A Regimental Affair (15 page)

‘Thank God that’s over,’ said Sarah to Debbie after she had seen Alice out.

Debbie sighed. ‘It was a bit heavy going, wasn’t it?’

‘I don’t know about you, but I need another glass of wine.’

Debbie glanced at her watch. ‘I should really be going. Lou’s got Danielle.’

‘Give her a ring. See how Danielle is. If she’s still awake, go and get her. You can put her to bed here and then go home when you’re ready.’

‘You sure?’

‘Course. I wouldn’t suggest it if I wasn’t.’

Debbie made the phone call while Sarah got the wine.

‘Lou’s just putting the kids in the bath. She said to give it twenty minutes and then come and get her. But I may take her straight home.’

Sarah shrugged. ‘It’s up to you. But if you’d like to stay, I wouldn’t mind the company.’ Sarah poured two generous glasses and handed one to Debbie.

‘So what’s this about Colonel Bob getting hurt?’

‘Haven’t you heard?’

‘Evidently not,’ said Debbie, taking a slurp of her wine.

Sarah recounted the details she had heard.

‘It sounds dreadful!’ said Debbie.

‘I think it was pretty serious. But the really interesting bit is that Bob and Ginny were stuck on the side of this mountain for about eighteen hours – and all alone,’ she added archly.

‘Poor things,’ said Debbie, with sympathy.

‘And there was no one else,’ hinted Sarah again, heavily. ‘They were alone. Together. Overnight.’

Debbie put her glass on the table slowly. Her mouth dropping open equally slowly as the implication sank in. ‘It doesn’t mean a thing though, does it?’

Sarah shrugged meaningfully and took a sip of her own wine. ‘Maybe.’ Then, with a niggle of guilt she remembered Alisdair’s injunction that she shouldn’t spread rumours about her suspicion regarding Bob and Ginny. ‘No, you’re right, probably not. I mean Ginny had had a bad bang on the head.’ She giggled and had another slurp. ‘I expect she had a headache.’

Debbie laughed too. ‘I tell you something, I’m not going to have a headache for weeks after Richard gets back.’

‘Me neither.’

‘Only five weeks to push.’

‘Hooray!’

Taz was sitting at her desk in her study, a CD playing Mozart quietly, working on a feature for the
Mercury.
She’d had a phone call from Minty Armstrong earlier that day asking if there was any chance of the feature about army wives that she had proposed earlier in the year.

‘It’s just that there’s that court case coming up about army widows’ pensions and, with the profile of army wives being raised, it would be a good time to run it.’

‘I have probably got most of the material. It’s just a question of cobbling it together. But I don’t want to be too specific about names and places. I’ve made some really useful contacts here and I might lose the lot if they find out.’

‘God, that doesn’t matter. Make them all up if you want. Joe Public isn’t going to give a damn whether it’s the Foot-and-Mouth Regiment or the Queen’s Royal Dog Walkers.’

‘Right. Well, in that case I can probably let you have two thousand words by tomorrow.’

‘Great.’

Colonel Bob put the top on his fountain pen, laid it on top of the papers he was perusing, and squeezed out from behind the desk in his small office. After consuming four cups of coffee that morning to keep himself awake after a restless night, he was bursting for a pee. He left his office and turned toward the loos. On his way he passed Ginny’s office and glanced in. She was sitting at her desk, beavering away. She must have sensed that she was being watched, for she looked up. Her face was transformed by a smile. She slid her eyes quickly across to her clerk who shared an office with her to see if she was looking and, discovering that she wasn’t, Ginny blew him a kiss. It had been two weeks since they had made love that night on the mountain and their affair had since continued, albeit under very difficult circumstances. But last night they had almost been caught and, despite Bob’s earlier assurances that they could get away with their liaison, that if they were careful no one would know, their near miss had so frightened Bob that he had been brought to his senses.

