Soldier's Daughters by Fiona Field Read Free Book Online Page B

door finally closed.
    In silence she followed the waiter along the thickly carpeted corridor to a door off the main hall, tucked under the big staircase that led to the upper floor.
    The waiter opened the door and stood to one side to let Sam pass. The office was almost filled by a large partner’s desk and a filing cabinet. A sergeant, sitting behind the desk, stood as Sam entered and cast her a puzzled look.
    ‘I’m Captain Lewis,’ she explained. ‘New posting. Could you show me to my room, please?’
    The sergeant’s mouth opened slightly, before he caught himself and shut it quickly. Hadn’t anyone thought that Captain Lewis, REME, might be a woman? They did exist in the REME – had done for years, now.
    ‘Yes, of course, ma’am. I’m Sergeant McManners, the mess manager. Welcome to 1 Herts.’
    ‘Thank you, Sergeant.’
    They made their way up the wide, shallow stairs to the first floor, where McManners paused. He appeared to be thinking.
    ‘To be honest, ma’am, seeing as you’re a captain I was going to put you on this corridor with the other junior officers, but given that you’re also a lady I think you might be more comfortable in a field officer’s suite.’
    ‘But I’m only a captain. And I really don’t think that making special allowances because I’m not a man is the best way to help me integrate, do you?’
    ‘But, ma’am, if you have a suite, you’ll have your own sitting room. Some of the lads have been known to get quite…’ he paused ‘…rowdy.’
    Ah, he thinks I might be some sort of shrinking violet. ‘Honestly, I’ll be fine.’ Sam considered quoting Queen Elizabeth I’s speech about being weak and feeble but having the stomach and the heart of a king. No, a bit too much at this early stage. ‘Please, Sergeant McManners, if I find it’s a dreadful mistake we can re-think at a later date, but, in the meantime, treat me like any other officer.’
    ‘You’ll never guess,’ said Seb, when he got home that night.
    ‘Guess what?’ asked Maddy. She put a china ornament she’d unwrapped on the sitting room mantelpiece.
    ‘Old Ian Abbott’s replacement is a woman. Very young, very pretty and very curvy, according to the mess gossip. That’s going to set the cat among the pigeons. I can’t see some of the old hands in the workshop taking kindly to being bossed about by a woman.’
    Maddy raised her eyebrows. ‘Then they’ll have to get used to it. It’s about time some of the army dragged itself into the twenty-first century and realised women are just as capable as men.’
    ‘It’s still bound to cause trouble.’
    ‘Why?’ Maddy couldn’t see what the problem might be.
    ‘Well, stands to reason. Apart from anything else, there’s going to be a single woman living in the mess with all those testosterone-fuelled men.’
    Maddy walked across the sitting room, scooped Nathan out of his playpen and carried him into the kitchen, where she posted him into his high chair. Deftly she handed him a breadstick to chew on while she got a glass down for Seb and mixed him a gin and tonic.
    ‘You not having one?’ he asked as she passed him his drink.
    Maddy shook her head.
    ‘Still feeling under the weather?’
    ‘Sort of. Sit down, Seb.’
    Seb’s eyes widened momentarily as he hooked out a chair from the kitchen table. ‘You’re not ill, are you?’
    ‘Not ill, Seb. Pregnant.’
    ‘Pregnant!’
    Maddy nodded.
    ‘But we weren’t trying…’
    Maddy shook her head. ‘No, sweetie, we weren’t. But if you remember I fell pregnant with Nate in a heartbeat. We’re obviously super-fertile.’
    ‘Oh.’
    ‘Is that it? Oh?’
    ‘Sorry, sorry, Maddy.’ Seb put down his drink, jumped up and gave Maddy a hug. ‘You’re a clever girl and I love you.’
    ‘But…’ Since Maddy had done the test after Seb had gone to work she’d worried about how they’d cope financially with two tiny children, and how she’d cope, full stop. Seb hadn’t been exactly hands-on