Civvy Street by Fiona Field Page A

‘Actually, I got the tip about stairgates from Caro Edwards. She’s posted back in here – her husband is going to be Seb’s 2IC.’
    ‘I don’t think I’ve come across her. Of course Jack hasn’t done that many tours with the battalion. The army always thought he was so gifted as a staff officer he spent a lot of time at the MoD and other HQs.’
    More likely, thought Maddy, they knew how unpopular the pair of you were and did their level best to keep you away from the battalions to spare the other officers the awfulness of serving with you. But she smiled at Camilla as if she concurred with the analysis. She bustled about in the kitchen and made the tea, found a packet of biscuits which she decanted onto a plate and then led Camilla into her sitting room.
    ‘Sorry about the mess,’ she said, although she wasn’t, as Camilla picked her way disdainfully across the toy-strewn floor.
    ‘Tell me about your ideas,’ said Camilla, sipping out of her mug, pinkie half-cocked as if she didn’t know whether she should or not.
    Maddy put her mug down on the desk beside her. ‘So, I think we ought to use that room off the kitchen, and the conservatory, as a crèche.’
    ‘Crèche? Why would we need a crèche when we’ve already got the Mothers and Toddlers?’
    ‘But this is so the mums can leave their kids. Get a few hours to do their own thing: have a good rootle around the thrift shop; get their hair done; go shopping. And while I’m on the subject of hair, at our last barracks the garrison had its own hairdresser and it was so useful. We could turn the master suite upstairs into one. Get a backwash unit put in the en suite bathroom, use the bedroom as a salon and the dressing room as a store cupboard. We could even plumb a washing machine in the dressing room, joining up to the pipework in the bathroom and so the hairdresser could wash and dry the towels there too.’
    Camilla looked indifferent. ‘I suppose.’
    Don’t knock yourself out.
    ‘These ideas are all very well,’ Camilla continued, sounding utterly unenthusiastic, ‘like your one for a café, but who is going to run them? I, for one, don’t have the time or the inclination to take on any more little jobs for the battalion. There are quite enough calls on my time as things stand.’ She gave Maddy a stern look but Maddy refused to be intimidated.
    Bossy old bat, she thought, before she said, ‘Camilla, there are wives brimming with talents here. Their only problem is getting paid jobs. Caro is a trained nursery nurse, or nanny or something... anyway, she got all the qualifications. I know a wife who is a hairdresser and I am sure there’s loads of other wives with catering experience and they’d all love to do something that was on their doorstep, and which might earn them a bob or two. Honestly, Camilla, I am sure we could do this.’
    Camilla looked sceptical. ‘And what about the finances?’
    ‘People pay for the services they use and we pay the workers out of that. Any profit can go to the upkeep of the community centre or to service charities.’
    ‘And if the enterprises don’t make enough money?’
    ‘Then we have a rethink.’
    Camilla sniffed. ‘I can see you are very enthusiastic but I have my doubts.’
    ‘Let me see if I can find people qualified to run these ventures and see what they think. How about that?’
    ‘It can’t do any harm, I suppose.’
    Damned with faint praise... ‘Leave it with me,’ said Maddy firmly. Besides, it wasn’t just her ideas she wanted to get off the ground; if she could pull this off she’d be giving a leg up to two mates: Jenna and Caro. The only worry was that Camilla might have heard about Jenna’s other enterprise at the previous posting and so veto Jenna having anything to do with this plan. However, there was no reason why Jenna’s illicit hairdressing salon would have come to Camilla’s notice so that wasn’t likely to be a problem. No, the real problem was Jenna’s affair with