‘There now. I have a friend for life. Oh, it’s so good to be here, Venetia. I should have come earlier.’
‘How was your trip?’
‘It was quite wonderful. I do love those liners. I’ve never quite got over how grand they are. I remember the first time Daddy brought me over when I was tiny and I thought I was in a palace floating on the sea. The terribly grand dining room, and the orchestra playing through dinner, and the steam room – goodness, I love the steam room – and – well, it was all just marvellous.’
‘Did your father enjoy it?’
‘Yes, but he always gets so seasick, poor Daddy. He said to tell you he’d be round, probably tomorrow, when he’s recovered. But I couldn’t wait.’
‘Well, we’re very happy to have you, aren’t we, Henry? Is Adele coming over later?’
‘Yes, she said to tell you she’d be here by teatime. And your darling little brother, he is just so special, he said he would be coming to tea as well. Adele is shopping or something.’
‘Shopping, I expect,’ said Venetia. ‘She’s a little bored, I’m afraid. And lonely. We miss each other.’
‘I can see she must miss you,’ said Maud, ‘but I wouldn’t have expected you to miss her.’
‘Of course I do,’ said Venetia slightly impatiently. It always astonished her that people didn’t understand about twins. ‘She’s much more important to me than anyone. Except Henry of course.’
‘Well, and your handsome husband, I imagine. Goodness, he is handsome, Venetia. Adele showed me some of the wedding photographs.’
‘Yes, he is,’ said Venetia. ‘Very handsome.’
She didn’t look at Maud; there was a momentary silence, then Maud said, ‘Not as handsome as Giles, though.’
‘Giles! You think Giles is handsome?’
‘Terribly, yes. He’s very like your mother, I suppose. Those wonderful dark eyes, and marvellous nose. And he’s so charming and – and English.’
‘You always did have a soft spot for him, didn’t you? I’d forgotten,’ said Venetia. ‘When you were nine or whatever, when you first came, you said you were going to marry him.’
‘I did? Well, that was very sensible of me. Sadly, of course, I can’t, as he’s my cousin. In America, anyway, that’s not allowed. This house is superb, Venetia, I love it. Who did it for you? The interior, that is.’
‘Gerald Wellesley.’
‘I thought so. I recognised his style. All that silver leaf, so terribly chic. How clever of you to choose him.’
‘Maud, how very well-informed you are,’ said Venetia, laughing. ‘I’m amazed you’ve heard of him.’
‘Well of course. You forget I aim to be an architect.’
‘Yes, I did forget. Oh, hallo, Adele, how lovely to see you. And Kit’s coming too, apparently. Isn’t it heaven to have Maud here?’
‘Heaven,’ said Adele, kissing her sister, ‘good afternoon, Henry, how are you today? Venetia, I’ve bought us the most divine blouses from Woollands. Silk and very long. You’ll love them. I know you’re a married woman, and should choose your own things now, but they were just too much to resist.’
‘Feeling better?’ said Oliver, looking up at his brother as he came into the drawing room.
‘Much, thank you. God, it’s a curse, this thing. It really does cast a blight on visits here. It wasn’t even specially rough.’
‘Soon you’ll be able to fly,’ said Celia, ‘Look at Mr Hinkler, flying to Australia. In fifteen days! It’s amazing, however long would that take by ship, Oliver?’
‘Six or seven weeks at least,’ said Oliver. ‘Yes, I’m sure there will be commercial flights to America before long, Robert. Tea? Or brandy?’
‘Tea please,’ said Robert. ‘Now tell me, how are things at Lyttons? God, it’s nice to be able to feel an interest in things other than my stomach.’
‘Pretty good, I’d say,’ said Oliver. ‘Our own list is very lively, we seem to manage to keep up a pretty broad base. Funnily enough, the educational books are providing a very solid foundation, aren’t they, Celia?’
‘Yes,’ said Celia shortly. She didn’t like the rather mundane list of school certificate literature, atlases and logarithmic tables; she had put Giles in charge and he managed it very competently. Inevitably this did not please her either, confirming her view of him as it did as a dull, uninspired editor.
