I look out the restaurant window. “Honor, it’s still daylight, of course the night’s not over.” I laugh.
She rolls her eyes. “Yes, well, there’s a reason I needed to start the party at such a silly hour.”
I did wonder why my adult birthday party was beginning at four in the afternoon.
“What’s the reason?” I ask, taking a sip of wine.
Honor looks at her watch and smiles brightly. “It’s time,” she declares to the room. Everyone seems to light up and I’m left thoroughly confused. “Come on, birthday girl, follow me.”
Slightly buzzed and floaty, I follow easily behind as Honor leads me outside. The restaurant is on a lovely side street where no cars are allowed.
“Three minutes,” Honor calls.
“What the devil is going on? Why are we standing in the street?”
Mum stands next to me and puts her arm around my shoulders. Honor places herself on the other side and puts her arm around my waist. I look between them both with furrowed eyebrows, as neither is answering my questions.
And then I hear it. Something I can’t possibly be hearing.
35
River
“Morley is going tohave your guts for garters if she finds out we’ve done this,” Kit grumbles. She really needs to get laid. I can’t be doing this with sexually frustrated Kit. She’s so grouchy!
“She isn’t going to find out, and even if she did, Morley isn’t going to go against the admiral, is she?” I reply confidently, ignoring her eye rolling.
“I still don’t understand how you pulled this off, Riv,” Cheddar says, pulling on her tub hat. Her uniform is pristine and I don’t think I’ve ever seen her boots so shiny. I love that she’s put so much effort into this.
Grinning, I place my own hat on and adjust it until it’s perfect. “I shamelessly played on the guilt our dear admiral feels for being such an arse to me and upsetting Cleo.”
Boot snorts out a laugh and fist bumps me.
“Does he feel that guilty he’s alright with breaking like a dozen rules?” Kit asks seriously.
“Looks like it. Now, are we all ready? Because the time is approaching and Honor will kick my arse if I mess up her timings.”
Boot pulls open the van door and we all step out. I can’t even imagine what the public must think. We’re like a friggin’ military clown car. Sailor after sailor dressed in their number one uniforms step out onto the street.
It has taken every bit of clout I have to get this done, and I’m sure I’ll be doing the crew’s scut work for the rest of my life, but fuck, it’s going to be so worth it.
I may have told Cleo a tiny white lie about my deployment. Yes, the ship was delayed by three months, but we still stuck to the same schedule. So instead of a seven-month leg at sea, we only had to do four. None of us knew that until we were already out at sea, but because I’m an awesome girlfriend, I kept it to myself so I could surprise Cleo on her birthday.
It’s been super hard keeping the secret. Even harder for Cheddar, who, for some reason, can’t keep her mouth shut about anything where Cleo is concerned. All my girlfriend has to do is point one of those lovely eyebrows a certain way and Cheddar word vomits. Cleo finds it highlyamusing, whereas the rest of us are less enthusiastic about it. Kit threatened to shave off Cheddar’s hair if she opened her mouth about the inner workings of our bunk ever again. So far I think Cheddar has refrained from airing our dirty undies.
“So how’s this working, Boss?” Drum Major Peacock asks. He’s the man in charge of the Plymouth Royal Marine Band today. I presume he’s doing his buddy Admiral Carter a solid. As I said, I’ve pulled in every favour and got the admiral on my side to pull this off.
“Alright,” I say, shaking out my body. “Just like on parade, guys. The band up front doing your thing and the rest of us marching behind. Cleo will be outside the restaurant, waiting. We’ll march up, I’ll salute right, and then we’ll halt, come to attention and right turn. You then play Happy Birthday and we’ll do the rest. How’s that?”
Peacock smiles. “Not exactly trooping of the colours, is it? I’m sure we’ll get through it in one piece.”
“Pipe down, smart arse.” I laugh. There are a number of people stopping to take photos and videos, so the likelihood Captain Morley is going to find out about this is getting higher by the second. Cleo’s worth a telling off, though.
We get into formation and wait for my watch to beep. We’re just around the corner from the street Cleo should be standing in. She’ll probably hear us before she sees us, which makes me smile.
Peacock looks back at me and gives me a nod before returning to his station. Holding his staff in the air, he signals for the band to start. Obviously it’s not the full band, because even I couldn’t pull in enough favours for that. But there are enough musicians here to solidly belt out the Britannic Salute.
I’m not an officer, and usually I wouldn’t be the one to salute, but today we’re mixing it up. As the band gets into the swing of it, I call to the squad. “Parade…by the left…quick march!”
