Chapter TwoIleana looked round the table in the Council Chamber and decided that the Senior Officers of the Army were all too old.
They looked magnificent in their uniforms glistening with medals and gold braid, but many of them had baldheads, a number wore spectacles and there was almost no Officer who had not begun to show grey hairs on his temples.
She had called an Army conference first thing in the morning and she knew as they stood and bowed when she joined them that they were apprehensive about what she had to say.
Because she wished them to forget that she was a woman she was wearing her riding clothes.
She was aware they averted their gaze from her legs, which showed beneath the tailored coat with its Cossack-like silver cartridge holders and the severe leather belt encircling
