Chapter 35
Victor stood and waited until Jen had unlocked her door before he smiled and said, "Goodnight, Jen. It was a great evening, but I'd best get going."
Jen looked at him in surprise, "Don't you want to come in… for a coffee or something?"
"I've never been known to say 'no' to good coffee, Jen," Victor smiled, "and if that's available, yeah, sure I'll come in for a cup, and thank you."
"Yeah… coffee's available," Jen repeated with a very slight emphasis on the noun. Somebody with less well-honed policeman's instincts might have missed that subtle hint, but not Victor Galindez. He gently reached out a hand and slowly traced the line of Jen's cheekbone with a gentle finger, "Right now, coffee's all I want or need. Jen, there'll be plenty of time to take things further; if and when we both decide we want to."
Jen coloured slightly, chagrined that she'd been so obvious when she had tried not to be, but also deeply grateful; that Victor wasn't pushing the issue. He was right; they had plenty of time before they needed to decide whether or not to move forward. In the meantime, she enjoyed his company, he had a dry, droll sense of humour, and as he had proved tonight he played a mean game of pool. Between them he and Jen had wiped the floor with the young Brits who thought themselves good at the game. It was a pity, in some ways, that they hadn't been playing for money. As these thoughts raced through her brain she became aware of Victor, still standing on the threshold and gazing quizzically at her.
"Oh… for goodness, sake, come in!" she laughed, and opening the door stepped back to allow Victor to enter her flat. "Sit down while I put the coffee on!" Jen laughed and whisked away to the kitchen
Victor sat in one of the two armchairs and looked around. In the week since he'd last been here Jen had achieved quite a bit. Her bookshelves (bought for a knock-down price on e-bay) had arrived, been assembled, fixed to the walls and loaded with books, a few framed photographs and a couple of knickknacks.
One photograph in particular caught his attention and he pulled himself to his feet to examine it, it was obviously taken in summer, on a bright, hot sunny day and showed Jen in a T-shirt and Jeans, her hair unbound and flowing down over her shoulders and with her sunglasses perched on the top of her head, sitting on a swing in a park, with a tousled-haired red-head teenager stood behind her, her arms draped loosely around Jen's neck and her face next to Jen's, both girls' faces wore huge smiles of what seemed to be sheer happiness, and Victor felt a smile of sympathy with their mood spreads across his face, but at the same time he was filled with a vague sense of loss that he hadn't been there to share that magical moment with Jen.
He was still looking at the picture when Jen returned from the kitchen carrying the two mugs of coffee, "What are you looking at?" she asked curiously.
"Oh, this picture, it's a very good one of you!" Victor replied.
Jen put the mugs down on the coffee table (also picked up for a song from a second-hand furniture store a couple of blocks away), and walked across to join Victor, "Oh, yeah, that was taken last summer in DC before Mattie went back to her birth father…"
"That's Mattie is it?"
"Yeah, she was the Com… I mean the Captain's ward at the time. I think that was the last time he was truly happy… I just hope that everything went all right for him today in court…"
"You haven't heard?" Victor asked in some surprise.
"Nothing yet, but it's a heck of a drive to and from Blacksburg and if court didn't finish until late…" she looked at her watch, "It's only about six o' clock in DC, and they might not even have got back to the Roberts yet. In any case, I'm just hoping that no news is good news."
"Let's hope so!" Victor agreed, and then hoping to turn the conversation away from what looked like becoming a gloomy subject, he looked back at the picture, "You know, this is a very good photograph. I didn't know the Captain had that sort of skill with a camera!"
