19
Harm was relieved to find that there was a well-trodden path alongside the river bank, and high enough above the water level not to be waterlogged, or even muddy, although he guessed that had a lot to do with what Gill, and Johnny had described as the recent unseasonably dry weather.
The path was only just wide enough for two and as they walked Gill's shoulder bumped against Harm's upper arm, and the first few times it did, Gill turned toward him and offered a muttered, "Sorry" by way of apology.
"No apology needed," he smiled down at her after the fourth or fifth occurrence, "Here..." he offered her his arm and with a smile she hooked her hand in the crook of his elbow and they continued their leisurely walk alongside the river.
"I wonder," Gill suddenly said apropos of nothing, "if this is still the Isis..."
"The what?" Harm asked, totally at a loss.
"The river," Gill replied.
"It's the Thames, isn't it? After all the place we're headed for is Sandford on Thames," Harm queried.
"True, but in Oxford itself, that stretch of the river is called the Isis, after the Egyptian Goddess, and I've never been able to work out exactly where along its length that it changes its name back to the Thames." Gill explained.
"Couldn't you just look it up on the 'net?" Harm queried.
"I suppose so," Gill answered doubtfully, and then her eyes took on that extra sparkle that Harm was beginning to recognise, "But where would be the fun in that!" she chuckled.
Harm looked down at her, found her laughter infectious and couldn't help the broad grin that spread across his face.
"Oh... I like it when you grin like that!" Gill was just as unable to help herself from exclaiming as Harm had been from grinning, but she then promptly flushed red as she realised exactly what she'd just said and added hurriedly in a suffocated voice, "Oh... I'm sorry... I... ah...shouldn't have said that... I don't know what came over me!"
"Oh, don't mind me!" Harm said, "I'm not embarrassed. In fact, I'm slightly relieved!"
"Oh, why?" Gill asked bluntly.
"Well, I as wondering why a young, beautiful woman like yourself kept on agreeing to go on dates with a battered old pilot turned attorney like me. To find out it's because you like my smile is a relief. I was beginning to wonder if you were just after my money!"
Gill jerked to a halt. "What! After your money!" she exclaimed furiously, "Sir, you can take me back to the car and then drive me home just as quick..." it was only halfway through her angry retort that she saw the glint of amusement in Harm's eyes and realised that he had well and truly wound her up. "Oh... you horrible man!" she gurgled as her own albeit rueful grin spread reluctantly across her face. "You set me up!"
"Guilty as charged!" Harm chuckled.
"Do you have any money?" Gill asked thoughtfully, realising that outsiders might take one look at such an apparently mismatched couple and leap to the same conclusion. And that realisation was unsettling.
"Money? Me? No, not a penny!" Harm admitted cheerfully. "Just my Navy salary and a pension to look forward to. My savings are now earmarked for Mattie."
"Mattie, that's your ward, isn't it?. Tell me about her," Gill requested.
"Mattie's fifteen." I met her last year, she was running her mother's aviation business, crop-dusting, aerial courier work, aerial taxi, all that sort of stuff..."
"Shouldn't she have been in school?" a puzzled Gill asked .
"Yes, she should... but her mother had recently been killed in a car crash, and her father had bailed out on her. He's an alcoholic and had been in the car when it crashed. At first Mattie hated him because she assumed he'd been driving, then it was discovered that it was her mom that had been driving but that he had distracted her at night on an icy road. I was flying crop dusters for her and saw that she needed adult supervision, so I applied to the courts for legal guardianship, and got it." Harm glossed over the part where if it hadn't been for Mac's double intervention he wouldn't have been awarded guardianship and Mattie would have ended up in the system. "She moved to the apartment next door to mine in DC with Jen... I couldn't have done it at all without Jen's help, and..."
"Jen?" Gill asked
"Yeah, Jennifer Coates, Legalman Petty Officer First Class. She was the JAG's – Judge Advocate General's – Legalman slash Admin Assistant, and she sort of became like a big sister to Mattie. I don't know what we would have done without her at the time. I was still being sent on investigations and courts martial away from DC, out of the country sometimes. Jen joined us here in London two weeks ago, once Mattie got out of hospital. Ah, this is the place!" he added as a twist in the river brought the King's Head into view.
