Chapter 5

Mark's life went on and he enjoyed every minute of it: the routine of barracks, the platoon and company training exercises, the increasing knowledge of his men and their acceptance of him, and the brotherhood of his fellow officers.

In August the battalion had its Summer Ball. Mark was without a partner as were a number of his fellow subalterns. That did not really matter as he danced with other junior officers' wives and his company commander's wife who he knew quite well and who kept him in fits of laughter throughout their dance. Finally, he plucked up the courage to ask the CO's wife to dance. He was amazed how close she danced but then realised that it was only her breasts that touched him and that she was following what he had been taught: lead with your chest. They whirled round to a quickstep and at the end she smiled up at him and said, "Whew! I'm quite out of breath but thank you, Mark."

"Can I get you a drink?" he asked.

"A lemonade would be lovely," she said, "but no ice. It goes clunk against my teeth. I'll go and find somewhere to sit because I want to have a chat with you."

Mark collected a lemonade for her and a beer for himself and joined her. She was sitting on a sofa in one corner of the room and patted the seat beside her. He placed their drinks on the occasional table in front of it.

"You dance very well, Mark. I enjoyed that."

"Thank you, Mrs Holdsworth. Much against my will my mother made me go to private dancing classes my last year at school. I'm actually very grateful now."

Mrs Holdsworth smiled. "Mothers don't often miss tricks," she said.

"No," Mark smiled back. "What a super woman," he thought. "CO's wife and yet she's bothering to be natural and friendly with me."

Then she astounded him again.

"I feel rather ashamed," she said. "You've been with the battalion now for the best part of six months..."

"Four actually," said Mark hoping to help her.

"Even so, that's too long. We had you to dinner shortly after you arrived and have done nothing about you since."

"Please," said Mark. "That was more than I expected."

"Nonsense. It's just there seems to have been so much going on. But, forget all that, are you happy?"

"Very," said Mark with a huge smile. "I don't think I've been happier in my life."

"That's good to hear but why particularly?"

"Gosh!" said Mark. "That's a difficult one. I suppose that leaving school, getting through training and now being treated as a grown-up is part of it."

Mrs Holdsworth nodded and smiled encouragingly. Mark picked up his untouched beer and took a sip as he reflected and also wondered how much he should confide in his CO's wife.

"The other thing, I suppose is that I have two new families."

"Two?"

"Yes, the battalion and my platoon."

"But aren't they part of each other?"

Mark thought. "Yes, they are," he said finally, "but my platoon is my immediate family and the rest of the battalion is like my uncles, aunts and cousins."

Mrs Holdsworth gazed at him and he met her eyes unflinchingly. "You've thought a lot about this," she said.

"No, not really. It was your asking me that made me put my feelings into words."

"What abut your real family? How would you feel about a real overseas posting with some danger in it? How would they feel about it?"

"Ouch!" said Mark taking another mouthful of beer to gain time. Then he grinned. "You're giving me the third degree, Mrs Holdsworth."

Mrs Holdsworth chuckled warmly. "Not really. I'm genuinely interested. And, please call me Jean."

"I can't do that!"

"Yes you can. Everyone else does."

Mark gulped. "Calling the CO's wife by her Christian name? Unheard of," he thought and had another gulp of his beer before looking at her questioningly.