‘You’re thinking you shouldn’t have come, aren’t you?’ he asked. ‘You still think it’s a bad idea.’
‘I don’t think it’s a bad idea, it’s not that,’ Artemis replied, retying the knot in her headscarf. ‘I don’t think it’s a bad idea at all. I think it’s a lovely idea.’
‘So what then?’ Patsy said. ‘Why the brooding silence?’
‘I suppose,’ Artemis answered, looking round at him, ‘because it’s a lovely idea.’ She smiled at him and his heart sang once more, and a minute later so did he.
Is it for all time, or simply a lark?
Is it Granada I see, or only Asbury Park?
Is it a fancy, not worth thinking of?
Or is it
At long last Love?
The sun was fast sinking in an erubescent glow beyond the Pacific as Patsy turned the car off the road and started to head down a track leading directly to the beach house which could be seen nestling at the bottom of the cliffs. There were no other houses anywhere in sight, and no other people, just the ocean, the rocks, and the sand.
As soon as they’d unpacked the car and explored the comfortable wooden house, Patsy built a fire on the sands from a pile of dry driftwood under the verandah and cooked them hamburger steaks which they ate sitting on the rocks. The tide was high, but on the ebb, falling back down the beach with a hiss and a rattle of shingle.
‘Isn’t this just a wonderful spot?’ Patsy asked her. ‘Tommy and me, we come up here as often as we can, which unfortunately isn’t very often.’
‘Tommy and you?’
‘Tommy, this pal of mine. Sure. Tommy and me.’
‘Tommy and you and –?’
Patsy smiled at her. ‘Tommy and his girl Mo, and me,’ he said. ‘And Greta Garbo, Rita Hayworth, Madeleine Carroll, Dorothy Lamour. It depends who’s not filming.’
Artemis eased herself down from the rock, and taking her stick, began to walk off. Patsy hopped down after her. ‘Hey!’ he called. ‘Where are you going?’
‘Just to look at the sea,’ Artemis replied.
He let her go ahead of him, slim and elegant, her blonde hair blown by the breeze, as she made her way to the edge of the sea, where she stood, leaning on her stick and staring at the receding tide. And then he went and stood at her shoulder.
‘I haven’t brought anyone here who mattered to me,’ Patsy said.
‘Of course you have,’ Artemis replied.
‘Not anyone who matters to me. Not until now.’
He took her hand, and felt her suddenly clasp it, which was better than any answer she could give. They both stood for a while, silent at the water’s edge. It was a very calm night, and although the tide was running out, the ocean seemed almost still. Patsy put his arm around Artemis’s slender waist and she leaned against him.
‘Are you a good swimmer?’ she suddenly asked him, turning round as if it was very important for her to know and at once.
‘Not bad,’ he said. ‘Yes, I can swim.’
Artemis stared at him, holding his eyes with her’s. Then she pointed without looking along the beach. ‘I’ll race you,’ she said quietly. ‘To that next lot of rocks.’
‘The tide’s on the turn,’ he said. ‘There may not be much of a sea running, but –’
‘I’m a strong swimmer,’ she interrupted, kicking off her shoes. ‘It’s all right.’
Patsy hesitated, and then turned to go back to the house. ‘We’d better fetch our costumes,’ he said.
‘Why?’ Artemis asked, about to pull her sweater over her head. ‘There’s no-one around.’ And then she continued to undress, surprisingly quickly and gracefully, without having to lean awkwardly on her stick as Patsy had imagined she might. In fact she had already discarded her stick, as she had done for years when it was time for her to get undressed, and in no time at all she stood before him in just her underthings, waiting for him, balancing herself evenly by dint of standing tiptoe on the foot of her shorter leg.
‘Well?’ Artemis asked, with deliberate impatience, challenging him to break the gaze between them and for him to look a little more specifically at her.
‘You’re perfect,’ he said. ‘Absolutely beautiful.’
‘Not quite,’ she replied. ‘Not absolutely.’
‘Yes you are,’ he disagreed. ‘You are absolutely perfect.’
