Letty felt uncomfortable, not because she thought she was treating Gerda with any lack of sympathy, but it would be very easy for Meggie to think that she did. In any case, the subject of Gerda was better avoided if it was going to lead to Meggie considering her mother in relation to Gerda. Adela was about as nice to Gerda as to any of her employees, but that was saying uncommonly little, and it was lucky Meggie did not live in the house, or she would certainly have found this out. She reverted to the subject of Jim.
“I told you about Jim because you asked me if I wanted to come to the party. Well, I do, just because I’ve never been to La Porte Verte, but, as a matter of fact, Jim’s been very queer about it. He’s set his face against me going. I never saw him so set about anything before.”
“Why doesn’t he want you to go?”
Letty laughed.
“I think he’s heard things about La Porte Verte. You know, wardens haven’t much to do on a night when there isn’t a raid, and I think they get gossiping. Talk about women being gossips. You give me a parcel of men with nothing to do!”
“What could he have heard about La Porte Verte?”
“Nothing that’s true, or your mother wouldn’t be taking you there. You see, people like Jim and I never go to those sort of places, and Jim’s a funny old-fashioned sort.”
Meggie threw her arms round Letty.
“Oh, Letty, you do love him. Your voice gets a purr like a cat’s when you talk about him. Now I hope Claire comes. I bet you care for pleasing Jim much more than going to any silly old restaurant.”
“Well, I do really.” Letty looked at her watch. “Come along to your mother’s sitting-room. I’m sure it’s all right, but I’ll have a look round just to be sure.”
Punctually at half-past seven Gardiner and Andrew arrived. Gardiner crossed the room with both hands out. “Adela, my dear! How are you?”
His tone was sympathetic. Adela smiled.
“Bearing up. It’s been an appalling winter, as you know; in fact, as you can see from looking at poor London; but here we still are.” She held out a hand to Meggie and drew her to Gardiner. “Here’s Meggie.” Gardiner kissed Meggie, and then held her face between his hands. His voice was soft.
“Little Meggie a grown-up lady! My, won’t your Aunty Millicent be pleased that I’ve seen you!” He remembered Andrew. “I’d like to have you know Mr. Andrew Bishop, Adela. This is Mrs. Framley, Andrew, and this is Miss Meggie Framley.”
Gills handed round a tray of cocktails. Adela was talking to Gardiner, and Letty was hanging about the passage uncertain whether to come in or not, so Meggie was left to talk to Andrew. Gills brought them their drinks, his eyes indicating to Meggie a glass by his thumb much like the others except that its stick held two cherries. Meggie beamed her gratitude to Gills, and feeling immensely grown-up took a sip. Andrew, sweating with shyness, made an effort.
“I don’t think it’s quite so cold to-night, do you, Miss Framley?”
Meggie giggled.
“I’m awfully sorry,” she gurgled, seeing his scarlet cheeks, “but you can’t call me Miss Framley. You’ll have to call me Meggie.”
“Oh, thanks awfully!”
She was conscious suddenly of how wretched he was feeling with shyness.
“I’ll tell you something. I’m not grown-up really, I only look it. I’m not seventeen yet, not until September. This isn’t even really a cocktail,” she broke off, her face paling, her eyes fixed on Noel Deeves who was coming in at the door. “I know that man.”
Andrew, immensely comforted by Meggie’s confession about her age, said quite naturally:
“Well, you probably would. Your mother must know him or he wouldn’t be here.”
Meggie gave a little gesture with one hand as if to silence him.
“How do you do, Noel,” Adela was saying. “Mr. Penrose, Mr. Deeves.” She turned and included Meggie and Andrew in her glance, “my daughter, and Mr. Bishop.”
Noel helped himself to a cocktail, and got in a good look at Meggie. My daughter! Had Paul more than one sister or was this the little kid he’d met him with? She was very attractive, smart little bit of goods too.
