Soldier No More

she's nice, is Lexy. The man who gets Lexy won't have time to live to regret it.' She twisted to smile up at him. 'He'll be too busy supporting a litter of huge, voracious children.'

Roche watched Lady Alexandra and Meriel Stephanides pick their way across the stones of the dry margin of the river bed to the water's edge just upstream of them. Alongside the Anglo-Greek girl, and inadequately covered by what looked like two medium-sized scarlet pocket handkerchiefs, Lexy looked even bigger and pinker and blonder than before.

'She's got three brothers as well as three sisters,' murmured Jilly. 'And positively hordes of cousins. The Perownes come up like mushrooms, it's quite hard to keep track of them all.

We've got one of them with us in Fontainebleau—one of the cousins. And I think it was through a cousin of some sort that David Audley got to know the family actually, rather than the General. . . Dragoons and Cambridge, and all that. . .'

That figured better than Lexy's account, thought Roche: dummy5

second-lieutenants didn't usually strike up battlefield social acquaintances with generals. And, come to that, maybe the Fontainebleau cousin had been used to link up Jilly with Lexy.

'She's all yours now, anyway,' said Jilly.

Go where glory waits, Roche, as Kipling would say, recalled Roche from his recent reading.

Well—a little cover was better than none at all... in this job anyway, if not in the case of Lady Alexandra's bikini: with Lexy introducing him to Audley, apparently at Steffy's suggestion, his own Jilly-link might pass as a mere accident, at least for the time being.

Having waded gingerly into the water until it reached to the lower handkerchief, Lexy hurled herself into the current with a mighty splash.

And the bonus she offered, apart from the cover she could give him, was that if he could get her to talk about Audley, who better than she to—

'Time to unhand me,' whispered Jilly.

Roche started to obey, searching for another foothold beneath him, when Lexy surfaced alongside them, blowing water like a whale. The river had carried her down with astonishing speed.

'Put—' she spluttered more of the river'— ouch!— put the poor man down, Jilly— ouch! damn and blast these bloody stones! At once!” Steffy surfaced on the other side of him, dummy5

sleek as an otter. 'Jilly is our dark horse.' She gave Roche a shrewd look.

'Jilly is not to be trusted,' echoed Lexy. 'What sweet nothings has she been feeding you about us, David?'

'Or what devious plans has she been hatching?' said Steffy.

The thought came to Roche that both Clinton and Genghis Khan might have put watchers on him. For once, since leaving England, he hadn't bothered to look over his shoulder, so there could be half-a-dozen of them by now, falling over each other. He looked around, scanning the banks on each side. There was enough cover to hide two rival regiments among the trees and tall reeds. If there were, then at least neither regiment would be hostile to him—not yet—

but after this little play they'd be dipping their pens in envy for the composition of their reports.

'You're not married by any chance, are you, David?' said Steffy sweetly. 'He's not married, is he, Jilly?'

'Not as far as I know,' said Jilly.

'And not as far as I know, either,' said Roche. 'Why do you ask?'

Oh . . . just, I've seen that worried look before—the one you've been casting about.' Her smile was undiluted mischief. 'Just shy? Well, don't worry about the Frog with the binoculars down by the bridge—he's always there. He's got a pash on Lexy.'

Roche kicked himself mentally, once for missing the observer dummy5

and again for betraying his thoughts.

'What I want to know,' continued Steffy, 'is what Jilly's been saying to you. She's not usually so gabby.'

'How d'you know it's me he's got a pash on?' Lexy's mental reflexes appeared to be sure, but slow.

'Because he's never seen anything like you before, Lexy dear.' Steffy looked at Roche. 'You have to tell us, David.'

'I was telling him about tonight, that's all,' said Jilly.

'About the orgy? I bet he didn't believe it!'

Roche blinked unhappily. Nothing in his previous experience had prepared him for handling a situation like this.

'I don't wonder!' said Lexy. 'I don't believe it either—and I take part in it! And if I told Daddy about it, he wouldn't believe it... but I shall never get the hang of it.'

'That's because you don't prepare yourself properly. But you ought to be able to do better tonight, with a bit of last minute cramming—and your new David to cheer you on—'

'Don't bet on it. I'm just not cut out for that sort of thing, darling.'

Roche felt the current drag at his knees. Even if he wasn't imagining all this, how could he possibly report the gist of it to Genghis Khan in less than an hour's time?