To his surprise Jen's musical laugh broke out, "Oh… the Captain didn't take that! No, that was taken by a friend of his, a Commander Keeter, one of his flying buddies!" Jen suddenly giggled, "He was such a shocking flirt! Honestly, he flirted with me, he flirted with Mattie… he even flirted with Harriet Sims, and I wouldn't have put it past him to have flirted with Loren Singer… well, tried to anyway… but it was all perfectly harmless. It's strange, I always thought he had a thing for the Colonel, but he got married last year, just before Mattie had her accident… in fact he married the Captain's old RIO… Lieutenant Commander Hawkes… you might remember her as Lieutenant Hawkes, she…"
"She was his RIO the night they had to punch out over the ocean. That was a hell of a night…" Victor became lost in memories for a few moments and then seemed to shake himself awake, "and a hell of a storm! You know," he said as he put the photograph back on the shelf where he'd found it, "You just said you think that this Commander Keeter had a thing for the Colonel, well I always thought Lieutenant Hawkes had a thing for the Captain…"
Jen's forehead creased in a frown as she thought back, "She might have… I know that the Captain always speaks very fondly of her if her name comes up… of course it doesn't now because I think I'm the only one in London who even knows she exists… but it couldn't have worked between them… not a pilot and his RIO… talk about fraternisation! Whew!" Jen finished as she sat down in the chair that Victor had recently vacated.
Victor took the other chair, "We shouldn't really be passing on scuttlebutt about superior officers, it comes pretty near contemptuous words…" he said a little uncomfortably.
"Is that what you think we were doing?" Jen asked with a mischievous smile, "I thought we were just sharing intel!"
Victor couldn't help it, he grinned. "Jennifer Coates, you are bad!"
"Yeah, I know!" Jen smirked.
Victor took another sip of his coffee and bolstered his courage, "Have you got any plans for tomorrow or if so, how about Sunday or Monday?"
"Well… there's this pretty good-looking Marine I know, and I was hoping that maybe he might want to take me somewhere…"
Jen and Victor spent the next twenty minutes in making plans for the morning, eventually deciding that Victor would pick up Jen at zero nine thirty and catch a train to Oxford, Jen having expressed a wish to see some of the old colleges there. "And maybe stroll along the river and catch a pub lunch at one of the riverside places…"
"That sounds like a plan, then!" Victor announced as he stood, "But it's twelve thirty now, so I really do got to get going!"
Jen walked him to the door and as he walked through it she said, "Victor?"
He turned, "Yes?"
Jen raised on her toes and planted a lightning swift kiss on his cheek, "Thanks for tonight, Victor I had a wonderful time, see you tomorrow!" then she grinned and closed the door leaving Victor standing in hall with his mouth hanging open.
"Well, I'll be damned!" he said softly and walked across to the stairwell with a definite swagger in his step.
Jen looked at the inside of her closed door for a few moments and then with a soft smile she picked up the two empty coffee mugs and took them through to the kitchen and rinsed them out. Then, hands going to the buttons of her shirt she headed for the bathroom and that wonderful shower. It was nearly an hour later that dressed in a rather large, faded T-Shirt that had USNA printed on the front, she sat in front of the mirror on her vanity, a blow dryer in one hand and hairbrush in the other, humming 'I'm gonna wash that man right out of my hair', but then stopped, grinned and said aloud, "Like hell I am!" but before she could develop her train of thought it was disrupted by the shrill tone of her cell phone. Jen lunged across the bed, landing on her tummy as she reached for the phone on the nightstand, hoping that this was the call for which she'd been waiting.
"Hello?" she said somewhat breathlessly.
"Miss Jennifer Coates? This is Miss Mattie Rabb…"
"Mattie! You did it! Wow! Congratulations!" Jen laughed out loud.
"Hey, it wasn't all me! Mostly it was the Admiral, he was… just… awesome, he took every one of the judge's points and tore them to shreds! Oh… hold on a sec… Uh, Jen, that was Harriet… uh… Lieutenant Sims. She's just reminded me that it's gone midnight in the UK… so I'll let you get some sleep… I'll call you in a day or two when Harm…uh… when Dad is on his way back to London! Love ya!"
