It's your own neck you're risking, Corporal. Speaking of which, you don't have to use my rank when we're out of uniform. You can call me Betty.

I'm touched, Betty. To what do I owe this exceptional honour?

Oh cut it out, Tanner!

Assuming you are called Tanner anyway.

I'm just kidding…

Kiss me!

Don't you think you might have had a bit too much to drink, Betty?

You just think I'm ugly, don't you? Kiss me before I scream!

Mmm

You know I've been drinking far too much for ages. Ever since that rotten war. I wasn't in the front line then, but what I saw was enough to turn my stomach.

So why are you still in the army then?

I really can't see myself as an office secretary, can you? When SPADS started taking female soldiers for combat roles, I applied. Now I know fifteen ways to kill a man with my bare hands and how to blow up a bridge, but I couldn't't make an apple pie to save my life.

So you met Rowland during the war?