hands in fists. ‘Don’t say I was not old enough! I did what I wanted and what I thought I had to do, and I’m not ashamed—you can take that Sunday face off.’
Nando sat silent on the railing, lazy leg dangling, his face flat.
‘You don’t get to scold me,’ she said, still very angry. ‘What have you been up to yourself? Saints all round, I suppose.’
He nodded. ‘Except when I was with someone or other.’
She gasped.
‘I’m not boasting of it, but you ought to know we’re about even.’
Her own face went flat, she felt it. She could not bear to think about Nando with someone else.
‘Only I never found any girl I wanted like you, or that fit my hand so well, and fit my mind, never anyone. How about you?’
Now would be the time to flounce off, all aggrieved.
‘Liked me best of all, didn’t you?’
She bit the inside of her cheek.
‘I made a good bit in the movies so far—nothing like the money in vaude, but the work’s okay. I can take my dad along, they find him something to do. But I’m not stuck on it, I’d come back to the boards if you wanted me. Dad can manage on his own now, he don’t need much from me but a bank draft, time to time.’
‘Why are you—?’ She intended to walk out. She had an independent—She was a headliner, all by herself. All on her own bat.
He spread his hands open. Callused and squared, short crooked fingers, each one of them broken one time or another.
‘I have a little cat, and I’m very fond of that,’ he sang, rusty-voiced. Then he leaned forward, one foot hooked in the mezzanine railing, farther forward than a man could possibly lean, and kissed her mouth.
11.
Together Again
JUNE 1917
Qu’Appelle, Saskatchewan
Vancouver, British Columbia
Regina, Saskatchewan
After the band has rehearsed your music to your satisfaction, thank them kindly and retire. This is not necessary but customary and costs nothing, and is generally appreciated. It does no harm.
FREDERICK LADELLE, HOW TO ENTER VAUDEVILLE
The train announced itself at a distance, halved the distance, halved it again, and galloped into the station on a thousand horses, steaming and stamping. Aurora ran down the platform, looking for every opening door and hoping, and then there was Clover—wasn’t it?—backing down off the stairs, a child in her arms, turning to help—and Victor, with a cane, hopping awkwardly down to the platform.
Aurora stopped for a moment to look at them whole: Clover much older, her hair hidden under a dark felt hat, glancing towards Victor. She was carrying the baby girl, a fairy, thin legs in red Viyella leggings buttoned under nice brown shoes, her face hidden under a red tam and crammed down into Clover’s collar. Victor shook off Clover’s hand and pointed to Aurora. His face was so changed, Aurora could not take it in. His pant-leg was bunched around some contraption, and he leaned on a sturdy cane. She remembered him flying through the air, landing so lightly that the stage made no sound.
Then they were all together, she and Clover pressed to each other like flowers in a book, and the little Harriet making sleepy mews at being squashed.
Luggage mushroomed on the baggage cart, a porter loaded it into the Ford—which Uncle Chum, relenting, had taught Aurora to drive—and they went tooling back up the street. Clover pulled off Harriet’s tam, releasing springing dark curls, and then her own hat. Her hair, cut straight to the jaw, swung free.
‘London style,’ she said, at Aurora’s admiring gasp. ‘Fabian style, at least!’
Aurora pointed out landmarks (the church, Mrs. Gower’s, the school, the Opera House) and kept up a flow of welcoming babble until they had passed out of town into the countryside. Then she fell silent to let the air and sky and the thin strip of endless land at the bottom of the window do their work on Clover.
Everyone was out on the veranda to watch them arrive. When Aurora pulled up in the drive and waved, Mabel let go of Avery’s hand so he could hop down the steps to greet his long-lost aunt. Holding a limp bunch of white clover in his hand, he waited patiently for someone to get out of the car who might be her.
Harriet clung to her mother until she saw Avery, whereupon her eyes followed him, fascinated. Aurora saw him afresh, looking very grown up, suddenly, compared to Harriet. Chum called Elsie to come and see Arthur in the children; Elsie