Soldier No More

whatever it was—and they were all set to put him up against the wall for a firing squad!' She shook her head in disbelief at dummy5

her own story, cornflower-blue eyes wide. 'Which is ridiculous, isn't it—because, I mean, Cousin Roland didn't exactly celebrate over that ghastly Suez business last year, he got so stroppy in the end that they had to pack him off to Scotland to let off steam shooting grouse to get it out of his system . . . But with 'Tienne, it was like they were about to put him in the Tower of London under close arrest.'

Etienne d'Auberon Something-Something was becoming very interesting mdeed. But if the scandal had reached such serious proportions, even allowing for Lexy's weakness for hyperbole, why hadn't he heard of it? thought Roche.

'It was all hushed up in the end, of course.' The blue eyes narrowed knowingly. 'David Audley says de Gaulle spiked their guns somehow, but Jilly thinks it was because Tienne knew too much, and they were scared he'd spill the beans about whatever it was ... I mean, if it was as awful as that, then there must have been an awful lot of beans to spill, wouldn't you think, David?'

'Mmm . . .' agreed Roche cautiously.

'But you must have heard about it, darling, surely?' The vague blue eyes blinked at him.

That was what was beginning to disturb him. Because if Etienne d'Auberon had been involved in a big Government scandal and he hadn't picked up a whisper of it—and Philippe Roux hadn't dropped the slightest hint of it—even the fact that d'Auberon's name rang no bells could mean that he was a well-covered backroom boy . . . then the scandal had dummy5

been very efficiently hushed for once. And that meant it was big—

'I'm just a simple soldier, Lady Alexandra.' And, for that matter, how simple was she? For, while her style and vocabulary were debutante, since when did debutantes chatter knowledgeable asides on Suez and Algeria and de Gaulle? Or was all that simply what had rubbed off frorn Audley and Jilly and Cousin Roland?

He had to know. 'What makes you think I've heard about it?'

I didn't, darling—Jilly did. Just before I came up here she said I ought to tell you about Tienne, anyway . . . because he might turn up at the orgy. He does sometimes.' She shrugged. 'And you move in those sort of circles.'

'What sort of circles?' So it was a Jilly after-thought!

'Oh—hush-hush ones. You know!'

But that joke had gone far enough. 'I told you—I'm just a simple soldier.'

'Simple my eye! Simple soldiers don't make friends with our Jilly. . . and they don't make phone-calls either. They make passes at me, is what they do. I'm an expert on simple soldiers, darling—and you don't fit the pattern, believe me!'

Roche realised that he was on a hiding to nothing on Lady Alexandra's own ground so long as he tried to play the game his own way. Jilly had given him better advice than she could imagine, but so far he'd made too little use of it.

'Tell me more about this fellow d'Auberon then—if I'm not dummy5

simple,' he challenged her directly.

'Why d'you want to know about him?' Now she couldn't help being suspicious.

'Because I'm not simple. I like to know all about the opposition before I make my pass, Lady Alexandra.'

'Oh ...' She was vastly relieved by his frankness. 'So that's the way the wind blows! And I've been stupid again, haven't I!'

'A bit. But tell me, anyway.'

'There's nothing to tell. He's much too honourable—and high-powered—for me . . . He's just an acquaintance of David Audley's, that's all—high-powered, like David . . . and also weird . . . also like David—'

'Weird?'

'Funny.'

'Funny?'

'I don't mean funny ha-ha . . . but sort of ... contradictory.'

She nodded into the valley. 'Like, he's mad about rugger—

he's gone all the way to Cahors today to talk about rugger with these Frenchmen who are also bonkers about the silly game.' She looked at Roche suddenly, and he realised that she'd shifted from the Frenchman to Audley. 'And that's pretty weird, isn't it—the way these Frenchmen in the south play rugger—I never knew that until I met David Audley.'

'Indeed?' He shrugged. 'But I don't quite see how that's . . .

dummy5

contradictory. Lots of people play rugger.'

'Ah!' She pointed at him quickly. 'But you don't play rugger, do you? Hockey's your game, you said?'

'Yes. But—'

'But you know about it. And you know about cricket and soccer and tennis—who's good, and who's playing who, and all that sort of thing ... I know, because I've got all these cousins—Roland's got a rowing blue, and Jimmie played for the Occasionals, and Jake had a county cricket trial last year

—'