Читать книгу The Chapter of St Cloud - Marcus Attwater - Страница 16

Simon was still asleep. He looked like a movie-still, all youthful glow and tangled sheets. Claire had woken early, moved quietly to open the curtains and let the early sunlight in. It looked set to be perfect. She leant against the windowsill, enjoying the sun on her naked shoulders, and looked at Simon. He really could sleep like the dead. Was that something only men did? She would definitely have woken up if someone walked around her bedroom opening windows, not to mention pulling the chain of the noisy lav next-door. And the birds were staging a riot out there. Claire felt like going out. Should she wake him, wait for him? She quickly pulled on a skirt and top, still undecided. Simon made a small snorting sound and turned over, rolling onto his stomach and taking the sheets with him, as if determined even in sleep to give her the best view. She smiled at his unconscious boyishness and went out, closing the door firmly behind her.

She ran lightly down the stairs. There were voices coming from the kitchen, but she ignored them. She wanted to get outside while there was still dew on the grass.

'Also going for a walk?'

She looked around to find Anna, in a summer dress and sandals, selecting a straw boater from the hat stand in the hallway.

'That was the idea. It's such a lovely day.'

'Shall we walk together? Or would you rather be alone? - I shan't mind either way.'

'Oh, let's walk together. You can point out the interesting bits for me. It's just that I didn't want to wake Simon, anyway.'

'Is he still like that? When he was a teenager he sometimes couldn't be roused till after midday.'

They went out by the garden doors of what was grandly called the morning room.

'What was he like, as a child?' Claire asked curiously. Surprisingly, with so many female relatives around, she had as yet been spared the family album.

'Oh, very much like Titus is now. You think they're just boys, doing the things boys do, and then suddenly they come out with something clever and you know they're just adults waiting to happen.'

What an odd way to put it, Claire thought. Did Anna regret having children so young? Were her books a way of living a lost youth? One of her novels was called Two Is Company - but she lived in a crowd.

'It goes so fast,' Anna continued, 'Remember that Claire, when you have children of your own. Enjoy every moment. They are gone before you know it.'

She must be thinking of her other son, Claire thought. No one had told her yet what had happened to him.

A set of steps led down from the formal garden into an unexpected multitude of rose bushes. Claire lingered by a Hybrid Tea, wondering if she could ask.

'Anna, why did you marry so young? Don't get me wrong, I'm glad you did, or there would be no Simon for me. But all my friends' parents are older.'

'Because my Simon ever so charmingly insisted we should. And we were very much in love. It wasn't as if I had to either. Young Simon was born a whole decorous year after the wedding.'

Claire laughed. 'I understand. And they can be charming, can't they, those Simons?'

'Oh yes. They all have it, this way with people. Even Titus, he's everyone's pet. And Judith has got boys coming out her ears.'

'I can imagine that.'

It occurred to Claire that within the larger family, Simon's parents actually led entirely separate lives. His father had returned from France two days ago, but she had not seen him and Anna together even at dinner. They might have been very much in love twenty-five or more years ago, but she doubted they were still. They walked in silence for a bit. The rose garden smelt wet and sweet now, but there was a hint of something else in the air, something that would turn heavy and rotten in the sunlight. Claire was glad they had come here in the early morning, or she would have found it oppressive.

'Wasn't it strange, becoming part of this family?'

Anna snapped off a blown rose and looked at her, almost conspiratorially. She must know why I'm asking that, Claire thought. But then, Simon had made his intentions pretty clear by bringing her here, so what the hell.

'Strange, yes,' Anna replied, 'But also very nice. I came from a large family myself - four girls - but that was very different. I was used to always being Emma-Sophie-Jilly-oh it's you. And here suddenly everyone made a fuss of me. It was different, though, back then. More formal and old-fashioned, like you would expect in a house like that.' She gestured behind her, and a few orange petals drifted away. 'I think maybe I left more of a mark on my kids than Edie did on hers.'

'Looks like you did a good job.'

Anna's mouth curled in a small, almost sad smile.

'If I hadn't seen the way you look at Simon, I'd say you were flattering me.'

'I mean it,' Claire said, 'Not just Simon, you should be proud of your children.'

'Oh, I am. I am.' Anna dropped the wilting bloom and set off again, leading the way through a shadowy trellis. 'So tell me about your family, Claire. Do you have brothers and sisters?'

'Just a younger sister. Francesca. We were never close, but things got better when we grew up. In fact, we get along very well now.'

Claire thought of Gina's prickly relationship with her mother-in-law, of Bryony's formal cordiality towards hers. And here she was talking to Anna almost as she would to Gina or Bry. As if they were friends. They walked back towards the house in comfortable silence.

She was soaking in the bath when a tinny rendition of O frondens virga alerted her to a call.

'Hey Claire, it's Bryony.'

'Bry! How are you? You know I'm staying with Simon, right?'

'Yes, yes, I know. I'm fine. Look, about staying with Simon. I wanted to say, I mean, I wanted to ask you something.'

She sounded strangely hesitant, for Bryony.

'What's wrong?'

'Has he told you how old he is?'

So it was about that. 'I haven't asked. Look, I know you and Julia think I'm a bit of a cradle-snatcher, but it's not-'

'He was at school with Luke,' Bryony interrupted, 'You know, Paul's brother. That's why he was at the wedding. They were best mates. Luke's only twenty-one, Claire.'

Oh.

'Fuck.' Claire said quietly.

'Well, that's legal,' Bryony said, apparently relieved to have got it off her chest. 'I thought you should know, I mean, if you didn't know already.'

'Yes, yes you're right Bry. Thanks, I suppose. I'll have to think about this.'

'Of course. You'll be all right, Claire.'

It wasn't clear whether that was a question and Claire didn't know what to answer if it was.