Sensible Life by Mary Wesley Page A

at dinner to make them laugh. With Flora pressed against the wall he had wished he was not burdened with parcels. He would have liked to hold her throat and put his thumbs in the salt cellars above her collar bone. He felt a prickle of sweat on his upper lip and was startled to feel he had an erection.

TWELVE
    F INDING THE DOOR BESIDE the horse butcher ajar, Cosmo was surprised, when he pushed it open, to see Flora squatting half-way up the stair leading to Madame Tarasova’s lodgings. “What are you doing?” he asked.
    Equally surprised, Flora countered, “Why aren’t you playing golf?”
    “My father is in confabulation with other paterfamiliases plotting how to get us back to school. If there is a General Strike there will be no trains.” Cosmo stood on the bottom stair looking up.
    “So you could stay on in Dinard?”
    “They’ll get us back somehow, even if they make us walk. How do you know I play golf?” Flora did not answer but pulled her skirt over her knees.
    “What are you doing?” Cosmo climbed the stair. “I’m rather sick of golf,” he confided, “but don’t tell Pa.”
    “I am playing myself,” said Flora primly.
    “Backgammon?” Cosmo noticed the board balanced on the step. “Playing left hand against right? Which is winning? Do you play fair?”
    “There would be no point in cheating.”
    “Let me watch you.”
    “No.” Flora clenched the dice in her fist and began stacking the pieces into their box. “Elizabeth and Anne are having a fitting,” she said. “There’s no room in there to move. They are rather large.” She gestured with both hands, indicating the size of the Dutch bosoms. Cosmo was reminded of the trip to St. Malo, when they had bought the revolver for his father. She had made a similar gesture but lower down to indicate the café proprietor’s wife’s obesity. “How is your friend Jules’ wife?” he asked, settling himself below her on the stair.
    “She’s grown thin. Jules says he will give her new dresses and she’s got a little baby.”
    “Ah,” said Cosmo, “that’s interesting. Are they pleased, Jules and his wife?”
    “Very. Jules says they’ve wanted a baby for ages. They had prayed for one, gone on a pilgrimage to Lourdes. It didn’t come from Lourdes, though. He said, ‘Voyez ma petite on s’est beaucoup applique.’ They managed to find one somehow.” Flora looked puzzled. “It’s a girl. They want to find a boy next.”
    Cosmo said, “I see, yes, that’s nice.” In the room above he heard Elizabeth laugh and a burst of talk. He said, “Would you give me a game?”
    “If you like.” Flora began setting out the board.
    “I know the rudiments,” Cosmo said, watching her, “but not the finer points. Madame Tarasova hasn’t taught me how or when to double. Let’s see how we get on.”
    “It’s Alexis who is the gambler. D’you want black or white?”
    “Black. Who is Alexis?”
    “Her husband. You start.”
    Cosmo shook the dice and threw. “A three and a one. What shall I do? No, don’t tell me.” He moved a piece four paces.
    Flora’s nose twitched. She shook the dice, threw a double six and rapidly—chunk, chunk—blocked Cosmo’s six-point as well as her own. Cosmo threw a three and a two and moved his men, leaving himself grievously exposed. Flora took him off and consolidated her board. Cosmo, who had been feeling kindly and patronising, now realised that Flora might not know where babies came from, but knew this game. As she took her last man off, he said, “Either I am a complete fool or you are extremely lucky.”
    “It’s a knack.” Flora began stacking the pieces. “Were you meeting the Shovels here?” she asked, nodding upwards towards Madame Tarasova’s door.
    “I’m making myself scarce, actually; when Pa’s finished, his mind may turn golfwards. I was hoping to find Blanco; my mother, Mabs and Tashie are at the hairdresser’s and going to St. Malo for lunch. It’s amazing what a lot of