Gill was consumed with impatience to learn the rest of Harm's tale about Mattie, with a woman's intuition she knew that there was more to come, and even perhaps that she hadn't heard the full tale of what had she had been already told. That was fine by her; she had no right to be privy to all of Harm's secrets, and she wouldn't presume on their still new friendship to press him for information that he didn't want to tell her. But she'd have to gently probe him for more information about the Harm-Mattie-Jen set-up, it didn't sound quite like anything that the Royal Navy would tolerate. Oh, not the guardianship thing, that was fair enough, but from what he'd said, there was obviously some sort of relationship between Captain and Petty Officer, and the closeness of that relationship, if it were too close, would certainly raise questions in the Grey Funnel Line.
She took one look at the building in front of them and quickly calculated it as being seventeenth century at the latest and she exerted a little extra pressure of Harm's elbow, and he slowed his pace, looking down at her again, "It's an old building, so be prepared to duck or grouse, again!" she grinned.
Harm grinned and muttered a laconic thanks as he ducked under the lintel over the front door to the pub and stood waiting for a few seconds as his eyes readjusted to the comparative gloom after the brightness of the daylight. Once satisfied that he could spot the hazards, such as low flying ceiling beams, he turned to Gill, "What would you like?"
"A bitter shandy, please." Gill replied
"Shandy?"
"Half beer and half lemonade," Gill explained, it's a refreshing drink for a summer afternoon, and only half the alcohol. I don't know about you, but drinking beer or wine on a hot afternoon gives me a headache. And i;'s not fair! I can tolerate a hangover if it's deserved, but not when it hits you sober!" she chuckled.
"Much experience with hangovers?" Harm asked, faintly disturbed by her disclosure.
"Not since my days at university!" Gill declared, "I learned my lesson the hard way!"
"OK, why don't you find us a table, while I get the drinks and menus?"
"Inside, or on the patio?" Gill asked.
Harm thought furiously for a few seconds while he translated patio to deck and then nodded, "On the patio, if that's alright with you?"
Harm rejoined her a couple of minutes later, a glass in each hand and a pair of menus tucked between one elbow and his side, raising an eyebrow at Gill's expression, "Something wrong?"
"Umm...no... not really... it's just that I don't normally drink pints," Gill smiled as he placed his burdens on the rustic table.
"You don't? But you said you wanted a shandy, so when I asked for two shandies, this is what they poured!" Harm said, thoroughly confused.
"Oh, in that case, it's my fault!" Gill laughed, "I should have specified a half of shandy! Never mind, I'll just have to try and be as lady-like as I can!" She saw Harm's still troubled expression and smiled again, "No, really, it's fine... and it'll save you having to rush to the bar again!"
"Still going to have to do that!" Harm replied, "apparently you have to order food at the end of the bar!"
"Well... that's pretty usual for a pub," Gill remarked, "but not until we've had a look at the menu!"
It didn't take them long to make their choices, although Harm had to query one entry on the menu "What's TVP?"
Gill thought for a few seconds, she'd certainly heard the acronym before..."Ah... I have it! Textured vegetable protein. Soy or Tofu... I'm not really sure which one it means, but its used as a meat substitute. What are you looking at?" she asked.
"The vegetarian Moussaka," Harm replied. "I make a version of it myself, but I use red lentils instead of Tofu!" he grinned.
"Something funny?" Gill asked, having made her choice, she set her menu aside.
"Yeah... Mattie... when I first met her, she was living alone in her mom's house, and she couldn't cook, never learned to. She was ordering in pizza every evening. You wouldn't believe the struggle I had to get her to eat healthy food. She used to argue that making her eat vegetables was unconstitutional, and that teenagers had the right to eat as much junk food as they wanted as often as they wanted!"
"Chips with everything!" Gill commented.
"Pardon?" Harm asked.