‘We’re getting rather a lot of competition from Germany,’ said Oliver, ‘they are the new force out there all over the world. Ironic, really.’
‘I hear from Felicity that the New York office is doing well.’
‘Yes, indeed. Stuart Bailey is a very clever young man. But then everything in America is doing well, isn’t it? How many millionaires are there in your country now? Eleven thousand, I think I read. This boom you’re enjoying, quite extraordinary. I think I would feel a little cautious if I were you. Things are very hard here still, you know, we have dreadful unemployment, and that was triggered many years ago by our own postwar boom and the overheating of the economy.’
‘Of course. But that was surely a direct result of the war,’ said Robert, ‘the sudden release of all those wartime bonus shares and so on. We’ve had years of stability and growth now. I think things will steady. The stock market can’t go on rising like this, of course, but I feel reasonably confident there won’t be a serious problem.’
‘Is that the generally held view?’
‘Well – yes, it is. There are a few scaremongers, but—’
‘Well, we’ve had a few tremors here, you know. Look at Clarence Hatry a few weeks ago and the collapse of his vending machine empire. The stock exchange didn’t like it at all. Quite a little tumble it took. The whole thing, I mean.’
‘Oh, I know, but that was an isolated incident,’ said Robert.
‘Of course. But it’s how panics start.’
‘What does your stepson think? From his rather privileged position on Wall Street?’ said Celia.
‘I have no idea,’ said Robert. ‘Laurence and I are still hardly on speaking terms. Unfortunately.’
‘That must be so distressing for you,’ said Oliver.
‘Oh, I’ve got used to it. He’ll never forgive me for marrying his mother and there’s nothing I can do to change that. Jamie is a great joy to me, and I have my darling Maud. We’re a pretty happy little family. Anyway, my own business is certainly booming. Slightly against the trend, I must admit but – well, John and I feel pretty confident. We’ve been business partners for a long time now, after all.’
‘How is he? And Felicity? Still the perfect wife, no doubt,’ said Celia. There was a new edge to her voice.
‘Oh, both pretty well. Felicity is doing splendidly. Her poetry sells to all sorts of people, and she’s always giving readings to ladies’ luncheon circles and so on.’
‘How very satisfying for her,’ said Celia. ‘I’m so glad. It must be nice for her to have an interest.’
‘I think it’s a little more than an interest,’ said Robert, ‘she’s really rather successful. She won some award last week—’
‘Oh, those poetry awards,’ said Celia, ‘so many of them, there seems to me to be one every week—’
‘Celia,’ said Oliver mildly, ‘I don’t think that’s quite accurate. Felicity has done wonderfully well and we shouldn’t begrudge her her success.’
‘Of course I don’t begrudge it,’ said Celia, ‘what an extraordinary thing to say. I discovered Felicity and her poetry for heaven’s sake, Oliver.’
‘Indeed you did,’ said Robert, ‘and she has never forgotten it. Young Kyle is doing awfully well, incidentally. A senior editor now at Doubledays, really considered a great talent. John and Felicity have never forgotten what you did for him, getting him that first job. And neither has he, I might add.’
‘Good Lord,’ said Oliver, ‘it was only a letter I wrote as I recall.’
‘Well, there are letters and letters,’ said Robert, ‘and that one was lifechanging for Kyle. A
nyway, Felicity constantly says she wishes you would both come over to New York so that she could offer you some real hospitality.’
‘Oh, I think it’s far better for Oliver to go to New York on his own,’ said Celia. ‘We can’t both leave Lyttons London at the same time after all.’
‘Not even with LM there? And Giles, of course. How is he doing? He seems very competent to me.’
‘I would like to agree with you,’ said Celia with a sigh, ‘but I’m afraid that, professionally anyway, Giles is a disappointment. Unlike young Mr Brewer. He has no real – vision. No feeling for the creative side of the business. Wouldn’t you agree, Oliver?’
‘You know it is more than my life is worth to disagree with you, Celia,’ said Oliver. ‘Over anything.’ His tone was light, and he smiled, but his blue eyes meeting hers were cold and very hard.
‘My darling, please please forgive me. I’m so desperately sorry. To have behaved like that, like an appalling spoilt child – I can’t quite believe it of myself.’
