The way to handle the situation was to tell Canidy and Agnes the truth.
He would tell Agnes that he was deeply ashamed, that he had been, as she knew, under terrible strain. He would tell her there was no excuse for what he had done, but that it would not happen again.
And he would tell Canidy much the same thing. That he was deeply ashamed, not of gewing laid especially, but of taking advantage of an enlisted person. It was a violation of the off ficer’s code that he had not thought himself capable o The bar was now jammed with shoulder-to-shoulder drinkers, and it took them several minutes to find Canidy and the others.
Canidy was half in the bag, with one arm around Agnes’s shoulders and the other around a rotund English private whom he introduced to Ed Bitter as a Hollywood ballet master with a Russian name.
There was an English major at the table who wasn’t feeling any pain either. And Fulmar, resplendent in pinks and greens and glossy parachute boots and wearing the Silver Star. And Fine, also a liale tight, which surprised Biter.
“Agnes, “Ann said, “that man with his arm around your shoulders belongs to me.
“I have more than enough to go around,” Canidy said grandly.
“That was before me, “Ann purred. “Out of there, Agnes. You can sit with my cousin the hero.” Agnes didn’t look at him as she came around the table and a chair was found for her.
“Excuse me, Major,” Bitter said, “haven’t we met?”
“Possibly,” Major Niven said. “Congratulations on your DFC.
Dick’s been telling us about it.”
“You ever go to a bar in New York called the 2I’ Club, Eddie?” Canidy asked. “Dave was just telling us he used to work there.” “Yes,” Bitter said. “As a matter of fact, I have. My father goes there all the time. The place that used to be a speakeasy?”
“Right,” Major Niven said. “On West Fifty-second Street.”
“Then that must be it,” Biter said.
“Ed, “Ann said, “you can be such an ass. This is David Niven, the actor.” He felt his face flush as he saw in Canidy’s delighted grin that he had been had.
“Dick’s no better, “Agnes said loyally. “He thought he was from SOE and walked over and greeted him like a long-lost brother.”
“I’ll get you for that, Lady Agnes,” Canidy said.
Biter found himself looking into Agnes’s face.
“What’s that about? What’s he up to now?” She shrugged but said nothing. And then their knees brushed. And then a moment later their hands found each other under the table. As her fingers curled with his, he felt his heart jump.
“And what brings you to London, Major Niven?” Biter asked.
Canidy laughed out loud and hard.
“Lend-lease elocution lessons,” the English private said.
At about eight they all crowded into the Packard, and Agnes drove them across town to a black-market restaurant she had heard about from the other limousine drivers. Canidy and Niven talked their way in.
The food was neither good nor plentiful, but it was expensive.
Meanwhile, under the table, Agnes slipped her foot out of her shoe and ran her toes over Bitter’s ankle.
As they were having a fourth boule of wine to go with the Stilton cheese, a microphone was turned on in Broadcast House. At the third of thirty messages, an announcer with impeccable diction solemnly proclaimed, “Bubchen would like to paddle Gisella’s canoe again.
Bubchen would like to paddle Gisella’s canoe again.” Xl [01118] Marburgasd-rlahs, -reasy 1 January 1943 Hauptsturmfuhrer Wilhelm Peis stood at rigid attention and extended his right arm from the shoulder at a forty-five-degree angle.
“Heil Hitler!” he barked.
Standarten fuhrer SS-SD Johann Muller casually raised his right arm from the elbow and let it drop.
“Wie gext’s, Wilhelm?” he asked.
Muller’s manner of returning the now-required straight-armed Nazi salute–or, more accurately, of not returning it–was intentional, an affectation that he had learned from Helmut von Heurten-Mitnitz.
They had been having lunch, as they did at least twice a week, in-the Adlon Hotel, and they had to wait for a table because of tn official luncheon.
A steady procession of military, security service, and party dignitaries came into the lobby and exchanged greetings.