late last night, I’d been drifting off to sleep when I’d felt him slide into our bed, but he didn’t say a word. Nor did he touch me. When I woke around six, he’d gone, not even appearing at breakfast. Was Nonna right? Maybe I should have left it.
I hurried along the cream corridors, el-pad in hand, my sandals scarcely sounding on the polished wood floor. I smiled at Rusonia as I entered the anteroom.
‘Go straight in, ma’am, he’s expecting you.’
Nevertheless, I knocked on the door and waited, my nerves jangling. For Juno’s sake, I wasn’t some lowly recruit in disgrace. I heard nothing; I knocked again and went in.
The legate’s office was a large room, located in the corner of the building, with floor to ceiling bulletproof windows on two sides. The regulation cream was broken up with a lot of bookshelves, some prints and maps and a display cupboard. The little gold eagle I’d bought him at Christie’s on our previous trip to London glistened behind the glass doors as it reflected the early morning light. Unlike other people’s offices, the large meeting table was paper-free.
He was sitting behind his desk, head down signing some document. He finished, closed the folder, put the top back on his pen, laid it on the desk and looked up. I was shocked by the dark shadows under his eyes and taut lines around his mouth. What in Hades was happening to him?
I half-extended my hand, instinctively, but quickly drew it back. We were in our work environment; he the unit head, me a senior officer, but under his command. Not easy, but we’d made it work over the years.
‘Sit down, Carina,’ he said, waving me to the chair opposite him. ‘Two things. Firstly, I’ve had a complaint from Colonel Branca. She’s aggrieved that she wasn’t at the recent liaison meeting and you saw fit to carry on without her. She felt slighted to have been “relayed instructions via a junior officer.” Any comment?’
Gods, he was all business this morning.
‘It was a periodic meeting, with a month’s notice. We were to address training needs in light of the recent overseas exercise.’ Since I had nothing to lose, I let him have it. ‘Training has been both inadequate and poorly organised this past year and operational arms are suffering as a result. If I may speak so freely, Colonel Branca has little interest or motivation for her job, to the extent of negligence where people may get killed or injured as a result.’
‘A serious charge.’ His voice was grim. ‘Can you substantiate it?’
‘How much evidence do you want?’
‘Then why haven’t you raised it before?’
I gasped. Anger swept up through me. ‘May I bring the Legate’s attention to my report last month and the report after the winter warmer exercise?’
Both had highlighted serious training defaults. Hadn’t he read them?
‘I raised them with Colonel Branca, but she considered you were exaggerating.’
‘She what?’ I took a deep breath. ‘You didn’t think to discuss it with me?’
‘No.’
‘Why ever not?’
‘Not your domain.’
‘That’s it?’
He leaned back in his chair and sighed. ‘I forget how argumentative you are. Yes, that’s it. I’m perfectly aware she hasn’t been the most effective training officer we’ve had. Her departmental staff has managed well, though.’
I was bursting with my own opinion, but kept it to myself, remembering Nonna’s advice.
‘This brings me neatly to the second thing. Effective tonight at 18.00 you’re relieved of your command of Operations.’
No!
I stared at him. I couldn’t move. I ran his words through my head again. Why? Gods, it was unfair. Just because I’d criticised a useless but well-connected old lush. Was Conrad getting personal here? Was he resentful of how I’d reacted to Nicola’s letter? No, that was so out of character for him. I had no option but to accept it, but throwing me out of the job he knew I loved was unbelievably severe.
Then I spotted tiny
I hurried along the cream corridors, el-pad in hand, my sandals scarcely sounding on the polished wood floor. I smiled at Rusonia as I entered the anteroom.
‘Go straight in, ma’am, he’s expecting you.’
Nevertheless, I knocked on the door and waited, my nerves jangling. For Juno’s sake, I wasn’t some lowly recruit in disgrace. I heard nothing; I knocked again and went in.
The legate’s office was a large room, located in the corner of the building, with floor to ceiling bulletproof windows on two sides. The regulation cream was broken up with a lot of bookshelves, some prints and maps and a display cupboard. The little gold eagle I’d bought him at Christie’s on our previous trip to London glistened behind the glass doors as it reflected the early morning light. Unlike other people’s offices, the large meeting table was paper-free.
He was sitting behind his desk, head down signing some document. He finished, closed the folder, put the top back on his pen, laid it on the desk and looked up. I was shocked by the dark shadows under his eyes and taut lines around his mouth. What in Hades was happening to him?
I half-extended my hand, instinctively, but quickly drew it back. We were in our work environment; he the unit head, me a senior officer, but under his command. Not easy, but we’d made it work over the years.
‘Sit down, Carina,’ he said, waving me to the chair opposite him. ‘Two things. Firstly, I’ve had a complaint from Colonel Branca. She’s aggrieved that she wasn’t at the recent liaison meeting and you saw fit to carry on without her. She felt slighted to have been “relayed instructions via a junior officer.” Any comment?’
Gods, he was all business this morning.
‘It was a periodic meeting, with a month’s notice. We were to address training needs in light of the recent overseas exercise.’ Since I had nothing to lose, I let him have it. ‘Training has been both inadequate and poorly organised this past year and operational arms are suffering as a result. If I may speak so freely, Colonel Branca has little interest or motivation for her job, to the extent of negligence where people may get killed or injured as a result.’
‘A serious charge.’ His voice was grim. ‘Can you substantiate it?’
‘How much evidence do you want?’
‘Then why haven’t you raised it before?’
I gasped. Anger swept up through me. ‘May I bring the Legate’s attention to my report last month and the report after the winter warmer exercise?’
Both had highlighted serious training defaults. Hadn’t he read them?
‘I raised them with Colonel Branca, but she considered you were exaggerating.’
‘She what?’ I took a deep breath. ‘You didn’t think to discuss it with me?’
‘No.’
‘Why ever not?’
‘Not your domain.’
‘That’s it?’
He leaned back in his chair and sighed. ‘I forget how argumentative you are. Yes, that’s it. I’m perfectly aware she hasn’t been the most effective training officer we’ve had. Her departmental staff has managed well, though.’
I was bursting with my own opinion, but kept it to myself, remembering Nonna’s advice.
‘This brings me neatly to the second thing. Effective tonight at 18.00 you’re relieved of your command of Operations.’
No!
I stared at him. I couldn’t move. I ran his words through my head again. Why? Gods, it was unfair. Just because I’d criticised a useless but well-connected old lush. Was Conrad getting personal here? Was he resentful of how I’d reacted to Nicola’s letter? No, that was so out of character for him. I had no option but to accept it, but throwing me out of the job he knew I loved was unbelievably severe.
Then I spotted tiny
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