The Night Watch by Sarah Waters Page B

drew her to him and they lay on the rug, he on his back with his arm around her, she with her cheek in the firm, warm hollow between his shoulder and his chest. Now and then she raised herself a little to sip, awkwardly, at her drink; finally she swallowed it all in a gulp and let the empty beaker fall. He rubbed his face against her head, his rough chin plucking at her hair.
    She looked into the sky. Her view of it was framed by branches, by the restless tips of trees. The branches were thick with leaves still, but the leaves were ruddy, or golden, or the greenish-yellow of army uniforms. The sky itself was perfectly cloudless: blue as the bluest skies of summer.
    'What bird is that?' she asked, pointing.
    'That? That's a vulture.'
    She gave him a nudge. 'What is it, really?'
    He shaded his eyes. 'It's a kestrel. See how it hovers? It's waiting to dive. It's after a mouse.'
    'Poor mouse.'
    'There he goes!' He lifted his head, the muscles in his chest and throat growing tight beneath her cheek. The bird had swooped, but now rose again with empty claws. He lay back down. 'He's lost it.'
    'Good.'
    'It's only another sort of lunch. He's entitled to his bit of lunch, isn't he?'
    'It's cruel.'
    He laughed. 'I'd no idea you were so tender-hearted.-Look, now he's trying again.'
    They watched the bird for a minute, marvelling together at the buoyancy of it, its graceful swoops and soars. Then Viv took off her sunglasses, to see it more clearly; and Reggie looked, not at the kestrel, but at her.
    'That's better,' he said. 'It was like talking to a blind girl, before.'
    She settled back on the rug and closed her eyes. 'You're used to them, of course.'
    'Ha-ha.'
    He was still for a moment, then reached across her and picked something up. After a second she felt a tickling on her face, and brushed her cheek, thinking a fly had settled on it. But it was him: he had a long blade of grass and was stroking her with the tip of it. She frowned, but closed her eyes again and let him do it. He followed the lines of her brow and her nose, the curve above her mouth; he worked the grass across her temples.
    'You've changed your hair, haven't you?' he said.
    'I got it cut, ages ago.-You're tickling me.'
    He moved the blade of grass more firmly. 'How's that?'
    'That's better.'
    'I like it.'
    'Like what?'
    'Your hair.'
    'Do you? It's all right.'
    'It suits you… Open your eyes, Viv.'
    She opened them, briefly, then screwed them up again. 'The sun's too bright.'
    He raised his hand-held it a foot away from her face, to make a shade. 'Open them now,' he said.
    'What for?'
    'I want to look into your eyes.'
    She laughed. 'Why?'
    'I just do.'
    'They're the same as they were the last time you looked into them.'
    'That's what you think. Women's eyes are never the same. You're like cats, the lot of you.'
    He tickled her face until she did as he asked and opened her eyes again. But she opened them wide, being silly.
    'Not like that,' he said. So she looked at him properly… 'That's better.' His expression was soft. 'You've got lovely eyes. You've got beautiful eyes. Your eyes were the first thing I noticed about you.'
    'I thought it was my legs you noticed first.'
    'Your legs, too.'
    He held her gaze, then threw the blade of grass away and leaned and kissed her. He did it slowly, parting her lips with his own, pushing gently into her mouth. He tasted of the ham, still; the ham and the gin and orange. She supposed she must taste of it too. As the kiss went on, a speck of something-meat, or bread-came between their tongues, and he broke away to pick it from his mouth. But when he came back to her, he kissed her harder; and began to lean more heavily against her. He ran his hand down her body, from her cheek to her hip; then he stroked upwards again and cupped her breast. His hand was hot, and gripped her hard, almost painfully. When he drew it away and began to pluck instead at the buttons at the front of her dress, she stopped his fingers and lifted her