Page 87 of The Unknown Birds

Davies merely grinned. “You should get a load of the new model that’s coming out.”

“Aye?”

“Sleekest lines you’ve ever seen. Truly modern. Still prefer the front seat for your leg?” he asked, surprising Ashley a little with his frankness.

Rook pondered a moment, unfazed. “I think so. D’you mind?” he asked Ash.

“Course not,” she said, settling into the back like some kind of fine lady with a well-paid chauffeur.

“A woman,” Davies repeated. “Remarkable.”

“You’re not angry at the ruse?”

“I have about a million questions. I suppose I can find forgiveness in my heart if you allow me to ask one or two?”

“Fire away.”

Davies maneuvered the car out onto the road, before turning to Rook. “Private Ashley gives me permission to fire at will, but where do I begin?”

Rook shook his head, amused.

“Why did you do it? Were you hungry for adventure?”

“Not exactly.”

“No? Do women not like adventure?” he asked a bemused Rook who shrugged noncommittally.

Before Ash could answer, Davies went on, “Never mind. How on earth did you pass the physical? Is that an appropriate question for a lady?” he added to Rook. “Did you bribe someone? Wait, is that why you had no training?”

His mind seemed to be spinning faster than a top. Had she broken him? Was this what shock looked like in the healthy?

“Are you quite well?” Rook asked him, and Davies burst out laughing.

“Right-oh,” he agreed. “I’ll just ask you this. Was it worth it?”

“Yes,” Ash said, studying Rook’s face in profile. “In the main.”

“And you really didn’t know?” Davies asked Rook, causing a pang in Ashley’s chest.

“Hand to God. Not until last January. Tomasson was the only one who figured it out.”

“Sly old Tom,” the captain remarked fondly before they all settled into their own silent thoughts as the countryside rolled by, with Davies periodically directing their attention to some or another point of interest.

“This is a beautiful area,” Ash said.

“Nowhere on earth like it. Though I suppose we’re all rather partial to home.”

“I appreciate it all the more for not having to march across it,” Rook teased, as though blaming the captain for making them march all over France.

“You always were a lazy son of a gun, Lance Corporal. Frankly, I should’ve made you march quite a bit more often,” Davies replied, eliciting a great guffaw.

Ashley envied their easy repartee. She’d missed it, not as much as she’d missed Rook himself, and yet she’d missed it an extraordinary amount. She’d never made easy friends with women, even before the war, but after? How could she, when she longed for the company of men she thought were dead?

Oh, she’d developed a few almost-close acquaintances over the years, but nothing like the bonds she’d formed under fire and far from home.

But as the miles fell away, their warm, friendly banter gave her the most unsettling sense of falling back through time. The patter of familiar voices had been a comfort in her youth, helping tune out even the worst barrage of war, but now it merely heightened her sense that everything was happening all over again.

When they reached the captain’s estate, Ash felt certain she was dreaming. Of course it would be massive to be dubbed Collingwood Park, but somehow she hadn’t been prepared for the Greek-columned portico that appeared as they careened up the sweeping drive.