Page 74 of An Invitation to the Kennedys
‘Oh, it’s fine,’ she said, ‘go on.Get it off your chest, whatever it is.’
‘Just that,’ he said.‘Everywhere, always, I am looked at.Considered.Observed.’
‘I think I know what that might be like …’ Brigid said thoughtfully.‘I know why they look at me.But you – what is it that everyone looks for?Your wonderful good looks?’
Kick laughed.Fritzi too.
‘No, although I am told they are indeed wonderful.’
‘Do not fish,’ Brigid said.‘You will get nothing.’
‘It is not my looks.It’s not even really me,’ he continued.‘It’s what I might do.What I might be used for.’
‘Like a small pot,’ Brigid said.‘One that might be a vase, or a place to keep pins, or bits of hair ribbon.’
‘Perhaps.’He looked confused.
Kick laughed again.She was willing to bet no one had ever teased Fritzi the way Brigid teased him now.‘You don’t have sisters, do you?’she asked.
‘I do, two, but they are younger and I have been more with my brothers.Three, all older than me.’
‘Six of you?You are nearly up to Kennedy standards.’
‘When I marry, I should like many children.Five, at least.I would like them to be close in age and good friends with one another.Not like we were.’
‘I think you have to encourage children to be friends,’ Kick said.‘You have to make them.And then they are.’
They had walked a good distance from the house by now, and came out of the clump of laurels.Ahead of them was lawn, but boggier and more pitted than the smooth green expanse by the tennis court and pool.
‘Who is Doris?’he asked then.
‘I thought you knew her,’ Brigid said.‘You seemed to, at the tennis.’
‘I’ve met her, but I don’t know her.’
‘She’s a friend of my sister.They were at school together ever so long ago.I think Doris might be Honor’s favourite person in the world.’
‘I see.’
‘Why?Is it because you danced with her and are now in love with her?’
‘No.More because she remembers.’
‘I don’t understand.’
‘Well, she was there, that night, with all the men of the SS command, who were invited by my grandfather to celebrate his grandsons joining the Luftwaffe.’
‘I don’t think I really know what that is,’ Brigid said.
‘It is the air force, like your RAF.’
‘I see.Go on.’
‘And your Doris was there too.I remember her so clearly.’
‘People do tend to.Men, especially.’Brigid said it wistfully, Kick thought.
‘I think everyone was in love with her,’ Fritzi said.‘Certainly I was.’Beside her in the wet gloom, Kick felt Brigid stiffen.‘But there she was, and now she is here, and I don’t know why.’
