Soldier's Daughters (7 page)

‘So why didn’t he join at sixteen? He could have gone to the apprentice college.’

‘Have you asked him why he didn’t?’

‘Oh, yes, ma’am.’

‘And?’

‘It’s like talking to a brick wall. He’s perfectly polite but… I don’t know, he clams up or gives evasive answers that tell you nothing. And none of the other soldiers get close to him. He’s an oddball. A real loner. Not unpopular or anything, utterly trustworthy, a hard worker, but odd.’ Then the ASM added, ‘He reads.’

Sam had to suppress a giggle. ‘Well, there’s nothing in Queen’s Regs that says a soldier can’t be odd – or read.’

‘Indeed there isn’t, ma’am. All the same…’

Sam began to put some files back in the cabinet by her desk.

‘One other thing about him,’ said the ASM.

‘Yes.’

‘His next of kin is a friend – a male friend, not a relation.’

‘So he’s an orphan? Or he’s gay? That’s not against Queen’s Regs either.’

‘No, I know.’ There was another pause. ‘I don’t know, ma’am, you wait till you meet him, you’ll see what I mean.’

‘Thank you, Mr Williams.’

After he’d returned to the workshop and Sam was taking a break from reading the stack of files on her desk and trying to get her head around her new job, she glanced through the office window to where her men were working. Mr Williams was surrounded by a group of soldiers. He was, she judged from his gestures and body language, regaling them with some sort of story; obviously a funny one because everyone was laughing. And then Mr Williams glanced in her direction and saw she was watching him. Even at this distance she could see the look of guilt on his face. Was he feeling guilty at being caught slacking? Or had he been taking the piss out of her? She looked away again.

The truth was, being the only female officer was a tougher call than she’d expected. OK, she hadn’t for a moment imagined that she would be welcomed with open arms, that everyone in an almost exclusively all-male regiment would think she was the best thing to happen to 1 Herts in the battalion’s history, but she hadn’t expected such awkwardness. It was almost as if no one had the least idea how to treat her. Didn’t the blokes, her fellow officers, have girlfriends or mothers or sisters? Did they behave with such stand-offishness with other female companions? Their girlfriends?

Her first night in the mess had been a case in point. Although her fellow mess-mates had been perfectly polite and gentlemanly, she’d felt a bit like an act in a freak show. The conversation had been predictable – where had she been to uni, who had been her company commander at Sandhurst, did she know this officer or that? She’d answered and the conversational ball had been batted around the table, but it had all been fairly dull and banal. For some reason Sam had got the definite impression that everyone was on their best behaviour. She had wanted to tell them that they weren’t to stand on ceremony because of her but she decided against it. It was best, she reckoned, to let them get used to her. Once the novelty of having a woman in the place wore off, things would revert to normal; no point in trying to force the issue. In the meantime, maybe she should give them some space, let them get used to her by degrees. She’d excused herself from the table as soon as she’d finished her meal, telling the other livers-in she had to finish her unpacking, and was halfway up the stairs when a huge gust of raucous laughter billowed out of the dining room. Was it in response to a general joke or was she the butt of it?

A week later Maddy was wheeling a sleeping Nathan in his buggy through the main street in Warminster when the sight of a familiar face stopped her dead in her tracks. Even though the person she recognised was on the other side of the road there was no mistaking the silvery blonde hair or the endlessly long legs. Jenna. Jenna, who had been her hairdresser back in the old barracks. Jenna, who had been married to Private Perkins, who had been injured while on duty in Afghanistan. Jenna, who Seb, when he’d called round to break the bad news about her husband, had pretty much caught in flagrante delecto with a REME sergeant. Jenna, who had buggered off with her new man, right away from 1 Herts and the mess she’d created. So what the hell was she doing here?

Well, thought Maddy, everyone had to be somewhere. And, of course, Jenna’s new man had been another soldier, and this was a garrison town so it wasn’t so completely unreasonable that she should be here too. But it was going to be Jenna’s bad luck that the battalion she’d tried to escape from had now moved into her new back yard.

Maddy was about to call hello to her when a bus thundered past, and when her line of sight was clear again Jenna had gone. Had she imagined it? She blinked and stared at the spot where Jenna had been standing. Pregnancy might be turning her brain to mush again but her eyesight was still twenty-twenty.

