Evelyn
‘Tick-tock-tick-tock, I can literally hear your brain ticking.’
Startled, Evelyn spun round from where she was sitting in front of her dressing table and mirror. ‘Em,’ she said, ‘how long have you been standing there?’
‘Long enough to know that your mind is elsewhere.’ She came over and sat on the corner of the bed. ‘Everything all right?’ she asked.
Evelyn smiled brightly at her daughter. But then it was easy to smile when she looked at Emily; she was such a delightful girl. Herheart-shaped face radiated a naturally caring and happy disposition that drew people to her. ‘Oh, I’m perfectly all right,’ she said, ‘I was just taking a few minutes to catch my breath. It feels as though we’ve been preparing for this party for ever.’
Her daughter’s expression instantly changed. Whenever she was concerned, two little lines appeared between her eyebrows. She had been the same as a small child. Like a barometer reflecting a change in the weather, she had always been sensitive to someone else’s feelings, or a sudden change in atmosphere. In contrast, her brother, more often than not with his head in the clouds, could blunder into an almighty row and not have a clue that two people had been on the verge of throttling each other.
‘That sounds like you’ll be glad when it’s over.’
‘Heavens no!’ Evelyn lied. ‘I’m looking forward to it.’
‘Good,’ said Em, rising from the bed and kissing her mother’s cheek. ‘You deserve this party.’
Did she? thought Evelyn when Em had left her. Did she really?
Unable to look at herself in the dressing table mirror, she turned towards Kit’s side of the bed and took in the precise way he had laid out his clothes ready to put on. He had planned everything like a military exercise, leaving nothing to chance. When he had first suggested they should celebrate their twentieth wedding anniversary, she had imagined alow-key family affair. But he had said two decades of putting up with him warranted more than that. ‘And don’t worry about arranging things,’ he’d assured her, ‘I shall do it all.’
Most husbands would happily come up with the proposition to throw a party and then immediately hand the responsibility over to their wives. Not Kit. Once he had a thing in his head, there was no stopping him. He had spent an age putting together the guest list and on a daily basis the list grew and grew. ‘Is there anybody in the village you haven’t invited?’ she had teased him.
‘We know so many people,’ he’d replied, ‘and there are some we simply can’tnotinvite. Imagine how offended they would be not to receive an invitation.’
That was Kit all over; he hated to disappoint or upset anybody.
‘Not dressed yet?’
Again Evelyn was startled out of her thoughts. This time by Kit.
‘Just about to make myself presentable,’ she said cheerily. ‘Although I fear it’s going to take more spit and polish than usual. I should have gone to the hairdressers and had my hair set.’
‘Nonsense, you’ll look your usual beautiful self.’
‘Dear God, Kit, you do say the sweetest of things.’
‘Only when it’s true,’ he said, coming over to her. ‘I’ve brought you a cup of tea.’ He placed it on the dressing table. ‘I thought you might like one before the cocktails start to flow.’
‘Thank you,’ she said, thinking that she couldn’t wait for a proper drink. Something to take the edge off her anxiety.
‘Shall I leave you to get ready?’ he asked.
‘No,’ she said. ‘Stay with me for a while and then we’ll get dressed together. For now, let’s have a moment of calm before the storm.’
He sat on the corner of the bed where earlier Em had perched, then turned towards the door as a crescendo of laughter, male and female, could be heard, followed by the sound of somebody giving a rendition of a popular tune. Evelyn didn’t know what it was, but it was rather catchy.
‘It’s fun having the children home with their friends, isn’t it?’ Kit said, facing her again.
‘Yes,’ she answered, ‘they bring the house to life, don’t they? When Edmund and I were growing up here, there was very little laughter. Mother would affect a fainting fit if there was so much as a whisper to shatter the peace and quiet.’ She sipped her tea. Kit had made it just the way she liked, strong and with only a splash of milk.
‘There was very little to laugh over at Island House either when I was a child,’ he said. ‘When I think about it, that’s what stands out the most for me. Not my brother Arthur’s sadistic cruelty, or Allegra arguing with Hope, or Dad always being away, but the lack of joy. That to me now, having experienced the happiness of being married to you and having Pip and Em, seems such a profound shame. Love, and making others happy, is all that counts if you ask me.’
He looked so earnest as he spoke, and Evelyn was struck, as she so often was, by seeing beyond his scars, beyond the moustache and the flecks of grey in his hair, and seeing the handsome young man he’d once been.
‘Do you ever wish you could turn back the clock?’ she asked.
‘To a specific time?’ he replied. ‘Or just back to being young again?’ He paused. ‘Or to a moment before doing something rash that one now regrets?