"Yeah, love you too, kiddo," Jen managed before the line went dead. "Damn it, where did I put those Kleenex?" she sniffed.
xxxxx-xxxxx-xxxxx-xxxxx-xxxxx
Julia lay with her head on Johnny' chest the fingers of one hand idly playing with the hairs on his chest, "You have got to be one of the craziest guys I ever met!" she said with a sleepy smile.
"H'mm… why that?" Johnny asked, already half asleep.
"Swimming in the ocean in September! That's got to be the craziest thing ever! That water was freezing!"
"Nah, it wasn't freezing, it was good twenty five, maybe thirty degrees above freezing," Johnny demurred, "And anyway, once we got out of the water and out of the wind, the sun soon warmed you up, didn't it?"
"Yeah I guess so…" Julia admitted reluctantly.
And you can't still be cold after the work-out we've just…"
"Johnny Walker! Don't even think of finishing that sentence! You are a bad man for even thinking it!" Julia said indignantly, but Johnny heard the giggle in her voice.
"But only a few minutes ago you were saying how good I was" he said smugly,
"Ohh!" Julia ground out in frustration, but Johnny just grinned as he realised that she wasn't making any move to shift from her current position.
Johnny gave her a couple of minutes and then by dint of craning his neck he was able to drop a kiss onto the crown of her head, "Goodnight, sweetheart," he said softly.
"G'night," came Julia's equally soft and already half asleep reply.
xxxxx-xxxxx-xxxxx-xxxxx-xxxxx
Harm frowned as he looked around the arrivals area at Heathrow's Terminal One. According to instructions he had left he should have been met by either Martinez or Coates, and neither of those were in sight. He checked his watch, no the flight hadn't arrived early… so where was his damn' driver. He made his way towards the terminal information desk to ask whether a message had been let for him, walking swiftly his eyes still looking for either of his two enlisted aides, so he was taken completely by surprise when a whispered "'Ullo sailor," was murmured by the tallish woman he had just passed. It wasn't just the words, which he'd heard before, but the voice, completely unexpected in these surroundings brought him up with a round turn.
"Gill!" he exclaimed in pleased surprise, "I didn't see… I didn't expect to see you… what are you doing… here… not that I'm not pleased to see you – I'm delighted… but where's Martinez or Coates?" The smile faded from his face at the thought that either of his two Petty Officers would have disobeyed his order for one of them to meet him.
"At ease, Captain!" Gill gurgled, delighted with the success of her surprise. "Yeoman Two Martinez is waiting just over there," she nodded towards a row of chairs next to one of the many exits from the terminal, where a jeans and sweater clad Martinez was idly thumbing through a magazine, "but I asked her to hang back until I had a chance to say hello to my favourite Yank! I did tell her that she needn't bother and that I'd pick you up, but then she became very Navy and said she had orders to meet you here, and meet you here she would!""
"Oh… I should have realised that neither of them would not do as I said, but now you've said hello, shall we get going?"
"I haven't said 'hello' properly, yet." Gill reprimanded him and rising on tiptoes she clutched his shoulders and very deliberately, very thoroughly kissed him.
"Uh… wow…" Harm muttered and grinned weakly when she finally let him go… "Uh… hello, soldier…" and then he cast an anxious glance towards Martinez, who now seemed totally absorbed in her magazine.
Then another thought struck him, "How did you get here? You didn't drive up with Martinez, did you?"
"Lord, no!" Gill exclaimed as she looped her arm through his, "Can you imagine the paperwork if a British Army officer had been a passenger in a US Navy car when it became involved in an RTA? No, we drove up in convoy, so Captain Rabb, sir, you have a choice, you can either drive back home with your pretty Yeoman, or you can drive back home with your not quite so pretty girlfriend… what do you say?"
"H'mm…" Harm pretended to give the alternatives some serious thought as he and Gill strolled towards the door, "Let's see… pretty versus not quite so pretty on the one hand or Yeoman versus girlfriend on the other… decisions… decisions…" he mused aloud.
