Chapter Twelve #3
‘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 that brave didn’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.
‘Especially now,’ he continued. ‘Now that things are, well, are uncertain …’
Kick tried to think what to say: that she barely knew Diana and had only met Mosley a handful of times? Anyway, what was uncertain?
‘My father says this will all settle down,’ she tried. ‘He says it’s just a question of getting used to a new player and that Hitler will be perfectly alright once he’s proven himself on the pitch.’ Somehow she felt safe telling Billy what her father said, in a way she hadn’t with Mosley.
‘More baseball?’ he said, but his smile was stiff. ‘The only problem with that is that it rather looks as though Hitler’s way to prove himself means war.’
‘Oh, but there is no need for England to fight another war,’ Kick said eagerly.
‘I’m not sure it can be avoided.’
‘Don’t worry, my father is here to make sure that doesn’t happen.’ She spoke gaily, but there was a sharp little silence.
‘I’m not sure it should be avoided.’ He spoke with less than his usual languor.
She was almost grateful when Irene came up behind them then and tapped Billy smartly on the shoulder.
‘There you are,’ she drawled. ‘I’ve been sent to rescue you.’ She shot a cross look at Kick. Billy said something polite about not needing to be rescued, but allowed Irene to lead him away and didn’t seem at all upset about it.
Damn the talk of war, she thought. It always spoiled everything.
She believed her father; if he said a thing, then the thing was true.
That’s what she had always learned. But for the first time, she felt the pull of another’s opinions – Billy’s – that were so opposite to her father’s.
It was an uncomfortable feeling. Because if Billy was right – if war shouldn’t be avoided – then her father was wrong. And he had never been wrong.
She went to sit down. Andrew, Billy’s brother, had pulled up a chair and was deep in conversation with Debo, leaning towards her and laughing hard at everything she said. He went to get them more drinks and Debo turned to Kick.
‘Well?’ she asked sympathetically.
‘I don’t know.’ Kick shrugged. ‘I really don’t. I mean, if I was in America, I’d know. Or if I didn’t, I’d just ask him straight out.’
‘You wouldn’t!’
‘I might.’
‘How I should like to see that.’ Debo grinned. ‘But no. It won’t do. We shall just have to find out.’
‘How? Especially now when Mother is making me go away with these Channon people.’
‘Actually, I think I can manage something,’ Debo said.
‘I’ve been asked to the Blounts – their place is jolly near – and Billy and his parents have too.
He thought he wouldn’t go, but perhaps I can persuade him that he should.
Something away from London …’ she mused.
‘Everything is different in the country. Especially in the summer.’
‘Would you really?’
‘Really.’
‘It would be the perfect way for Billy to meet Mother.’ Kick’s mind began racing ahead. ‘Like that, at a weekend party—’
‘You really must stop saying weekend …’ Debo said faintly. ‘So …’
‘American,’ Kick said firmly. ‘It will be just the right kind of way to meet,’ she continued.
‘Not like at a ball or a London party, with everyone stiff in their best clothes and a thousand people all clamouring for her attention … No, this will be perfect. An afternoon, even a whole day. Where they can talk and get to know one another, and then how can she fail to see what a dear he is.’
‘You are so convinced that your mother is the stumbling block. What about his lot?’
‘His parents will like me,’ Kick said with certainty. ‘Parents always like me.’
‘Parents, maybe, but Billy’s parents …?’
‘How different can they be?’
‘Now that’s a question …’ Debo said, amused. ‘Not one to answer now.’
‘But how can you be sure they’ll come? Maybe the Channons won’t invite them?’
‘He’s the Duke of Devonshire, darling. You may be certain Chips has already invited him.’
‘Well then, maybe they won’t want to go?’
‘I’ve thought of that. It’s a possibility alright.
But I have a plan.’ She lowered her voice.
‘I shall suggest that Diana and Mosley call to visit the Blounts. That will get Billy and his parents out in record time.’ She gave a gurgle of laughter.
‘They’d go anywhere to avoid meeting Mosley. All I have to do is suggest Kelvedon.’