Soldiers' Wives Part 5

The two were about halfway around their planned route, loping along at an easy pace, their strides matching. They were both puffing slightly, but weren't out of breath. Their trainers slapped the tarmac of the pavement rhythmically, as the cars on the road beside them swished past. A fine drizzle was falling: enough to make the ground greasy and their hair and clothes damp, without it being so wet as to be completely miserable.

'This feels easier than last time,' said Chrissie. 'I must be getting back on form. My self-imposed mission to get Immi fit is having an unexpected advantage for me. Mind you, I spend more time trying to make her do an extra ten reps here and there than I do on the fitness machines myself.'

'I've been down the gym in the evenings, too,' said Lee. 'I've got to work on my stamina and endurance.'

'So you're determined to have another go at SAS selection?'

'Got to be done.'

'What about Jenna? I mean, those guys are never home; they're always getting sent off to some dodgy place or other. Won't she mind about being left on her own for half the year?'

'I'm sure it's not as bad as that. And she knows it's my ambition. She'll be cool about it.'

Chrissie shrugged. What did she really know either about Jenna or the SAS? 'If we go along here,' she said, pointing to a sign indicating a bridle path, 'we can avoid running along the dual carriageway. It's a shade longer but quieter.'

They turned off and began to run along the new route a disused railway line which had the advantage of being straight and pretty level, but sadly the surface was mostly hardcore and sand, and because of the recent rain it was far from smooth. Push bikes had chopped deep grooves into it, horses' hooves had gouged out dents, and just sheer wear and tear had left big potholes. And the wet conditions made the whole path slippery and treacherous. They jogged along it for a couple of miles, both trying to ignore how rubbish the surface was, but both knowing there had to be an easier way back to the barracks one which didn't involve trip hazards and endless puddles.

'This is such a bad idea,' said Chrissie as she jumped another puddle and slipped on landing. Her arms flailed as she just managed to keep her balance.

'It's c.r.a.p,' agreed Lee. 'Let's get off it at the next opportunity.'

'Well, that can't be too soon,' said Chrissie as her foot slithered again.

They continued to jog along, past the dripping, sloe-laden branches of the blackthorns, and the brambles and the nettles which hemmed them in like barbed wire and made any prospect of leaving the path almost impossible.

'There's a bridge up ahead,' said Chrissie after a few more minutes. 'If it crosses a road, maybe there's a chance we can find a path down the embankment to join it.'

'Good call.'

They puffed their way up the slight gradient which had raised the old railway up to the bridge. There the pair paused and looked over the parapet.

'I know where we are,' said Chrissie. 'Isn't that the Swan?' She pointed to a pub garden just visible behind a tall hedge a couple of hundred yards away.

Lee nodded. 'And look, steps,' he said. To their left, where the brickwork of the bridge stopped, there were some rough and uneven steps made out of old sleepers which led down the almost vertical embankment to the lane below.

'Come on,' he said. He tramped through a gap in the dense, soggy undergrowth and began to pick his way down the treads. Gingerly, Chrissie followed. Each step was either a different width or a different height from its predecessor, and that, coupled with the slippery conditions and the steep gradient, made the descent truly treacherous. Ahead of her she saw Lee make it to the safety of the road below and because she was watching him, she missed her step and caught her foot in the wooden riser which stood proud of the tread. With a cry of fear, she felt herself plunge towards the wet tarmac. Lee whipped round and just managed to catch her.

The shock of the fall left Chrissie feeling wobbly and she clung to him to steady herself for a second, while the trembling in her legs stopped and her heart rate returned to something like normal as the jolt of adrenalin left her system. She looked up into his face, inches from her own.

'Thank you, Lee,' she panted.

'No worries, la.s.s,' he replied, looking into her eyes. 'You gave us a bit of a shock, there.'

Chrissie felt her heart do an odd little flick-flack and somewhere deep inside, muscles she hardly knew she had squeezed tight and sent a s.h.i.+ver of pleasure right through her. Swiftly, she pulled herself out of his arms. Whatever she was feeling was wrong on every level: wrong because she didn't want a boyfriend; wrong because he was Jenna's husband; and wrong because no bloke ought to be able to make a girl feel like that just by holding her.

She bent down to retie a shoelace while she got herself under control, then, that done, she stood up and said, 'Right, race you back to the barracks,' and shot off before Lee could respond. He caught up with her after about a couple of hundred yards, but Chrissie pushed the pace to an extent where they had no breath left for talking. By the time they got to the guardroom, they were both shattered.

Chrissie collapsed onto the steps by the barrier, her head between her knees, her breath coming in ragged gasps, her shoulders heaving.

'That,' said Lee, also gasping, 'was one well hard run. Thanks, Chrissie.' He hauled in a juddering lungful of air. 'We must do it again.'

But Chrissie had already made her mind up; she was going to avoid Lee at all costs. Footloose and fancy free, that was what she wanted her life to be for the foreseeable future, and she wasn't going to tempt herself, or providence. And anyway, he was a married man and completely off limits.

