Army of You & Me Read Online Free PDF Page A

can’t drop a bomb on a known target and expect innocent people to escape the shrapnel.”
    “That’s accidental.”
    “They still died,” he said softly. “Ah, here’s our food.” He released her hand and leaned back as two hot plates piled with slices of meat, crispy roasted potatoes, and butter-topped vegetables were placed before them. “This looks like heaven on a plate, thank you.”
    “Enjoy!” the server beamed at them.
    Madeline reached over and took his hand in both of hers. “I wasn’t crossfire. I was a target. And it was people like you that got between me and execution. Don’t ever apologise for that. Please.” Unable to speak, Cain edged cutlery to her side of the table with his free hand. She drew her thumbs over the back of his hand and said, “We should eat before it gets cold.”
    He cleared his throat. “Good plan.”
    ***
    Their talk moved away from the pitfalls of war, and Madeline was immensely grateful for the reprieve. She was one more word away from bawling her eyes out in front of him and probably driving him to tears as well. As they ate, Cain talked about where in London he wanted to live. He kept mentioning places in Central, whilst she desperately wanted him to be South and thereby close to her. She couldn’t help feeling disappointed in his explanation that Dulwich was just as, if not more, expensive than some places in the centre of town.
    “My ex-wife received the house in our divorce, so maybe Central isn’t the best place for me.”
    Madeline choked on her second pint. “Your what?”
    “Divorce.”
    “How long were you married?” she asked, jealousy ripping through her like fire. He had made such life-long promises to a woman and hadn’t kept them.
    A corner of his mouth tilted upwards. “We were married just two years. I was barely in the country, and my life expectancy was really short. I only gave her the house so she’d leave off my pension.”
    “Sneaky bitch,” Madeline muttered. “Sorry. I’m sure she was nice.”
    “Not during the divorce she wasn’t,” he retorted. “Thank you for sticking up for me.”
    “Where was the house?” She forced the question through her throat rather than asking why he’d marry someone so patently materialistic. Why did he give her a house after such a short marriage? It explained why he was living with his parents at his age.
    “South Kensington. It had been in the Goldsmith family for decades. I’m the first divorce in a century.”
    “Oops,” she murmured.
    Cain shrugged. “Happens. The folks weren’t particularly happy about it, but the less fuss that was made, the better.”
    “Serves you right for marrying in haste.”
    He laughed again. “You are being thoroughly judgemental. Look, I was going on another tour at the time, to Iraq. She thought she was pregnant, and I wanted to make sure any benefits of being an army wife and mother of my child would go straight to her, especially if something happened to me. I didn’t want to think of her as struggling.”
    Madeline’s eyes narrowed in suspicion. “She told you she was pregnant or you thought she was pregnant?”
    “Aren’t you a sharp little thing? The former. No baby after a year, but she managed to get pregnant when my sperm had no chance of getting on a flight from Baghdad to help her out.”
    Madeline barely suppressed a giggle. “You can’t find this funny!”
    “I can now. Best way forward. For a while she tried to lie and say it was mine. She changed her mind pretty quickly when I mentioned DNA. Got in contact with our family solicitor and divorced her quick sharp. Only the finances got messy, and to make sure I didn’t have to deal with her any more, I gave her the house. It’s worth a good 2.8 million pounds. Fair is fair.”
    He’d done it for his ex-wife’s unborn child. She could tell. Giving away a family heirloom in exchange for his pension seemed hugely unbalanced. No way was his pension worth as much as the house. He’d