lunch for her that had just about everything stacked on one plate.

"That's too much!" pro- tested Denise, meaning to com- ment upon the extravagance of the dining room while others in the nearby towns were starving. "Got to diet to keep your girl- ish figure, heh?" Jody couldn't keep the waspishness from her voice.

Denise tried to reply but Gabby switched the conversation quickly to a series of direct ques- tions upon how Denise liked working with Sergeant Chaplin

so that not even Denise noted how Heinrich Heinrich Langer slipped

away.

"How did you get along with Jody?" was Richmond Simon's first question when the blonde girl came swinging down the path to climb decorously into his car. He noted his chauf- feur's admiring look as the lea- ther-coated Denise leaned back and crossed her stockinged legs.

Denise pulled a face. "She doesn't like me," she said hus- kily.

Simons nodded. "Well, she's gonna have to get used to it," he said. "She's coming now." He slipped an arm around De- nise's shoulder and pulled her to him. He kissed her soft mouth. She was rigid as he pulled back, his arm still about her. "For Jody's sake," he said, as she stared at him, her painted eyes wide with apprehension. "Now she knows that you really are my girl." He leaned forward and tapped the glass. The car slid away expertly from the curb.

"Looks like it's true, said Edna Parker to her roommate, Jody, as the two waited for the staff shuttle. Jody's face was livid with anger. She looked away down the street, unwilling to let Edna see the depth of her

anger. She knew what Rick would see in Denise. She was as beautiful a girl as Jody had ever seen - and with a figure that not even corsets and padding could produce for Jody. Besides, she wouldn't know what to do with feminine appeal like Denise's. In the space of one day, the new girl had had every man lined up to do just what she wanted. Why, oh why, thought Jody savagely, did it have to be Rick Simons that she wanted?

*

"Your room will be the one on the right," said Richard Si- mons, pointing down the narrow hallway. Denise had not had time to visit his apartment before. "Of course, you won't say that to my guests tonight and I will arrange to have a nightdress of yours under my pillow, in case anyone goes snooping. I'll want you to pack some of your other stuff, lingerie and the like, in the empty drawers in my room, too."

"Yes sir," Denise's reply was quiet and without inflection.

"We must keep up appear- ances," Simon's voice was hard and determined. "You'll be ap- proached just as soon as the right people think you're both my mistress and for sale."

Dinner had been left for the Colonel and his 'friend' by the very efficient housekeeper who had disappeared at their arrival. She had disapproved of every item of luggage as it had ar- rived, and as she had unpacked it, earlier that morning. Simons was glad to sec that disap- proval had not marred Frau Schnabel wauer's usual efficiency around the place.

Denise had changed to a filmy negligee for dinner to cover her silk lingerie. After a quick bath, her wet hair was 32

-

turbanned in a towel as the two sat down to eat. Even now Denise still bore little resem- blance to the Kenneth Gerlitz who had been parachuted into France as Jacques Colbert's niece. She now had very thin, pencilled eyebrows. Her cheeks. were hollowed Eva had insist- ed upon the removal of Denise's back molars. Despite the removal of eyeliner and eyeshadow, De- nise's eyelashes seemed thicker and darker than those of the boy she had replaced. She also ate quite daintily and femininely, Simons thought. He began to wonder how difficult it would be to resurrect Ken Gerlitz, as his father was pressuring him to do, once the affair was over. Denise looked at home in her light purple, frilly negligee, the towel about her platinum hair, gold earrings in her pierced ears.

Simons began to recite his guest list to Denise along with their possible foibles. "Look out for General Martin," he said with emphasis. "He really likes to maul all his all his officer's wives. He must figure that their hus- bands can't object."

"Will I class as a wife tonight?" Denise asked.

Simons gave her a sharp look. "No," he said. "It'll be tougher for you with Martin. He'll have you pegged as some- thing to be bought and sold." He hesitated, reluctant to use such a word to an attractive girl like Denise.

"He'll figure I'm for hire," Denise's fingers made a little nervous gesture belying her

tone.

"Right," said Simons. "I figure he'll be all over you and every joke's gonna be unprint- table."

"And you wanted me for this job!" Denise was annoyed with him.

"I need someone I can trust implicitly," said Simons simply.