A Regimental Affair by Kate Lace Page B

it’. Eventually, she collapsed with laughter in an untidy heap on the mess carpet.
    The noise from the disco in the dining room was drowned out by yet more ribald and raucous comments from her audience of subalterns, and Megan was persuaded to demonstrate the gymnastic move again.
    ‘Goodness,’ said a voice that cut across everything. Alice was standing in the door leading into the hall, watching her daughter.
    ‘Oh God. This’ll put a damper on things,’ whispered Debbie to Sarah.
    ‘Come along, Megan,’ said Alice. ‘I don’t know what you think you are doing, but it’s time to go.’
    Megan stood up and looked a little shamefaced.
    ‘It’s all my fault, Alice,’ said Ginny. ‘Megan said she could do a backwards walkover and I asked her to teach me. It’s something I’ve always longed to be able to do.’
    Alice looked disbelieving. ‘Really?’
    The group of subalterns and their girlfriends seemed to decide en masse that now was the moment to check out the disco. They drifted away to the dining room where the beat of the music thumped and the lights flashed and where they would be safe from Alice.
    ‘Yes, well … anyway, you’d better do as your mother says, Megan, or she won’t let you come out with me tomorrow.’
    Alice raised her eyebrows at Ginny. ‘Tomorrow?’
    ‘I hope you don’t mind, but I promised to give Megan a slap-up tea before she goes back to school on Tuesday. It is OK, isn’t it?’
    Judging by the look on Alice’s face, it was far from OK, but she was wrestling with the knowledge that it would be extremely churlish to say so.
    ‘Well, yes. I suppose so.’
    ‘Great,’ said Ginny, apparently completely unaware of – or choosing to ignore – the ice in Alice’s voice. ‘I’ll collect Megan at three. Bye.’ And, giving Megan a peck on the cheek, Ginny skipped off to the disco.
    ‘Bob, you’re going to have to do something about Virginia Turner,’ said Alice as she removed her make-up. She had her back to her husband but she watched him in the mirror of her dressing table.
    Bob folded up his trousers and hung them carefully over a hanger before he replied. ‘Is there a problem?’
    ‘Oh, for heaven’s sake. Her behaviour, and the influence she’s having on Megan. Of course there’s a problem.’
    ‘But why?’
    Alice swivelled round on her dressing-table stool so she could look at Bob directly and not via the mirror. ‘I don’t think it’s healthy. To be frank, I wonder what on earth Ginny’s intentions are?’
    Bob laughed. ‘What, you think she’s hell-bent on corrupting our daughter?’
    ‘I don’t know what she’s up to, but I don’t like it. It’s not as if they can be real friends – look at the age difference.’
    ‘So what are you saying, that you think Ginny has befriended Megan for some dark reason?’ Bob shook his head. ‘Are you suggesting that Ginny is some sort of rampant lesbian with designs on our daughter?’
    ‘Don’t be so disgusting, Bob!’ snapped Alice. ‘Of course I don’t mean that.’
    ‘Well, I really don’t see what you do mean.’ Bob bent down to remove his pants and socks and threw them in the washing basket. ‘Come on, let’s get into bed,’ he said as he pulled on his pyjama trousers.
    ‘Just look at Ginny’s behaviour in the mess tonight; those ridiculous gymnastics. And she was making Megan behave badly too.’
    ‘Oh, for heaven’s sake. It was a party. If it had been some formal mess function with some visiting VIPs, I might have thought Ginny was out of order. But it was a party thrown by Ginny and the other single officers in what is, if you think about it, their home. We were the guests and I think they were entitled to behave as they liked.’
    ‘But she was setting such a bad example to Megan. Megan will think that it’s OK to go into an officers’ mess and get up to those sort of high jinks.’
    Bob climbed into bed and pulled the duvet up to his chin. He yawned heavily. ‘I don’t think