"Chips – fries – with everything. Sounds just like our soldiers. Doesn't really matter what you serve them in the cookhouse, as long as there are enough chips – oh and bread!"
"Really?" Harm asked.
"Yep! The bread is understandable, but I've seen them eat chips with stew, with savoury mince, even with curries!"
"Enough! You're going to put me off my lunch! Have you decided?"
"Yes, I'd like the green salad starter, followed by the river trout meuniere with the game chips and vegetables."
"Chips?" Harm queried sardonically.
"Yes, but these really are like your chips, not fries!" Gill laughed.
Harm nodded, "Seems fair enough. Now, if you'll excuse me."
Harm left Gill alone for maybe five minutes while he returned to the bar to place their order, five minutes which Gill spent watching the ducks and other assorted waterfowl paddling up and don the river, occasionally putting on a spurt to be the first to reach some morsel of bread that diners tossed into the river for them. Although not an ornithologist by any means, Gill did take a slight interest in the wildlife and waterfowl of the district in which she lived, and identified grebe, moor-hens, dab-chicks, swans – although she couldn't tell which species – as well as the ubiquitous mallard and other varieties of duck which she didn't recognise.
She tore her attention away from the birds as Harm returned to the table, and waited until he had taken a sip of his shandy before she ventured another question.
"If I'm prying too much, just tell me to mind my own business," she said with a small smile, "but it's obvious that Mattie means a lot to you... you have this sort of far away look in your eyes when you mention her... and a funny sort of little grin..."
"My goofy grin!" he acknowledged, "At least that's what Mattie called it. Goofy was one of her favourite words. About the first thing she ever said to me was,'well, we got one thing on common, we both got goofy names!'. That was just before she offered me a job!"
"She offered you a job? But you were in the Navy... weren't you?"
"Um... no... not exactly; me and the Navy had parted company for a while... so for a couple of months I flew crop dusters for Mattie."
Gill was itching with impatience to hear the full story of that time, but there had been a hint of shutters closing when Harm had mentioned it. If he wanted her to know, he'd tell her, if he didn't, well, she wasn't about to pry too deeply.
"So... where's Mattie now? You mentioned something about hospital," she nudged his memory.
"Did I? Oh... Well, Mattie's dad turned up and the guardianship hearing. He'd made an attempt to get his drinking under control, he even brought his AA sponsor with him, but the judge ruled that he wasn't fit to have custody of her, so... she ended up with me. Tom, Mattie's dad made a huge effort to get back in the saddle, got a job, quit drinking, was getting straight for the first time in years. Well, I knew that Mattie would have to reconcile with him, especially once she learned that he hadn't been the driver the night her mom got killed. It took time, but after about ten months, she went back to him." He ended his narration in a flat tone of voice, and for an instant Gill could see the memory of pain in his eyes.
"And something went wrong?" she asked gently.
"Yeah." Harm took a gulp of his drink, the second she was old enough, Mattie started to take flying lessons, she'd decided to she wanted to be a naval aviator..."
"Like you," Gill commented, adding an unspoken 'her hero' to her words.
"God, I hope not exactly like me!" Harm denied with a brief burst of humour, "But, anyway, she had a scheduled lesson, and they went up in marginal conditions, and while they were up, the weather worsened into a late snow-storm. When the instructor brought them back into the airport, he landed more or less on top of another 'plane that shouldn't have been where it was. The instructor and the pilot of the other 'plane was killed, and Mattie..." Harm took a deep breath, "Mattie suffered a severe concussion and trauma to her neck. She was in a coma for a couple of weeks and then when she recovered from that it was found that she couldn't move anything below her neck, she'd become a quadriplegic."
"Oh... that's awful..." Gill gasped, her sympathies stirred.
"It's not quite that bad," she gradually got the feeling back in her upper body and arms, and she's working on rehab to get her legs functioning again. At the moment she's in a wheelchair, staying with friends just outside DC. She was discharged from hospital just before July Fourth, and they all kept it a secret from me, until I got back to Alexandria."
