“So that’s how you knew so much about me,” Kennedy said to Canidy.
“I liked it better when you thought maybe I really was omniscient, 7 Canidy said. He looked at his watch. UWE’ve got an hour or so before dinner.
You want to talk now, or would you rather wait until we’re a little drunk, and stuffed with the roast beef of Merrie Olde England?” UNOW, ” Kennedy said.
Douglass shrugged, accepting the inevitable.
One of the trainees had found the piano. Over the murmur of conversation, “O Little Town of Bethlehem” could be faintly heard.
“Kennedy,” Canidy saidxaw hen Doug tells you what you’re facing at Saintlazare, and when you tell Doug about your B-17s full of Torpex”–a new, very powerful British-developed explosive–“you both may wish you were soused.” “Christ!” Kennedy said softly.
“Something wrong, Joe?” Stevens asked.
“I guess I’m just surprised to hear discussed so openly what I thought was a secret,” Kennedy said.
“I’m glad you brought that up,” Stevens said.
“Sir?”
“Although he certainly has given you cause to think otherwise, ” Stevens said, “Canidy is not a complete fool, nor does he play footloose and fancy free with security. Every one within hearing is involved in this project, and cleared appropriately. But no one else here is. You understand?”
“Yes, sir,” Kennedy said.
“And you understand, of course, Kennedy,” Canidy said, “that that was a none-too-subtle reprimand?”
“Don’t push your luck, Dick!” Stevens snapped. UDAMN it, sometimes you go too far!” Stevens held Canidy in an icy glance for a long moment, until Canidy said, “I’m sorry, Colonel. I guess I do.”
“Guess?” Stevens snapped.
Here was another icy pause, then Stevens said, “I suppose the best place to talk is in your apartment, Dick. Shall we go there?” “Yes, sir,” Canidy said. He sounded genuinely contrite.
As they started out of the room, Stevens became aware that conversation in the hall had died down and that the trainees were now singing along with the piano. Eyes were on them, and he thought he saw disappointment–and perhaps displeasure–in them that the brass was walking out on the Christmas carols.
He put his hand on Canidy’s arm.
“Don’t say anything smart, Dick,” he said softly. “Just turn around and sing.” Canidy met his eyes for a moment and nodded.
They sang “O Little Town of Bethlehem” and
“Good King Wenceslaus,” and as they were singing “Away in a Manger, “Ann Chambers, in her war correspondent’s uniform, came into the refectory, walked up to Canidy, kissed him on the mouth (which introduced applause into the caroling), and then stood with her arm around him.
They sang until it was time for dinner.
After dinner they went to Canidy’s apartment and discussed killing the enemy.
SHREE] Sehlons Steighofqn He-n, Aermany 28 December 1942 Beatrice, Countess Batthyany and Baroness von Steighofen, woke shivering, her arms wrapped over her large, dark-nippled breasts for warmth.
In her sleep, she had kicked the sheets and blankets off. She reached down for them, dragged them over her, and glanced at the other side of the bed. It was empty.
She had not, she concluded, taken the captain of the honor escort into her bed. She reconstructed the end of the evening, The captain had been the perfect German officer and gentleman. His training and standards had not permitted him to believe that sexual congress between himself and the widow of his late commanding officer, in the familial Schloss and on the eve of a memorial service to the late Oberstleutnant Baron Manfried von Steighofen, could possibly take place.
Beatrice was now pleased that sexual congress had not, in fact, taken place. It had seemed like a splendid idea around midnight, but in the cold light of morning, she was glad to avoid the consequent awkwardness.
She rolled on her side and looked at the clock on the bedside table.
It was not the cold light of morning. It was the cold light of almost two o’clock in the afternoon. With a sudden movement, she kicked the bedclothes down and swung her feet out of bed. She searched with her feet for her bedroom slippers for a moment. When she could not immediately find them, she stood up and walked to the window.