'We'll see,' was her lukewarm response. 'I think I'm pretty tied up for the next few weeks.' And if she wasn't, she was going to find ways of making sure she was.

'But surely Wednesdays...?' said Lee.

'I've got some sports events lined up,' Chrissie lied. 'Netball.' She'd bet her last penny that Lee wouldn't know anything about netball and still less about which of the women in the battalion made up the team.

'Oh well.' He sounded really disappointed. 'See you around.'

Chrissie nodded but in her head she was thinking, No you won't.

5.

Maddy looked about her sitting room with an expression of satisfaction on her pretty, heart-shaped face. Finally, one room straight, she thought. She was just about to celebrate with a cup of tea when the doorbell rang. Cradling Nathan in one arm, Maddy went to answer it.

'Caro! You must be psychic, I was just about put the kettle on.'

'Hi, Maddy, hiya, Nathan. No, I've not come to scrounge a cuppa, I've come to take you and Nathan out.'

'Out?'

'Wives' Club.'

Maddy noticed Luke in his buggy behind Caro. Not for the first time she thought how startlingly like his mother the boy was, with his blond curls and stunning, navy blue eyes and ready smile. 'But we're not ready. I mean, I hadn't planned...'

'So? We're talking Wives' Club here, not dinner at the CO's house. Get Nate into his outdoor togs, grab a nappy bag and let's go.'

Maddy glanced through the dining room door to her left and saw the tissue and newspaper spilling out of the boxes, the piles of crockery still to be put away in the sideboard, and wavered.

'If you don't get it all squared away today,' said Caro, following her neighbour's gaze, 'no one is going to die.'

Then Nate let out a wail.

Maddy sighed. 'But it's not fair to inflict a colicky baby on other mums.'

'Like everyone else's is perfect and they cheerfully inflict them on the rest of us. Look at Philippa's kids.'

Maddy shook her head. Who was Philippa and what about her kids?

'You've not met Edward and Josh? No? They live at number thirty.' Maddy was none the wiser. 'Well,' continued Caro, 'just keep them at arm's length when you do. Not that you'll want them any closer as the pair always have about a yard of green snot hanging down their faces. I mean, why their mother hasn't taught them to blow their noses...' She shuddered. 'And then there's Olivia. I've never known a child throw a tantrum like she does. Skweems and skweems and skweems till she's sick,' she said, quoting from Just William. 'So little Nate, here...' she plonked a fat kiss on his cheek, 'is an angel in comparison. Just like my two, obviously. But then I might be a teeny bit biased. So come on pull your finger out.'

Maddy gave in and tugged Nate's all-in-one off the peg by the door. 'Can you stuff him in that?' she asked Caro, handing her the garment and the baby. 'I'll just get his kit together.' Maddy raced upstairs to grab Nate's nappy bag and as she did so, she realised that she was looking forward to getting out and meeting the other wives.

Five minutes later the two women were pus.h.i.+ng their buggies along the road towards the community centre, an old senior officer's quarter which had been converted for use in this new role. Nate didn't seem to be too happy about the outing and was grizzling.

'Maybe this isn't a good idea,' she said to Caro, horribly aware that his cries were quite noisy even out in the open; in a confined s.p.a.ce they'd seem even worse.

'Of course it is,' said Caro. 'As if anyone has had a baby who has never cried.'

'And I suppose the colic will pa.s.s. Won't it?' she added hopefully.

'Should do. In a previous existence I was a nanny, and I never looked after a baby that suffered beyond about four months. It's not called three-month colic for nothing. It'll pa.s.s, honestly. By Christmas, this will all be a memory.'

Maddy didn't listen to what Caro said about the colic all she heard was that Caro had been a nanny. So that explained why she was so brilliant with Nathan, which only made Maddy feel even more inadequate. 'You must think I'm a complete moron the way I am with Nate.'

Caro shook her head. 'G.o.d, of course I don't. He's your first, and they don't come with an instruction manual. And, let's face it, having to move almost straight after giving birth has hardly made things easier for you or him. I think you're an absolute trouper.'

'Really?'

'Really.'

They reached the community centre and parked their buggies at the edge of the dozen or so other ones that littered the drive to the big house. Maddy unclipped Nate's car seat from the frame of the pushchair and lugged it in through the front door while Caro took off Luke's restraining straps so he could toddle in after her.

Inside the house the hubbub of women's voices almost managed to drown out Nate's cries. Maddy picked him out of his seat and unzipped his suit before stripping the bulky outer garment off him and popping him back in. Then she hooked the handle of his seat over her arm like a handbag.

'Come and meet everyone,' said Caro, holding open a door and ushering her into the main room. Around the walls were a couple of dozen dining room chairs, while in the middle of the floor was an impressive array of toys and a number of small children, mostly playing contentedly. Caro nudged Maddy and whispered, 'Spot Josh.'

Maddy looked at the kids on the floor. Oh, yes, she could see in an instant exactly what Caro had meant. Yuck.

