Abdication A Novel - By Juliet Nicolson Page 0,124

saying goodbye but if I had delayed my departure this morning by speaking to you, I might have changed my mind and not gone at all.

I am catching the boat to France today and then taking the train to Paris to meet Peter. From there we will probably travel on to Spain and meet up with his friend Eric. I am going to Spain because I think, well, I hope it is the right thing to do.

I don’t know how long I will be away, perhaps a good while, but I will get a message to you to tell you I have arrived safely.

Look after Joan, won’t you? You know I think of her as a mother. And give Florence a kiss from me.

I am going to miss you more than you know.

With love from

Julian

May read the letter twice and the final two sentences three times. After a moment or two she realised Mr. Hooch was still standing in the corner of the kitchen.

“I am going back to Polegate now to collect Miss Nettlefold from the ten o’clock from Victoria. Would you like to come with me? I would welcome the company,” he said.

Mr. Hooch did not have to explain an invitation that May knew was kindness of the best sort. But she declined the offer and went to her desk intending to immerse herself in her work, the certainties of life unravelling around her. She remembered how as a child at home in Barbados she would sometimes wake in a panic in the middle of the night, fearful that she had built her sandcastle too close to the shoreline, and that in the morning she would find it had melted clean away in the waves. Just as the foundation stones of the pavements around Oak Street had been forcibly uprooted in the East End only a month ago, so the way of life and the friendships that she had begun to trust in over the last ten months no longer seemed so secure.

Sir Philip was waiting for her in the study.

“I have got to go to London tomorrow for a meeting at Downing Street with the prime minister, Sunday or no Sunday. Things are truly coming to a head. Can you get Lord Beaverbrook on the telephone for me right away?”

Half an hour later the sound of the dogs barking in the big hall confirmed that Miss Nettlefold had arrived but May did not actually see her until she spotted the fur-clad figure, outside on the lawn with Loafer. May watched the pair of them through the window. Loafer was limping along behind his temporary mistress with the gait of an animal dragging itself through life. May turned back to her desk where the telephone was ringing for what seemed like the dozenth time in as many minutes.

At teatime Miss Nettelfold came looking for May. The small study felt dreadfully cramped as the large woman eased her abundant form past the desk and sat down, her overtight skirt revealing fleshy knees that merged together as one.

“Have you left Loafer outside?” May asked. “Because I know Sir Philip wouldn’t mind if she came in here for a moment.”

But Loafer was having a snooze on the bed upstairs, Miss Nettlefold explained, and did not wish to be disturbed. In fact, Miss Nettlefold had been asked to return the dog to the Fort in a couple of days’ time and May was to drive them both there. And she and May were to spend the day together tomorrow as well, Miss Nettlefold announced with a theatrical clap of her hands. The day of the wireless recording with Sir John Reith, about which Miss Nettlefold had confided to May some weeks ago, had almost arrived. Miss Nettlefold had some appointments in the morning in Mayfair and was expected at the recording studio in Crystal Palace in the south of London by noon. May nodded, trying not to think about Julian’s letter and to share in Miss Nettlefold’s excitement. Miss Nettlefold was certainly in a very ebullient mood.

“Things have been going well for me, May, I am delighted to report. Some people choose to reject one in life, but I have found that another door always opens, especially when you are least expecting it!” And off she went, praising the British and especially the Scottish, whom she had recently discovered to be among the most loyal of friends. “Loyalty, May, that’s the quality I put at the top of the tree. That’s why I