“Meggie, dear,” said Adela, “call Miss Smithson. I really think Claire can’t be coming.” She turned to Gardiner. “It’s so hard to get hold of people these days. I asked my niece, Claire Hill, but she does some sort of night-work and wasn’t sure she could manage to get off, and if she doesn’t come I’m afraid I’ve got to make the party up with my secretary; quite a nice creature, but you know . . .” she broke off with a shrug of her shoulders.
Meggie was in the doorway, her cheeks flaming.
“Mummy, how can you talk about Letty like that, she’s an absolute darling.”
Adela could have hit her; this was even worse than anything she had dreaded, but she kept her poise. She held out a hand.
“Come here, darling.” Meggie came over, one half of her still angry at the slight to Letty, the other half longing to learn she had misjudged her mother. Adela put her arm round her. She turned what was intended to be a gently understanding smile to Gardiner. “I’m sure Uncle Gardiner knew what I meant, and didn’t think I was being rude to Miss Smithson. It’s just that Claire is used to parties, and Miss Smithson isn’t, and so she might be shy, which Claire never would.”
Meggie relaxed.
“Oh, I see.” Then she remembered Jim. “As a matter of fact Letty doesn’t want to come.”
Adela gave the girl a pat.
“Then it seems everybody hopes Claire will turn up, but I’m afraid it’s too late. Run along and fetch Miss Smithson.” She watched Meggie leave the room, then gave Gardiner an amused smile. “At rather an awkward age, I’m afraid.”
Gardiner did not see her smile nor, apparently, hear what she said, for his answer seemed to be made at random.
“That’s a perfectly lovely little girl.”
Letty met Claire on the stairs. Claire grabbed hold of her, and held her away from her.
“My God, look at you, got up like a whore at a picnic! You don’t mean to tell me you’re coming to this do too?”
“Not now. I’d got to if you didn’t come.”
Claire drew back.
“Would you like to? I’d much rather go home to bed.”
Letty held Claire by her sable coat.
“I don’t want to go.”
“I don’t blame you.”
Meggie hung over the banisters.
“Oh, there you are, Claire. Mummy’s just said you weren’t coming and I was to tell you to come, Letty.”
Claire climbed the stairs.
“Look at you all dressed up. You look very nice.”
Meggie opened Claire’s coat, and sighed rapturously at the pillar-box red frock underneath.
“How lovely! I wish I had a red frock.”
Claire drew her hand through her arm.
“You will one day.” She opened the sitting-room door.
Adela was delighted to see her. Whatever else Claire might be, she was smart, and knew how to take her share at making a party go. She introduced her.
“My niece, Mrs. Hill. Mr. Penrose, Mr. Bishop, Mr. Deeves.”
Gills brought Claire a cocktail, and whispered under his breath:
“It’s a quarter to, madam, and the car’ll be here.”
Claire nodded and threw the cocktail back. “Smells like a lousy evening,” she thought. “The airboy looks all right, but he ought to be in rompers. Mr. Penrose doesn’t look exactly a riot. The soldier might be fun in a caddish way.”
“If you’re ready, Claire dear, the car will be here,” said Adela.
They gathered up bags and coats and trooped to the hall. Meggie, as she reached the landing, made an excuse about a handkerchief and dived between Noel and Andrew and back up the stairs. She tore wit
hout knocking into Letty’s room. Letty was sitting on her bed; she flung herself at her.
“Good-bye, Letty darling, I do love you.”
Letty sat on her bed just as Meggie had left her. She had no idea what had prompted Meggie’s action. She supposed that in spite of Jim, the child had guessed that she would be disappointed. She looked down at her dress and suddenly she was crying, slow rolling, idiotic tears of self-pity. “It’s not that I really want to go to the silly old restaurant, but it’s been such a long, black winter and a bit of fun would have been nice. It’s Meggie’s fault. She shouldn’t have been so sweet.”
There was a knock on the door. Letty hurriedly dried her eyes and opened it. Gills was outside; he had a cocktail on a tray.
