A Regimental Affair (20 page)

‘Is Ginny coming along to this do when she’s done her bit as duty officer?’ asked Taz.

‘I don’t think so,’ answered Debbie, who knew full well that Ginny had no intention of putting in an appearance. ‘I left the back door open for her so she can get out of the cold if she finishes before we get home.’

‘Wasn’t she invited?’

‘Yes, but I think because she has to be strictly teetotal she felt she’d be a bit of a party pooper.’

Taz accepted the explanation. There was no reason not to, really. Debbie introduced her to more of Bob and Alice’s guests and Taz was particularly glad when she got to meet Alice herself. Debbie was surprised to see how easily Taz was able to get Alice to chat about what it was like to be married to the boss and to live in Montgomery House, but, like most people, Alice was only too happy to talk about herself. Seeing Taz was being entertained, Debbie wandered off. She was just collecting another glass of mulled wine when Sarah cornered her.

‘Just the person,’ said Sarah.

‘Oh?’

‘Your friend Tabitha …’

‘Who?’

‘Tabitha.’

‘I don’t know a Tabitha.’

‘Yes you do. She’s over there, talking to Alice.’

‘Oh, you mean Taz!’

‘Yes, but her real name is Tabitha.’

‘Is it? Good Lord, I didn’t know.’

Sarah sighed and started again. ‘Your friend Taz, what’s her surname?’

‘Gracious, I don’t know. Hardly surprising considering I didn’t even know Taz was short for Tabitha. Why do you want to know?’

‘No reason really, except that I’m sure I heard the name Tabitha somewhere else recently and it’s such an unusual name, I wondered if it’s the same person but in another context.’

‘So what was the surname of this other Tabitha?’

‘That’s the stupid thing, I can’t remember, but I’m sure I’d know it if I heard it.’

‘Why don’t you ask her, see if it’s one and the same?’

‘I will if I get the chance.’ But every time Sarah got within hailing distance of her, Taz was swept up in a new group of acquaintances. It almost seemed to Sarah that Taz was avoiding her, but it must have been coincidence.

The guests began to drift off again and Debbie and Taz caught each other’s eye and signalled that they would meet by the front door. They thanked their host and hostess and Debbie thought she detected a faint chill from Alice towards Taz. As soon as they were clear of the house, Debbie asked Taz what she had done.

‘I’m not sure. We were getting on like a house on fire and then I asked her if Bob had been Colonel Car Crash.’

Debbie groaned. ‘God, no wonder she wasn’t a happy bunny. She hated all the attention that brought. It was OK for Bob, he’d buggered off to Kosovo, but she just loathed the interest all the papers took, trying to make him out to be some sort of superhero.’

Taz, who knew exactly what the press coverage had been as she had been directly responsible for a certain amount of it, lied fluently. ‘Whoops,’ she said. ‘I had no idea.’

‘I wouldn’t worry about it too much. She’s pretty well over it now, but I should have warned you that it might have been better not to have mentioned it. Of course, the fact that he’s just had his very own car crash out in Kosovo might have made things even more sensitive.’

‘Noted for future reference.’ But Taz had noted more than just the tip about ways not to upset Alice.
Another
car crash
, she thought. Now that was interesting. There might be some more mileage in Colonel Bob yet. Or perhaps not. She’d have to see. She rather liked the friends she had made in the regiment – and in the village. She didn’t want to have to move again because she had made herself too unpopular to stay.

They had reached Debbie’s quarter by this time and they went to the back door, left unlocked for Ginny.

‘Anybody home?’ called Debbie as they went in.

‘Hiya,’ said Ginny, coming to meet them in the kitchen. ‘I’ve only just got in myself. How was the party?’

The smell of turkey filled the air and the house was warm and inviting. Debbie bustled about, regaling Ginny with the details while Richard popped the cork of a champagne bottle.

‘I’ll be under the table soon if I have much more. I seemed to have quite a few glasses at Alice’s,’ said Taz.

‘Does it matter? You live close enough to walk home and there’s not a problem with you leaving your car here overnight.’

‘Oh, go on then, you sweet-talking man.’

Richard filled her glass, persuaded Ginny she could have one glass of fizz and the regiment would still be able to survive, and went into the kitchen to help Debbie. Ginny and Taz were left to supervise the children in the sitting room, which was hardly arduous as there was a mountain of new toys to keep the pair of them amused.