‘Well,’ said Pandora coolly, ‘that was exactly how it seemed. Really, Sebastian! Anyone would have thought I’d told you I was taking a lover.’
‘But darling, darling Pandora, don’t you see, that’s what it felt like. In a way. Oh, don’t look at me like that, I’m trying so hard to be – good.’
‘Well, I think you should try a bit harder. And you could start by getting me some warm milk. Expectant mothers need a lot of milk. And a lot of care.’
‘Of course. And I didn’t even ask you how you felt. Oh God, darling, how do you feel?’
‘I feel fine,’ said Pandora cheerfully. ‘A bit tired, but nothing worse than that. Now go and fetch the milk and then perhaps we can talk about it sensibly.’
‘I am trying to be sensible. I really am,’ said Sebastian, settling on the bed beside her, his hands playing tenderly with her long golden-brown hair. He had come in very late from London and his reading, and left his Primrose Hill house the following morning while she was still asleep; she had finally arrived home from the library at teatime to find him waiting for her with an enormous bouquet of white roses, a bowed head, and an expression of dramatic contrition that would have put Henry Irving to shame. She had greeted him rather coldly and gone upstairs to have a bath and to lie down on their bed; he had come in to see her, having first knocked tentatively on the door.
‘Well, you’d better try harder,’ said Pandora, sipping at the milk. ‘I cannot understand you, Sebastian. I suppose you’re not under an illusion that it’s not your baby?’
‘Oh, don’t be absurd. Of course not.’
‘Well, then, what is the matter? Most husbands are delighted when their wives tell them they’re expecting.’
‘I’m not most husbands,’ said Sebastian, ‘and please don’t use that horrible expression.’
‘Well, what am I to use? In the club? Preggers? That’s what the twins call it.’
‘They’re all horrible expressions. The only one I can bear is the French. Enceinte, that has a passably attractive ring to it.’
‘Oh, very well. I shall be enceinte. Now try to explain to me quite why you are so upset.’
‘I don’t want to share you,’ said Sebastian simply. ‘I love you too much. I want you all to myself, as you have been for the past year, I don’t want you distracted, half your mind on someone else. I know it’s foolish, but I can’t help it. I’m sure I shall get used to the idea and learn to love the little sprog, but at the moment I just feel so afraid of losing you.’
‘But Sebastian, how can you lose me to a baby? This is your baby. Well, yours and mine, we’ve made it together.’
‘Darling, I know. And I’m sure it will be beautiful and fascinating and all those things, although I must say I do find babies very unattractive. But they improve with time, I do admit that.’
‘So, then, what—’
‘It’s because we agreed we wouldn’t have any children. Well, not for a long time. And we knew why. Because we wanted to be together. Alone together, in our own – what shall I call it? – our own personal world. Pandora, ever since I met you, I haven’t wanted to see anyone else, talk to anyone else, be with anyone else. I haven’t even begun to discover enough about you. Every day still, I learn more and I love more about you. And now, it seems, I have to share you. With a baby.’
‘Well I’m sorry, Sebastian. It’s not my fault. I promise you I didn’t do anything to scupper our birth control arrangements on purpose. If that was what you thought.’
‘Of course not. Of course I didn’t. But—’
‘And I seem to remember you playing a very active role in the baby’s creation. I even think I know when it was. That night in London, after the opera. After Bohème. I remember lying there, after you had gone to sleep, hearing o care mio in my head, thinking that it had been perfect, loving you was perfect, making love had just been perfect, more perfect even than usual. Darling, please try to be pleased.’
‘I will try,’ he said, leaning over, kissing her, ‘I will try very hard. I think I felt just a tiny sliver of being pleased then, actually. And I remember Bohème and afterwards too. Anyway, the important thing now is to look after you. Are you sure you feel all right, what do we have to do to keep you well and strong, I suppose now you really must give up work. That will be nice at least, we can have lunch together every day—’
‘I’m not sure I want to have lunch together every day,’ said Pandora laughing. ‘I like to read over lunch. Read uninterrupted,’ she added, as he opened his mouth, clearly to argue. ‘But yes, the doctor did say I should give up work. I’m quite old to be having a first baby. I have to get lots of rest. Eat lots of fresh vegetables, all that sort of thing—’
‘When is it – going to be born?’ he asked.