"Decisions, huh?" Gill's scowl only just hid her grin at his blatant teasing, "Just make sure you make the right one buster!"
"H'mm…" Harm agreed in a non-committal manner as they approached Martinez, who jumped to her feet as the two officers neared her, "Uh… Good evening, sir!" she said with a nervous look at Gill before she looked at Harm.
"Relax Yeoman Two; Captain Shephard has explained what she's doing here, and why you're hiding. There's no harm done. You obeyed orders, but now I'm changing them. You go on home; Captain Shephard will drive me back!"
"Aye, aye, sir!" Martinez said, with just a shade of relief in her voice. She braced to attention for a brief second and then with a cheery "Good night, sir, ma'am," she was gone.
Gill tucked her arm back in Harm's and rested her cheek on his shoulder as they strolled towards the exit, "Well…I assume from the lack of thunderclouds on your face that all went well in the States?"
Harm's grin flashed across his face, but Gill noted that it wasn't the cocky grin he had used on other occasions, rather it was something softer, something… more… internalised, maybe, she thought.
"Indeed it did go well," he answered, "You, sweetheart, are looking at the brand new father of a sixteen year-year-old girl! Oh, God!" He suddenly stopped with a look of alarm on his face.
"What? What's wrong?" Gill asked in quick concern.
Harm shook his head, "I've just realised, I'm the father of a teenaged girl! What was I thinking?"
Gill couldn't help herself, she burst out laughing, "Clown!" she admonished him. "Come on, let's get you home!"
"Best idea I've heard since I landed in this place!" Harm agreed.
xxxxx-xxxxx-xxxxx-xxxxx-xxxxx
"Wake up… we're here," Gill said softly as she drew the car to a halt at the main gate barrier and dug her ID out from her handbag to show to the RAF SP who approached the driver's window.
"Captain Shephard, Royal Artillery," she said succinctly, "and Captain Rabb, US Navy," she handed Harm's ID, which he had passed to her, on to the RAF Police Corporal. He examined both ID cards briefly, but as he knew Captain Rabb by sight, he was quickly satisfied. He handed the ID cards back to Gill and stepped back to raise the barrier, saluting as the Ford passed under it.
Two minutes later, Gill pulled up in front of Harm's quarters and he stretched before he undid his seat belt, "I know it's pretty late, but are you coming in for a coffee…? I've missed you…"
"Of course, your coffee is welcome at any time of day or night," Gill smiled.
"Um… and just to save you a trip if the answer is 'yes' and I know it's school night, but would you like to stay overnight? The spare room's ready. I made sure of that before I went Stateside…"
"So this isn't a spur of the moment thing, you worked it all out with planning aforethought?" Gill teased him gently.
"Yep, P to the power of five," Harm smirked.
"P to the power… All right, I know I'm going to regret this," Gill said in a resigned voice, "but go on, explain…"
"Preparation and planning prevents poor performance." Harm grinned triumphantly, and even in the darkness of the car, Gill caught the flash of his white teeth, but before she could comment, he continued, "But you haven't answered my question, would you stay overnight?"
Gill smiled, "Yes, in fact I was hoping you'd offer. I've got my overnight bag in the boot."
"Yeah, I noticed it when I loaded my carry-on," Harm said so innocently that for a second Gill's ears didn't really register what he'd said.
"Oh! You… you… shyster you!" she laughed.
"Guilty as charged!" Harm admitted cheerfully, and then leaned over the central console, and tilted Gills face up slightly as he silenced any further objection she might make with his lips.
When they broke the kiss they remained still for a few moments, their foreheads gently resting against each other before Gill chuckled quietly, "At least we're making some sort of progress, we've graduated from snogging in the car park, to snogging in the car!"
"Snogging?" Harm said never having heard the word before.
"Um… making out, I believe you colonial chappies call it," Gill drawled with an air of mock superiority.