She looked at him, the bright blue eyes still wide, but the challenge had gone from them. Then she reached up, and putting her arms around his neck, kissed him very gently on the mouth.
‘Come on,’ she said.
Patsy stripped quickly down to his shorts and followed her into the inky blue sea. She started to swim as soon as he was alongside her, powerfully and easily, taking Patsy completely by surprise, so much so that he found himself three or four lengths adrift of the slender blonde mermaid who was vanishing into the darkness ahead.
He swam after her as hard as he could, overarm as she was swimming, kicking on through the warm Pacific waters, but unable quite to peg her back, so that when they reached the appointed mark Artemis was still half a length up.
She flipped over on to her back and floated, looking up at the moon above them. ‘You know what they say, don’t you?’ she said, when she had caught her breath. ‘In a two horse race, always back the outsider of the two.’
Patsy stood beside her, the water up to his chest. ‘You sure can swim,’ he said. ‘You’re full of surprises.’
‘What about you?’
‘I’ll let you be the judge of that.’
He lifted her out of the water and carried her back along the beach. Halfway back to the house, she started shivering.
‘Are you cold?’ he asked.
‘No,’ she replied. ‘Not at all.’
He wrapped her in a thick white towel when they got back to the house and rubbed her dry, before carrying her into the bedroom still well wrapped in the towel.
‘You look so serious,’ he whispered.
‘Sorry,’ she replied, her arms around his neck. ‘But then this is quite a serious business, I imagine.’
‘You imagine?’ Patsy asked.
‘Yes,’ Artemis replied, and then as he laid her gently down on to the bed, asked, ‘do you mind?’
‘No,’ Patsy whispered, bending down to kiss her. ‘The very opposite.’
The love he made to her was nothing like Artemis had ever imagined it or even dared hope it might be. She told him so, and when she did, he took her to him once again, while outside beyond the windows of the house the now distant sea pounded faintly on the sands, with a soft rhythmic thunder and a long dying sigh.
Ellie and Patsy both went to the airport, but Ellie made sure she was the first to say goodbye. ‘I’ll be back in England,’ Ellie promised, ‘as soon as Hugo blows the whistle.’
‘Any particular message?’ Artemis asked. ‘When and if I see him?’
‘When you see him,’ Ellie replied. ‘Tell him I love him.’
‘Sure,’ said Artemis in her best American. ‘I meant anything new.’
Ellie smiled, before kissing her friend goodbye. ‘I’m going to miss you.’
‘Yes,’ Artemis said. ‘Me too. I mean – I don’t mean me, too. I mean – oh you know what I mean.’ And this time when they embraced, Artemis hugged for the first time ever about as hard as Ellie hugged her.
Patsy walked her to the gate. ‘You won’t reconsider, I suppose?’ he asked.
‘Staying here, you mean.’ Artemis, afraid she was going to lose her carefully constructed composure, narrowed her eyes and pretended to search the distant horizon for something.
‘You know what I mean,’ Patsy said.
‘Let’s get the war out of the way first,’ Artemis replied, still unable to spot the mythical object for which she still scanned the skyline.
‘It might just make it a whole lot easier to get through, that’s all.’ Patsy gently turned her to him. ‘If I knew we were going to get married.’
‘I don’t agree
,’ Artemis replied, fixing him with her wide eyes. ‘I think it would make it practically impossible.’
‘I see.’ Patsy let go of her hands, deliberately. ‘You’re just going to kind of pretend this was just one of those things, right?’
‘Of course not. Don’t be an idiot.’
‘Look, I’ll stop behaving like an idiot if you say you’ll marry me.’
Artemis took one of his hands in both of hers. ‘The moment it’s over, I promise,’ she said. ‘The moment they sound that last stupid all clear, and we can all walk along – you know – without staring up at the skies. Or sit by the sea without worrying about what might be coming over the horizon, I promise.’
‘That’s great,’ Patsy grinned. ‘And typically British. You just haven’t said what you’ll promise.’
‘Ask me then,’ she replied, ‘and you’ll find out.’
The official at the gate finally had to tap Patsy on the shoulder. ‘Hey, mac,’ he said. ‘I don’t wish to spoil the party, but that was the final call.’
