Then was welthe and welfare in mery England,

Solaces, game, and glee,

And every man loved other well,

And the King loved good yeomanrye.

But God that made the grasse to growe,

And leaves on greenwoode tree,

Now save and keepe our noble king,

And maintaine good yeomanry!

Durham Field

CHAPTER 69 NORTHWOOD

“Ah, now yours was the, ah lager, and you had the whisky, and you were the gin and tonic. That was yours and that was mine. Right?

Good. Now, I well going to tell you about Denis wasn’t I? Yes Denis, you know. Denis Falder.

Well you know if I have a late meeting at PJHQ¹ I like to stay the night there? Its about as far into London as I want to go these days. Any further than Northwood and you can’t park a car or anything. All these one way streets and tidal flows and tickets and zones and stuff. Far too complex. And going to Whitehall by train is very tiresome. So nowadays if anyone from Main Building wants my words of wisdom they can come to me.

The other thing is, I am not that well known at Northwood. Just another RO² consultant, so I get a bit of privacy. I have an early meal and a rum by the upstairs fireplace and I get an early night.

Well I was there, actually reading some magazine, when I looked up and there was Denis outside on the balcony. You know he's taken to wearing a Barbour jacket like he's about to go off shooting or fishing or something. Never has been of course. Dresses up like a damned actor. I think he had been at the plus ten HLB³ forecast. Hardly the place for a Barbour jacket. Probably decided to stay over like I had. It just did not occur to me that he had stayed over specifically to see me.

Now I have never really approved of civilians being allowed into an officers mess, especially civilians like Denis. He just does not quite fit in. I think he would be better off with the Wosr’s⁴. He makes no attempt to actually belong, if you know what I mean. He tried to look the part but just never manages it.

You know he was supposed to have been a lavatory cleaner? At Carbonec or somewhere. I forget who told me that. Anyway.....Years ago, whenever he was at Northwood, he would go down to Ronnie’s Bar and chat up the civie clerks. I suppose he’s a bit past that now.

But I suppose you heard that story about him chatting up a girl? Then discovering she was still at school and her Dad was a Petty Officer living in the married quarters? Except on that occasion he had to deal with the girls mother. She gave him a right talking to, and serves him right. Serves him right.

Once he was actually found trying to smuggle some clerk into his room in the mess. So I heard.

Anyway, he was there on the balcony in his green jacket and he was waiting for me to spot him. Of course he gave me a nod, I nodded back, and he came and sat beside me.

Well, we made the usual small talk and I started reading my magazine again.

But it was obvious he wanted to say something more. So he finally cleared his throat and said “Admiral, how do the Navy feel about space ships.”

Well I supposed he was talking about Polaris or Trident or something, and I said something about submarines. Then he looked at me a bit strangely and said no. Flying Cow.

Well of course I've heard of the thing. This project for launching satellites off an electric train. I'd never thought much about it, truth be told. Nothing to do with me, probably going to be cancelled after they think they've wasted enough on it.

So I said what has that to do with The Navy?

Then he started on

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