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it one too many times.
    Perhaps it would have been better for Rebecca to have known the truth before she married you."
    "About Flora?" Julian said. "By Jove, that was a mess, Dave. I'll always be grateful, but you don't need to keep bringing it up."
    "You promised me then," David said.

    "Yes, I know." Julian flashed a smile at him. "Promises like that just aren't easy to keep. For you, perhaps. You don't seem to need women the way I do. But I mean to reform. From this moment on there is only Becka. God, that was agonizing back at the hotel room, Dave. There is never going to be anyone else. Are you satisfied? I do love her, you know.''
    David did not answer for a while. He was thankful to see that they were approaching their destination. The quayside was thronged with red-coated Guardsmen and clinging, sobbing women. "Yes, Julian,"
    he said at last. "I know that."
    It was true too. It was small consolation, but it was true.

Chapter 2
    Malta and the Crimea, 1854
    Life on Malta was tedious. There had been a surge of energy and eager anticipation when the men left England, an expectation that at last they would see action. But action was slow in coming. Although Britain and Prance declared war on Russia at the end of March, another two months were to pass before the British forces were moved closer to the scene of possible hostilities.
    They had to make their own action. But because there was not much to be made, boredom was widespread. Only a few of the men managed to ward it off. Captain Cardwell was one of them. He began an affair with Cynthia Scherer, wife of Captain Sir George Scherer of the First Coldstream Guards.
    It was not a particularly secret affair. Nothing much was in army life. Perhaps the only officer of either the Third Grenadiers or the First Coldstream who did not know about it after the first week or so was Captain Scherer himself. The couple were at least discreet enough to carry on their affair while he was busy about his duties.
    No one thought of telling him. Even apart from the fact that it would not have been the honorable thing to do, there was the fact that everyone iiked Julian Card-well. His sunny nature and warm charm were appealing even to his men. No one censured his behavior openly and probably very few privately. Julian was the sort of man who needed women, and everyone knew that his wife's delicate health had forced him to leave her behind in England.
    Major Lord Tavistock stayed tight-lipped about the affair for three whole weeks, although he shared a billet with Julian. It was none of his concern, he told himself.Besides, he knew from long experience what Julian's reaction would be if he did give in to the temptation to remonstrate with him. There would be the charming boyish smile and the assurance that Cynthia Scherer meant nothing to him. There would be the renewed assurance that he loved Rebecca and was going to be faithful to her from that moment on. And the damnable thing was that Julian would mean every word of what he said—as he always did. No, he would stay out of it, David decided.
    And yet all his resolutions were thrown to the wind when he arrived back at his billet from a meeting earlier than expected one afternoon to find that he had walked in only scant moments after what would undoubtedly have been an extremely embarrassing scene.
    He came to an abrupt halt in the doorway and stared pointedly at Julian on the bed.
    Julian smiled his engaging smile. "Would you be so good as to wait outside for a few minutes, old chap?" he asked.
    By the time David, his back to the door of the room, heard the woman leave, he was white with fury. He had been telling himself for longer than five minutes to go away and find something else to do for a while, to forget about it, not to get involved. But he knew he was going to do just that, just as he always did.
    "This is not to happen again," he said curtly when he was back inside the room, the door firmly closed behind him. He convinced