Mick had said, they didn’t make men majors without their being able to terrify their underlings. Or something to that effect.
I gave Oscar a little smile and then went down the hall. I reached the door to Major Ramsey’s office and knocked.
His voice was muffled by the heavy wood of the door but clear enough. “Enter.”
I pushed open the door and stepped inside. He wasn’t sitting at his desk. Instead, he stood observing one of the maps on the wall with his arms behind his back. He didn’t turn when I came in.
“Good morning,” I said, by way of greeting.
“Who is he?”
I was caught off guard by both the question and his tone. “Who?”
He turned to look at me then, and I could see that he was very serious. “The man who spent the night in your flat.”
I felt the color creeping over my face at the question and the insinuation that was in it. My first impulse was to make excuses, but I fought it down. After all, what right did he have to ask me such questions? If I hadn’t explained to my dear Nacy, I certainly didn’t feel obligated to explain to him.
“I don’t think that’s any of your business,” I said lightly.
“I’m afraid you’re wrong,” he said calmly. “For all intents and purposes, you are still under our jurisdiction twenty-four hours a day. That includes your late-night rendezvous.”
“I thought the evening was concluded after the lecture,” I said tightly. “Why were you having me watched?”
“As a precaution.”
I resisted the urge to make an angry retort. I knew already that anger never got me anywhere with Major Ramsey.
“Who is the man, Miss McDonnell?”
Stubbornness and my rising temper made me want to refuse to tell him, but that would have been childish. Especially when I had nothing to hide.
“He’s just a friend,” I said.
“His name?”
“I’m surprised you don’t know,” I retorted. “You seem to know everything else about my personal business.”
He continued as though I hadn’t spoken. “I can find out, Miss McDonnell. You may as well tell me and save us both time and trouble.”
I didn’t like it when he got high-handed with me, but I supposed he was right enough. I drew in a breath through my nose, a trick I had for calming my temper. “It’s not a secret. His name is Felix Lacey.”
“And he’s an intimate friend of yours.”
I stiffened at the question.
“He slept on my sofa, if that’s what you mean.” I don’t know why I said it. It didn’t matter to me one way or the other what Major Ramsey thought, and I was sure that my personal life mattered not at all to him, except for maybe another chance to lord his superior morality over me. Though I found it difficult to believe that a man with his looks was celibate.
“Where he slept is immaterial,” he said. “The government doesn’t care what you do so much as whom you do it with.”
A proper gentleman would have been embarrassed to have this conversation, but Major Ramsey didn’t seem at all uncomfortable.
“Felix has nothing to do with any of this. Leave him out of it.”
“I need to know who your associates are. Need I remind you that this is serious business? A strange man taking up residence in your flat is bound to put a crimp in things.”
“He hasn’t taken up residence,” I said, doing my best to rein in my quickly heightening temper. “He’s just returned home, so he came to see me. He fell asleep on my sofa while we were listening to the gramophone, and I didn’t want to wake him.”
I was instantly angry at myself for having revealed so much to him, so I added: “I don’t think you have any business questioning me about what happens in my flat.”
“Your uncle has no objection to gentlemen callers, then?”
I certainly didn’t want to admit to Major Ramsey that Felix had skulked out of my house in the predawn hours. Of course, he probably knew this already given that he apparently had my house being watched.
“I’m a grown woman, Major Ramsey,” I said, meeting his gaze. “My uncle understands that. As I’m sure you do.”
“Of course. And does Mr. Lacey know about your occupation?”
“About the safes, you mean?”
“Yes. Is he aware that you and your uncle and cousins break into houses and steal things?”
“He knows some of it, not all. He’s been a friend of our family for a long time. He … he’s even helped us out once or twice.”