"What a wonderful surprise!" Gill exclaimed.
"Yeah, it was..." Harm's eyes took on that far-away look again, and for a second or two Gill thought they'd become extra shiny with tears, but put that down to her own emotions reacting to the story.
"Anyway, Harm went on in a much crisper tone, "I've applied for formal adoption. Mattie's accident was the last straw for Tom, and he fell off the wagon big time, and he's done anther disappearing act. The judge turned down my petition, but we've launched an appeal, and this time, I'm going to be in court for the hearing. My posting to the UK has solved most of the objections the judge had so I'm cautiously optimistic, and if she's made the progress the doctors anticipate, then Mattie should be fit to travel at around that time too. They said around Labour Day, and that's the Monday after the Friday hearing, so with just a modicum of luck we'll be settled in here by Christmas!"
"I'll drink to that!" Gill said cheerfully, suiting her actions to her words.
"Likewise!" Harm agreed tilting his glass towards her before he drank.
Their conversation was interrupted as the waitress approached with a loaded tray, and served them their meals as well as adding condiments. Noting the diminished levels in their glasses, she asked, "Would you like top ups, or would you prefer wine, sir?"
Harm looked across at Gill, "I'll stick to shandy," she said decidedly.
Harm nodded, "Make that two, please!"
"Ah... just a half for me, this time!" Gill added.
The waitress a middle-aged woman smiled, "Pint and a half of... she looked at the glasses shrewdly, "bitter shandy, coming right up!"
Gill felt that she had just about probed enough for the day, and while they ate she changed the subject completely, drawing Harm's attention to the antics of the various waterfowl on the river, pointing out the various species that she'd identified, "and that little one... that's a dab-chick... although I think they're actually a sub-species of grebe..."
Harm shook his head, "I can just about tell the difference between a duck and swan," he confessed his ignorance, "but other than that... I don't know you do it!" he chuckled.
Gill grinned as an imp of mischief sprang to life in her mind, here was a chance for a little payback for the way he had wound her up earlier. "And you're a pilot!" she said reproachfully.
"Aviator," he corrected her gently, "The Zoomies – the Air Force have pilots," he spoke the word almost pityingly, "We have aviators!" he finished grandly.
"Whatever!" Gill replied dismissively, "It's simply a matter of weft!"
"Weft?" Harm queried.
"Sure, if you can tell the difference between a... a... Flogger and a Fencer... then you should be able to tell a mallard from a pintail using the same method."
"What method?" Harm asked temporarily befuddled by the rapid switch from bird to airplane and back to bird.
"Haven't you been listening?" Gill demanded in false exasperation, "I just told, you, weft!"
"Yeah... but what is weft?" Harm demanded in turn, and then as the words left his mouth, he realised what Gill meant and that she had set him up for this. He closed his eyes in weary resignation as he waited for Gill to throw the other shoe to the floor.
"Why, Captain," she said in tones of spurious astonishment, as she enjoyed delivering the punch-line, "Don't tell me that you don't know the acronym for Wings, Engine, Tail and Fuselage!"
"Yeah... I got it... just a fraction of a second too late!" he groaned and then looked at her accusingly, "You set me up for that didn't you?"
"Of course!" Gill grinned, "Just think of it as payback for your crack about the money!"
"Ah... OK... in that case, touché, but remember, what's good for the goose is good for the gander!"
"Sauce," Gill corrected through her grin, "Sauce for the goose!"
"Whatever!" Harm grinned, and then became slightly more serious, "But where did you learn about aircraft recognition?"
"Self preservation!" Gill replied, "Under the old tactical doctrine, the RAF were responsible for attacking Warpac airfields, turning off the tap as it were, while the Luftwaffe and the USAF were to provide a fighter umbrella. Well, counting up the number of aircraft on each side, we figured that enough Warpac jets would get through to make life pretty uncomfortable for us guys on the ground, so we had to able to learn to identify friendly from hostile, without having access to radar sets that could pick up IFF signals."
"Yeah... I never thought of that... Ours would have been a different war... taking out Bears and Bisons with over-the-horizon missiles..."
