Infatuation

Ten minutes later she left Mrs Doulton and went downstairs and out into the sunny garden. The air was filled with the fragrance of newly mown grass and flowers. The day was very warm now that the sun had risen high in the sky, the mingled scent of early roses and lilac drifted to her nostrils as she followed the sound of voices through the garden. The swimming pool was built just below the house with a belt of trees to shield it from view and keep the worst of the wind at bay. Judith emerged on the tiled pavement just as Stephanie launched herself into the water with a resounding splash.

'Not so violently, darling,' Angela complained in a languid voice. She was lying on a quilted lounger, her pregnancy barely concealed by the skirted swimsuit she wore. Hearing Judith's footsteps, she turned her head I and waved a lazy hand.

'Hi, nice to see you.'

The others trod water to stare at Judith. Angela's husband, his hair slicked back wetly against his head, smiled at her and said: 'Hallo there.'

Angela took off the sunglasses she wore and gestured with them to the lounger beside her. 'Come and talk to me. Is Mother asleep?'

'Fanny told her she ought to be,' Judith said, and Angela laughed.

'She's a dragon, isn't she? I was scared stiff of her when I was little.'

Judith sat down, feeling a little out of place in her thin turquoise shift dress and sandals, when everyone else was in swimsuits.

'Is your sister here too?' Judith asked, and Angela shook her head. 'Pauline shot off back to civilisation, as she calls it. She loves it over in Geneva, she thinks ‘England is boring.'

'Neither of you live in America; don't you get homesick?'

'I sometimes yearn for toasted marshmallows on top of hot chocolate,' Angela said. 'Gorgeous! But very fattening, so maybe I'm better off without it. We got over to Vermont for a fortnight in April; I do miss Vermont, we have a peaceful place there. Luke keeps it, but he doesn't often visit.'

They talked for a while, then Angela's little boy climbed dripping out of the pool and came over, shivering, demanding to be dried. 'I'm cold, I want to get dressed, Mummy.'

'I'll do it, shall I?' Judith offered as Angela began to hoist herself up with obvious reluctance. Picking up the enormous bath sheet, she wrapped Benny in its folds and began to towel him gently. He stared up at her, all eyes. He had the family colouring, brown hair and brown eyes, but his features were, as yet, indeterminate, his nose small and stubby, his mouth small and pink.

She kissed him on the tip of his nose. 'There you are—want some help getting dressed?'

'I'm going in to dress,' he said, retreating hurriedly.

'Fanny will dress him,' Angela told her with complacency. 'She loves to have them here for a little while; too much of them and she'd be climbing the walls, but once every now and then and she can enjoy the change.'

Dudley. Angela's husband, joined them a few minutes later and stood, towelling himself, exchanging polite remarks with Judith about her work, asking her how she was settling down in Doulton-Klein and telling her that he was a stockbroker himself.

'I don't know how you can stand it,' Angela told him, and to Judith said: 'Or you! It's such a dull life: some of Dudley's friends drive me scatty, I get toothache from trying not to yawn.'

Dudley was quite tall and very thin, Judith could see his ribs beneath his brown skin. He had fine dark hair and brown eyes and an angular, long-boned face. He seemed to find his wife enjoyable, he smiled at her teasingly. 'What Angela means is that she has a habit of going off to sleep halfway through an evening—she claims it's because my friends are so boring, but the truth is she's just a dormouse, she sleeps nine hours every night and still has to take a nap every afternoon.'

'Only when I'm pregnant,' Angela disputed.

Dudley looked at his watch. 'I'm going to get changed, coming up to the house, poppet?' This was to his daughter, not his wife, and Stephanie reluctantly dragged herself away from the sparkling blue water and padded over to join them, leaving wet footprints on the white tiles. When she had dried herself she and her father vanished and Angela groaned, forcing herself up to her feet.

'I suppose we'd better go too, or Fanny will start sending search parties down for us. She has a mania for punctuality, she sulks for days if anybody's late for a meal.'

They walked slowly back to the house, the sunshine warm on Judith's cheek and bare arms. 'My mother tells me she hasn't seen Baba since the engagement party,' Angela said suddenly. 'You know her quite well, I gather.'

'Yes,' Judith admitted warily, picking up something in Angela's tone that worried her.

'Is she really serious about Luke?'

Judith looked at Angela sharply. 'As far as I know— yes. Why?'

'Luke brought her down here once, that's all, he doesn't seem to see much of her. When mother asked him he told her Baba was away a good deal.'

'She is—she models abroad all the time.'

It just seems a bit odd,' Angela said vaguely, frowning. 'I wondered if she was unsure about him. People who've just got engaged usually see a lot of each other.'

'I expect they will when Baba's not so busy,' Judith said defensively, although why she should feel compelled to rush to Baba's defence she did not know.