Page 70 of Summer of Fire
‘Stop staring at me,’ Jack said, his eyes still closed and a smile spreading lazily across his full lips. He really was the most beautiful man. Beautiful, yet so masculine. No wonder the ladies fantasised about him taking them on dates.
‘How do you know I am?’ she asked, a playful note in her voice.
He opened his eyes and laughed when his eyes met hers. ‘Got you.’
‘Alright, I give up. I was thinking about our conversation yesterday.’
He groaned. ‘Not more questions when I’ve barely woken up?’
‘Just one.’
‘I can think of much better things to do than answer more questions,’ he said.
‘Only one, I promise.’
He held up his hands. ‘The Jerries have nothing on you with your interrogation methods. They’d better hope they don’t capture you!’
Lizzie laughed at his light-hearted teasing but was undeterred. ‘What did you mean about Mary saying you took her to the Ritz, being some kind of test?’
His eyes narrowed. ‘It’s the oldest spycraft trick in the book.’
‘Is it?’ Lizzie was fascinated by the world of espionage she was being drawn further into each day. ‘I don’t understand. What was the point of it?’
‘Charlie was there, correct?’
She nodded.
‘He is famous for his tests. He will have been testing you. We must know agents can hold their drink and not be tempted to reveal details of a mission. He comes from Military Intelligence like me and is setting up SOE training systems.’
His deep voice was gravelly and sent a shiver spiralling through her. She ran her fingers over his bare chest. ‘You mean Mary was only pretending to be drunk so she could ensnare me into spilling secrets about you?’
‘That’ll be it in a nutshell,’ he said. ‘That’s my best guess, anyway.’
‘I wondered where she disappeared to the next day,’ Lizzie said.
‘On to snare her next victim, I imagine!’
‘You weren’t at the Ritz with a girl recently?’
‘No Lizzie Beaumont, Chief Interrogator. I’ve never been on a date with anyone called Mary. Come to think of it, I’ve not been on a date with anyone since before the war.’
Lizzie waited for him to continue.
‘The last time I went to the Ritz, I was with your boss. We went to meet a potential recruit. As it is, she didn’t turn up, anyway.’
‘I hadn’t realised he brings you potential recruits regularly.’
‘Oh yes. He’s one of our finest talent spotters.’
‘Why did you not trust him when he brought me to you in the beginning, then?’
‘I did trust him. I do trust him.’ He stroked Lizzie’s hair and planted a kiss on her pert nose. ‘The truth is, you were so innocent. Not to mention heart-stoppingly gorgeous, and just off the boat from Jersey. I couldn’t bring myself to recruit you for such a dangerous job. For all we knew, the entire network was blown.’
He raked his hand through his messy hair. ‘What you did was bloody incredible. Going in like that and retrieving the film and keeping your head when the pickup failed. Many first timers would have lost it, but you stayed calm. That’s when we knew you are natural for SOE.’
‘We?’ Lizzie’s cheeks tingled and flushed.
‘Val was so impressed.’
