Page 78 of An Invitation to the Kennedys
Honor
Because of Doris, last night’s seating had been rearranged so that, Honor saw with relief, she was no longer beside the ambassador.Now, Doris was.It did make the lack of men all the more glaring, but better that than another night of Joe Kennedy’s questions.Doris, she saw, took her seat beside him with a smile, and said, ‘How nice this is.’The ambassador drew his chair eagerly towards her.
‘They say that more rain fell today than in the last two months together,’ Chips said.‘The river is quite dangerous now.No one must go near it.’
‘No one will go near it, Chips,’ Maureen said.‘Honestly, what unnecessary warnings you do give: “Do not stand with your feet in the fire,”’ she mocked.‘“Do not put your arm into the lion’s mouth.Do not eat the rat poison.” Unless of course your party is so very boring that we will be rushing to the river, either to drown ourselves and escape, or simply for some excitement.’
‘Maureen!’Honor shook her head.Even for her, this was a bit much.
Maureen looked back at her.The silvery-green sequins of her evening dress clustered and clumped at the shoulder like barnacles.Honor imagined them living on top of one another, fighting for space, and felt her stomach squirm for a moment.Her face was pale, powdered thick, but underneath the make-up, two hot spots of red burned high up on each cheekbone.Had she been drinking?Or was it Chips, with his paper-twists of white powder?But no, Honor thought.There hadn’t been time for either.It had been late when they had gone up to dress, after an afternoon that had stretched, long and sleepy, after the outburst.She recalled with a tight smile the diligent heaping of banal impressions, one on top of the other; talk of plays watched, films seen, books read and the eager way they had all participated in putting distance between Duff’s remarks, Doris’ interjection and Rose’s response.Once that had died down, once they were all in small and separate groups, reading or talking quietly, she had heard only the sound of rain on the windows, so soporific that the hours had drifted by like clouds that herald nothing.
‘Where did you get to?’she asked Brigid.A distraction.‘You were gone so long I thought we’d have to send someone after you.But then Andrews rang the bell and there you were suddenly, like magic.’She smiled at her sister.
‘We went to the stables,’ Brigid said.‘And found the dearest piebald.Quite the sweetest fellow.’
‘There are no horses in the stables,’ Chips said.
‘There’s one,’ Brigid said.‘Not for riding.This chap pulls a farm cart or some such by the looks of him.’
‘But a piebald,’ Chips said, face scrunched.
‘I’d forgotten how superstitious you are,’ Doris said, amused.‘Chips hates black cats, magpies, piebalds – anything black and white,’ she explained to the table.‘I’ve seen him veer away from a guinea pig in the nursery at Elveden.’
‘I remember that guinea pig,’ Brigid said.‘Mrs Twigs.She was Patsy’s.Not the most rewarding of pets …’
‘That’s enough,’ Chips said irritably.‘Doris exaggerates, of course,’ he said to the ambassador, who looked confused by the turn the conversation had taken.
Honor looked at Doris and shook her head, although she didn’t bother to hide her smile.How much more manageable Chips seemed, she thought, when Doris was there to tease him, to mock his relentless pressing and scheming.How much less oppressive.Suddenly, she felt she could breathe again.As though Doris had pushed back the overflow of Chips that had invaded Honor’s life, and made space for her again.‘What shall we do tomorrow?’she asked.
‘I rather thought we might visit a place of interest nearby,’ Chips said.‘The ruins of a Roman bathhouse.Mrs Kennedy, what do you say?’
‘Yes, indeed.We would greatly enjoy that.’
‘Well, that’s settled then,’ Chips said, looking around.Honor noticed that no one else agreed.Indeed, Duff and Elizabeth both dropped their gazes to their plates and carefully avoided eye contact with Chips that might be interpreted as assent.
‘Why is there a light in the rooms above the stables?’Brigid asked idly.‘I thought they were empty.’
‘That’s where Fritzi’s man, Albert, is,’ said Chips.‘Apparently he finds the servants’ rooms too noisy, so he asked to be moved.And as dear Fritzi says he isn’t exactly a servant, it was agreed.’
‘I hope it has been no trouble?’Fritzi asked.‘I did not know …’
‘No, dear boy, no trouble at all.’Chips waved his hands expansively.Waved away even the possibility of trouble.‘For you, there is no trouble.’
Honor saw Fritzi glance at Brigid and grin, and Brigid’s answering grin.What it meant, she did not know, except that they were somehow in sympathy with one another.Chips saw it too.
Later, in the drawing room, Elizabeth came and squeezed in beside Honor.‘It’s not a sofa, Elizabeth, just an armchair.There isn’t room,’ Honor protested.
‘There’s space for teeny me,’ Elizabeth said.‘If you will just sit like a lady with your knees politely together and not like your mother, who sits like a man.’She giggled.Then, ‘Isn’t Fritzi popular,’ she said slyly.
‘What do you mean?’
‘Surely you have noticed how sought after he is?’
‘By who?’
‘Everyone.Chips,obviously.’She winked.‘But the ambassador as well.And Duff.Both of them are always asking him to walk with them, sit beside them, asking what he thinks about this and that.Now that Doris is here, she does exactly the same.Even Brigid seems happy for his company.’
‘They do seem to be getting along better.’