“I had one poured out for you, Miss Smithson, thinking you’d be in to drink it.”
Letty looked longingly at the glass.
“I never do drink cocktails; I’ve a weak head.”
Gills did not move.
“That won’t matter as you’ve finished for the day.”
Letty took the glass and raised it.
“Here’s to you, Gills, and here’s luck to Miss Meggie’s first party.”
“I don’t drink cocktails myself, preferring a little spirits when I take anything, but I’ll drink to that later in what’s left in the shaker. He seemed a very nice young gentleman, that Mr. Bishop.”
“I’m so glad. I didn’t see him, of course. What’s Mr. Deeves like?”
Gills had turned to go. He stopped to consider.
“Khaki makes all gentlemen look alike, but I can’t say I was drawn to him. He passed me his gas mask and helmet and said: ‘Catch hold of these, Oswald.’ I never have cared for that sort of talk.”
The cocktail was cheering Letty immensely. As she closed the door on Gills she giggled. “Oswald!” The telephone bell rang. She made a face at it. “If that’s one of the workers to say she won’t be coming for a week, because she simply must have a rest, I’ll tell her exactly what I think of her.” She picked up the receiver.
Jim’s voice came over the line.
“Come round to The King’s Arms.”
“Jim! How did you know I’d not gone to the party?”
“I stood outside and saw who got into the car.”
“You didn’t! But you’re a warden to-night; you can’t come to The King’s Arms.”
“I’ve fixed that. I’ll tell you when I see you.”
“I’m dressed up; I’ll have to change. And I’ve had a cocktail.”
“Put a coat on over your dress. I’d like to see it.”
There was something in his voice that puzzled her.
“Is anything the matter?”
“No. Put your coat on. I’ll meet you outside.”
Jim was waiting for her just up the road. He drew her into a doorway and took her in his arms.
“If you feel like it, Letty, we’ll get married.”
“Jim! What’s come over you? You never said anything like that last night.”
“I hadn’t thought like that last night.”
“What’s changed you? You haven’t come into a fortune have you?”
“You’ll get cold standing here. Come to The Arms and I’ll tell you.” As they walked he struggled for words to explain himself. “It was you going to that place to-night, and me not wanting you to go.”
She squeezed his arm.
“I said you were getting in a state about what would likely enough never happen.”
“I didn’t know why I didn’t want you to go; but it came to me last night after I left you.”
“What was it all about?”
“I was scared.”
“Scared?”
“Yes, I like to know where you are of a night-time. I don’t want you driving all over the place in a blitz.”
Letty stopped and turned him to face her.
“Aren’t you an old silly! Why couldn’t you have said that was the trouble?”
“I tell you I didn’t know.”
“Well, what made you think of it last night?”
“I watched you shut the door as I always do, and I said to myself, ‘There, she’s in.’”
Jim’s words about marriage had tossed Letty into a rose-pink world.
“Old silly,” she repeated softly. “Why, that house is no safer than a restaurant.”
“That’s right enough, but if anything happened I’d know of it, and get to you.”
A shaft of cold daylight cut through the rose-coloured haze.
“How about me, when you’re in the navy?”
“That’s just it. As you shut the door and I knew you were in for the night, it came to me how to-night I wouldn’t know where you were. So I came back and I fixed with the post to take duty to-night from midnight on, and I planned, if you’d gone to that restaurant, I’d stand outside until you came out. I was much easier then.”
Letty had the breath taken from her. She felt pitifully humble. Who was she—plain square Letty Smithson—to mean so much to a man like Jim? She could only manage a whisper.
“Jim!”
“Then, feeling easier, it came to me how you had said, when I said it would be terrible to be out of work, and to see your wife and perhaps your kids going short, that it would be more terrible if I didn’t come back, and we’d never been married. Then it came over me that perhaps you were right, that if I could get in such a way about one night, how about you when I was gone. If it would make you happier and you were willing to take the risk, why shouldn’t we get married?”
