Page 47 of An Invitation to the Kennedys
‘Are you going up to change?’Brigid whispered, falling into step beside her as she left the morning room through the double doors that led straight to the garden.Outside was sunny and bright and somehow smooth; like a well-poached egg, Kick thought with a lurch of elation.
She looked down at her cream shorts, pale-green-and-white gingham shirt and white plimsolls.‘Why?Should I?’
‘No, only I thought for sure you would.That always seems to be what the girls I know do, when meeting a chap they like.I must change, they squeal, and they run off and reappear in something frightful.’Brigid laughed.
‘Do they really?’Kick asked, stopping at a lavender bush.‘I wonder do they know the change is a frightful one?’She sounded amused.
‘Of course they do not!’Brigid said.‘They imagine they look simply wonderful.’
‘Well, I won’t change.I mean, what’s the point?We will only be outside anyway.’
‘I should have known you would not.’
‘So, what “amusing games” shall we arrange?’Kick asked.‘We can’t play the tennis tournament, darn it, because the court will not be ready.They are still painting lines.In any case, it is too hot.’She pinched off a piece of lavender and sniffed at it.
‘Swim?’
‘Yes, but that will not keep us occupied for an entire day.’
‘Certainly it won’t keepyouoccupied for an entire day.Croquet?’
‘Boring!’Kick made a face.‘But if we make teams and put up a prize for the winners, it’ll be more interesting.’
‘What kind of prize?’
‘Doesn’t really matter.Anything, as long as it’s clear what it’s for.’
‘A tooth mug?’Brigid asked with a laugh.
‘Perfectly daisy!’Then, ‘What to do with Fritzi, though?He isn’t really the tooth mug type.’
‘Oh he’ll be alright.’
‘Isn’t Debo a pal?’Kick asked then.
‘Certainly seems like it.But I don’t know how you have made her so.Those Mitford girls are terrifying.Diana,’ Brigid shuddered.‘The way she looks at one, with those great big eyes of hers.And Nancy, so cutting she’s like a giant pair of dressmaking scissors.’
‘And yet Diana can be oh-so-nice too, you know?I went to supper there, and she was just darling.Unity too.Although she’s a funny one alright.’
‘Funny is not what most people call Unity.You should hear what Duff says about her.Calls her a traitor to the country, and would say worse except respect for Lord Redesdale holds him back a little.’
‘You should have seen her, that day of the Hyde Park riots … She came racing into the embassy for all the world like a fox with the hunt after it.Except the most brazen fox you ever saw.“I don’t care a bit,” she said, tossing her head.And I could see she meant it … We had to persuade her not to go out and address them all from the steps of the embassy, and then only by saying Pa would be furious.’
‘Imagine being that sure of anything,’ Brigid said, wondering.‘I mean, so sure that you would stand up and defy anyone who didn’t agree with you.It’s like half the fun, for Unity, is that everyone is against her.Can you imagine?I can’t bear if people are cross with me even for the slightest thing.And there’s Unity, delighted that the whole world is furious with her.’
‘I say,’ Debo’s rather high voice came to them from the house, ‘there you are.Chips said we’d find you out here.He said you were plotting.’
‘And here we are.But only plotting for fun,’ Brigid called, waving her over.‘Hullo, Billy.Hullo, Andrew.’
‘Jolly nice of you to invite us,’ Billy said as they crossed the lawn.The boys wore white flannels and Billy had already taken his jacket off and rolled up his sleeves.Debo wore wide navy trousers with a white-and-blue striped top and was fanning herself exaggeratedly with the brim of a straw hat.
‘I rather think you invited yourselves,’ Kick said.‘But who can blame you, on a hot day, with rumours of a swimming pool.’
Andrew turned pink at the ears, but Billy laughed and said, ‘That’s it alright,’ then introduced the young man with them: ‘This is Hugo.I promised him tremendous fun, so you see, you mustn’t let me down.’
‘You make wild promises, and we must honour them?’Kick asked with a laugh.‘Well, alright then.Shall we start with a swim?’
‘Yes, please,’ Debo said, fanning her hat harder.‘I feel like an ice cream that has begun to flop down the side of the cone.Isn’t it simply too hot?’
