At the end of it Charlotte and Sutton found themselves alone, smiling into each other's faces.
"Do you like him?" she said.
"I'm not sure. All the same that isn't a bad idea of Mrs. Rankin's."
It was Sutton who tried to work it the next morning, sounding McClane.
Charlotte was in the space between the glass doors, arranging their stores in their own cupboard. McClane's stores had overflowed into it on the lower shelves. She could hear the two men talking in the room, Sutton's low, persuasive voice; she couldn't hear what he was saying.
Suddenly McClane brought his fist down on the table.
"I'll take you. And I'll take your women. And I'll take your ambulances.
I could do with two more ambulances. But I won't take Conway."
"You can't tell him that."
"Can't I!"
"What can you say?"