“We are planning a training exercise over a period of two, perhaps three, weeks that would involve both amphibious aspects and airborne, and it occurs to me that your property, situated as it is in a quiet area on a navigable river and with its own airstrip, might be an ideal base for our operations.”
“Roger,” Stone said, “I’m sorry to tell you that it would be a great deal less than ideal where my neighbors are concerned. We’ve taken pains not to create a noise problem hereabouts. The neighbors have been accustomed to an airplane landing and taking off now and then — on less than a weekly or even monthly basis — and I would not like to test their patience further. Also, as you may have heard” — he glanced at Felicity, who avoided his gaze — “my partners and I have bought the immediately neighboring property and established a country hotel there. Our guests would not welcome noisy aircraft and helicopters outside their windows, nor assault boats roaring up and down the Beaulieu River, so what you suggest is simply not possible.”
“We had hoped to keep it all in the family,” Roger replied, obviously disappointed.
“If that’s what you’d like to do, then Felicity has a larger property than mine. It’s only just across the river, as you discovered tonight, so perhaps she would be pleased to host your little party.”
“Now, now,” Felicity said, throwing up a hand. “Let’s not get carried away.” She took a swig of her wine. “Roger, put that notion out of your mind.”
“Quite,” Roger said, returning to his dinner.
They finished dessert and port and Stilton, then the guests made their goodbyes and departed, driven back to their boat by Stan, in the golf cart.
Stone and Rose made their way upstairs to bed and had just fallen into each other’s arms when Stone disengaged for a moment.
“Tell me,” he said to Rose. “Are you a party to this little scheme of Fife-Simpson and Dame Felicity’s?”
“I’m sorry, I don’t know what you mean,” she replied, retreating to her side of the bed.
“Well, it occurs to me that, in addition to being a physician, you hold military rank.”
“I have a reserve commission,” she replied, “in the Home Guard. They helped pay for my surgical training.”
“It also occurs to me that Roger and Felicity were discussing what must be a highly classified operation in your presence, as if you were cleared to hear it. I don’t know about Roger, but it’s very unlike Felicity to discuss something like that in an unclassified environment.”
“That seemed to be Fife-Simpson’s decision,” she replied. “And, you may recall, Dame Felicity spoke only to scotch the idea.”
“Then is it not true that your employer is a certain intelligence service, rather than a London hospital?”
She reached for his nether region and fondled him. “I can neither confirm nor deny your conjecture. I can, however, help you forget that you asked.”
“That is certainly a possibility,” Stone said, moving closer to give her easier access.
She kissed his ear, then used her tongue. “I thought you might think so,” she whispered.
11
The next morning they were having breakfast in bed when Rose said, “You’re very quiet this morning.”
“I suppose I am,” Stone said. “My discovery that you are playing on Dame Felicity’s team has confused me.”
“How so?” she asked.
“Well, are you here in my house and my bed and my pants because you have made that choice, or because duty requires it of you?”
“That’s an insulting question,” she replied.
“I’m sorry if it seems so. As I said, I am confused, and while in that state, should not be required to make discerning judgments about the emotional state of others.”
“Would you like me to go?”
“I would not. I would merely like you to familiarize me with your current state of mind and your intentions.”
“My current state of mind is serene,” she said, “when I am not being asked annoying questions.”
“And your intentions?”
“Honorable.”
“May I assume, then, that your presence in my bed and pants is entirely voluntary, rather than specified in paragraph six, line two, of your marching orders?”
“You may assume that my presence in your bed and pants is not only voluntary, but enthusiastic, and unrelated to any orders issued to me by my superiors, if such exist. Would you like a demonstration of that enthusiasm?”
Stone smiled. “Yes, please.”
She rolled him onto his back, took him into her mouth, and did not stop until he screamed, “Uncle!”
“I trust that settles your mind,” she said.
“Entirely,” he replied.
Stone’s phone rang and he grabbed it from the bedside table. “Hello?”
“It’s Dino.”
“Good God! What time is it in your world?”
“Sometime after midnight,” he replied. “Viv has been summoned to London for a few days of business consultations. Would you be annoyed if I parachuted into your current location for that time?”
“I would be delighted to see you both,” Stone said.
“Then look for us on your airstrip late in the afternoon.”
“We will be ready to receive you.”
Dino hung up.
“Are we going to have company?” Rose asked.
“We are indeed: my best friends, Dino and Vivian Bacchetti. She has business in London, but he does not.”
“May I assume that they will have their own room?”
“You will not be required to share a bed with them.”
“I must tell you that, according to the gossip, Dame Felicity is, shall we say, impartial where the gender of her bed partners is concerned. I was a little afraid that more would be expected of me than I might be willing to give — not that she is unattractive.”
“I can neither confirm nor deny those rumors,” Stone said. “But I can tell you that the Bacchettis have no such inclinations, so the only hand you may expect to land on your knee will be mine.”
“I don’t want to seem a prig,” she said. “I have, on widely separated occasions, dabbled in that sort of thing, and with pleasure. But Felicity is not my type, whatever that is.”
“Got it.”
In the late afternoon, Stone got a satphone call from an airplane.
“Yes?”
“Ten minutes out,” Dino said, then hung up.
Stone and Rose got into the Cayenne and drove down to the airstrip in time to watch the big Gulfstream settle onto the runway, then taxi to the ramp. Stone pulled the car up to the aircraft and introduced Rose to the Bacchettis while the plane’s crew loaded their luggage into the SUV. Moments later they were back at the house, and the Gulfstream was climbing.
They settled into the library while Geoffrey, the butler, served drinks.
“Why are you limping?” Dino asked Stone.
“A slight accident,” Stone replied.
“One that totaled a quarter-of-a-million-pound motorcar,” Rose added.
Stone explained what had happened.
“So how did your training go?” Dino asked. “Was it as bad as I told you it would be?”
“Nearly,” Stone said, “but I’m getting through life with only an Ace bandage on my ankle, though I’ve had to give up tap-dancing for a while.”
“Were you able to keep up with the younger kids?”
“The younger kids were in their thirties,” Stone said, “and pudgy.”
“Have you learned how to be a British spy?”
“Only the rudiments.”
“I could still take him with a knife,” Rose said.
“I should explain that Rose, in addition to being a surgeon, may be one of Felicity’s flock. We can’t be sure.”
“Is that convenient for everybody?” Viv asked.