Think ​of England (England World 2.) 9 csillagozás

“You don’t need to worry about us, Archie. I know it’s harder for you, of course, but—well, it’s surprising what one can get away with, in society, you know. People notice far less than one might fear. We’ve found it so, haven’t we, Pat?”
Pat rolled her eyes and gave Fen a look of fond exasperation. Curtis looked from one woman to the other. Realisation dawned.
Fen twinkled roguishly and leaned in to whisper, “And I do admire your taste. I’ve always said, Mr. da Silva is terribly handsome.”
“Fenella Carruth!” said Pat. “Leave that poor man alone.”

Chapter Fifteen

“Do you know what a sergeant told me before I went into battle for the first time?”
“No?”
“He said his best advice was to get to the latrines in good time, because a good few of us were going to soil ourselves in terror.” Daniel twisted round to look at him, and Curtis grinned at his expression. “What I mean is, one can’t help one’s fears. The question isn’t if you’re a fellow who cries in the night before a big engagement—and I knew a damned brave man who did exactly that, regularly. It’s whether you pick yourself up the next day.”

Chapter Twelve

“You do talk a lot of nonsense.” Curtis brushed a grateful hand over Daniel’s fingers.
“Don’t blame me, blame the Viennese doctor.” Daniel paused. “He did have fascinating opinions, though. Do you know what he said came between fear and sex?”
That sounded like it was going to be another of those appalling modern ideas. Curtis asked, cautiously, “What?”
“Funf.”
It was a ridiculous schoolboy joke, one that he’d heard cracked a dozen times at Eton as they’d learned to count in German.

Chapter Twelve

“All right. I understand. You’ve scruples.” Fears too, but he would no more have pointed that out than poked a mamba with a stick.

Vigyázat! Felnőtt tartalom.

“…fucking Viking!”
“Black mamba.”
“Black what?”
“A kind of snake. Dark, beautiful and appallingly foul-tempered.”
“Sod you.”

"We’re going to be careful, hmm? I’m not turning your life upside down.”
“You did that when you shook my hand and made a filthy remark about soldiers.”
“Suggestive. It was suggestive.”
“From you, it was filthy.”

“He was a…friend.” Curtis thought he could guess what that meant. “And he told me that the compromising situation that ruined him occurred at Peakholme. What he did in this house was used to destroy him. He mentioned other names too, other guests, amongst whom there has been at least one other suicide. Two dead men, and they may only be the tip of a very sordid iceberg.”
“But how would that happen? People are indiscreet at country houses all the time.” He knew of houses where a bell was rung to give guests ten minutes to return to their own marital beds before morning tea was brought in. That wasn’t his idea of entertainment, but it suited a great many people, and it was generally accepted, but never mentioned.
“There are different levels of indiscretion, of course.”
“I suppose you mean queers.” Curtis didn’t like this sly, allusive way of speaking, mostly because he wasn’t sure he could follow it.

Chapter Three