Artemis smiled at Patsy, and then moved away. He caught her and kissed her. ‘I love you,’ he said. ‘Don’t ever forget that.’
‘I won’t,’ Artemis promised, and then looked round suddenly very shyly at the gate official.
‘Go ahead, lady,’ he said. ‘I won’t listen.’
‘I love you too,’ she whispered in Patsy’s ear, and then was gone.
Once airborne, the plane banked and began to wheel slowly round to head for its New York bound flightpath. As the wing tipped, Artemis could see the airport far below, and the distant glimmer of the ocean, and then the plane climbed higher and into the clouds.
When the visibility cleared, Los Angeles was just a speck, and then it was gone, as was Ellie and her handsome, laughing, loving brother.
18
Following Dunkirk and the fall of France, an unease hung over Britain. Her main ally, who traditionally had always been her oldest enemy, had collapsed so quickly and with such bitter recriminations against the British, blaming them unconditionally for the two crushing defeats France had suffered, that the inhabitants of the British Isles were in a state of delayed shock. The evacuation of Dunkirk had indeed been little short of miraculous, and the newspapers had done their best to make the retreat seem like a victory, but few people believed them, preferring instead to give their attention to Churchill, their new prime minister, who had somewhat grimly reminded them that wars were won in battle, not by evacuations.
‘We’re on our own, I’m afraid,’ Hugo said to Artemis over dinner at his London house the night the French cabinet finally rejected Churchill’s proposal for a Franco-British union. ‘The Germans are in Paris and the French Army is scattering southwards in ribbons.’
‘Next stop Dover, I suppose,’ Artemis replied, with a toss of her blonde hair.
‘Absolutely,’ said another female guest. ‘Time for us girls to stop cutting our nails and get out the woad.’
‘I don’t think so,’ a slender pale-faced American opposite Artemis said. ‘I was in Paris just before the jackboots came in, and the word was that Mr Hitler thinks the war is as good as over. At least that’s the impression he has given his generals.’
‘Because he thinks the British government’s going to agree to a compromise peace,’ Hugo said.
The pale-faced American nodded as he carefully replaced his wine glass. ‘Mmmm,’ he said. ‘Yes. Hitler is rumoured not to want to go all the way with you delightful people. He feels you have so much in common. So many visitors from these shores, people shall we say in high places? They’ve given him the impression that there’s really absolutely nothing for you two to fight about.’
‘That might have been so,’ Hugo allowed, ‘if Chamberlain was still in charge, which he’s not.’
‘Thank God,’ the man on Artemis’s right put in. ‘He’ll find Winnie a very different kettle of fish.’
‘I’m sure Mr Churchill is a very fine man,’ the American continued. ‘And a most patriotic one. But there are still a great number of very influential people in this country of yours who it appears are most anxious to be friends with the Führer. And they won’t let old “Winnie the Windbag”, as they so roguishly call him, stand in their way.’
‘Cranks,’ the man on Artemis’s right said. ‘Should be taken out and shot.’
‘My,’ the American laughed, ‘I don’t think you’d be saying that if it was their pictures on your postage stamps.’
When all the other guests had gone, and before she herself left to go home, Artemis asked Hugo what he thought the state of play was.
‘Grim,’ he said, ‘and about to get a great deal grimmer.’ The only faint hope he held out was that the Germans were not yet prepared for the invasion which everyone knew must come. ‘Hitler’s also in two minds,’ he added. ‘He’s quite anxious to have a crack at Russia, and if he does, Germany most certainly won’t be able to support a war on two major fronts.’
‘And where are you off to next?’ she asked, as Hugo fetched her coat.
‘The Middle East apparently,’ he replied. ‘Seems like we need shoring up out there. Now the Italians have joined the bun fight.’
‘Aren’t there rather a lot of them out there?’ Artemis enquired. ‘Aren’t we a bit outnumbered? At least that’s what Diana was saying last night.’
‘If you call ten of them to one of us outnumbered,’ Hugo grinned, ‘yes, then I’d say we were outnumbered.’
‘When do you leave?’ Artemis looked up at him.
