Free Ark Royal 2: The Nelson Touch by Christopher Nuttal Page A

paused, significantly.  “And if you don’t like it,” he added, “at least you’ll know before you spend five years of study learning the ropes.”
     
    Penny nodded, again.  “Yes, dad,” she said.  “But ...”
     
    She broke off as the door opened, revealing Percy.  Kurt came to his feet as his son stepped into the kitchen, dripping mud on the floor.  Percy had always been big, but now he had more muscles than Kurt remembered and looked disgustingly healthy.  And he looked very good in uniform too.  Clearly, Kurt decided, the CCF was doing wonders for his son. Behind Percy, Gayle stepped into the room.  The young lady looked surprised to see Kurt. 
     
    “Dad,” Percy said.  “I thought you were still on the moon.”
     
    “I have a couple of days leave,” Kurt said.  “And so I thought I’d come see you two.”
     
    He chatted about nothing with his children for a while, then sent Penny upstairs as Gayle started complaining about the mess on the floor.  Percy sighed, then reached for the mop and started to clean up the mud, getting more mud on the floor as he moved.  Kurt glowered at him, then told his son to undress and take a shower before he tried to clean the floor.  Leaving him alone, he led Gayle into the next room and closed the door firmly behind them.
     
    “I told Molly I was coming,” he said.  He hadn't wanted to talk about his wife with the kids, but he had no such qualms with Gayle.  “Where is she?”
     
    Gayle looked embarrassed.  “She went out early this morning,” she said, “leaving me to get the kids off to school.  I haven't seen her since.”
     
    Kurt stared at her.  “You’ve been here all day?”
     
    “I’ve been here for the last six months,” Gayle said.  “She gave me a room, a list of chores and a few other duties, then let me get on with it.  I've been cooking, cleaning and tutoring the kids.”
     
    Kurt sucked in his breath.  He hadn't realised just how much time Gayle had spent with the kids.  Had Molly spent any time with them at all?
     
    “I'm sorry,” he mumbled.  Molly had always wanted to have a live-in maid, but they’d never been able to afford it.  She too resented being poorer than most of the families who sent their kids to private school.  “I didn’t mean ...”
     
    “I get paid well,” Gayle assured him.  “And I don’t really have a family to live with ...”
     
    Kurt nodded, told her to make sure Percy did a good job of cleaning up the mess, then walked upstairs and entered his office.  Once, he’d worked from home two days a week; now, the room had been left untouched for months.  Molly had to have told Gayle to leave it alone, he decided, as he saw the dust lying on top of his desk.  Sitting down in front of it, he opened the computer terminal and pressed his thumb against the scanner.  A moment later, he was looking at their joint account.
     
    “Shit,” he breathed.  Molly was spending money as if it was going out of fashion.  He’d once thought the prize money would last the rest of his life.  Now, it was clear that over half of it was gone.  But what had she been buying ?  A check of the spending pattern revealed that she’d spent most of the money on clothes.  “What the hell is she doing?”
     
    He skimmed through the list of items, wondering just when and where she’d worn a bright silk dress, a set of incredibly expensive pieces of underwear or a bikini that seemed to cost enough to feed the entire family for a week.  He’d certainly never seen her in such underwear ... was she having an affair?  The thought outraged him for a long chilling moment, then he laughed at himself.  How could he possibly complain about her having an affair when he was having an affair?
     
    But she could have been caught at any time , he thought, dully.  What if the kids found out the truth ?
     
    He stared down at the computer, miserably.  Their relationship had been falling apart for years, he