Almost two thousand miles north of Marbella, Captain Dan Tully was overnighting in Paris. He entered the room of one of the hostesses and found it in darkness. Lifting the covers he slipped in beside the sleeping figure.
‘Move over, honey,’ he whispered huskily, ‘Your captain needs you.’
‘Dan!’ Poppy Meldon shot up in the bed with a giggle. ‘What the hell kept you?’ With a pleasurable groan, Captain Tully buried his face in Poppy’s enormous chest.
Another night of lovemaking, he thought happily, and all with the blessing of Celtic Airways. Thanks be to Jaysus for the summer!
In Rome, Captain Simon Cooney was sharing an overnight with Orla O’Neill. Previously, they had drunk coffee together on airport turnarounds but never carried the flirtation further. Now this was about to change.
‘Come night-clubbing,’ Simon eagerly suggested, excited by Orla’s full-blown looks and all the rumours he’d heard about her.
‘Love to,’ Orla immediately responded, flashing her dimples. What a hell of a joke it would be to take him away from Maura Kane.
It was the end of August before Maura heard the rumours about Simon and Orla. She waited until he was in a relaxed state after lovemaking before voicing her suspicions.
Simon frowned. ‘You surely don’t believe everything the Checks tell you?’ he protested. ‘It wasn’t the Checks,’ Maura replied evenly. She wore white lounging pyjamas trimmed
with gold and a white velvet bow in her ash blonde hair. The domed light in the ceiling was dimmed and an empty wine bottle upturned in an ice bucket.
Simon looked strained. The summer he had just put in on Europe would have exhausted anyone. On top of that, two-timing Maura was taking its toll. Even Dan Tully would have found the pace hectic!
‘They’re jealous, can’t you see,’ he said persuasively. ‘They’d like to have your job. This is just their way of putting you down, making you feel insecure. It’s how they get their kicks.’
Although this line of reasoning had worked well in the past, somehow Simon didn’t feel so assured this time. There was something inflexible about the cast of Maura’s jaw.
‘I told you it wasn’t the Checks,’ Maura repeated coolly.
She eyed his handsome florid face speculatively. There were always rumours, she thought. But this time the tip-off had come from Judy Mathews.
‘My dear, don’t take offence but there’s a certain little hostess making a name for herself these days with the crews,’ Judy had told her. ‘And this time she has set her cap a little too close to home, if you get my meaning.’
Remembering, Maura frowned. If it had been Eva Hendricks or Beattie Burgenhoffer dropping sly hints, she might have ignored them. But Judy! Her lips tightened. There was no malice in the Chief Hostess Atlantic, merely fellow feeling. Two Celtic queens, East and West. Maura’s gaze flickered reminded of something Judy had once said. ‘It can be lonely at the top, my dear, but I’m damned if we’ll let them advance an inch. We girls must stick together,’ Remembering, Maura’s gaze hardened.
‘Simon, I know... there’s no use denying it.’
Simon flushed. ‘You take it all so seriously, Maura,’ he grumbled, not denying anything. ‘It means nothing, you know that. Just a bit of fun.’
But even as he said it, his pulses raced at the memory of those beguiling brown eyes, that sweetly opulent figure. That this last little indiscretion was different from the others, he recognised. For one thing it was lasting longer. Three weeks was normally his limit. But not this time!
Maura swung her legs off the bed feeling the need of more wine. ‘Able for another glass?’ she queried resignedly. It was a familiar routine. She accused and he confessed and that was that - until the next time.
She took a chilled bottle of Piesporter from the fridge and sighed as she trimmed away the foil. Wasn’t it typical of Simon to act up just when she was at her busiest. She didn’t want to quarrel with him. She had enough on her plate as it was.
As she popped the cork smartly a shrewd glint came into her blue eyes. Perhaps it might be a good idea to transfer A/H O’Neill on to the Boeings out of harm’s way. In the meantime, it would be no harm to keep a close eye on the girl. No harm at all!