Seeing her made Maddy remember the wonderful haircuts Jenna had given her in the past. And, dear God, didn’t her hair need doing now? It had been months since she’d had it done. In fact, no one had gone near it since Jenna had so precipitously crashed out. For some time Maddy had been scraping it back into a tatty ponytail each morning to have done with it – out of sight, out of mind. She looked at her reflection in the shop window beside her – and saw someone who might be mistaken for Rosa Klebb. But without the fun-loving personality and fashion sense, she thought. Shit, she looked rough.

She pulled her phone from her pocket and spun the list of contacts, her thumb hovering over the names as they whizzed past. J. She pressed down. Jack, James… Jenna. Then she pressed the telephone symbol.

‘Maddy?’ There was no mistaking the stunned surprise in Jenna’s voice.

‘Er… hello, Jenna.’ There was a silence. ‘Jenna, you still there?’

‘Yes, yes, I am. What do you want?’

Not the most gracious start to a conversation. ‘Jenna, are you in Warminster?’

‘Why d’you want to know?’

‘Because I’m in Warminster and I think I’ve just seen you.’

There was another silence. ‘Really?’ Jenna sounded mightily unimpressed.

‘So… did I?’

‘Yeah. You did.’

‘Fancy a coffee?’

There was a sigh, then, ‘Why not?’

Maddy looked about her. ‘What about Costa? Five minutes.’

‘See you there.’

Maddy disconnected and turned the buggy towards the coffee shop in the marketplace. She was queuing for a cappuccino when she heard her name being called. She spun around.

‘Jenna. Lovely to see you,’ she said brightly. ‘You bag a table, I’ll get the drinks. What would you like? Here,’ and she pushed the buggy towards Jenna. ‘Park Nathan up for me so I can carry the coffees.’

‘OK, thanks. Skinny latte, please.’

A couple of minutes later Maddy made her way through the other customers over to the sofa Jenna had bagged.

‘So,’ said Maddy, as she deposited the two cups and saucers. ‘What have you been up to?’

‘What? Apart from getting a divorce, you mean?’

‘Well…’ Maddy shrugged.

‘’S’all right. Water under the bridge. Or it was until you lot rocked up. I mean, I never thought that 1 Herts would turn up here. I couldn’t believe it when Dan – he’s my partner now – told me what was going on because he’s REME and works in the LAD. I mean, what are the chances that I get away from 1 Herts only to find that they come chasing after me.’

‘That’s going to be tricky,’ said Maddy.

‘Tell me about it. I thought I’d put all that baggage well behind me. Although my spies tell me my ex is up in Catterick so that’s something to be grateful for. Can you imagine how tricky it would’ve been if him and his new missus had been here too?’

‘I suppose,’ said Maddy noncommittally.

‘But I don’t think I’ll be going to any more sergeants’ mess dos. Don’t want to show my face there only to have some of the old biddies spit in it. And they would.’ Jenna shrugged. ‘Not that I care because, in my limited experience, those army dos are usually pretty shit, so no great loss.’

Maddy didn’t contradict her, even though she thought the army’s social life could be bloody good fun.

‘What about you?’ Jenna asked.

Maddy shrugged. ‘Nothing much to tell. I thought about trying to find a job here but then… well, I’m pregnant again.’

‘Blimey,’ said Jenna. ‘You’re not wasting any time are you? How old is Nathan?’

‘He’ll be almost eighteen months when the baby arrives.’

‘Good luck. And you’re going to need it. Bloody hell, two under two.’

That wasn’t what she wanted to hear, thought Maddy disconsolately. She sipped at the froth on the top of her drink. ‘Do you still do hair?’

Jenna nodded. ‘Not that I work in a salon. That bitch Zoë wouldn’t give me a reference and anyway there doesn’t seem to be anything going in that line around here. I still work from home when any business comes my way.’

Maddy’s eyebrows shot up. She knew the chaos caused by Jenna’s last foray into working from home.

Jenna rolled her eyes. ‘I haven’t done any alterations to my new place. Not that it’d matter as Dan and I don’t live in a quarter. Thank God,’ she added with feeling. ‘I’ve had enough of the army ordering me around. Just as well really when you think about it. Can you imagine what my life would have been like if I lived on the patch when all my old neighbours pitched up?’

Maddy thought she could. The furore that had been caused by Jenna’s behaviour back when she’d been married to Private Perkins had been the talk of the patch for weeks and weeks. Maddy could imagine the reception Jenna would get if she showed her face around the 1 Herts’ wives again.

