Time and Tide by Thomas Fleming

Author:Thomas Fleming [Thomas Fleming]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
ISBN: 9781612307206
Publisher: New Word City, LLC
Published: 2013-04-12T04:00:00+00:00

Air defense officer of the Canberra. The words resounded in Mullenoe's mind. He began telling Christine Wallace about his brother's death aboard the Hornet, trying to explain how it had changed his feelings not only about the Navy but about himself "It may sound crazy to you, but before I didn't care whether I got killed or not. Now I'd like to live. I'd like to see how far I can go in the service. It probably won't be very far, considering my unvarying mediocrity—"

"I refuse to believe in your mediocrity, Leftenant."

"I'll send you a few of my fitness reports. They usually begin with something like this: 'Lieutenant Mullenoe has the ability to do a better job. But he seems lacking in motivation, indeed there are times when he positively seems to take pleasure in failing to measure up to his superiors' expectations.”

"But they all know what's wrong — your superiors, I mean. Nap — my husband Napier — was exactly the same way. They have much more patience than you ever suspect."

"Who's they?"

"Your superiors. I'm sure you've heard all this from your wife."

"I don't have a wife."

A shadow of grief, of pain, descended on her face.

"I'm sorry," he said.

"It's entirely my fault. I shouldn't have come. I am — what do you call it in America? — a wet blanket at any party these days. Ellen insisted I should pretend that I'm perfectly fine. She and my mother maintain that if you pretend hard enough you can actually convince yourself—"

"Sounds like some of the advice I used to get from my father."

"I fear you're incorrigible, Leftenant."

"I hope so."

She threatened something fundamental in his mind, a basic part of his idea of himself. Yet he could not stop dancing and talking with her. He did not even glance at another woman for the rest of the evening. By midnight, the punch had taken its toll. Christine said she was incapable of driving home, and he volunteered to pilot her Aston Martin, even though it was the first time he had driven on the English side of the road since he had visited Jamaica as a midshipman.

Following her directions, they soon left Sydney for the countryside. He let the roadster out, and they raced down narrow roads past orchards and fields redolent with fresh grass and blossoming fruit. "I could swear I'm back in Maryland," Mullenoe said. He could not understand why he felt so cheerful.

"With your favorite girl?"

"Never had one."

Large gates loomed on the left. "That's it," she said. In second gear they purred up a winding gravel road to a gray stone house that looked as big as Bancroft Hall. It straddled the top of the ridge, huge wings vanishing into the darkness on both sides of the porticoed entrance.

"Welcome to Fairy Hill," she said.

"You live here — alone?" Mullenoe said.

"Oh, no. There are servants. Too many, I'm afraid."

Now was the moment, in the unwritten but nonetheless classic textbook on seduction by Mullenoe the swordsman of '31. With any

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