‘On Monday,’ he said. ‘But don’t tell Mussolini.’
‘Hugo?’
‘Yes, Tom?’
‘You know I was – er in America?’
‘I did notice, Tom.’
‘Well, I met Patsy. Ellie’s brother. You know.’
‘Yes –’
‘And I, that is – we.’
‘Very handsome fellow, by all accounts, Ellie’s brother Patsy,’ said Hugo slowly. ‘Very handsome.’
‘Yes, he is.’
‘I expect one thing led to another, didn’t it?’
‘Yes, Hugo, it did really. Do you mind?’
‘No. Do you?’
Artemis shook her head. ‘Rather the reverse,’ she said, turning away.
‘Good, then that’s settled then,’ said Hugo, suddenly. ‘I must go and play at soldiers now.’ He stopped at the door. ‘This will make us something or another, sister- and brothers-in-law to each other or something. Rather fun.’
Artemis went to get up, but before she could get to her feet Hugo was gone, and as she heard his footstep retreating it seemed as if he too was fading away with the sound.
By the first week in July, Hugo had arrived at Fort Capuzzo, an important desert frontier stronghold which the British had captured in a lightning raid on 14 June. The small column of troops there were in good heart, for despite being bombed and machine gunned from the air, the British had suffered only five dozen casualties so far compared with the Italians who had suffered over one thousand. After advising on the prevailing conditions, which were of paramount importance to a force whose strategy was to keep mobile in order to make the Italians concentrate their positions and thus provide more or less sitting targets, Hugo was called back east to Mersa Matruh where the main body of the British force under General Sir Archibald Wavell were establishing and consolidating their main position. During the next month Hugo studied the weather, and advised when asked as to the suitability of the conditions. Happily, what Hugo liked to call his inspired guesses enjoyed a high success rate, and General Hunter, who had preceded him out to the desert, congratulated him unofficially on his contribution. By September the British forces, according to the published casualty list, had lost only one hundred and fifty men since mid-June, compared to the enemy’s three thousand five hundred. And then came the news that the Italians, having massed six divisions, were beginning a big push forward.
At precisely the same moment, the Germans bombed London f
or the first time and the Blitz began. Artemis had managed to get down to Brougham for the weekend, so missing the devastating raids on Saturday and Sunday nights. But she heard all about them on the wireless and on Monday morning prepared to drive back to London.
‘You can’t go back there now, your ladyship,’ Jenkins said, as she once again gave him charge of Brutus.
‘Of course I can, Jenks,’ Artemis replied, kneeling down and nuzzling her beloved dog’s brown head, which was now quite heavily flecked with grey. ‘I can and I must.’ The dog put his paw up and rested it on her shoulder, looking at her with his oddly flecked boss eyes. ‘He seems thinner this weekend, Jenks,’ Artemis said. ‘Has he been eating up?’
‘He eats same as ever, your ladyship,’ Jenks told her. ‘He just pines, that’s what. He misses you.’
Artemis gave Brutus a last hug, and then with a wave to Jenks got in her car and disappeared down the drive. Jenks held the big dog’s collar, who after a moment stopped trying to run after the car, and instead sat down, head to the sky, and bayed a deep long howl.
Finally arrived in Westminster, Artemis found herself in a very different city. The first wave of bombs hadn’t struck deep into the West End of London, falling mainly on the City and beyond. But as soon as she drove her first official passenger on a tour of inspection down the Embankment and on past London Bridge she became aware of the terrible damage inflicted on a city in the space of two long nights. There was rubble and glass everywhere, and by the sides of the roads gas mains belched uncontrolled flames up into the still dust-laden air. People were half-heartedly searching through the debris, seeming uncertain of what it was they were searching for, while firemen, who from the look of them had been up both nights without sleep, stood around as if in a trance.
Later Artemis learned it had been estimated that on the Saturday night alone over four hundred people had been killed and over one and a half thousand seriously injured.
‘They’ve advised everyone to sleep underground tonight,’ Diana told her when Artemis had finally struggled home. ‘I’m for my bed myself. What about you?’
In Sunshine Or In Shadow Page 47
