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Charity ate a piece of sausage, made a pleased face, and then said,“Captain Douglass will meet Doug at the airport in Baltimore. I think Doug would prefer that you drove him. Can that be arranged?”

“Of course,” Sarah said.

“I don’t know what to do about gasoline,” Ed said.

“Buy some on the black market,” Douglass said.

“I don’t deal in the black market,” Bitter said.

“I thought everybody did,” Douglass said.

“I don’t think officers should,” Bitter said.

“My, aren’t we on our white horse this morning?” Douglass said.

“There are some things officers just don’t do,” Bitter said.

“Aside from black market gas, what did you have in mind?” Charity asked.

Bitter glowered, then got up.

“Will you please excuse me?” he said stiffly, and marched out of the room.

Charity looked at Douglass.

"I’m sorry,” she said. “I promised to watch my clever mouth. I meant to. It just got away from me.”

“Fuck him,” Douglass said. “Self-righteous sonofabitch. Come on, let’s get out of here.”

“Please don’t,” Sarah said.

“I’m sorry I put you on the spot, Sarah,” Douglass said. “You’re a lovely woman. What I can’t understand is why you married that self-righteous sonofabitch.”

“I think maybe you’d better leave,” Sarah said.

“Talk about uncontrollable mouths,” Charity said to Douglass. Douglass walked around the table to her, grabbed her arm, and propelled her out of the apartment.

The door slammed and woke the baby. Sarah went to him and picked him up and carried him into their bedroom. Ed was standing at the window, looking down at the street.

“Have they gone?” he asked after a minute.

“I asked them to,” Sarah said. “I told him that I would not tolerate his calling you a self-righteous sonofabitch in your home.”

He looked at her and smiled uneasily.

“You self-righteous sonofabitch!” Sarah said. “How dare you behave that way? That man is your best friend, and he saved your life, and he’s liable to be dead by this time tomorrow, and you dare to lecture him!”

It was the first time since he had met his wife that he had ever heard her use language stronger than a “damn.”

When they got to the airfield in Baltimore, Douglass went into Base Operations and checked the weather and filed his flight plan. When he came out of the briefing room, his father was there with Chief Ellis.

“I’m sorry about last night,” his father said. “I really would have liked to have dinner with you. Charity take care of you all right?”

“Just fine,” Douglass said.

“And on that clever little line,” Charity said, “Charity will fold her tent and steal away.”

“You have to go?” Doug asked.