One Day in May - Catherine Alliott [126]
After a bit Laura caught my eye, and those of a few close girlfriends, eloquently suggesting we might go through to the drawing room for coffee, which we did, along with a few men too: those who liked to get home and always joined the women, bullying their wives into downing a quick cup and then getting their coats. As we made polite conversation by the fire – no sign of a prostrate Letty in here, she must be upstairs – people began to drift hallwards, thanking Laura, Hugh, who’d emerged from the dining room now with the other men. A gathering collected in the hall, bursts of hearty laughter and cigar smoke filtering through, as the party began to break up. Daisy was helping to find coats and wraps, the other children clearly still ensconced in the drama offstage, except, here was Biba, stealing into the room, flushed, to whisper in her mother’s ear.
‘All well?’ I moved across to listen.
‘She’s asleep in the Green Room,’ Laura reported, as Biba, with a ravishing smile, slipped away to find an elderly lady her stick. ‘Hal was going to take her home, but she’s so comatose she may as well stay. And it would be too embarrassing to drag her through the hall in front of all these people. Some are going but the hard core – the Tapners, the Rankins – stay all night, I’m afraid.’ She jerked her head towards a bright-eyed group clustered round the fire, still roaring heartily and sinking brandy now. ‘But you go up,’ she, said quickly. ‘I’ll have to stay for form’s sake, but even Hugh eventually goes to bed and leaves them to it. Honestly, Hattie, it’s half-past one.’
‘Well, I might,’ I said gratefully, noticing Maggie was of the hard core element by the fire, colour high in her cheeks, smoking and flirting furiously, looking like she was powering on through till dawn.
‘Oh – and if you see Hal up there, would you tell him he can have the bed in Charlie’s room? If he’s staying, that is. Tell him it’s the one he got changed in, he came straight from London.’
‘Right.’ I brightened. A cup of strong coffee had steadied my nerves. I was looking for an excuse to talk to him.
I slipped away and beetled down the passage to the back stairs, eschewing the front hall where everyone was gathered, taking them two at a time. I found him softly shutting the Green Room door across the landing.
‘Is she…?’
‘Sleeping.’ He smiled. ‘Rather soundly, obviously. But she’s been sick, so I think she’ll be all right. Nurse Biba forced her to put her fingers down her throat. Teenage rules, apparently. One wouldn’t want to drown in one’s own vomit, would one?’
‘Oh Lord. Yes, Biba’s frightfully efficient like that.’
‘And Letty complied beautifully. I’d take her home, but I’m not sure she’d want to be carted out in front of the neighbours. I’ll stay and take her tomorrow.’
It occurred to me there wasn’t much that would surprise her neighbours now, but I let it go. And I liked the fact that he was staying with her. That was so like Hal. Not to bolt and leave her. There was a silence. This end of the house, the nursery end, away from the front hall, was quiet. Dark too.
‘Laura says you can sleep in Charlie’s room. It’s where you got changed, apparently.’ My voice sounded odd. Unnatural.
‘Thanks.’ He didn’t move an inch. Certainly not in the direction I’d vaguely indicated. Stood before me in the gloom, his eyes watchful, steady.
‘Um, Hal. What you said earlier, about Dominic.’
‘Is none of my business,’ he said quickly.
‘Yes, but can I just ask, did you just mean—’
‘Shh, Hattie.’ He put a finger on my lips. We gazed at one another. And whatever else I was going to say, or ask, or struggle to explain, was lost, because he leaned forward and kissed my mouth.
Then he kissed me again, lightly, then again. Instinctively we moved away from the top of the stairs, down the dark corridor, where he pulled me against him. This was not the hesitant, student Hal of years ago: this was not the boy I remembered. This was terrific.
Along with my thumping heart, footsteps were audible