Gin and Bitterness

Fandom: Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy / Smiley's People / Smiley series
Rating: G
Setting: After Smiley's People
Characters: Karla, Ann Smiley, George Smiley, Tatiana
Warnings: Spoilers for Smiley's People
Word Count: 349

General Summary: George's memories are linked together like bits of chain fencing, but sometimes they flow into one another.

Author’s Note: Back in December 2012, I tackled the 25 Days of Holiday Fic. This was the prompt for 'Chestnut.'


For George Smiley, the smell of roasting chestnuts was inexorably tied to the memory of Berne in winter. The smoky, burnt-wood aroma took him back to snowy streets and the dull, throbbing anxiety of the hunt. And just as chestnuts were tied to Berne, so the memory of Berne conjured the spectres of Karla and his mad daughter - spectres which had mercifully stayed away from his memories of Berlin to hover over Switzerland.

Neither of these associations were ones with which Ann Smiley was familiar


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