‘So, you’re in the army?’ said Taz as an opening gambit. She was, even for a woman, more than usually curious. It was one of the reasons she had become a journalist, as she loved to pry into other people’s lives. Faced with the novelty of meeting a female soldier, her inquisitiveness reached new heights and she was quite brazen in her desire to get the low-down from Ginny on the life of women in the army.

Ginny looked down at her khaki uniform skirt and then up at Taz with raised eyebrows. ‘Actually, I like to wear this colour because it suits my complexion.’

Taz looked a little sheepish. ‘Sorry. Of course you are. Bloody stupid question really. But what’s it like?’

‘Much the same as any job, except that I don’t have to think about what to wear when I get up in the morning.’

‘But seriously?’

‘There’s a lot of paper-pushing on a routine day. Probably like most other office jobs, but then on top of that we go on exercises, emergency tours, go and fight foot-and-mouth disease, keep the peace in Ireland, go to war … when the phone rings you honestly never know what’s going to happen next. And then you just get used to a job and a group of colleagues and you’re posted off somewhere else.’

‘Sounds fascinating.’

‘It isn’t really. Even the unusual becomes routine after a bit. I used to get a real buzz out of firing guns, but now it’s another piece of personal training that I have to fit into an already busy schedule.’

Taz was impressed. ‘You fire guns?’

‘Well, what do you think I would do if the enemy made a sudden advance and overran my position? Offer them tea and biscuits?’

‘Sorry, it’s just such an alien world.’

‘That’s OK. I suppose I’m just so used to it now that it seems quite normal.’

‘So how many women are there in the regiment?’

‘About a dozen.’

‘Doing what you do?’

‘Not really. I’m the only officer. The others are clerks and PT instructors and cooks and drivers.’

‘What’s it like being the only officer?’

‘What’s this,’ said Ginny with a laugh, ‘the Spanish Inquisition?’

‘Gosh, I’m sorry, it must seem like it. It’s just so interesting.’

‘You need to get out more if you think my life is interesting. Mostly it’s quite boring. And as for being the only female officer, well, it’s OK. It can get quite lonely in the mess. No one to gossip with, no one to go shopping with, no one with a spare pair of tights when you’ve laddered your last pair.’

‘So, did you go out to Kosovo?’

‘Of course.’

Of course she did
, thought Taz. Then she began to add some things up. Like the news from Debbie about the affair. She had heard it from ‘the other woman’, and who was Debbie’s best friend amongst the officers? On top of that she knew very little about the army, but she did know that liaisons between officers and other ranks were extremely rare and utterly frowned upon. If an officer
had
had an affair when in Kosovo, she thought that it was a racing certainty that Ginny was ‘the other woman’.
Interesting
, she thought. In fact, she thought more than that. She wondered who the man had been. Not Richard obviously, but who? She didn’t care a fig about the information professionally. For a start it wasn’t the sort of thing that any newspaper would be the least bit interested in. ‘So what?’ would be the reaction of any editor in the land. She just wanted to know for her own satisfaction. She was a journalist and being curious was one of the main things that made her tick. She wondered how she could find out.

Chapter Thirteen

Taz Alabaster decided she was going to throw a New Year’s Eve party. Since she had moved to her new house, she had got to know a few families in the village via the mother and toddler group, and these, together with her new friends in the regiment, would provide more than enough people for a good gathering. On the day after Boxing Day she began ringing round. By the end of the morning she had got to the end of her list and had received a gratifying number of affirmative replies. The cynic in her suspected that her popularity had more to do with her provision of free booze and food than a deep-seated desire to spend the festive evening with her. Still, what the heck? It would be a fun evening and she wouldn’t have to worry about babysitters. One thing about being a single mother was that it had taught Taz to be extremely organised in her life. She had never had the luxury of being able to rely on others to look after her child, put food in the fridge or even to wire a plug, so the little business of planning a large party was no problem at all.

Having organised the people, Taz worked out the food and drink requirements and made a comprehensive list of shopping for her and Amelia to get on their next visit to town. With that done she worked out a list of adult party games. She wasn’t sure about this last bit – she didn’t know if her guests would be up for making public fools of themselves or if they would be too sophisticated for that sort of thing. But she would have them ready if the party flagged a bit. The last thing she wanted was for her first party in the village to be a flop. Although, the following day, as she unloaded the sixth case of wine from her car, she thought that ‘flop’ was not going to be the most likely adjective applied to her party.

