Megan would understand – and, after all, they would have the rest of the holidays together. Before Alice began to write out the details of the invitation onto her engraved ‘At Home’ cards, she promised herself that she would make it up to Megan with a couple of treats – shopping sprees or cinema trips to compensate for having to be otherwise engaged on their first day together. Ignoring the grunts and occasional swear word from Bob as he struggled to shove a recalcitrant dishwasher into a tight space, she began to write out the cards in careful italics. Bob could get one of the clerks to deliver them tomorrow, first thing.

It was at about ten the next morning that the phone rang at Montgomery House.

‘May I speak to Mrs Davies?’ asked a cultured voice.

‘Speaking,’ replied Alice, recognising the caller as her daughter’s headmistress and instantly steeling herself for the worst.

‘This is Miss Pink.’

‘Yes.’ Alice tried not to sound too dispirited. She just managed to stop herself from asking what had Megan done this time. It was unfair to Megan to automatically assume there was a problem, except that there had been exactly that on too many previous occasions.

‘I am calling to ask if you were aware that Megan planned to dye her hair?’

Alice was momentarily lost for words. ‘Dye?’ The shock made the word come out in a squeak.

‘I take it from that you were not.’

‘Well …’ Alice wanted to lie but she had been caught on the hop.

‘Apart from the mess she has made of her own hair, I’m afraid we are going to have to add the cost of replacing several bath mats and towels to your bill, as they have been irreparably damaged.’

‘How?’ Alice was feeling shell-shocked.

‘The black dye your daughter used was permanent.’

‘Black?’

Miss Pink either didn’t hear Alice or chose to ignore her. ‘In view of the nature of your daughter’s latest misdemeanour I have gated her until the end of term. I thought you should know.’

‘Yes.’

‘I look forward to seeing you for the end of term service a week on Friday.’

‘Yes.’

‘Goodbye.’

Alice was left saying goodbye to a dead line. Black? How could she! How could she show her daughter off to the other wives at her coffee morning if she looked like some sort of freak? She’d just have to tell Megan to stay in her room. Alice knew that under normal circumstances only a heavy bribe would induce Megan to put in an appearance but, knowing her daughter as she did, there was no guarantee that the little minx would stay out of sight. In fact Alice knew that, just to be contrary, Megan would make sure she was highly visible.

Making a quick decision, she phoned regimental headquarters. She’d have to have the coffee morning in the mess. Megan wouldn’t make an appearance there. She had her fingers crossed that the invitations were still in Bob’s briefcase so she could retrieve them and rewrite them. After a couple of rings the adjutant answered.

‘Captain Greenwood speaking.’

‘This is Mrs Davies. Is my husband still there?’ She hoped that Bob hadn’t already left for his visit to brigade headquarters that was going to take him away for most of the day.

‘He’s with the RSM, Mrs Davies. He told me he didn’t want to be disturbed.’

‘It’s urgent.’

Richard Greenwood sighed. The previous evening, Debbie had told him about the rumours she’d heard and, together with intelligence gleaned from other officers who had served before with the Davieses, he reckoned she wasn’t a woman to be argued with.

‘I’ll put you through.’ Anyway, if Colonel Bob didn’t want to talk to her he could tell her himself. It was too early in his relationship with the new CO to end