He had finished Frau Schabel- wauer's excellent chicken salad. He pushed his plate away and glanced at the girl opposite. "The English couple will ignore our relationship and just treat you as a person. Colonel Edmon- son will patronize you, while Cornell won't appear to know what to do. See if you can put him at his ease."

**

Major Chris Cornell was the first to arrive at Simon's "house- warming party" that night. The Wave officer with him, Jill, wore a long, black gown like Denise but there all comparison ended and Jill knew it. She smiled ruefully at the blonde who opened the door and ad- mitted them.

"I'm Denise,' Denise," said the blonde in response to Simon's chief aide's stammered introduc- tions. Denise had taken a long time to prepare herself for the evening. The long, black dress had just a little veil to conceal her full cleavage. The thinnest of straps passed over the out- side of her shoulders and crossed in back to remeet the dress below her shoulder blades. The dress then hugged her figure tightly until it flared below her thighs. Denise's hair parted down the center, falling in onto her shoulders but not in a mass enough to conceal her long, black stone pedant ear- rings. Her neckless had a similar stone.

waves

She had debated and then gone ahead and put on her false eyelashes. Of course, it meant extra eye shadow, but then Denise liked to show off her eyes and her thin, feminine- ly curved eyebrows. Her lipstick was blood-red, like her re-var- nished nails.

Jill nearly crushed Denise's

soft hand in her rough one. She was a large girl with a frizzy mop of tight pincurls on top of a long, horsey face. "Chris has told me all about you," she said. "It was your first day at the Group head- quarters today, wasn't it?

Chris Cornell redenned as the blonde switched her gaze back to him. There was much he'd said to Jill that he didn't want repeated.

Cornell was saved from a lengthy reply by the arrival of Rick Simons, in dress uniform like his principal aide. He flung an arm around Denise's narrow waist, hugging her to him, while she gave him a nervous smile. "Hi, Chris," Simons broke in. "Glad to see you could make it. Good to see you, too, Jill. Come on in and let's have a drink." General Joe Martin arrived late with his date, a blonde, buxom, German girl who spoke little English and who gave Denise several sly looks as if to indicate an associative relation- ship betweeen the two blondes. Just as Richard Simons had in- dicated, the General made a dead set for Denise, standing with his arms about her shoulders as the two danced to ancient waltz records which Simons had bor- rowed from Brigadier Leighton Greeves, the English "opposite" to Simons.

Brigadier Greeves,dark mus- tached and very correct, ignored the situation of Denise and Richard Simons after a few mo- ments of casual inspection with his frumpy, little wife. But both were downright rude to General Martin's date.' Perhaps it was simply that Denise was able to talk fairly intelligently about Victor Sylvester. Greeves' wife was the only person to speak to Denise about anything resem- bling politics. She spoke about the June plot and was interested

34

that Denise knew so many of

the plotters. She was also in- trigued by Denise's cryptic re- mark that she had once worked for a Foreign Office person. She wanted to know more, but her husband had cut her off, rebuking her not too kindly for prying.

Sandy Edmondson was older than Richard Simons, al- though both were of equivalent rank. He was accompanied by an older woman, whom he intro- duced as his secretary, and who regarded Denise like a hawk all night. Sandy, his hair now turned to Grey, danced at the perfect regulation distance from Denise and she was able to hear the arrogance in him in every word he spoke. He was clearly bitter, too, in the sly remarks he made to Simons. With the war about over, there would be few easy promotions; yet, here he was, the older man, trapped at the same rank as the much younger Richard Simons.

or

The other officers, aides to the General, also with German American servicewoman dates, were ignored by Denise due to the instructions of Rich- ard Simons. As yet, she didn't know why.

"Come on, girl!" Martin's voice boomed as he threw a heavy hand about Denise's bare shoulders. "Dance this one with me!" He was bleary-eyed and Denise could see the anxious looks on the faces of his aides.

They danced for a few mo- ments and then Richard Simons cut in quickly. "Excuse me, Joe, but Denise is saving this one for me." He took Denise's hand and pulled her from the General's grip.

They both enjoyed the next several dances.

With the company gone at last by two in the morning, Richard, with Denise, turned.