Page 96 of An Invitation to the Kennedys

‘Fritzi, can you dance?’Kick asked then.The prince was hovering in the hallway, clearly hoping they would include him in their plans.

‘I can.’

‘I mean proper dancing, not the shuffling-slowly-round sort that old couples do?’

‘I can dance.’

‘Then you may come with us.’

They went to the unfinished room at the end of the corridor past Elizabeth’s bedroom, the one they had said was haunted, because it had no furniture in it and no one would be disturbed by the music.They brought Kick’s gramophone and a stack of records.

Fritzi was right – he could dance.Kick was right too.The Big Apple was harder than it looked, especially the light side-to-side shuffling steps, but they tried again and again – ‘From the top!’Kick kept calling; she’d seen it in a movie once, she explained – and by the time the gong went, ‘I’d say you’re pretty well perfect,’ Kick declared.

‘I think we need to practise more,’ Fritzi said.

‘You would,’ Brigid said.But she smiled at him.‘Come on, we’d better change.’On the way to her room, she passed the nursery.Paul had stopped crying but was shouting now.She heard, ‘I won’t, Papa, I won’t I tell you!And if you try to make me I’ll thump you …’ Brigid hurried past.

In her bedroom, Minnie was laying out her evening clothes.‘I missed you,’ Brigid said, hugging her.

‘By which you mean you were bored?’Minnie said.

‘Hopelessly.The most dreary day, you cannot imagine.What’s been happening here?’

‘Elizabeth Ponsonby took a bicycle down to the village that belongs to one of the housemaids, and she bent the wheel and the maid – Clara – is furious, but Mr Channon has promised to replace the bicycle.’

‘How much more fun you have than me.’Minnie tugged at her hair.‘Ow.I know, you think I’m being absurd.Maybe I am.It just seemed like nothing went right today.Or it did and I didn’t enjoy it as much as I thought, I’m not sure which,’ she said thoughtfully.Why must liking people be a painful thing?she wondered.Surely it should be the exact opposite?And in a way it was – there was such fun in finding Fritzi amusing, and in watching for the way he looked at her and spoke to her.But there was bother too.She realised that she minded his being worried and scared.She could see he was, and it made her feel bad for him.And that was uncomfortable.Besides being too much what Chips wanted.She would put a stop to it, she decided.If she could.‘So what did Elizabethdoin the village?’she asked.

‘Tried to have a drink in the public house bar.’

‘Oh dear.Were the menveryupset?’

‘Very.’Minnie’s mouth twitched.‘And she saw Albert, the prince’s man.’

‘Goodness, what was he doing?’

‘She didn’t find out.Only saw him, and then he pretended not to see her.He was talking to a man in a blue car.’

‘You really do know everything.’Brigid said.‘Is it his half-day?’

‘It’s a Friday, Lady Brigid.’

‘Biddy.Right, so not his half-day.’

‘Not that he waits for days off.’

‘Really?Do tell.’

‘He comes and goes as he pleases.I’ve never met a gentleman’s gentleman like him.’

‘Seems he’s an old family friend.’Brigid began to fidget with a silver bangle, spinning it on its edge and watching it fall, then picking it up and spinning it again.‘Not exactly a servant.’

‘All the same,’ Minnie put a hand over Brigid’s, to stop her fidgeting, ‘the way he carries on is odd.’

‘Maybe he has a girl in the village?’

‘How could he have a girl in the village, when he’s only been here a few days, same as you?’

‘Some men are fast movers.’It was the sort of thing Maureen said, Elizabeth said.Brigid didn’t know what they meant exactly, but judging from the tightening of Minnie’s lips and the way she dug the bristles into Brigid’s head, it wasn’t suitable.