Chapter Seventeen

Friday afternoon, Annie, Emily and Jane stood in the kitchen of Mont Manor and watched the men putting up the marquee. The giant flat canvas was like a mirage in the heat.

‘We’re watching to check they do a good job, aren’t we?’ Annie laughed as all the men heaved at the ropes, their T-shirts tucked into their shorts, their muscles straining.

Emily frowned and nodded. ‘Absolutely. This is by no means gratuitous staring.’

Jane backed away from the window to retrieve her martini. ‘I drink way more when I’m with you, Emily.’

‘It’s medicinal,’ Emily said, waving a hand to dismiss her. ‘It’s been a traumatic week.’

Jane picked out her olive on its cocktail stick and slid it off with her teeth. ‘How did you get rid of the paps in the end?’ she asked.

Emily pulled out one of her new wooden country kitchen chairs and, sitting down, said, ‘I offered them something better.’

‘What?’

‘I’m not quite sure yet,’ she said with a half-smile. ‘We’re going to have to wait and see.’

Jane raised a brow. ‘Mysterious.’

Winston came in to get them all to come and look at his beautifully painted living room. The pineapples gone, the whole room had been reverted back to the palest yellow. Emily sighed. ‘Ahh, the yellow room. Thank you, Winston,’ she said, going over to kiss him on the cheek.

‘It’s my pleasure.’

‘It’s perfect,’ said Emily as she lay down on the carpet, flat on her back to take it all in. ‘It’s exactly, exactly perfect.’

Winston laughed and went off to clean his brushes.

‘Lie down and look up,’ she told Annie and Jane. ‘It’s calming.’

‘Are you going to make us do Mindfullness exercises?’ Annie asked as she crouched down to the floor.

They lay in a star shape, all their heads meeting in the middle.

‘See, isn’t it mellow?’ Emily said.

‘Kind of,’ said Annie.

After a few seconds of staring, Emily asked, ‘Has anyone seen Jack by any chance?’

‘No.’ Both Annie and Jane said it in unison.

Emily didn’t say anything else.

‘Em, he doesn’t hang around. You know that. I don’t know if he is coming back, you know?’ Annie said quietly.

Emily nodded, her hair scrunching on the dust sheet on the floor beneath her. She didn’t say anything for a moment. Annie reached out so that her hand could hold hers and she gave it a squeeze. ‘I know,’ Emily said.

No one spoke.

Then Jane reached over to her bag, fumbled around for the diary and said, ‘Let me read you this…’

He sent me a letter today saying he’d be in London on the 18th. It asks if I want to join him. He says he knows it’s forward and unexpected, but if this war has taught us anything it is to seize opportunities when they arise. He says that if I don’t join him then he’ll be forced to go and see his family which will be a dry, boring affair. And he’d rather spend his days laughing at the moment. He said that I was the only person he’d met who had made him laugh without thinking about it. (I’m assuming with me rather than at me, the latter would not be promising.)

Here look this is what his note says: If you want to join me for dinner, I’ll be staying at the Ritz.

The Ritz! I’ve never been to the Ritz. Can you imagine if the only time I went was with a war on? What would I wear? I can’t believe I’m thinking about what I would wear rather than whether I should meet a stranger for dinner.

Of course I’m going to meet him. If we can’t make beautiful memories at the moment, what can we do?

Emily rolled over onto her front and propped her chin up on her elbows. Annie did the same.

‘She went to the Ritz to meet him?’ Emily said, mouth open in shock. ‘Go Enid!’

‘Yeah, I know!’ Jane nodded. ‘There are pages and pages of description about what it was like. She got really nervous about going, didn’t tell a soul. She wore a blue silk dress of her mothers that she re-sewed at night without anyone knowing. It’s amazing. She got a lift in the ambulance up to London and said she was so nervous she couldn’t open the back doors when it pulled up. The doorman came over and helped her in the end. She never said any of this, did she? I never even heard her talk about it with my mum.’

Annie reached out and took the diary from Jane, flicking over the pages. ‘Does she talk about the evening? How it went?’

‘Yeah.’ Jane leant over and turned a couple more pages so Annie could see where to read from.

‘It was lovely. More so than I’d hoped. I don’t need to write it down because I will remember it forever.’

‘Damn you, Enid,’ Annie said with a frustrated laugh.

‘We sat in the bar together, we smoked, we talked about everything, we laughed, he held my hand. I’ve never had my hand held with such reverence before. I’m not stupid. I know it will be nothing more than a night. But it was truly the best night of my life.

Mum asked today if I’d seen her dress. I said maybe someone had stolen it off the line. She looked suspicious. I think it’s because I can’t stop smiling, although no doubt tomorrow’s shift will put paid to that.

The weather is boiling. It’s insufferable. I want to be back at the Ritz.’

Annie shut the diary. ‘I’ve just realised that this only ends badly,’ she said. ‘I’ve had this ridiculous smile on my face reading it and I know it ends badly. What happens next?’

‘I don’t know,’ said Jane with a shake of her head. ‘It’s in the next diary. We’ll have to wait and see.’

Emily rolled onto her back again. ‘It sounds like it was perfect while it was happening, doesn’t it? Wartime stripping them of all inhibitions. It’s fabulous. Surely it’s better to have experienced it, than not?’

It was only after she said it, that Emily realised she could have been talking about her and Jack. And the idea of her having kissed him and him never coming back didn’t seem in any way a good thing. ‘Or maybe I’m wrong,’ she said, pulling herself up to standing and heading for the door. ‘Makes me want to go to the Ritz,’ she added in as throwaway, casual a tone as she could muster.