Daedalus Quartet 2.A Time For Haste by Richard Townshend Bickers

Author:Richard Townshend Bickers [Richard Townshend Bickers]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Endeavour Media
Published: 2015-08-23T23:00:00+00:00

Four

Nicole shared a requisitioned two-bedroom flat near Regent’s Park with another French woman officer of the Aviation Militaire who also worked in a joint planning section at the Air Ministry.

Her colleague was some six years the older and had a lover, a captain who was a pilot on a Spitfire squadron of the Free French Air Force based in Hampshire. Whenever he could come to London for a night or a few days’ leave he shared her bedroom. When James came to London he stayed at the R.A.F. Club in Piccadilly or a hotel.

He knew the story about the Frenchman who was able to identify a female’s pubic hair from a male’s. It ended with the exclamation “Vive la différence!” which had become a catch phrase. He did not echo this sentiment in regard to the disparity between his accommodation and the French captain’s; but he accepted it philosophically and sometimes thought to himself “Voilà la différence”, albeit with more wistfulness than resignation.

When he rang the doorbell on the evening after his visit to Roger, Nicole made no bones about the warmth of her feeling for him. Her uninhibited kiss made him wonder, as it did at every meeting - regrettably infrequent - whether it was the prelude to a closer intimacy. So did her first words after their greetings.

“Sabine has gone to spend three nights near Pierre’s airfield.”

She held his hand while they went into the drawing-room.

Expectation was short-lived. If she’d wanted me to stay here, she’d have let me know, he reminded himself.

Worth a try, however.

“If I’d known, I could have brought my suitcase and borrowed her bed.”

Nicole’s eyes reflected amusement and mischief as much as they shared her quiet laugh. She put her arms around his neck again and they held a tight embrace without speaking.

“When did Sabine go?” He was reluctant to abandon an initiative which held such alluring possibilities for development.

“Yesterday.”

She mocked him again with the way she shaped her mouth when she smiled, and with another little splutter of laughter.

He sighed. The deep breath which inflated his chest increased his awareness of the resilience of her breasts, his arms still close around her. He was acutely conscious of her and of his healthy desire for her, and his discontent.

The discontent passed quickly. The easy companionship he shared with her had something of the comradeship he enjoyed readily with the other pilots on his squadron and indeed wherever he went in the Service. It was a kind of friendship which acknowledged implicit obligations while making no explicit demands. Their way of life imposed various esoteric tests, particularly in time of war, and to fail one test was to fail irredeemably and for ever. Between Nicole and himself there was also mutual testing: of chivalry and understanding on his part, and on hers also of understanding and of liberality.

Perhaps the opportunity which existed on this short leave - had she ensured it? - was the ultimate proving before she rewarded him: an occasion to show that he knew the difference between opportunity and opportunism.

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