The Victory Garden(27)

“So you didn’t meet any blokes before me?”

Emily blushed. “There was one young man. He was one of Freddie’s friends from Oxford and came to be a clerk for my father. He was rather handsome. He looked a little like you, actually. He came to stay a couple of times.”

“What was his name?”

“His name?” She laughed. “Sebastian. A frightfully upper-class name.”

“So he was one of your lot? Good family and all that? Your mother must have encouraged that one.”

Emily laughed, remembering. “Oh yes. She did. I was quite smitten, and I think he quite liked me, even though I was much younger. But it never went anywhere. He got his call-up papers, and shortly afterwards, we got the news that he’d been killed in action. I was just beginning to get over Freddie’s death. This was the final straw, you know. And after he died, I decided I was not going to feel anything for anyone again because I’d only lose them.” She looked away, staring out of the window. A fishing boat with red sails was leaving the harbour. The failing sunlight made those sails glow like blood. They sat in silence. Then she said, “After that, there didn’t seem much point in anything.” She gave a long sigh. “I wanted to find work, to keep busy and do something useful, but my mother was terrified of losing me, so they wouldn’t let me out of their sight.”

“Have they come to terms with your working in the fields?”

“Absolutely not,” she said. “They tried to remove me. It was horrible, Robbie. An awful scene in front of everyone. And my father said if I chose to disobey them, I need not bother to come back home ever.”

“My word,” he said. “That’s harsh talk. But I bet it was spoken in the heat of the moment. He didn’t mean it.”

“I don’t know,” she said. “Maybe. He does tend to explode in anger these days. The way I feel right now, I don’t want to go back to them. I don’t want my life to be dictated by other people.”

“So you’re not going to be under your husband’s thumb?” he asked, his tone lighter now.

“Certainly not!” she replied.

There was a pause while each of them considered where this conversation might lead and the implications of it.

“So what picture is playing at the cinema?” Emily asked.

“We have a choice. There is Tarzan of the Apes at the Gaumont and Salomé at the Regal.”

“Oh, I think Tarzan of the Apes, don’t you?” she said. “Salomé would be rather too intense, and I don’t want to see John the Baptist’s head being cut off.”

“Rightio,” he agreed. “Although I was looking forward to that dance of the seven veils.”

Her eyes challenged his. “All the more reason to see Tarzan,” she said.

He laughed.

They managed to finish every morsel on their plates and followed it with a jam roly-poly and custard. Feeling horribly replete, they set off again, hand in hand. The world was now bathed in pink twilight. Swallows darted past them, seagulls swooped overhead, crying plaintively, and from the estuary beyond came the mournful hoot of a tug-boat. Emily sighed with contentment. I must remember every detail of this evening, she thought.

They paid to enter the cinema and Robbie led her up to the balcony and then to the back row. “I have to confess my evil intent,” he whispered as they took their seats. “It doesn’t really matter what film is showing. I wanted the chance to put my arm around you in the dark, and kiss you properly with nobody to see us. You don’t mind, do you?”

“Of course I don’t mind.” She gave him a little smile. “Who knows when we’ll have the chance to do this again?”

The theatre lights went down and the organ began to play. Advertisements were shown, and then several cartoons and a newsreel. They were hardly aware of the cartoons, but when the newsreel started, the music became sombre and military. This made them stop and look up to see the words on the screen: “German Offensive on the Marne.”

“The Germans, under Ludendorff, have launched a new offensive on the Marne.”

“It’s a good thing I’m going back. I’m needed,” Robbie said. “They don’t have enough planes or pilots.”

“But I thought we were finally winning,” Emily said. “I thought victory was in sight.”

“I think this is a last desperate attempt by the Germans to slow the inevitable, cause as much harm as possible before they have to surrender,” Robbie said. “They must realize their cause is hopeless.”

“Shhh! Quiet,” came a voice from the seats in front of them.

Robbie looked at Emily and they grinned. He slipped his arm around her again and she rested her head on his shoulder. It felt wonderful, even though the brass pips on his epaulette dug into her. She looked up at him, and he started kissing her.

“A rather silly film, don’t you think?” he asked as they walked home, his arm around her shoulder. “Swinging through the jungle and saying, ‘Me Tarzan, you Jane’?”

“I thought he looked rather good in a loincloth,” Emily replied.

“I didn’t realize you had eyes for other men.” He gave her shoulder a squeeze.

“There’s a lot you still don’t know about me,” she replied. “I might not be the nice, respectable girl you like at all. I might have dark and secret thoughts. I might have a terrible temper. We know so little about each other, Robbie. We’ve only seen the good sides of each other.”