by Joseph Kanon
“When you do,” Larry said, maneuvering. “You don’t want to stay away too long.”
“What’s wrong with London?” Nick said lightly. “I’m having a great time. Girls try to pick me up in the street. People take me to lunch and give me money. I’d be crazy to leave.”
“Just don’t let Wiseman talk you into another year. You’re not getting any younger either.”
“And now I have-responsibilities,” Nick said, toying with it. “All those money strings reeling me back in. Was that the idea?” He smiled. “You’re an operator, Larry, I have to hand it to you.”
“You haven’t got it yet,” Larry said, playing along. “It has the opposite effect on most people. Maybe you’ll go wild instead.”
“No. You know me. I was Eagle Scout, remember? Look,” he said, leaning forward. “I know what you’re worrying about. I haven’t gone AWOL. This is‘-he waved his hand-’I don’t know. R and R, I guess. I’ll finish the degree. Then after, I’ll go home and put on a suit and everything’ll work out just the way you want it to. You don’t have to buy my way back.”
Larry looked at him and smiled. “Then there’s nothing more I could ask,” he said, and for an instant Nick thought he would actually reach over and shake hands.
“You’ll think of something,” Nick said, teasing.
“Well, don’t tell the ambassador where you were this morning. Ah, here’s your mother.” He glanced toward the entrance. Two maitre d’s were leading her across the room, a liner guided by tugboats, and Nick watched, amused, as heads bobbed up in the wake.
“They’ll take you at two-thirty,” she said, touching the back of Nick’s neck as she took her seat. “Downstairs. Evangeline’s thrilled you’re coming.”
“I’ll bet.”
“Well, she is. You know how she loves a party. Sad, really, their having to leave. She’ll miss all this,” she said, waving her hand, as if the room were an extension of the ambassador’s residence. “Have you ordered? They’ve got five hundred coming for drinks, if you can believe it. Sort of a last hurrah, I suppose. I wonder who they’ll send.”
“They’re talking about Annenberg,” Larry said.
“Who?” Nick’s mother said, reaching for the menu.
“ TV Guide,” Larry said, smiling. “Campaign contributor. Generous.”
“It’s too bad,” his mother said. “They love David here. Which Annenberg? Philadelphia?”
Larry nodded. “Remember Moses? Nailed before your time,” he said to Nick, “for income tax evasion. Eight million penalty-in 1940 dollars. Makes you wonder what he really did. Now the son’s on his way to the Court of St James’s.” He shook his head. “It’s a wonderful country. Nobody remembers anything.”
And for a moment, in the pink Watteau room, it seemed nobody did. Water over the dam, the merciful absolution of time. Larry, grinning and casual, was on his way to Paris, and Nick’s mother, studying the menu, hadn’t heard a thing.
“Maybe he’ll be better than you think,” Nick said.
“I’ll tell you one thing,” his mother said. “The parties will never be the same. Never.”
Chapter 4
The cars were backed up to the gate at Winfield House, so Nick paid off the taxi and walked the length of the driveway. Behind the hundred lighted windows Regent’s Park stretched for miles, as dark as the night sky, so that the party seemed at first like a country-house ball, with Marine guards instead of livery men and Daimlers and Bentleys rolling up like coaches. Nick had come late to avoid the crush, but there was still a line on the steps, another for the coats, then a final clot at the entrance to the big room where the Bruces were receiving the guests. Nick worked his way around the edge, sure that the Bruces wouldn’t recognize him anyway, and grabbed a glass from a passing tray. The room was pretty, but so crowded that the walls and furniture receded into a flat backdrop, blocked out by all the people onstage. There was a room beyond, and presumably another beyond that, bright and noisy, and waiters moved between them, their plates of canapes emptying and reappearing with the magic of the loaves and the fishes. Nick passed one of the makeshift bars covered with flutes of champagne and kept moving. There was nothing as anonymous as a big party, so long as you pretended you were on your way to something and didn’t stand against the wall.
