off, say, and feed them to you while you slept.” Tati’s head tilted. She reconsidered her previous statement and amended, “Um …yes, she would. Now be a gentleman and introduce me to your friend.”
“Easy enough,” Stauer said. “Lee von Ahlenfeld; Tatiana Manduleanu. Lee’s taking over Second Battalion, Tati.”
Tatiana asked, “ Really? I suppose you already advised him against the free sample?”
“He’s my friend, Tati, and I’d hate to see him impoverish himself through instantaneous addiction. That, or have a heart attack.”
“Tsk,” the woman said. “He wouldn’t have a heart attack; a man is only as old as the woman he feels. And you know I have a very busy schedule and can’t afford to spend enough time on any one man to outright impoverish him. Though there is one …oh, never mind.”
Stauer smiled, wickedly, saying, “The sergeant major sends greetings, too, Tati.”
The woman shook her head, plainly perplexed. “For him all the samples would be free. And my schedule would always be open. But does he take me up on it? No. I seriously wonder. Colonel Stauer, if you do not have a madman as your regimental sergeant major.”
Stauer, too, shook his head. “He’s not insane, Tati, just very, very proper. If you would treat it as a professional liaison, he’d be glad to spend some time and some money on you. But since you refuse to take any money from him, he feels that it would be both improper and unprofessional.”
“Fool man,” the Romanian clucked. “Still,” she conceded, “it’s an admirable foolishness. Part of the reason why I love him so, too, I suppose.”
Tatiana clapped her hands for one of the half dozen servants she kept on staff. When one arrived, white-liveried, dark-skinned, and earnest-looking, she commanded, “See to my guests, Arun, while I change into something that will either send Colonel—it is ‘colonel,’ isn’t it, Lee?—von Ahlenfeld into cardiac arrest or increase my client base by one.”
“Yes, Madam,” the Indo-Guyanan said, with a half bow.
“She was one of yours ?” von Ahlenfeld asked, incredulously.
“A corporal, there when she left,” Stauer acknowledged, nodding. “Good one, too, for being all of just turned eighteen. See, we—which is to say Biggus Dickus Thornton’s boys …errr …liberated some Romanian girls on their way to a slave auction. The thirteen of them were locked up in a shipping container. We couldn’t let them go at the time and they figured they owed us and wanted to help. So we made them medics. Tati was one, and the only one who didn’t necessarily object to the fate that would have been in store for her. Still, she did her duty for as long as it was her duty. Then she took her walking papers and set up in business here.
“Her …earnings don’t seem to stay just in her account. She had this house built on her own ticket. And,” Stauer pointed through a gap in the trees to where a white spire was slowly rising, “she’s having a chapel built over there, with a school for the little rabble you saw chasing that dog. I’m told she’s hunting for a Romanian Orthodox priest, though whether a priest can accept being supported by a whore, I don’t know. Supposedly, she’s contracted for someone to put in a sewer system, though in this part of this country I’ll believe it when it happens.
“To the extent anyone is, she’s sort of the mayor of this …place.”
“And Joshua?” von Ahlenfeld asked.
“Well …I was being tactful. He likes her a lot, but can’t fuck her for free or a presumption of affection, affection that would also presumably run both ways, would arise. As the RSM, his position doesn’t permit him to have what amounts to a girlfriend who damned near everyone else of any rank in the regiment is fucking or has fucked. Simple, brutal fact of life.”
Von Ahlenfeld caught a glimpse of an extremely feminine figure through the gauze of the curtains on the windows. He drew
“Easy enough,” Stauer said. “Lee von Ahlenfeld; Tatiana Manduleanu. Lee’s taking over Second Battalion, Tati.”
Tatiana asked, “ Really? I suppose you already advised him against the free sample?”
“He’s my friend, Tati, and I’d hate to see him impoverish himself through instantaneous addiction. That, or have a heart attack.”
“Tsk,” the woman said. “He wouldn’t have a heart attack; a man is only as old as the woman he feels. And you know I have a very busy schedule and can’t afford to spend enough time on any one man to outright impoverish him. Though there is one …oh, never mind.”
Stauer smiled, wickedly, saying, “The sergeant major sends greetings, too, Tati.”
The woman shook her head, plainly perplexed. “For him all the samples would be free. And my schedule would always be open. But does he take me up on it? No. I seriously wonder. Colonel Stauer, if you do not have a madman as your regimental sergeant major.”
Stauer, too, shook his head. “He’s not insane, Tati, just very, very proper. If you would treat it as a professional liaison, he’d be glad to spend some time and some money on you. But since you refuse to take any money from him, he feels that it would be both improper and unprofessional.”
“Fool man,” the Romanian clucked. “Still,” she conceded, “it’s an admirable foolishness. Part of the reason why I love him so, too, I suppose.”
Tatiana clapped her hands for one of the half dozen servants she kept on staff. When one arrived, white-liveried, dark-skinned, and earnest-looking, she commanded, “See to my guests, Arun, while I change into something that will either send Colonel—it is ‘colonel,’ isn’t it, Lee?—von Ahlenfeld into cardiac arrest or increase my client base by one.”
“Yes, Madam,” the Indo-Guyanan said, with a half bow.
“She was one of yours ?” von Ahlenfeld asked, incredulously.
“A corporal, there when she left,” Stauer acknowledged, nodding. “Good one, too, for being all of just turned eighteen. See, we—which is to say Biggus Dickus Thornton’s boys …errr …liberated some Romanian girls on their way to a slave auction. The thirteen of them were locked up in a shipping container. We couldn’t let them go at the time and they figured they owed us and wanted to help. So we made them medics. Tati was one, and the only one who didn’t necessarily object to the fate that would have been in store for her. Still, she did her duty for as long as it was her duty. Then she took her walking papers and set up in business here.
“Her …earnings don’t seem to stay just in her account. She had this house built on her own ticket. And,” Stauer pointed through a gap in the trees to where a white spire was slowly rising, “she’s having a chapel built over there, with a school for the little rabble you saw chasing that dog. I’m told she’s hunting for a Romanian Orthodox priest, though whether a priest can accept being supported by a whore, I don’t know. Supposedly, she’s contracted for someone to put in a sewer system, though in this part of this country I’ll believe it when it happens.
“To the extent anyone is, she’s sort of the mayor of this …place.”
“And Joshua?” von Ahlenfeld asked.
“Well …I was being tactful. He likes her a lot, but can’t fuck her for free or a presumption of affection, affection that would also presumably run both ways, would arise. As the RSM, his position doesn’t permit him to have what amounts to a girlfriend who damned near everyone else of any rank in the regiment is fucking or has fucked. Simple, brutal fact of life.”
Von Ahlenfeld caught a glimpse of an extremely feminine figure through the gauze of the curtains on the windows. He drew
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