'Now then, let me introduce you to a few people and then I'll get us both a coffee.' She made a beeline across the room to a thirty-something woman in a tweed skirt and sweater. 'Maddy, I don't think you've met Seb's OC's wife this is Susie whose husband is Seb's boss. Susie, this is Maddy Fanshaw, wife of the famous Seb Fanshaw you know, the rower and her son, Nathan.'

Susie looked impressed. 'Oh my G.o.d, Mike told me we had a superstar joining our company. He's the guy who nearly made the Olympics, no?'

Maddy had long since discovered that wives in army circles seemed to be defined by their husband's status and rank and, although it still rankled, she'd learned to accept that her previous existence as a biochemist and an Oxford graduate counted for nought. She was also faintly amused to hear Susie use the phrase 'our company'. Since when had Mike Collins shared command of B Company with his wife, she wondered? Oh well, thought Maddy, she'd better try and be nice to her while Caro was off getting them both a cup of coffee. She didn't know much about the army, but she did know that p.i.s.sing off her husband's boss's wife was probably not a good thing.

'You'll have to join the babysitting circle,' said Susie.

'Babysitting circle?' Maddy put Nathan and his chair on a nearby coffee table and flexed her arm to relieve the stiffness. Nate was no lightweight.

'Just about every married patch has one the mums all get tokens for twelve hours' free babysitting from the other mums. We pay each other for babysitting in tokens double tokens after midnight and earn them back by repaying the favour. Easy, cheap and a fab way of getting to know other mums with kids. You don't have to join if you don't want to,' added Susie, although her tone of voice seemed to imply that this wasn't really an option.

'It sounds great,' said Maddy hastily, hoping she sounded sufficiently enthusiastic, because she couldn't envisage ever again having the energy for an evening out with Seb. If she watched the news at ten she was staying up late.

'We've got a meeting at my place shortly. I'll pop the details through your door. You can get to meet the other mums, see who you'd like to entrust with Nate. Make sure you come along.'

Maddy resisted the temptation to snap a salute and say 'yes, ma'am'. It really wasn't an invitation but an order.

'And I'll come round to see you soon help you get settled in, answer any questions, sort you out with some committees you might want to join, that sort of thing.'

Committees... oh dear G.o.d, as if she didn't have enough on her plate with a colicky baby, a recent house move and Seb's rowing training.

'Anyway,' said Susie, 'I mustn't monopolise you.' And she drifted off. Maddy had the feeling she'd escaped because there was someone else more interesting or more worthy of Susie's attention.

Caro returned with their coffees. 'Can I a.s.sume that Susie's sorted you out with babysitting?'

Maddy nodded. She was still feeling sh.e.l.l-shocked. 'That's one way of putting it,' she murmured.

'Excellent. But you can always ask me, if you need to have an hour or so to yourself. I mean it,' she added. 'I love babies, so it would be a real pleasure.'

Maddy took a sip of her coffee. 'Caro, promise me that, if you see me turning into some clone of Susie, you'll shoot me.'

Caro laughed. 'She's not that bad.'

Maddy raised her eyebrows. 'No?' She recounted her conversation. 'Honestly, what with her and Mrs N, I've got this feeling there's some sort of operation they do on wives once their husbands get to a certain rank, to insert a set of khaki genes into them. Don't these women want to do anything except advance their husbands? I've heard of career wives, but this is ridiculous.'

Caro nearly choked on her coffee. She looked about her. 'I see your point. It's not universal though.'

'No?'

'Honestly. I'm modelling myself on a woman I met in Tidworth when we had a posting there. She came to my door when I'd just arrived, introduced herself as Lizzy and promptly invited me to a lunch party the following week. "Do come," she said. "I've invited everyone in this road." So I said, "What, even the old farts in the big houses at the posh end?" She just giggled and said that it was come one, come all, so she could hardly not invite them or they'd feel left out. Then she thrust an invite in my hand and told me to ring if I found I couldn't make it. It was only when she'd gone and I read the invite properly I realised she was Lady Mayhew, wife of General Sir Edward Mayhew, the GOC, chief of the old farts.'

'And she giggled? Really?'

'Truly she did. Told me later she thought what I'd said was a hoot. So I'm going to be like her, when I finally have to grow up, and not be stuffy and pompous. Not,' she added, 'that Will'll get to such dizzying heights, but I still don't want to become like Mrs N.'

'Oh, me neither,' said Maddy with feeling, casting a glance in the direction of Susie and Mrs N, now both in earnest conversation. 'Caro?' she asked.

'Hmm?'

'You know what you said about casual babysitting?'

Caro nodded. 'Of course.'

'Could I ask a huge favour? I mean...'

'Spit it out.'

'You know you offered to have Nate, so I could get my hair cut?'

Caro nodded. 'And I meant it. Go and ring them now, Zo's number is on the noticeboard in the hall. Book an appointment with Jenna. Pick any day except next Thursday, as my mother-in-law is coming for the weekend and I'll have to blitz the house.'

'Really?'

'Yes, I really will have to do housework. Rumours of me being a s.l.u.t are all true, but this time I'm going to have to knuckle down.'

Maddy giggled. 'That's not what I meant and you know it.'

'Just phone them. Now!'