The crowd was hard to read, a hodgepodge of English and American voices, and Nick guessed that it was a general payback party-embassy workers, F.O. civil servants, transatlantic businessmen. They talked shop and the weather, polite and innocuous. Somebody’s new posting. A skiing holiday. No one mentioned the demonstration. In the next room he spied Davey, the journalist who’d tried to interview Redgrave, but he had moved on too; his hair was slicked back now, part of the pinstriped crowd. Nick wondered if he was working, finding an item for tomorrow’s chat columns, or just enjoying a perk. He was staring over his wineglass, his eyes fixed, and Nick followed the gaze to see what had caught his attention.
She was standing at the edge of a small group, her back to Davey, wrapped in a sleeveless red dress whose skirt, hugging her, ended somewhere on her upper thighs. When the man behind her moved, the full length of her legs sprang into view, a jolt of flesh in the crowded room, and Nick’s eyes followed them down to her high heels. He glanced back at Davey, who had tilted his head for a better view, and grinned in spite of himself. Only a crowd this polite or self-absorbed would miss the only thing worth noticing. Davey, all bad manners and frank appraisal, had her to himself. Nick watched, fascinated, to see if he would make his move. But the wonderful legs seemed wasted on him too — he took another drink, then looked away, back on the job.
Nick walked over to her. It was an outrageous dress for a reception, about six inches short of propriety, a Chelsea skirt. She was probably one of the English secretaries at the embassy, who had dressed for a real party and ended up here instead. Her hair was piled on top of her head, swept up tightly in her one concession to formality, but a few strands dangled to the side like loose promises. When she turned toward him, he stopped. He saw the freckles across the bridge of her nose, then the eyes, as surprised as his.
“Flaxman, double-oh two nine,” he said, smiling.
“What are you doing here?” she said, too surprised to stop the question.
He laughed. “What are you doing here?”
“Oh, I was brought,” she said, waving her hand and the small silver purse that hung from her wrist. “But really, what are you doing here?”
“I was brought too. Don’t worry, I’m not following you,” he said, stepping closer.
“You look different,” she said, nodding at his suit.
“So do you. I like your dress.”
She blushed. “I didn’t know. I’ve never been to an open house before. I thought-” She stopped. “It’s not just the suit, it’s the hair. You cut your hair.”
He shrugged. “Part of the dress code. It’ll grow back. Who brought you?”
“What? Oh, nobody. I mean-God, that sounds terrible. A friend of mine at the Observer. He thought I’d like to see the other half.”
“Well, here they are. You’re a journalist?”
“Just freelance. I had some stuff in Rolling Stone last year, though. A few other places.”
“Is that what you were doing this morning?”
“No, that was me.”
“You know, I’ve been wondering all day-what happened there? Did we just meet or what?”
She smiled. “They said at your flat that you were there. I was going anyway, so-”
“But-”
“Look, it’s no big mystery. Somebody told me to look you up and I thought I’d check it out first, that’s all.”
“And?”
“I’m still checking.”
He held her eyes for a moment. “Come to any decision yet?”
“About what?”
“About whether we’re going to go out.”
“Is that what goes on at these parties?”
“If
you wear a dress like that.”
She looked away. “Look, let me ex-”
“Nick, there you are,” Larry said, coming up to them. “Having a good time?”
“Hi, Larry. Larry, Molly Chisholm,” he said, “an old friend. My father, Larry Warren.”
She looked rattled, either at the introduction or at Larry’s appreciative look, but managed to shake hands.
“I told you you’d find someone you knew,” Larry said to Nick, still looking at her. “It’s a Bruce specialty. I don’t suppose you’ve seen your mother anywhere?”
Nick shook his head.
“Then she’s probably looking for me. I’ll see you later. Nice to meet you,” he said to Molly, nodding. “You’re joining us later, I hope?”
“That’s just what we were talking about,” Nick said.