"Is that what we were doing?" Harm asked.
"Oh, I hope so!" Gill giggled.
xxxxx-xxxxx-xxxxx-xxxxx-xxxxx
Gill was long gone by the time Julia brought the motor pool sedan to the kerbside outside Harm's quarters. He, of course, had got up when he heard Gill moving about in the bathroom and had made her breakfast while she showered and dressed before she made a hasty departure for St John's Wood and then onto the MoD.
The memory of their late night snuggling session stayed with him and it was with a cheerful smile that he handed his garment bag, containing his service dress blues for the first time since May, to Martinez to stow them in the trunk of the car.
The bag safely packed he climbed, as was his usual practice, into the front passenger seat and waited until Julia had strapped herself in behind the wheel.
"Straight to the office, sir?" she asked.
"Where else, Yeoman Two, where else?"
"Uh… I don't know, sir."
"Well, then, the office it is!"
"Aye, aye, sir!"
The stretch of the A40 past Northolt and on into London was at its early peak hour morning worst and the car crawled forward in series of fits and starts that pretty soon had Martinez biting her lip in an effort not scream from frustration, and in an effort to distract herself she asked, "How was your trip to DC, sir?"
"It was good, very good, thank you Martinez. I stayed with friends in Alexandria, that's just across the river from DC itself, we had a couple of quiet dinners at home, and then on Sunday I took their two eldest – two boys – to the Air and Space museum. I don't think I did their parents any favours 'though, the way they looked at the planes and the way they asked questions, I think that Bud and Harriet have a couple of budding Naval Aviators on their hands!"
Harm paused for a moment, debating whether or not to break his big news to her and then figured that if he didn't, he'd only be delaying the inevitable. Once the court papers arrived from McLean, it would be Martinez dealing with BUPERS and getting his page two updated, and it would be Martinez handling all the paperwork to get Mattie onto an AMC flight to the UK.
"Oh… and I went to court on the Friday, for the adoption case…"
"Yes, sir?" Martinez' voice was carefully neutral, although she suspected that if the Captain had been unsuccessful in his bid to adopt his ward, he couldn't have been so cheerful last night or this morning.
"And… as I suddenly realised last night while I was talking to Captain Shephard, I'm now the father of a teenaged daughter!" he smiled although even through his happiness Martinez picked up a hint of something else. She risked a quick glance at him as she braked to yet another stop for yet another set of traffic lights. 'This road is worse than the US 322 in Pennsylvania!' she thought savagely, but in the light of what suddenly seemed a mixed response from her chief she slightly nervously cleared her throat as she once more disengaged the parking brake and edged the car forward, "Congratulations, sir?"
"You sound a little uncertain, Yeoman Two?" Harm said in mild surprise.
"Not really, sir, it's just that you seemed a little uncertain… sir…" she finished lamely.
Harm, to Martinez' surprise laughed, "Not uncertain about the judgement or the adoption. No, we, Mattie and I, fought too long and hard for that, it's just that I suddenly realised I've got a teenaged girl on my hands, and if anything, I'm even less prepared than I was the last time around!"
"Last time around, sir?" Martinez asked, now even more puzzled.
Harm grinned, "Ask Coates; tell her I said it was okay for you to ask. She shared an apartment with Mattie, next door to me in DC, and when I was away, TAD or on JAGMAN investigations, she stepped up to the plate for me!"
Martinez smiled at the note of happiness that came into Harm's voice as he recalled those earlier, happy days, and hoped fervently that he could regain some of that peace. Captain Shephard had definitely been good for him, after an admittedly bumpy start, but, and she grinned at the conceit, she and Johnny had given them a lead, and she had a feeling that the Captain still had a way to go before he did experience that sort of happiness again. "Well if she turns out to be too much trouble, sir, I'm sure Coates and I can put her on the straight and narrow – you haven't heard Coates in what she calls Harriet mode, when she straightens out some of the junior rates, have you sir?" then Martinez belatedly made the link between Coates' Harriet mode and the name of the people with whom he had just spent the weekend, his friends, and said in dismay, "Oh, sir, I didn't mean…"
"No, that's okay Martinez, I may not have heard Coates in Harriet mode, but I have heard Harriet in Lieutenant Mom mode as Household Six, and that's pretty darn scary!"