What had he been thinking of, trying to continue their affair in the claustrophobic atmosphere of their location? They had managed a number of trysts but each had been far from satisfactory. Their passion had overcome the discomfort of making love out in the cold surrounding countryside or on the floor of a nearby derelict building but their main difficulties had stemmed from their departure from and return to the factory. Neither was exactly a low-profile member of the regiment and it was nigh on impossible for either to slip away unseen. Then, last night, there had been a mass exodus of the officers to a pizzeria in a nearby town. Ginny had declined, complaining of a headache, and the colonel had done the same, complaining about pressure of work. As soon as a decent interval had passed, Ginny had crept along to Bob’s room. Their lovemaking had been passionate and energetic and not entirely silent. It was only minutes after Ginny had left to return to her own room that the regimental medical officer had knocked on the colonel’s door to inquire if he was OK. One of the soldiers had heard groans as he passed by the window and had been concerned about the colonel’s health.

Bob had blustered something about doing press-ups and sit-ups in an effort to keep fit and the exertion had caused him to grunt and groan a bit. The doctor believed him – especially as he was still flushed and sweating and only dressed in shorts and a T-shirt when he had answered the knock on the door.

But the call had been close enough, Bob had decided. After the doctor had gone, Bob had sat on the bed feeling very shaken. What if the doctor had come five minutes earlier? What if the soldier had heard more than just a few groans? Bob thought back. Had Ginny been very vocal? He didn’t think so, but he couldn’t be sure. Supposing the soldier had put two and two together? Supposing he was, even now, discussing what he had heard with his mates? The thought was terrifying. The news would be round the regiment like wildfire and Bob’s career would be finished. Well, there was a chance that that scenario wasn’t being played out, but Bob knew he couldn’t take any more risks. He would have to end the affair. And yet Bob was captivated by Ginny and the thought of giving her up was a desperate one. With her he had discovered joys and pleasures that he had never even come close to with Alice. Her lovemaking was almost clinical; the box of tissues handy on the bedside table for the ‘spills’, as she called them. No shouting and shuddering and crazy excitement with her. Not like Ginny. Would he be able to cope with basic, formulaic, boring and predictable lovemaking – the only sort in Alice’s repertoire? Bob sighed. He didn’t know, but what he
did
know was that he couldn’t carry on with Ginny. If the army found out, if Alice found out, he’d be finished.

Alice, he knew, might not be the perfect wife in bed but in almost all other ways she had done him proud. No one could fault her dedication to his career, her unerring knack for charming senior officers. Bob’s recognition of her abilities at entertaining, conversation and generally just knowing how to behave in almost any circumstance had been one of the things that had attracted him to her in the first place. He’d always been ambitious and he knew that a good wife could be of use as he made his way up through the ranks, and Alice had seemed ideal. The perfect wife for any officer. He had loved her – he did still – but he had never been sure that he had ever been
in
love with her. But it had been enough for him to ask her to marry him. It had come as a bit of a blow to discover that her background wasn’t quite as pukka as he had thought, but then he had reasoned that if
he
hadn’t guessed, who would? And he’d been proved right.

Then he met Ginny. And for over a decade he had resisted his desperate desire to possess her. He had been faithful to Alice even when temptation had almost proved too much but finally he had given in. And now it must stop again. No matter that it would break Ginny’s heart. No matter that it was going to tear him apart. It had to be done. Bob had sat on his bed and been adamant that he would interview Ginny the next day and end it.

Bob continued on along the corridor towards the loos thinking that this was probably going to be one of the hardest things he had ever done. And he thought that, apart from hurting Ginny terribly, he was also making a sacrifice himself. He was going to have to give up all those wonderful sexual acts that Ginny performed. As the thought entered his head he became aware of a sudden erection. He pulled his heavy-duty uniform jersey down to make sure it hid his crotch – he didn’t want anyone to be aware of the bulge in his trousers – and hurried on to the lavatories.

When he got there, he knew it was useless to try to pee. He’d have to wait until the old man decided to relax again.

He stared out of the half-open window and tried to make his mind think about the scene in front of him, soldiers going about routine duties, rather than Ginny. After a few minutes he felt more comfortable and wandered over to the urinals. As he peed he wondered how Ginny would take it. Surely she would understand? But at the back of his mind was a niggle that was not nearly so confident. What was it that she’d said? That he was the reason she had not married? That no one else had come close? That had been all very flattering but he couldn’t, in his heart of hearts, believe that it was entirely true. He knew Ginny of old and she had always had a fondness for exaggeration, for gilding the lily. He didn’t doubt that she had once fancied him and perhaps, in the past, it had been something more than that. Surely in the intervening years she would have forgotten about him, and she had just told him she hadn’t because emotions had been running so high that night. He hoped so. He’d heard stories about people who got obsessive about their lovers but surely Ginny was far too sensible to go down that path. He sighed and offered up a silent prayer that she was. This was going to be difficult but time was not going to make it easier. He had to be straight with her. Their affair was over. He had made a ghastly mistake by starting it and what had happened was to be consigned to the past. Bob zipped himself up and squared his shoulders. This was it.