"Yes, we all read Hackett's 'The Third World War'," Gill agreed, "Thank God it never came to pass!"
"Amen to that!" Harm agreed, "But... we're supposed to be off duty and enjoying ourselves... not talking about war!"
"True!" Gill said apologetically, "but remember, if it hadn't been for Larkhill Day we would never have met!"
"OK, I'll accept that... Now, you said you'd been here before?2
"Oh yes, I used to come here with my brother and his girlfriend and any sort of ad-hoc escort I could drum up at short notice..."
"It's a bit of a trek from Tidworth, isn't it, I mean with an ad hoc date?"
"It is!" Gill agreed, her eyes once again dancing with mischief, "But it's only about twenty miles from home... Now, there's a thought... We could call in on Mummy and Daddy on our way back to London, it wouldn't be much of a detour..."
Gill waited until the full import of what he had just said sunk into Harm's mind. His reaction was all that she had thought it might be. He went pale, and gulped, his eyes opened wide in horror and Gill was almost sure she could sweat beginning to bead his brow. It was no good. She couldn't resist, and broke out into gales of open laughter, attracting the attention of other of the pubs patrons, who turned in their seats with indulgent grins to observe the cheerful couple.
For a second, Harm felt his temper slip, and then feeling slightly ashamed, he gulped, and shook his head, "That was dirty pool!" he complained, "And more than enough payback for earlier!"
"Oh, I know!" Gill half-sobbed, as she fished in her pocket for a handkerchief with which to mop her streaming eyes. "But it was so perfect... and the best thing was that I hadn't planned it... no sooner had the idea popped into my head, then the words popped right out of my mouth!"
"Dirty, dirty pool!" Harm still grumbled, but the lurking smile at the corners of his mouth hinted that he had recovered his sense of humour. "Not that I'd mind meeting your folks, one day. But I'd like a bit of warning first. So I could prepare myself for the ordeal."
"Yes... if we decide that we do have something going for us, then you'll have to meet them... but it wouldn't be by an unannounced visit; that could be disastrous. Oh, mummy and daddy are fine, they may be a little put out if we intruded on them without warning, but they'd come round quickly enough. No," she added thoughtfully, "It's granny we'd have to watch out for. She'd consider it extremely ill-mannered if I just turned up without notice, dragging a guest behind me. Although... you are Navy... so that might score some points with her!"
"Just great!" Harm shot back, "Now you've got me trembling in my boots! She sounds just like Grams, and I can assure you, I do not cross Grams!"
"Grams?" Gill queried.
"Yeah, my paternal grandmother. She has a farm in Pennsylvania, about four hours drive from DC. She's well into her eighties, keeps the farm running and spends the rest of her time terrorising the whole county!"
"Terrorising?" Gill choked on more laughter.
"Yeah," Harm smiled in fond memory, "She's got an old nineteen forties or fifties ex-government Willy's jeep, an old open-topped thing which she drives on the local roads. As far as she's concerned, its only got two speeds, flank speed and finish with engines!"
"OK... I get the picture, and the concept of flank speed, as meaning very fast, but what's its derivation? In the Royal Navy, it's full-ahead all engines for maximum speed, not in the USN?"
"OK... I'm on shaky ground here, it's not my area of expertise... but a ship has a theoretical maximum speed, what it was designed for. Well flank speed is it's true maximum speed, which often is greater than designed maximum speed. We only use flank speed in emergencies... in a non-nuclear propelled ship, flank speed can use up seven times the ordinary amount of fuel!"
Gill chuckled, "So your Grams is a bit like the Beach Boys' 'Little Old Lady from Pasadena'?" she asked.
Harm gave a crack of laughter, "Yeah, I suppose. Good God, I haven't thought about the Beach Boys since I left home in eighty-one! But a nearer equivalent of the Old Lady would be mom. Although she's from La Jolla, not Pasadena she drives Mercedes roadster coupé!"
"And what do... did... you drive back home?" Gill asked.
