Page 23 of An Invitation to the Kennedys
‘Darling, why don’t you show Kathleen Mildred’s puppies?’Mosely said, as though reading her uncomfortable thoughts.Mildred was Diana’s whippet.‘They are in a basket in the bedroom.’
Diana swept Kick, Debo and Unity upstairs to a room upholstered in shades of peony silk that was so voluptuous as to be positively lascivious, with a bed so large it was impossible, looking at it, not to think of the things that might happen there.Remembering Mosley’s hot, wet eyes, Kick found herself blushing.When she looked up, Diana was staring at her, an amused smile on her face.
‘Would you like to hold one?’she said, of the puppies.‘Mildred is such a perfect angel, she will not mind.They are the softest little creatures you can imagine.Like stroking baby mice.’She deposited a puppy in Kick’s lap.
‘Like velvet,’ Kick said.
‘You know,’ Diana said as she handed a puppy to Debo, who immediately began kissing its nose, ‘we think it’s a jolly good thing that your father should have been sent, and that he should have brought so many of his wonderful family.We all admired – so much!– howwellyou managed as hostess in the beginning, before your mother arrived.’
Kick felt a wonderful rush of feeling at the thought that she had been seen – watched and observed and approved of.
‘We do hope you will feel at home here,’ Diana continued.‘And that you know you can come to us for anything at all you might need, even the tiniest thing.You do feel that, don’t you?’
Kick, locked in the beam of those headlamp eyes, nodded; warm and flattered by the interest of this beautiful, glamorous woman whom she heard spoken of in tones of near-reverence.‘We will,’ she said solemnly.‘I will.’
‘Why,’ Diana said, as though such a thing had only occurred to her, ‘you might come to one of Mosley’s rallies.You have no idea how they worship him.I do think you would enjoy it.The girls could bring you.’She inclined her head towards Debo and Unity.
‘They are ever such a rip,’ Unity said.‘You’ll see.’
Kick stammered something, unwilling to commit, unsure how to avoid – her father would never allow it, or would he?Obviously he and Mosley had similar views on war – and she knew her mother would appreciate his words on the church and the discipline of faith – but did that mean she could attendrallies?Oh why must everything be so complicated?She sighed.
Again Diana was quick.‘Let’s go out,’ she said.‘A nightclub.Café de Paris?I’m sure it’s simply filled with lovely things beginning with B.’
Unity looked cross.‘Why is everyone talking in a code I don’t understand.’
Mosley saw them to the club in a taxi but didn’t come with them.‘Better I don’t,’ he said, tilting Diana’s face up towards him and kissing her.Kick looked away quickly, face prickling with embarrassment, so that she was looking quite the wrong way when he came to say goodbye to her and was flustered as he took her hand.The chill neon of the Café de Paris sign above them flickered and in its ghostly light Mosley looked as though drawn in charcoal, the thin black dividing line of his moustache and his black eyes picked out stark in the white of his face.He bowed gracefully.‘So nice to meet you.’He lingered overnice.‘See you again.’
Without him or Envers, Diana was almost cosy.She found them a table – by staring so hard at two young men seated together that they hastily got up and offered their places, at which Debo laughed and said, ‘Ever the hunter, aren’t you?’– and ordered Champagne.
‘Ghastly crowd,’ Diana said cheerfully, looking around.‘Last year’s debs and a smattering of the demi-monde.I don’t know why they call it the Café de Paris, far more like the Café de Croydon.’
Unity went to ‘look for pals’.
‘Tell me more about your brothers,’ Diana asked Kick.‘We have only the one.Curious lot, brothers, aren’t they?I think poor Tom was surprised to find he wasn’t actually a girl when he was seven or eight.’
Kick threw her head back and laughed.‘I don’t think Joe and Jack have ever been in any doubt,’ she said.‘In fact, I’m the one who had a hard time understanding that I wasn’t the same as them.’
‘What do you mean?’
‘Able to run as fast, play football, sail, all the things they did that I wanted to do.’
‘Kick is a frightful tomboy,’ Debo said.
‘Everyone’s a tomboy compared with you,’ Diana said with a smile.‘What about now?’she asked Kick.‘Do you still want to do everything they do?’
‘Oh yes.And more.All the freedom they have …’
‘To do what?’
‘Whatever they want,’ Kick said simply.‘Go where they want, meet who they want.Do anything, be anything.’
‘It is unfair,’ Diana agreed.
‘Diana is a great believer in equality,’ Debo said with a smile.‘She has all sorts of ideas.’
‘Mosley has them too,’ Diana said.
A man approached them and after reminding Diana that they had met – ‘at the Astors’’ – asked her to dance.
