“It’s illogical, though-Greta has suffered more from the Nazis than Jelly has.”
“Jelly doesn’t know that.”
“She knows that Greta’s prepared to fight against the Nazis.”
“People aren’t logical about these things.”
“Too bloody right.”
Greta herself was talking to Denise. Or rather, Paul thought, Denise was talking and Greta was listening. “My stepbrother, Lord Foules, pilots fighter-bombers,” he heard her say in her half-swallowed aristocratic accent. “He’s been training to fly support missions for the invasion troops.”
Paul frowned. “Did you hear that?” he asked Flick.
“Yes. Either she’s making it up, or she’s being dangerously indiscreet.”
He studied Denise. She was a rawboned girl who always looked as if she had just been insulted. He did not think she was fantasizing. “She doesn’t seem the imaginative type,” he said.
“I agree. I think she’s giving away real secrets.”
“I’d better arrange a little test tomorrow.”
“Okay.”
Paul wanted to get Flick to himself so that they could talk more freely. “Let’s take a stroll around the garden,” he said.
They stepped outside. The air was warm and there was an hour of daylight left. The house had a large garden with several acres of lawn dotted with trees. Maude and Diana were sitting on a bench under a copper beech. Maude had flirted with Paul at first, but he had given her no encouragement, and she seemed to have given up. Now she was listening avidly to something Diana was saying, looking into Diana’s face with an attitude almost of adoration. “I wonder what Diana’s saying?” Paul said. “She’s got Maude fascinated.”
“Maude likes to hear about the places she’s been,” Flick said. “The fashion shows, the balls, the ocean liners.”
Paul recalled that Maude had surprised him by asking whether the mission would take them to Pans. “Maybe she wanted to go to America with me,” he said.
“I noticed her making a play for you,” Flick said. “She’s pretty.”
“Not my type, though.”
“Why not?”
“Candidly? She’s not smart enough.”
“Good,” Flick said. “I’m glad.”
He raised an eyebrow at her. “Why?”
“I would have thought less of you otherwise.”
He thought this was a little condescending. “I’m glad to have your approval,” he said.
“Don’t be ironic,” she reprimanded him. “I was paying you a compliment.”
He grinned. He could not help liking her, even when she was being high-handed. “Then I’ll quit while I’m ahead,” he said.
They passed close to the two women, and heard Diana say, “So the contessa said, ‘Keep your painted claws off my husband,’ then poured a glass of champagne over Jennifer’s head, whereupon Jennifer pulled the contessa’s hair-and it came off in her hand, because it was a wig!”
Maude laughed. “I wish I’d been there!”
Paul said to Flick, “They all seem to be making friends.”
“I’m pleased. I need them to work as a team.”
The garden merged gradually with the forest, and they found themselves walking through woodland. It was only half light under the canopy of leaves. “Why is it called the New Forest?” Paul said. “It looks old.”
“Do you still expect English names to be logical?”
He laughed. “I guess I don’t.”
They walked in silence for a while. Paul felt quite romantic. He wanted to kiss her, but she was wearing a wedding ring.
“When I was four years old, I met the King,” Flick said.
“The present king?”
“No, his father, George V. He came to Somersholme. I was kept out of his way, of course, but he wandered into the kitchen garden on Sunday morning and saw me. He said, ‘Good morning, little girl, are you ready for church?’ He was a small man, but he had a booming voice.”
“What did you say?”
“I said, ‘Who are you?’ He replied, ‘I’m the King.’ And then, according to family legend, I said, ‘You can’t be, you’re not big enough.’ Fortunately, he laughed.”
“Even as a child, you had no respect for authority.”
“So it seems.”
Paul heard a low moan. Frowning, he looked toward the sound and saw Ruby Romam with Jim Cardwell, the firearms instructor. Ruby had her back to a tree and Jim was embracing her. They were kissing passionately. Ruby moaned again.