"Oh... most of the time I drove a Lexus SUV, but I also had a classic Corvette that I... well, a friend and I built from the chassis up... oh... and a classic Indian motorcycle for a while..."
"H'mm... let me guess, the Corvette is a sports car? Fills your need for speed?"
"Oh, no... not you too!" Harm groaned and then continued, "And if you mean a two-seater convertible, then yeah, it was!" harm agreed.
"Was?"
"Yeah, it's in storage."
"Sensible," Gill mused and then creased her forehead, "What did you mean by 'not you too'?"
"That damn' Tom Cruise comedy, Top Gun!" harm expostulated.
"Oh... the need for speed... is that where the tag comes from? I've never seen the film, so I suppose I must have heard the expression somewhere. But it wasn't a comedy, was it?"
"It was if you've ever been to the real Top Gun!" Harm said firmly.
"And you have?" Gill queried, and then as memory returned of Sue saying something abut Harm having won a DFC, she nodded, "Yes, of course you have! It was in your potted history in your Navy Times!"
"You looked me up?!" Harm said totally stunned by her revelation.
"Of course I did!" Gill said, the 'duh' was unspoken, but Harm still heard it "I wanted to know what the army had dumped on me!"
"Ah... so... you felt like you'd been dumped on... That explains your initial hostility, then." Harm smiled.
Gill blushed, "Oh, please, don't remind me! But it wasn't just the army, it was Sue... she kept on about how...how... well..."
"How 'dishy' I was?" Harm asked greatly amused.
"Yes!" Gill snapped, now blushing furiously and not daring to meet Harm's eye, glared down at the remains of her lunch.
"Hey... it's alright, you know. I'm not mad," Harm said softly.
"Maybe not," Gill said, "but that doesn't make me feel any less foolish."
Harm leaned back, "I had a good friend, who once told me when I had done something even more dumb than usual, that a friend is someone, who when you feel you have made a fool of yourself, doesn't think you've done a permanent job!"
It took Gill a few seconds to work through what Harm had just said, and then she raised her head to face him, "And are we friends?" she asked.
"Of course we are!" he said in surprise.
"So... I'm not a complete fool?"
"Not in my book!" Harm said.
"Ah..." Gill said enigmatically, thinking, then there is still some hope for us being better than just friends... But then, Gillian Shepherd! where the hell did that just come from?"
xxxxx-xxxxx-xxxxx
Julia settled into the driver's seat of the rental, and with a smile and wave through the window she made a last goodbye to Johnny's mom and his two sisters before she turned the key in the ignition and fired up the engine, ready to follow Johnny out of the village and back to the main road. He to head south for Tidworth and she to head east to Northolt.
It was with a feeling of regret that she left Johnny's home behind her. From the instant she had arrived she had been made to feel as if she was one of the family. Practically the first thing Mrs Walker had said, after she'd greeted her with a hug and a kiss on the cheek was, "Sit down dear, and have a cup of tea! Timothy's not here yet, but he 'phoned. He was a bit late getting away, something to do with a new Battery Captain, he said, but he should be here by seven. I hope you can wait until then for your dinner?"
"Yes, ma'am!"
"Well once you've had your cup of tea, Zoe can take you upstairs. I've put you in Alison's room... she's away for the weekend. Don't worry, dear, there's clean sheets on the bed, and your room is right next to mine, so if you need anything later on just give me a call!"
"Yes, ma'am."
"And stop calling me ma'am. You can call me Judith."
"Uh... no... I wouldn't feel right calling you that... how about Mrs Walker?" Julia suggested.
"Well, if you're more comfortable that way, dear, then so be it!" Johnny's mother had agreed.
The tea drunk, Zoe had taken Julia upstairs and shown her the bedroom she was to use and had plumped down on the end of the bed while Julia unpacked her sea-bag.
"Alison's over in Cambridge, she's got a job interview first thing Monday morning. It's something to do with the university, her boyfriend's a post grad there, and there's a vacancy for a lab assistant, and as she's a BSc in chemistry, it might be a way for her to work up to her Master's and then a Doctorate if she's lucky." Zoe shrugged, "There's no funding for Master's Degree's and we, the family, couldn't afford to keep her at University. I didn't even bother applying!"
