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“Indeed she is,” Canidy said. “She’ll be here, with Eddie Bitter, about five-thirty or six. That’s one of the reasons I am being so… indelicate.”
"Dolan told you?” Agnes said. Canidy nodded. “Damn him!”
“I’m sure you’re a big girl, Agnes,” Canidy said. “I’m not so sure about Bitter. ”
“You make me sound… predatory, Dick,” Agnes said.
“I didn’t mean to, honey,” Canidy said gently. “I don’t think that. I just wanted to be sure you understand what you’re into. Eddie is liable to erupt in paroxysms of regret. He’s an Annapolis man, you know. And officers and gentlemen—”
“Particularly married officers and gentlemen,” Agnes interrupted. “Are you being oblique, Dick? Is this in the nature of a reprimand?”
“Ann is Eddie’s cousin,” Canidy went on. “She went to college with Mrs. Bitter.”
“I didn’t know that,” Agnes said.
“Forewarned, to coin a phrase, is forearmed,” Canidy said. “Having done my paternal duty as your commanding officer, my dear child, I consider the matter closed.”
“Now that you have managed to let Captain Fine know? And Lieutenant Fulmar?”
“Don’t be a bitch, Agnes,” Canidy flared. “Fine has the need-to-know, and I didn’t want Eric and Eddie getting into anything over the prize of your charms.” He glared at her, then warmed to his subject: “I have enough on my mind without worrying about the impact of your getting the hots for one of my officers.”
She glared at him, tight-lipped.
“Now that I think of it, Agnes,” Canidy said, “and now that we’ve exhausted the subject, Lawrence of Arabia can wash behind his ears without supervision. Put a couple of bottles in bags, and we’ll go downstairs to the bar.”
There was a moment’s hesitation before she smiled.
The bar off the Dorchester lobby was full, already on the edge of being crowded. As they stood just inside the doorway looking for a place to sit, there was the snap of fingers and a man’s voice calling,“Over here!”
Canidy saw two Englishmen at one of the few six-seat tables. One was a private in a mussed and ill-fitting uniform, and the other a very natty, mustachioed, vaguely familiar, major. British majors, especially ones like this one, who looked as if he had just marched in from Sandhurst, simply did not drink with private soldiers.
Except, of course, he thought, if they were in SOE, where service customs were ignored whenever they got in the way. Clearly, these two were SOE, and he’d probably met the major while he was "liaising” with SOE at "Station X.”
Well, they have a table. Getting a table was worth whatever liquor they would drink. And I’m already on shaky ground for not being as friendly as expected to my British counterparts.
Canidy put a smile on, took Agnes’s arm, and propelled her across the room.
“Good to see you again,” he said. “Have you room for us?”
“By all means,” the major said.
“Do you remember Sergeant Draper?” Canidy asked.
“No, I’m afraid I don’t,” the major said. He offered his hand to Agnes. “My name is Niven,” he said. “And this is Private Ustinov.”
Fine caught up with them.
“Stan, I’d like you to meet Major Niven,” Canidy said.
Fine was smiling strangely.
“I have the privilege of the major’s acquaintance,” he said. “But where the hell did you meet each other?”
“At… that place in the country,” Canidy said.
“What place in the country would that be?” Major Niven said.
“That place in the country, of course,” Private Ustinov said.