"Yes, sir!" Julia said and lapsed into silence, figuring it would best to quit while she was still ahead of the game, if only just!
xxxxx-xxxxx-xxxxx-xxxxx-xxxxx
Harm was about to be enlightened as to Jen's Harriet mode as he stepped into the bull pen, to see to his surprise that the door to his outer office, where Jen and Julia worked, was closed, which was far from usual. He waved off the call of "Captain on Deck" and cut across the bull pen and had his hand on the door handle when he heard Jen's voice, through the door, she wasn't shouting or yelling, but there was something in the timbre of her voice that rooted Harm to the spot.
"…everyone else in this headquarters got it right. They read the order and they prepared themselves so that they could obey it? What makes you two think that you are any different to everyone else? Even the officers read and complied with the order! But no, not seaman Chavez or Seaman Tannenbaum! You idiots were supposedly handpicked for this billet, because according to your fitreps you are outstanding sailors, fit to grace the headquarters of the Navy's Judge Advocate General in Europe. Well, God help us; if you are outstanding representatives of your last billet then just how bad are the merely satisfactory? Or is it because you were graded outstanding that you suddenly think that you are above reading and obeying orders? No! Do not even attempt to answer that. Just think yourselves lucky that I'm not writing you up for charges under article ninety-two. Now get out, and the next time you report for duty you had better, by Christ, be in the correct uniform of the day! Now go!"
The door opened and two very chastened looking and very young seamen almost fled Coates' office, only to stumble to a dismayed halt as they saw their CO standing a mere two feet from the door.
One of them, Tannenbaum, Harm thought, managed a squeaked, "Sir!" as they regained control of their feet and shot off in the general direction of away. Harm shook his head and walked in Coates' office.
"Good morning, Legalman One," he remarked.
"Good morning, sir," Jen replied composedly as she stood to acknowledge him.
"What was all that about?" he asked, nodding his head backward in the direction in which the two apparent miscreants had disappeared.
"Oh... you heard all of that, sir?" Jen asked, a slight blush rising to her cheeks.
"Yeah, I heard, but don't worry, I told you that part of your responsibilities here would be to keep the junior rates in line. But what exactly had they done to warrant you gigging them like that?"
"Uh… did you see what they were wearing, sir?" Jen asked dubiously.
To be truthful their uniforms hadn't registered with Harm until Jen mentioned it, and then he realised, "Oh… working uniform."
"Exactly, sir. And the orders you left were for the change into service dress for winter wear. Everyone else apart from those two numbskulls managed to obey orders!"
"But did I hear you right, that you weren't going to raise charges?"
"No, sir. Not this time. They're not bad kids; they just didn't pay attention to orders. Well they will by the time I'm finished with them!"
"What have you done?" Harm asked cautiously, not quite sure whether or not he wanted to know.
"Nothing illegal, sir. Just a couple of hours extra work this evening and tomorrow. We've just received a sheaf of changes to Navy Regulations, and we've got fifteen copies that now need amending… that ought to be sufficient to remind them to pay attention to orders in the future, sir."
"EMI, Coates?" Harm asked sternly.
"Oh, no sir. I'm not authorised to hand out EMI, this is just some extra work to keep them flying straight and level!"
Looking into her wide-open innocent eyes, Harm almost believed her. Almost. "Very well, Legalman One, carry on!"
"Aye, aye, sir. And sir?"
Harm stopped with his hand on the handle to his own office door, "Yes?" he asked warily.
"Congratulations on winning your appeal, sir! I can hardly wait to see Mattie again!"