‘Your hair needs doing,’ said Jenna, changing the subject. ‘If you don’t mind me saying so, Maddy, it looks like shit.’

Maddy smiled. ‘Get off the fence and say what you really mean.’

‘Well, it does,’ said Jenna, unrepentant. ‘I’m not being mean, but it is in serious need of a bloody good cut. I’ll do it for you, if you’d like. I haven’t forgotten that you were kind to me when all the other wives were ganging up against me.’

Maddy shrugged. ‘I didn’t do much.’

‘Maybe not, but it was more than anyone else did. And you didn’t have to. I didn’t deserve anything – not after what I did.’

‘You didn’t do anything so terribly dreadful. What you did wasn’t a crime or anything.’

‘That’s not how the other wives saw it. I mean,’ said Jenna, ‘it’s not like I’m the first person ever to have a bit of a fling. I read somewhere the other day that almost every married person has at some stage. And I heard on the grapevine that Lee’s happier with his new wife.’ Jenna laughed and flicked her hair over her shoulder. ‘I probably did him a good turn in the long run. Anyway, how about I do your hair for you? As a favour, for old times’ sake.’

‘Would you?’ Maddy felt pathetically grateful for the offer. And maybe a smart cut would give her some of her old mojo back.

‘’Course. Only would you mind coming to mine? I don’t think I can face running into any of my other old customers. I don’t want to have my past raked up again. It was bad enough what happened the first time round.’

For all Jenna’s outward brash devil-may-care attitude, Maddy reckoned it was a front and underneath she was just as vulnerable as everyone else.

Sam was slowly working her way through the list of soldiers in her Light Aid Detachment. She’d interviewed more than half and now it was the turn of Sergeant Armstrong. He came into her office looking slightly wary. ‘Sit down, do,’ she said as he stood in the doorway and saluted her. ‘And take your beret off.’ Sam gave the senior NCO a smile to put him at his ease as she watched him pull the chair towards him and sit down. ‘So, tell me a bit about yourself.’

‘Like what, ma’am?’

‘Like what motivated you to join the army. Like where you would like to be in ten years’ time.’ She smiled again. ‘That sort of thing.’

Dan Armstrong blew his cheeks out. ‘I joined because employment prospects around where I lived were shit… sorry, ma’am… rubbish. I got into the apprentice college and I’ve never looked back. The life is all right, the pay is decent and I’ve got to see a bit of the world. And in ten years’ time I rather hope I might be an ASM like Mr Williams.’

‘No reason why you shouldn’t. I’ve had a look at your records and you’ve got the skills and most of the qualifications. You just need to keep going as you are.’

Armstrong nodded. ‘I’m hoping that other business…’

Sam shook her head. ‘Other business?’

‘Come off it, ma’am. The ASM will have told you about what happened at my last posting.’

‘Oh, that.’

‘Yes, that. I’m hoping that won’t scupper my chances.’

‘Why should it? It doesn’t make you a bad engineer all of a sudden.’

‘I thought the army took a dim view of behaviour like that.’

‘Well, it doesn’t encourage it but as long as you don’t make a habit of it…’

‘I’m not planning to, no. Jenna – that’s my partner – she’s a clever lass. She’s the one for me, she’ll keep me on the straight and narrow now.’

‘I’m glad to hear it. Does she have a career?’

‘She’s a hairdresser. A good one. She once worked for Marky Markham.’ There was real pride in Armstrong’s voice.

‘Really?’ Even Sam was impressed. ‘Which salon does she work in?’

‘She works from home. I’ll give you her number if you’d like.’

‘Actually, I’d really like that. I need to get a trim. Thanks.’ Sam pushed a pad of paper and a pencil across to Armstrong and he scribbled the number down. ‘Now, anything you want to ask me before you go?’

Armstrong shook his head.

‘I mean what I say about my door always being open. Any worries about your career or anything like that, it’s my job to help you as best as I can.’ Although Sam knew that a guy, several years her senior, would probably go to almost anyone in the battalion before he asked a woman for advice.

After Sergeant Armstrong left she made a couple of notes on his file and then took the next one off the pile. Blake. But the phone rang at that point and there was a problem on the workshop floor with a vehicle repair; by the time everything had been resolved it was almost time for the troops to go off and get their evening meal. Blake would have to wait.