expression difficult to read. “You’ll do,” he said. And then, after the slightest pause: “You look very nice, Miss McDonnell.”
I had been prepared to come back with a smart retort, so I was a bit at a loss for what to say in the face of a compliment. “Thank you, Major. So do you.” Inwardly, I grimaced. It hadn’t been quite what I meant to say.
“May I?” he asked, indicating my coat.
“Thank you.” I handed it to him, and he helped me into it.
Then he motioned to the waiting car. “Shall we?”
Jakub was our driver. He opened the car door for me as I approached.
“Good evening, Jakub,” I said, smiling brightly at him.
“Good evening, Miss McDonnell.”
“Ellie,” I corrected him.
He nodded, returning my smile. “Good evening, Ellie.”
“Watch your skirt, Miss McDonnell,” Major Ramsey said as I slid into the car, and I pulled the velvet fabric in before he closed the door. I wasn’t exactly accustomed to formalwear.
“Don’t you suppose you’d better call me Ellie?” I asked, when he got in on the other side.
He shook his head. “I think I’d better call you something else entirely. It’s better that we don’t use your real name so you can’t be traced when all of this is over. What would suit you?”
“What’s the relationship between us meant to be?” I asked, wanting to know what my part would be before I decided what I should be called. “Exactly how well are we meant to know each other?”
His eyes met mine, and I felt a silly little jolt in my stomach. Probably embarrassment, as I supposed he thought I’d meant the question suggestively. I hadn’t, but, now that I thought about it, I did need to know if I was meant to pass myself off as a casual date or a mistress.
“I don’t suppose you have any experience with secretarial work?” he asked.
He meant me to be his secretary? For some reason, this was very disappointing.
“I can take shorthand and type.” I had taken a course in the basics a few years back, to learn how to better organize Uncle Mick’s business. He was as sharp as a razor when it came to locks, but paperwork and billing had never been his strong suit.
“Then perhaps we can say you work at a business close to the War Office and we met one day over lunch.”
“Slumming it a bit with an office worker, aren’t you?” I was unaccountably glad that I was meant to be a proper date. Now he wouldn’t expect me to follow him around taking notes all evening.
He ignored my quip. “I asked you to dinner, and we struck up an immediate romance.”
“Are we very much in love?” I asked cheekily. I was trying to see how we were going to play this, if he would be willing to soften some of those edges to banter with me. I had a sneaking suspicion it was going to be very difficult to flirt with Major Ramsey.
“This is our fourth date,” he said, not in the least flustered by my provoking behavior. “Your feelings are unclear, as you’ve been playing hard to get.”
The corner of my mouth tipped up, and I clicked my tongue. “Have I? And with such a shortage of men in this country, too.”
“It’s not entirely your fault,” he said. “My personality takes a bit of warming up to.”
I laughed outright at this. “And so you mean to woo me with Chinese porcelain?”
“Desperate times, Miss McDonnell.”
“You’ve got to stop Miss McDonnell-ing me,” I said. “You’re liable to forget and use it tonight.”
“All right. Who would you like to be?”
I considered. “I suppose as close as possible to my real name might be easiest to remember.”
He nodded. “We wouldn’t want the name to be completely foreign to your ear.”
“How about Elizabeth Donaldson?” I suggested.
“Very well. Elizabeth.”
“Don’t you suppose you might call me Lizzie by the fourth date? Or Bess, or Betsy?”
He shook his head. “I disapprove of diminutives.”
“What?”
“Diminutives. Pet names.”
“I know what they are,” I retorted. “Why do you disapprove of them?”
“I feel as though one should be called what one is named. Otherwise, what’s the point?”
I gave a little laugh. “You’re very much a man who lives by the rules, aren’t you?” I asked.
“That’s what rules are for, aren’t they?”
I shrugged. “I don’t know. I find that it’s always been more fun to flout them a bit.”
He looked as though he was about to say something and thought better of it. For just a moment I had the impression that