Harm relaxed and smiled, "Thanks Jennifer, she sends you her love by the way… but how did you…?"
"Know, sir? She called me Friday night sir! Just a short call before Lieutenant Sims reminded her of the time difference!"
"Little varmint! I told her the best hours to catch you at home!"
"Oh… if she'd called earlier, she wouldn't have got me at home, sir, so it's okay this time!"
"This time perhaps but…" a slow grin stretched across his face and he looked speculatively at his Legalman and Jen suddenly had the feeling that she'd just said something she shouldn't, but for the life of her she couldn't think what it was.
"So… " Harm said slowly, "you weren't at home? Out on the town, were you Legalman?"
"Oh, no sir, nothing like that; just a couple of beers and a few games of pool in a local pub, sir!"
Harm pretended to be worried, "Not on your own, I hope Legalman One?"
"Oh, no sir, I was with…" then it was her turn for the penny to drop, "Oh, that is so not fair, sir!" she objected trying to stifle a laugh at the same time using a hand as a fan to try and cool her suddenly roasting cheeks, "You tricked me!"
"Ah… so you were with…? A certain First Sergeant of Marines? I wondered where the DI in you had sprung from!" and with a last grin he retreated into the sanctuary of his own office before he gave way to the laughter bubbling up inside him.
Jen was still blushing furiously when Julia having parked the car and hanged into service dress entered the office and smiled a "Good morning, Jen," but then stopped and asked, "Are you all right? You're looking a bit flushed!"
Jen shot her a defensive glare, "Don't go there! Do not even think about asking!"
"Ah… the Captain is in a good mood, isn't he?" Julia said innocently.
"Oh… shut up!" Jen said through a half-laugh.
xxxxx-xxxxx-xxxxx-xxxxx-xxxxx
"Harm! You didn't! That poor girl!" Gill chuckled, when Harm regaled her with the events of his day during his customary after dinner phone call.
"Maybe not, but you've got to admit it was pretty funny. I mean you're laughing now hearing it second-hand, and it was much funnier at the time."
"But it was pretty cruel too, in a minor key sort of way," Gill protested.
"Maybe," Harm conceded, "but I don't often get a win in an in-office battle of words with either of those two, and when they gang up on me, I'm doomed. So let me enjoy my occasional triumph on the rare occasions that I do chalk up a win!"
"H'mm… it's great that you're on such easy terms with them Harm, but you need to be careful that you don't encourage them too much. It could be very easy for them to slip into insubordination and lose respect for you."
"I don't think that' a problem. Gill, they are both good young women, and they know where the line is. Coates is probably the best Legalman I've ever met, and Martinez is a damned good and very efficient Yeoman. No. the only female I worry about not respecting me is stuck in some dreary office in the Ministry of Defence…"
"But does that matter, when she's very, very fond of you instead?" Gill asked in a husky whisper that set Harm's pulse racing.
"No… it doesn't, it doesn't matter at all," he answered in just as low a tone, "But it makes me wish we didn't have this whole not seeing each other on school nights thing going…"
"M'mm… I know… but this morning just proved how difficult it would be getting from your place to the Wood and then into the MoD. It is doable on an occasional basis, but it's not something I'd want to try every day…"
"Yeah, I know," Harm commiserated with Gill, but the germ of an idea was beginning to make its presence known. For a second he nearly blurted out what he was thinking, but it was too early in the relationship, too soon…
While he hesitated he lost the chance, "Harm… I've got to go now, I was up early this morning, and I'm down to ride first lot on the morning. That's a zero six hundred hours start at the stables. So I'll say goodnight now…"
"Yeah, okay, good night Gill…"
"Harm, are you okay, is something the matter? You sound very distant all of a sudden!
"No, everything's fine. I just had a stray thought hit me. You have a good night's sleep and a good ride out in the morning, okay?"
"Okay… good night."
"Good night, Sweetheart."