‘Oh – May. Early May, the doctor thought. Specially if I was right about Bohème. Now I don’t think we should tell anyone yet, do you? I’d rather keep it a secret from everyone. Don’t you agree? Our secret. Just for now. I rather dread all the fuss. And I dread to think what Celia will have to say about it.’
‘Yes,’ said Sebastian, and his face was oddly sombre, ‘yes, I think I rather dread that too.’
‘Hallo, Barty. Remember me?’
Maud stood in the doorway of Barty’s small office, smiling. Barty smiled back. She had always liked Maud.
‘Yes, of course. How nice to see you.’
‘Nice to see you too. Can I come in a minute, or are you too busy?’
‘Well—’ Barty hesitated; she was extremely busy. She had some proofs which were promised for before lunch and it was already nearly twelve.
‘It’s OK,’ said Maud, recognising the hesitation, ‘I’ll come back.’
‘Oh – I feel awful now. It’s just that I am a bit pressed. I’ll be all right later.’
‘Don’t worry about it. Listen, Giles and I are having a spot of lunch. Why don’t you join us?’
‘I can’t. Really. I’m sorry. But after work I could – we could have a hot chocolate or something. If you weren’t busy.’
Maud smiled. ‘I’m not busy. And hot chocolate sounds just fine. I love it. Where do we get it?’
‘The Corner House down the road. Ask Giles if he’d like to join us.’
‘I will.’
And the hot chocolate became supper at the Corner House and then the three of them went to the pictures, which Maud called the movies, and saw Broadway Melody which, Maud told them, had won the Academy Award that year, and after that, they all went back to Barty’s flat which Maud said she was just dying to see and then Abbie joined them for more hot chocolate and took a great fancy to Maud and they all talked for what seemed like hours until Maud jumped and said goodness, look at the time and that they really should be getting back to Cheyne Walk.
‘Daddy still thinks I’m about four and a half,’ and Giles told her she was lucky and that his mother thought he was nearer two.
‘You should have parents like mine,’ said Abbie, ‘the
y hardly remember I exist, half the time.’
The next morning, after Giles had gone, Robert was mildly reproachful with Maud: ‘What on earth were you doing until nearly midnight?’
‘Talking,’ said Maud, ‘with Giles and Barty.’
‘All evening?’
‘No, of course not. We went to the movies and then we went back to Barty’s apartment. It’s so nice there, very small, but she’s made it look just wonderful. I loved it and so did Giles.’
‘What did Giles love?’ said Celia, who had walked into the room.
‘Barty’s apartment. Pardon me, her flat. He says he goes there quite often after work, to have a chat and a hot chocolate. My goodness, that girl can make good chocolate.’
‘Since Giles sees Barty all day long I’m surprised he feels the need to talk to her in the evening as well,’ said Celia.
‘Well, he does. They are obviously just very good friends,’ said Maud. ‘And you can’t ever have enough time to chat to your friends. And there was this darling girl called Abbie there, Barty’s best friend, she was just so nice, I expect you’ve met her?’
‘Actually no,’ said Celia. ‘And some of us have to manage without time to chat. Now I must go, it’s late and I have the most dreadful day ahead. I’ll see you both this evening. Or are you disappearing with Barty again, Maud? Of course you must do exactly what you like, but—’
‘Aunt Celia, I’ll be here.’
When Celia had gone, Maud looked at her father. ‘I think I boobed there,’ she said. ‘I don’t think I should have told her Giles went to Barty’s apartment.’
‘Oh, I don’t see why not. I’m sure it’s perfectly innocent,’ said Robert easily. ‘They’re practically brother and sister after all.’
‘Not quite,’ said Maud consideringly, ‘in fact, not at all. And I would say, Daddy, that what Giles feels for Barty is not very brotherly at all. He clearly just adores her. Everything she says, he listens to with immense attention, you know? And asks for her opinion on everything, and whatever she does, his eyes follow her.’
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