The Dardanelles Conspiracy by Alan Bardos (best ereader for pc TXT) 📗

no place on a modern battlefield, you can imagine how that was received in the army. He even managed to insult Edward VII somehow who publicly snubbed him in return.’

‘My God!’ Sir George couldn’t think of anything more mortifying or damaging.

‘Yes, quite, so by the start of the war, poor old Hamilton had been side-lined. Being given command of the Mediterranean Expeditionary Force was apparently a total surprise. Mind you he was on Kitchener’s staff during the Boer War and therefore well known to the Minister of War. That’s not to say he doesn’t know how to command.’

‘No, absolutely,’ Sir George didn’t doubt that Hamilton knew how to play the game and had toadied for all he was worth. Sir George felt confident that a man who had come back from such horrific career setbacks must surely be able to redeem his own.

Sir George noticed Swift approaching, wearing a Tommy’s service jacket and carrying a sheaf of papers. Sir George saw an opportunity to demonstrate his ability to command and catch the Major’s eye.

‘Hello, who’s this?’ Jack Churchill asked as Johnny stood to attention in front of them.

‘Oh, that’s just Swift, my office drudge.’

‘Should he be in here?’

‘He is an officer, I can assure you,’ Sir George turned to his subordinate, ‘Swift, what the hell do you mean by coming in here dressed like that?’

‘It’s the best that could be found on the money you…’

‘Never mind that, what is it?’

‘These need to be signed.’ Swift said handing him the papers.

‘Signed what?’

‘Sir.’ Swift said awkwardly and Major Churchill nodded approvingly.

Sir George took the papers and began to authorise them. ‘Sorry about this, Major Churchill, it never stops. Would you mind witnessing?’

Sir George passed the papers to Churchill. To stop Swift from forging his name on money orders, Sir George had initiated a system whereby everything that he needed to sign also had to be witnessed.

‘Quite alright from what I understand, you’re doing a hell of a job.’ Churchill said, signing the papers.

‘We must all fight the war in our own way.’ Sir George said modestly, pleased with the turn of events. ‘The complexity of the logistical problems we face is quite staggering. I worry that without someone who knows the ropes on hand in Lemnos, we might come a cropper.’

‘Don’t I know you from somewhere?’ Major Churchill had addressed the comment to Swift.

‘I really wouldn’t have thought so unless you make a habit of frequenting the lower-end brothels of Paris,’ Sir George put in.

‘Yes, that’s it, Swift. Aren’t you the Johnny who cuckolded old Smyth here?’ Churchill said giving the papers back to Swift.

‘Yes sir, I am,’ Swift said and left.

Sir George caught his breath, he had discovered a worse social humiliation than being snubbed by the King.

Chapter 40

Johnny left the officers’ club and walked along streets lined with palm trees. The evening air was cool and refreshing after the stifling atmosphere inside.

He wanted to go somewhere and dull his mind, but he needed to file the paperwork Sir George had signed, first. Johnny could feel himself being seduced back into the reassuring monotony of clerical work and the opportunity it brought for his mind to dwell. This was the first time Johnny had worked in an office since he’d got a job with Gavrilo Princip in Sarajevo. Johnny couldn’t help but wonder how everything might have been, if he’d acted differently back then.

He supposed the worst of it all was that his mission to Constantinople had failed. He hadn't redeemed himself and now men would be sent into harm’s way while he was back serving Sir George.

As much as Johnny had enjoyed seeing Sir George humiliated by the staff major, it reminded him why he was here and why he was bound to a vain preening dilettante.

Two poised nurses from Queen Alexandra's Imperial Military Nursing Service caught his attention, charming in their crisp grey uniforms and Little Red Riding Hood capes. They weren’t a patch on Gabrielle, his French-Canadian nurse, but Johnny flashed them a rakish smile anyway and they carried on as if nothing had happened.

The Tommy’s service jacket had proved pretty useful in helping Johnny avoid any type of responsibility at HQ and if he ever made it back to the front, it might fool a sniper trained to bag officers first.

Unfortunately, it did little to loosen the corsets of an Imperial Nurse intent on bagging an officer, for very different purposes. The fleeting thrill of a challenge stirred in Johnny, but in his current state he knew it would take days to bag a brace of nurses, fresh off the boat from some prim little finishing camp in Surrey.

He’d have a new uniform and all the other kit essential for a young subaltern soon enough. Then it would be a very different story. Sir George had been too busy showing off in front of the staff major to realise that they’d just signed the money order for it.

Johnny entered the headquarters building and tried to imagine what it must have been like in better times, but he could never quite conjure up the right images. He wondered if the old brothel felt too much like a place where flesh was bought and sold cheaply, but he feared it might be because his head was too full of images of a breathless nurse whispering French endearments.

Johnny worked his way through the sprawling house, past the people leaving for the night to his particular corner, lit a candle and began to file the paperwork. His head buzzing with the static of repetition and felt his mind wonder. He strolled into the next office. It was empty, so he started to look through the ledgers that recorded the arrival and departure of ships and their passengers. He was so bored that this gave him the