"Anyway," Zoe rattled on, "I'm afraid you're in for it tonight. My boyfriend's coming to pick me up at eight, he's got some sort of deadly company do to go to. He's not really got a choice. So this evening it's just going to be you, Timmy and mum! So you can expect a thorough grilling"
"I already was!" Julia smiled. "Even from just knowing your mom for a short time, I can almost figure her out, she's just like mine. There's none of us at home ever brought a boyfriend or girlfriend into the house without them getting the third degree!" Julia gave a mock shudder. "The funny thing is though, it was always mom who did the questioning. You'd have thought it was dad who'd be the interrogator – he's a sheriff's deputy, but it was always mom. Gotta say though, that when the boys at school learned who dad was, the bad hats steered well clear of us. But even with the nice guys, he used to sit at the kitchen table cleaning his side arm while mom was interrogating them!"
Zoe broke out into a peal of laughter at that snippet of news, "You got a big family?" she asked when she'd stopped laughing.
"Three sisters, three brothers," Julia admitted. "Fredo's the oldest, he's a sergeant in the Albuquerque PD. Tomas was next, he joined the Marines..." Julia's face nearly crumpled as she remembered the pain of her brother's loss, but then she rallied, "Then Maria, she joined the Air Force as a medic, then there's me, and after me there's Consuela, she's a police officer in Cochise county, then Ramón, he's the other sensible one in the family, he joined the Navy, and then there's Theresa, the baby of the family. She's at college in San Diego, says she wants to join the services, but hasn't decided which one yet."
"Wow!" Zoe stared huge-eyed at Julia, "All of your family are in uniform!"
"Not quite!" Julia disagreed, "La Mamacita, says she never had time for such foolishness!"
"La... who?"
"La Mamacita, mom, it literally means 'little mother' in Spanish!"
All in uniform, hey? I wonder if Timmy knows what he's let himself in for!
"I wonder if you know what you'll be letting yourself in for if he hears you call him that!" Julia grinned, "He told me hates it!"
"Of course he does! That's why I call him it!" Zoe giggled, "but worse than that, I mustn't let mum hear me call him that either. She hates it when any of us shorten names!"
"Oh... but I keep calling him Johnny!" Julia gasped.
"Oh, that's a nickname, and while she may not like it too much, you're a guest so she won't get at you! Anyway, plans for the weekend: Mum's got a couple of jobs for Johnny to do in the morning, so I'm going to take you shopping in Aylesbury Then mum's got a table booked at the Dog and Duck for tomorrow night. Sunday morning it's church service for us kids while mum gets Sunday dinner going, and then you'll be off back to barracks, I expect. Johnny never stays later than about five on a Sunday!"
A commotion downstairs announced Johnny's arrival and put an end to Zoe's non-stop stream of chatter, and the two young women hurried downstairs to meet Johnny, who was still in uniform, not having waited to change before leaving Tidworth. He greeted Zoe readily enough with the careless offhand but real affection that appeared to Julia to permeate the whole family, but he only had eyes for Julia it seemed, and careless of his mother's gasp and Zoe's "Oh, wow!" he scooped Julia up in his arms and kissed her very gently, but very thoroughly!
It was probably that unbridled display of affection, Julia thought, that brought about the most memorable sentence of the evening. She, Johnny and his mother were at the dinner table and taking advantage of a break in the conversation, Judith Walker fixed her son with a stare of laser-like intensity and said, "Now pay attention young man! I have put Julia in Alison's room, so I don't want to hear any footsteps on the landing tonight – in either direction!" She transferred her narrow-eyed stare to Julia for a few seconds, "And that goes for you too, young lady! I don't care, and I don't want to know what you get up to anywhere else, but there will be no hanky-panky under my roof. Understand!"
Even as she replied, "Yes, ma'am!" Julia was amused and relieved to see that Johnny was blushing just as much as she was!