Letty clung to him.
“But it’s not only me. How about you? Seeing how things are, isn’t it better to take our bit of time together?” She raised her head. “Bother, there’s the siren. I knew there’d be a raid with Meggie up.”
They listened, their heads raised, while one siren picked up another until the air rocked with their wailings. As the sounds died away Jim put his face against Letty’s.
“I can’t make myself think it’s sensible, but we’ll do it. Maybe you’re right, and in times like this we’re meant not to look too far ahead.” The guns began to roll, and in the distance there was a golden patch in the sky. Jim looked at it with an experienced eye. He turned Letty round. “Come on, I’ll take you home; we’re for it to-night from the look of things. That’s a flare.”
Letty shivered.
“I do wish Meggie wasn’t up.”
Jim hugged her arm to his as he hurried her along.
“Thank God you’re not out with her.” There came the drone of planes roaring overhead. “I’ll just put you in and go to the post. They may be glad of help.”
Letty gave a wobbly laugh.
“What a funny night. Me all dressed up, and quite upset that I didn’t go; and then, when I come out to show you my dress, we never get as far as The Arms, and instead you say we’re going to get married. It’s one of those times that’s too big to take in all at once. I shan’t know how happy I am until the morning. Don’t hurry so, Jim. Let the old air raid rip. This is the only night you’ll ever ask me to marry you. Stop a minute and give me a kiss.” They stood a second unconscious of the guns, clinging together, then, as Jim drew away, Letty said with a sob at the back of a laugh: “To think at this very minute you might be standing outside La Porte Verte, you old silly!”
“I ordered a table for six.”
The party straggled after Adela and the head waiter. Adela’s eyes, darting about, noted with satisfaction that her table was in an excellent position, and that the room was not at all badly filled. She put Gardiner on her right, and Andrew on her left. Meggie she seated next to Gardiner with Noel on her right, which placed Claire between Noel and Andrew. She had, of course, planned the seating before she left home, and had not thought it ideal; obviously Andrew should be nex
t to Meggie, but she did not want Noel sitting next to her. She had nothing to say to him except what had to be said. Intimate talk with him would make her nervous. They had, after all but one subject in common, and she would be on tenterhooks the whole evening that he would introduce it. No, Meggie and Claire must manage Noel and sometime during the evening, and her heart thumped even as she considered that moment, she would get him alone and sound him. She was afraid getting anyone alone would mean dancing with them, a very unsatisfactory way to handle a vital conversation, so difficult to see your partner’s face, but at least it would be intimate. “I have ordered a meal,” she said to Gardiner, “but I can’t swear what we shall get. These places never seem to know from day to day what food to expect. However, we can at least have oysters as a start. I’m afraid our food difficulties must be very tiresome for you.”
“Why no. I was so thankful when I got here to find you still have sufficient. But I figure that arranging a menu comes hard on the poor.”
“He’s more tiresome than ever,” thought Adela. Out loud she said:
“That’s why I think it’s the duty of those of us who can afford such things as oysters, to buy them, and leave the cheaper fish for those who are less well off.”
“Or you could buy oysters and send them to the hospitals for people who’re hurt in air raids,” Meggie suggested. “That would be even better than eating them, wouldn’t it?”
Claire’s eyes danced. She longed to lead Meggie on, but she had a strongly developed social sense, and a glance at Adela’s rigid smile made her say lightly:
“God knows what’s happened to the fish. I think the whole damned lot must have been Fascists, and as soon as war was declared they swam to Germany, with a fin raised in salute, to help Hitler.”
Adela decided that there could be very little general conversation. Meggie was too impossible. She half-turned her back to Andrew and lowered her voice.
“Now, Gardiner, tell me all about Millicent.”
Claire picked up the cabaret notice which was lying on the table and showed it to Noel.
I Ordered a Table for Six Page 16