“Good, good. I look forward,” Larry said, moving off.
“You will, won’t you?” Nick said, but she was watching Larry slipping into another group, his hand already on someone’s shoulder.
“You remembered my name,” she said, turning back to him.
“Seems only fair. You already knew mine. How did you, by the way?”
“I told you, a friend-” She stopped, putting something together. “You’re that Warren? I didn’t know.”
Nick smiled. “That Warren. He’s my father. Come and have dinner anyway. You can see what it’s like in the enemy camp.”
“I had no idea,” she said, suddenly nervous. “God, this is all mixed up. I never expected-”
“They’re friends of the Bruces‘. That’s why we’re here. You all right?”
“It just threw me for a loop, that’s all. You throw me for a loop.” She glanced around her, as if looking for an escape hatch.
“Is that good?”
She looked back and then laughed. “I guess so. I’m not making any sense, am I? Oh, this place,” she said, then looked up at him with a grin. “Hey.”
“What?”
“Want to do a joint?”
“Here?” he said.
“The Beatles did one at Buckingham Palace.”
“Are you serious?” he said, intrigued by the daring, as if she’d proposed having sex.
“Come on, we can go out there,” she said, gesturing toward the French windows.
“You’ll freeze.”
“Come on.”
He followed her out onto the shallow terrace, avoiding the look of a waiter who clearly thought they were ducking out to make love. At one end of the terrace two men smoking cigars near a giant potted plant looked up, then turned away discreetly. She fished an already rolled joint from her silver bag and handed him the box of matches. When he struck a match, her face glowed in the tiny flare.
“Light a cigarette just in case,” she said, drawing in deeply. “No one will know the difference.”
The sweet, pungent smoke, a smell of Vietnam, hung in the damp air.
“You like taking chances,” he said.
“It’s not much of a chance. I don’t think anybody in there even knows what it is.” She took another drag. “That’s nice. Clears the head.”
“Sometimes,” he said, exchanging the cigarette for the joint and drawing on it.
“Who are these people anyway? This man I was talking to-agricultural development in the Third World. What does that mean?”
“It means he’s a spook.”
“Really?”
“Guaranteed,” he said, smiling again. “The room’s full of them.”
“Can you always tell?”
“Agricultural development, for sure. Otherwise you have to look for signs. Journalist is usually pretty good.”
“Oh, really,” she said, playing. “You think I’m one?”
“Are you?”
She took the joint back. “We’re not supposed to tell. What made you suspect?”
“You keep popping up in unlikely places,” he said, spreading his hand toward the house.
“You know, I really didn’t expect to see you here. I don’t believe it now. I never thought-it’s funny, isn’t it?”
“What? You being here or my being here?”
“You. Maybe you’re the spook.” She glanced up at him quickly. “No.”
“You sure?”
“I’d recognize you, wouldn’t I? Here,” she said, handing him the joint, “finish it. I’m on duty.” She laughed to herself. “I interviewed a Hell’s Angel once. I asked him how they picked an Angel and he said, ”We don’t pick ‘em, we recognize ’em.“ So I guess I’d know.”
Nick smiled, feeling a buzz. “Where was this?”
“California. A while ago.”
“The summer of love,” Nick said idly.
“Well, it was for the guys.”
Nick flicked the roach out into the night and lit a cigarette, leaning against the building. The tall shrubs had taken on some definition in the misty air. In a few months it would be light all evening, England wide awake in the late northern light.
“What brought you over here?” he said.
“I don’t know. Last year, after the assassinations, I just thought, enough, you know? I mean, all you could do was watch the news. So I thought, well, Europe. I had a friend in Paris, and of course just as I get there they start tearing up the streets, so it was all the same anyway. Les evenements,” she said wryly, her accent deliberately broad. “So I just kept going.”
She turned so that her face came into the light from the windows. Nick watched her, unaware that he was staring until she raised her eyebrows. Then she reached over and took his cigarette. “Let me have one of these,” she said, putting it in her mouth with a casual intimacy. “What?”
