With the creak of Hildegard’s shoes, her silent contest with the tiny sun-lizard over who would be the first to move was over: it scuttled from the terrace and disappeared.
‘Hildy, you are like an invading army.’
‘This letter came. See? It is the air tickets. I don’t know why I must come. I shall be sick, as always.’
‘Stuff and nonsense. You will love it. And you are never airsick.’
‘Shall we visit Melanie?’
‘Of course we shall visit Melanie.’
‘Then I shall come. Here, drink your tea.’
Two elderly women – one arthritic, one breathless – who shared equally the family of the arthritic one – children, grandchildren, and now the delightful great-grandchild. One wealthy, one penniless except for the salary paid by the wealthy one, they had scarcely been out of sight of one another for almost fifty years.
‘When we are in London, Hildy, remind me to bring back that little picture from my study.’
‘The dragonfly?’
‘“Demoiselle with Lilies and Irises”, yes. It will be lovely in this light.’
‘He was a very good man.’
‘Yes, wasn’t he?’
‘We shall take him flowers, Milady.’
‘We shall, Brünnhilde, if the gravestones haven’t been whisked off or used to make paths.’
‘Does Giacopazzi use him also for this story? Is he a good guy – he should be.’
‘So far as I have read, she has done very well by him. She has also done very well by me so far…I have been reading how I lost my virginity.’
‘Never! You will not allow her to put that in the book?’
‘Why not? It is charming, and she makes it much less mundane than I remember it. But it was in March, at the Savoy, and there were flowers and wine.’ The sun-lizard eased itself out of the crevice, and she smiled at it for having claimed its place again in the wonderful golden light.
‘But the family… Fergus, and Delia, how will they feel to see you written so in a Giacopazzi book?’
‘Young people today know about such things. They know that a mother’s maidenhead must have been lost. It will be good for them to know something of their ancestry. And why should they care about something that is a long-past history, and scarcely credible anyhow? I lost my virginity in 1940. Forty-nine years… so long ago.’
‘I should not care to let the world read of my maidenhood.’
‘Head. When you meet Georgia, you should tell her, and perhaps she will make it romantic and put it in a book.’
‘There is nothing romantic in rape by filthy Nazis.’
‘Oh Hildy. My dear, I had forgotten. I am sorry, sorry, sorry.’
‘Pfft. As you say, it was so long ago.’
‘Even so, it has done me good to read Georgia’s version of my seduction. I look forward to meeting her again after all these years.’
‘Meet Giacopazzi! Cheee!’
‘Meeting Georgia Kennedy. We were such good friends… only you have been a better one.’