Page 24 of An Invitation to the Kennedys
‘Lord, no,’ she said, turning cold and languid where she had been warm and funny, so that the man blushed – Kick could see his ears turn red even in the dim light – and retreated.
‘How mean you are,’ Debo said lightly.
‘How absurd they are,’ Diana retorted.
After that she fell silent, smoking and looking around with eyes so large they seemed to absorb all the light, leaving less for the rest of them.Unity came back with a girl in a tight pink dress and they both laughed immoderately at what seemed like private jokes.‘Whatever happened to Ratular?’the girl in pink asked.Ratular, Kick knew, was Unity’s pet rat, often brought to parties and balls where he would sit on Unity’s lap or run from one arm to the other along her shoulders.
‘He’s alright,’ Unity said.‘I need to find him a dear little lady rat friend so they can have sweet babies.’
The girl shrieked.‘You wouldn’t!’
‘Of course I would.Why not?I’d rather more rats in the world than more people.Rats are jolly intelligent and ever so sweet.Most people are simply frightful.’
‘You are funny, Unity,’ the girl said.
But Kick didn’t think Unity was joking.She sounded perfectly serious.Even more so when she said fervently, ‘Some people – somepeoples– are especially frightful, much more like vermin than dear, sweet rats.’What did she mean?Kick wondered.
‘Not now, Unity,’ Diana said with a frown that creased her thin eyebrows.
Kick was bored and wanted to dance, but no one asked her.She hoped it was because Diana had scared them all away and not because they didn’t want to dance with her.She realised that she had been counting on Billy being here.Had been keyed up with the anticipation of running into him.Now that he wasn’t, she felt tired and strangely flat.
Just as she was about to say she wanted to go home, Debo nudged her.‘I spy with my tiny eye, something – someone– starting with B …’ She jerked her head up towards the balcony that curved around the room, finishing in two staircases that descended in a double sweep behind the bandstand.Sure enough, there he was, leaning over the balcony rail with a cigarette in his hand.He saw her immediately.Just as she was wondering how to play it – should she pretend she hadn’t seen him?Be deep in conversation with Debo?Or better still, a man?– he waved over and began to make his way along the balcony to the stairs.Behind him a girl in a white evening dress – Irene, Kick saw – started after him, then looked down.She too saw Kick, and screwed her face up in irritation.
‘I say.’Billy arrived at their table.‘How jolly.’
‘Billy, darling,’ Debo said.‘Will you have Champagne?’
‘No, for I should only have to drink it.’
‘Too exhausting,’ Diana agreed solemnly, so that Debo laughed and Kick wondered what was funny.
‘Will you come and dance?’he asked her.
Kick, conscious of Diana, Debo and Unity all staring at her, got up quickly.‘Sure, I’d love to,’ she said.
He took her hand and as they walked to the dancefloor, she heard Unity’s piping tones: ‘Something beginning with B… Oh, I see …’
The dancefloor was full of couples swaying gently, and Teddy Brown’s band were playing ‘I Get a Kick out of You’.
‘How very apt,’ Billy murmured, pulling her to him.He held her close, but not close the way the fellows in America did, so that you were almost crushed against their chests.With Billy, they were still separate from one another, just.And somehow it was all the more intoxicating.She breathed deep, the lemon tang of his cologne and French cigarettes.
‘Aren’t you brave, having dinner with that lot,’ he said when she told him how she had spent her evening.The way he said it, she wasn’t sure thatbravedidn’t mean something else.‘Diana makes one think of a car simply hurtling along a narrow road towards one, with those great eyes and that tremendously fixed purpose.If she weren’t so terrifying she’d be a frightful bore.’
She laughed, and tried to think of something to say that would amuse him.‘She says that in Leeds they call Mosley “The Pope”.’
He stiffened, drawing back a little from her.
She quickly changed the subject.‘My little brothers, Teddy and Bobby, opened a new petting zoo.Teddy cut the ribbon with a pair of scissors nearly as big as he is.’
‘How sweet,’ he said.‘Did you go too?’
‘I did, and I nearly took one of the penguins home with me in my pocket.They were just the cutest.If Unity can have a pet rat, why should I not have a pet penguin?’
‘I cannot think of a single reason,’ he said gallantly.‘Certainly if anyone could pull it off, you could.’
They danced some more – the band were in melancholy humour and all the songs were slow – and Kick let herself drift with the feel of him against her.He was so tall that her cheek barely reached his shoulder.Perhaps she should wear higher heels, she thought.When the music speeded up, Billy pulled back slightly to look down at her.‘All the same,’ he said seriously, ‘I wonder should you go about with Diana and Mosley?’
‘But I don’t—’ she began.