New Year’s Eve arrived and Amelia obliged Taz by demanding her afternoon rest bang on cue and allowing Taz to complete the last-minute preparations – moving furniture around, hoovering carpets, pre-cooking the rice, spreading garlic butter on the French sticks and other minor, but time-consuming tasks. Just as Amelia announced lustily, via the baby alarm, that she had finished her nap, Taz reckoned she had everything under control. She brought Amelia downstairs, played with her, fed her, played some more, pottered about in the kitchen while her daughter watched a Disney cartoon with rapt but uncomprehending attention and then, having put her biddable child to bed, she waited for her guests to arrive.

By nine o’clock she reckoned that everyone had turned up. The noise level was gratifyingly loud – Richard and Alisdair had taken it upon themselves to keep everyone’s glasses topped up, the food seemed to be disappearing at a steady rate and her guests seemed to be thoroughly enjoying themselves. With everything under control, Taz was free to indulge in her favourite pastime of people watching, though on this evening she had a particular agenda – Ginny-watching. She also had a digital camera hung on a loop round her wrist. While she circulated and exchanged the occasional word with her visitors, she snapped shots of her guests and kept a close eye on the main subject of her curiosity. Taz couldn’t help herself. She was burning with inquisitiveness to know all the prurient details about Ginny’s affair. She didn’t want them with a view to selling the story, she just had to know. Of course, Taz could not be sure that the other half of Ginny’s liaison was present, but there was a fair chance. And in that event, Taz was absolutely certain that if Ginny’s ex-lover were present, sooner or later she would give something away, let something slip. And Ginny was all the more likely to be indiscreet if she was well-lubricated. Every time Ginny got anywhere near the bottom of her glass, Taz made sure that it was topped up again.

Across the room from Ginny, Bob and Alice were surrounded by a small circle of friends, or possibly sycophants. Taz couldn’t be sure, but she took a picture of the group anyway. It would be fun to have a record of the evening, and anyway, it might have its uses one day. Taz had been in two minds whether or not to invite the CO and his wife and had sought advice from Debbie. Debbie had pointed out that the mess wasn’t running a party as most of the single officers had used the opportunity of two weeks’ disembarkation leave to escape to see their families and friends. Consequently, if there was a mass exodus from the patch to Taz’s house it might leave Bob and Alice feeling like pariahs. Debbie had convinced Taz that, despite the fact that she really didn’t know Bob and Alice at all well, it would be churlish not to include them, especially as she had enjoyed their party at Christmas. ‘After all,’ Debbie had concluded, ‘they can always turn you down.’

When she had phoned Alice to extend the invitation, Alice had accepted for herself and Bob but declined on Megan’s behalf. Megan had been offered a princely sum in return for a spot of babysitting that night and, like most teenagers, was too broke to even consider turning it down. Having ascertained various details such as time and dress code, Alice then needed to know the address. Taz had been quite gratified to hear the note of approval in Alice’s voice when she realised precisely which house in the village was hers. Alice’s approval had been even more patent when she had arrived on the doorstep and had noted that the interior of Taz’s house was equally as lovely as its pretty exterior, if not more so. Taz knew at that instant that, despite her gaffe at their Christmas drinks party, she had attained social acceptability with the highest echelon in the regiment.

Long before midnight, Ginny was well on the way to becoming comprehensively plastered. Not that she was in a minority. A number of the men had probably also had more than was good for them. Taz didn’t mind. All she cared about was giving everyone a good time. Their future headaches and hangovers were no concern of hers. Alice, she noticed, was looking at the rowdy crowd with an air of disapproval. She remembered what Debbie had told her about Alice being teetotal. In Taz’s experience people were teetotal for one of two reasons: either they were ex-alcoholics or they were control freaks. There was nothing about Alice that would remotely suggest that she had once been a lush, but as Taz observed her she began to think that the control freak option seemed really very likely. There was something very guarded about Alice, almost as though she was scared of something. Again Taz’s curiosity was awakened. What on earth could Alice be so worried about? Surely, of all the women in the regiment, her position had to be the most unassailable. Taz decided that she could only work on one thing at once and shelved her ponderings about Alice.