Hah, not even for a second. One of Chessey's duties is to drill Derek on proper forms of address. He needs to know how to address oh, say, cardinals vs. archbishops. Derek does love to irritate Chessey. Vivian Leiber has made Derek and Chessey come alive.
Soldier is a story that's character-driven, and what delightful lead characters they are.
While Derek is sure that Chessey, of the Mayflower background, won't be content to live on a Tennessee farm, he never belittles her. Kudos to Chessey for never thinking less of Derek because his ancestors came on a later ship. In fact, the more she is around him, the more she begins to realize that Derek is a hero on many levels. The only problem I had concerned some of the secondary characters. All the ones in Derek's circle are realistically drawn, while Chessey's relatives and circle of friends are vapid and cardboard.