The sergeant of the guard passed the two-car convoy inside his barrier, and the officer of the guard was waiting at the inner gate to check identification cards against a list of authorized personnel.
Like the other officers of the infantry battalion, he had been told that Whitbey House housed a highly classified organization whose mission was to select bombardment targets for the Eighth Air Force. He had no reason to doubt what he was told, but he frequently questioned the necessity of guarding the establishment so closely.
When the two cars rolled up before the front door of Whitbey House, two officers were standing outside waiting for them. One was an American lieutenant, a pleasant, red-haired young man named Jamison.
The other was a WRAC Captain named Elizabeth Alexandra Mary Stanfield.
Both saluted as Donovan got out of the car, and It. Colonel Stevens made the introductions.
Donovan found Captain Stanfield rather interesting. She was in her early middle thirties, a pale-skinned, lithe, sandy-haired woman whose tunic bore the insignia of the Imperial General Staff. Captain Stanfield had been assigned as liaison officer between the Imperial General Staff and OSS Whitbey House Station. Donovan knew that meant she had been sent to spy on the OSSA job she was ideally suited for.
For one thing, she knew Whitbey House intimately. Her identity card read’ Captain the Duchess Stanfield.” Donovan was aware too that her husband, Wing Commander the Duke Stanfield, RAF, had been shot down and was carried as “missing in action” on RAF rolls. And he knew that Captain Elizabeth Alexandra Mary, the Duchess Stanfield, of the Imperial General Staff had crossed swords with Richard Canidy of the OSS almost immediately after she had reported to “liaise” with the new occupants of her ancestral home.
Donovan wasn’t privy to all the details of the encounter, except that it had ended with Canidy telling Her Grace that she acted as if she had a corncob up her ass.
However accurate Canidy’s description might have been (and Donovan thought it was right on the mark, for the Duchess struck him as very aloof), voicing it was going a bit far, even for Canidy.
Interestingly, after Canidy had made his point, Her Grace blithely turned the other cheek rather than work herself into a ducal rage. If proof was needed, this served as confirmation that Her Grace’s job was to report back to the Impexal General Staff and SOE anything they might find interesting.
There was no other explanation for why the encounter had not resulted in a demand from His Majesty’s government for a formal apology for the insult to an officer of the IGS who was not only a peer of the realm but whose godmother was the Queen Mother.
“I’m going to have a bath,” Donovan said. “And then I’m going to write my wife a letter. Which Colonel Stevens will graciously carry back to London and place in tonight’s pouch.”
“Certainly, sir,” Stevens said.
“In the morning, I would like the grand tour, but not tonight,” Donovan said. “Could I have a sandwich sent to my room?” KHOW about a New York Strip?” Canidy asked. KLIEUTENANT Jamison stole one especially for you.”
“That would be fine,” Donovan said, smiling at Jamison.
Jamison led Donovan up the wide main staircase to the second floor.
“I could use a drink,” Canidy said after Donovan had disappeared.
“By the authority vested in me as commander of this establishment, I declare the bar is now open.” Stevens chuckled.
“Your whisky or ours?” he asked. He correctly suspected that Canidy and Jamison had stolen four cases of whisky from the London Station.
KNOW, Colonel,” Canidy said. KI thought you’d given up on that.”
“I’ll have a drink, Dick,” Stevens said. KSTOLEN or not.”
“What about Your Gracefulness,” Canidy said to the Duchess. “Will you have a wee nip with the peasants?” She did not, Stevens saw, take umbrage.
“Thank you, no, Major,” she said. “It’s a bit early for me.”
“And, inspired by the example of our leader, I’m for a hot bath myself,” Whittaker announced.
“The next thing you know, he’ll be changing his underwear more than once a week,” Canidy said.