He stopped at Ginny’s door. The set of accounts still held her attention. Whatever else anyone could say about Ginny, no one could fault her administrative skills. Bob had never known a unit to run as smoothly as the regiment did at the moment. Everything from the accounts to the documentation, from the soldiers’ courses to their leave arrangements, was running like oiled clockwork.

‘Ginny,’ he said.

As she looked up a smile transformed her face from simply pretty to beautiful. ‘Colonel,’ she replied.

‘Hmm … I need to talk to you for a moment. Would you come along to my office when you’ve got a minute?’

‘Sure, sir. Do I need to bring anything? Diary, notebook?’

‘No, just yourself.’

Ginny stood up and followed him along the corridor. Bob was holding the door open for her. She stepped into the tiny room that served as his office. In front of her was space for a couple of wooden chairs, then his desk and a decent, comfortable swivel chair behind it. Bob shut the door behind them. Ginny turned round to face him, and threw her arms around Bob. They knew that when the CO’s door was shut, everyone in the regiment understood that, under almost no circumstances, was he to be disturbed.

Bob could feel her quivering with nervous energy and excitement as she pressed against his body. He hoped to God his body wouldn’t let him down just at this minute by responding in the obvious manner. Bob extricated himself from her embrace and sat down on one of the hard wooden chairs. He took Ginny’s hand.

‘Sit down, we need to talk.’

She lowered herself on to the chair facing him, their knees almost touching.

‘Ginny, there’s something I have to say.’ He paused, uneasy and unsure of quite what to say. ‘About recent events.’

Ginny’s brow creased in a frown of puzzlement. ‘Events?’ she queried.

‘You know what I mean.’ He looked away, embarrassed at mentioning it.

She understood the body language. It was unmistakable. ‘You mean our lovemaking?’ she said, slowly and deliberately.

‘Yes.’ Bob shifted uncomfortably. ‘But it can’t happen again.’

‘Why not? I thought we agreed, as long as Alice doesn’t know, no one will get hurt.’

‘Ginny, it still means deception and I can’t lie to Alice. She’s my wife. I’ve been married to her for sixteen years. I can’t do this to her.’

‘But that’s not what you said on the mountain. I was the one who reminded you of your marriage, if you remember. Why this change of heart?’

‘I can’t hurt her. If she found out it would destroy her.’

‘You can’t hurt her, but you can hurt me. Is that it?’ said Ginny bitterly.

‘I don’t mean to. But you must have known that it couldn’t be for ever, that it would end one day?’

‘But why? Why so suddenly?’

Bob recounted the visit by the doctor the night before. ‘It was too close. It’s too risky. There’s too much at stake.’

‘Too much at stake for you, you mean. You’re shit-scared about what a rumour of an affair might do to your career. You know that if the brass gets to know about this, you might find yourself out of a job. Go on, admit it. You know as well as I do what a dim view they have of liaisons between senior and junior officers.’

‘Ginny …’

‘Don’t,’ she snapped. ‘I didn’t want us to have an affair. I didn’t want this to start. It was your doing, and I knew it was wrong. God, I should have listened to myself. I should never have let anything happen.’

‘Oh, Ginny. Please don’t make things harder for me,’ said Bob.

‘Why not? What makes you so deserving of an easy time?’

‘Please, Ginny. You can’t possibly despise me more than I do myself.’

‘I wouldn’t bank on that if I were you.’

‘I know I’m being a bastard …’

‘Yes.’

‘But …’

‘But nothing.’ Ginny shut her eyes for a few seconds while she composed herself. Then she looked at her hands in her lap as she said quietly, ‘Fine. It’s over. And don’t worry, Alice won’t find out from me.’