“You’re a quicksilver girl,” Nick said, still watching her.
“Steve Miller Band,” she said, placing the phrase. “I actually met a guy in that band.” She handed back the cigarette, touching his fingers. “Like a chameleon, you mean.”
“No, like quicksilver. Whenever I look, you go somewhere else.”
She met his gaze and then, as if to demonstrate his point, looked away and leaned back against a potted plant. “Well, I’m here now. Where is here, anyway? I thought this would be at the embassy. Like this morning.”
“It’s the residence. Used to belong to Barbara Mutton.”
“Who?”
Nick smiled. Maybe Larry was right-nobody remembered anything. “Woolworth heiress. She was married to Gary Grant. This used to be her house.”
She looked up and down the terrace, then back through the windows at the party, a realtor’s gaze. “Do you think he used to come out here to smoke too?”
“I don’t think they were here together. Later. Maybe she bought it to get over him.”
“Instead of a good cry,” she said, looking at the house again. “What’s it like to be that rich?” Then she glanced back at him. “Are you rich? I mean, Warren-”
“No. It’s his money, not mine.” He nodded at the house. “Nobody’s this rich anymore.”
“Who owns it now?”
“You do. Taxpayers.”
“So that’s where it goes.” She giggled. “Makes me feel better about crashing.”
“Come to dinner. You paid for that too.”
“I can’t.”
“Yes, you can.”
She looked at him, not saying anything, reading his face.
“Who’s the friend?” Nick said.
“It’s not that. I just can’t.” She paused. “Maybe I can join you later,” she said, a polite dodge. “Where is it?”
“Here.”
“Here?”
“Hmm. As soon as the taxpayers clear out.”
She laughed. “You’re crazy. I can’t do that. What would they think?”
“The Braces? They’re used to it. All she has to do is rearrange the plates. It’s her idea of a good time.”
“Just like that.”
Nick nodded. “If I ask her. I thought you wanted to see the other half.”
/> “Not that close up. Look, it’s nice of you-”
“Stay,” Nick said, putting his hand on her arm. “I’d like you to.”
She looked down at the hand, then smiled. “Don’t you think it’s a little soon for a family dinner?”
“I may not keep running into you. Maybe I won’t get another chance.”
“You could call.”
“And then what?”
She grinned. “I guess you’d ask me to dinner.”
He spread his hands, palms up, resting a case.
“God, what am I going to tell Brian?”
“Tell him you have an interview with the ambassador.”
“Why am I doing this?” she said, laughing to herself. Then she looked up at him. “You’re not what I expected,” she said.
“What did you expect?”
But she let it go, making a joke of it. “I don’t know. Somebody in agricultural development, I guess. I better find Brian.” She held herself by the arms. “It’s cold. No wonder Barbara what’s-her-name sold it. You’re sure?” She said, looking up again.
Nick nodded. “Go find Brian.” She took a step toward the French window. “Hey,” he said, stopping her, because in the new light from the window her pale skin did suddenly begin to gleam, shifting like mercury. “Don’t disappear, okay?”
“Promise,” she said, and because the day had been lucky, he took her at her word.
The intimate dinner sat twenty-four and she disappeared after all, behind the floral centerpiece, so that like Davey, he had to tilt his head to see her. At this angle her hair bounced on top of the stems, another flower, and he watched her turn back and forth between her dinner partners, two gray-haired diplomats who preened for her attention like rival suitors. When she caught his look, her eyes laughed in a private joke. The dope had worn down to a familiar lull of well-being, but his senses still seemed sharp, catching the light off the crystal and the glow, refracted, in the soft red wine. With Larry near one end and his mother near the other, he was marooned in the middle, surrounded by people talking to each other, free to watch her. It was easier without words, he thought. This is what animals did-looks and body movements and smiles, tapping a sexual Morse code across the table.
