Mary laughed. “I shan’t sit here mooning over him.”
“You know the trouble?” said Hilda, rummaging in Mary’s bag for her. “Your mother bred all the sense out of you. Now look,” she said, slapping the brownish vignette of Alistair down among the ash and the coasters. “Look at that and tell me you’re not in love.”
How many times Mary had stared at Alistair’s photograph. Once it had provoked a simple gladness.
“ ‘Oh, I don’t know,” said Mary. “What would you have me say?”
“That he is beautiful. That you love him. Only that.”
“But it’s been so long, and I’m such a mess. I hardly remember—”
“Then think: what was the spark? The hour you looked into those eyes and thought: I want no one else? God knows, I can remember.”
Mary stared at Alistair’s portrait. It didn’t seem kind to tell Hilda that it hadn’t been his eyes at all, but his back. She’d known with certainty that she needed him only when he had turned away from her on the platform at Waterloo. How her heart had dropped—as if there were no end to falling. When the hour had come for the war to take him away, that had been the first and last moment she had known without doubt that she loved him.
One knew how one felt only when things ended. And yet here was the world of white tables, insisting on beginnings. And here was Alistair now, with a footman throwing open the door of the lounge. Here was Alistair, tall and gaunt, the chandelier showering him with light. Here he was in his uniform, smiling and unsteady, his right sleeve empty and pinned. Here was Alistair, meeting her eye.
Mary stood, knocking over her drink. Gin sluiced over the tablecloth and deepened the red plush of the carpet.
“Alistair,” she said, so overcome that she forgot to embrace him and instead offered her hand to shake. It was ridiculous—and even worse since she offered her right, which he had to take with his left.
“Hello, Mary.”
They disengaged. He raised and then dropped his good arm, helplessly. “Sorry I’m late. There were Germans.”
Mary managed a laugh; Alistair too.
“Hello Alistair,” said Hilda. “Gin all right with you?”
“Gin? Fine. Hello, Hilda, how are you?”
“Back in a jiffy,” said Hilda, giving them the table.
“Her poor face . . .” said Alistair as Hilda curved to the ladies’ room.
“Shrapnel,” said Mary.
Gin came, and Alistair took a sip. He grimaced and widened his eyes.
“Nice?” said Mary.
“I’d almost forgotten what we were fighting for. And you only look more beautiful.”
“You’re very kind. But it’s the war, I’m afraid. I’m so much older.”
Alistair gave her a look so tender that she thought she might dissolve. The two of them might be all right, she realized. She must make more effort to take it slowly this time, that was all. Life took longer to reassemble than it did to blow apart, but that didn’t mean it wouldn’t be lovely, providing that one remembered to go for country walks, and to tune the wireless to music.
“You haven’t missed the weather,” she said. “It’s mostly rained since you left.”
Alistair took in the Ritz’s lounge—the laughter, the crystals of light that flattered the crowd. He said, “I thought I wouldn’t make it back to all this. I was sinking by the time the Navy pulled us out. I was going down and there was this great roaring noise, which was the sound of the rescue launch’s engines, but I thought it was the end. They had to pump my chest.”
The words struggled to connect, and Mary found herself already saying, “And of course it snowed a lot in January.”
Hilda appeared back at the table, all purpose and powder. “Well,” she said, “I shall leave you lovebirds to it.”
Mary took her arm. “You mustn’t go.”
Mistaking her terror, Hilda kissed her on both cheeks. “Don’t be silly, I’ll be fine. I shall call at the garret tomorrow to catch up on all the news.” She gave Mary a look of tipsy significance. “But I shan’t arrive before noon.”
“Oh Hilda, you really don’t need to—”
“Nonsense. Now be good, you two, and if you can’t be good, be a warning to others.”
She was gone with a wave of the fingers, weaving between the tables. A waiter dimmed the chandelier. The pianist took a break.
“In Malta it was mostly sunny,” said Alistair. “But there could be a terrible wind.”
“I was so desperate when I heard you were missing,” said Mary at the same time.