Read Online Gentlemen Formerly Dressed by Sulari Gentill - Free Book Online

really should be going…”
    â€œBut you must wait till the children return,” Kate protested. “They’ll be back in a minute and Ernest will be terribly disappointed if you’re not here when he returns!”
    Again Rowland was surprised by the emotion in Kate’s plea. He shrugged. “Of course… we’ll stop till the boys get back.”
    â€œActually, Rowly, I wouldn’t mind a word whilst you wait.” Wilfred motioned towards the tiled balcony off the sitting room. “Shall we step outside for a moment?”
    Edna glanced at Rowland in alarm. In her experience, Wilfred requested these quiet words so that he could dress down his brother privately. She wondered now if she should have spoken of Germany.
    Rowland did not seem to share her concern. Returning her glance with a wink, he followed Wilfred onto the balcony which overlooked the park below.
    The rose beds of Ennismore Gardens were in full bloom adding ordered colour to the sweeping paths which wound between the trees. Elegant couples strolled among the shrubberies and smartly dressed children played polite cricket and skipped on the lawns. Rowland waved as he spotted Ernest running ahead of his nanny who was pushing Ewan in a large pram.
    Wilfred lit a cigarette.
    Rowland waited.
    â€œI couldn’t help but overhear your conversation with Miss Higgins, Rowly.”
    â€œWhat conversation?”
    â€œAs highly inappropriate as it is for her to know such a fact, Miss Higgins seems to be of the opinion that you’re not sleeping.”
    Rowland studied his brother, not sure what he was getting at. Wilfred’s disapproval of Edna was long-standing, but he wasbewildered as to why it would warrant particular mention now. He tensed, preparing himself for an old and bitter argument.
    â€œIs it true?” Wilfred demanded.
    â€œIs what true?”
    â€œThat you’re not sleeping.”
    Rowland relaxed. “I’m all right, Wil.”
    Wilfred smoked wordlessly for a while. “You know, Rowly, after the war there were a few… several chaps… who stopped sleeping.”
    Rowland said nothing, surprised, not by what Wilfred said but by the fact that he’d said it. This was closer than his brother had ever before come to talking to him of the war. Fifteen years after the armistice and Rowland still knew almost nothing about Wilfred’s years in France: what he’d done, how he’d felt. It had always been a silence between them.
    Wilfred met his eye. “Don’t drink.”
    â€œI beg your pardon?”
    â€œIf you can’t sleep… when you find yourself alone and awake in the middle of the night… read, take up smoking, learn to knit if you have to—just don’t drink… not alone.”
    Rowland shifted uncomfortably. He dragged his good hand through his hair. He had taken the edge off with gin more than once. It all seemed so ridiculous in the light of day, but he understood what Wilfred was saying. “Very well Wil, I’ll knit you some socks.”

6
    MADAME TUSSAUD’S WAXWORKS

Hitler’s Figure Painted Red
TWO YOUTHS ARRESTED
    London, Friday
    Three green-shirted youths entered Madame Tussaud’s and smeared red paint on the wax figure of Herr Hitler and labelled it “Hitler, the murderer.” They were later arrested.
    Border Watch, 1933
    T he day was warm; possibly hot by English standards. For the Australians, it was pleasant. They had set out on foot for the waxworks museum on Marylebone Road. Edna’s interest was professional. She often worked in wax when creating a piece for casting in bronze, and the lifelike figures created by the sculptors of Madame Tussaud’s both intrigued and impressed her. Clyde and Rowland, being painters, were less interested in the sculptures as examples of technical excellence than as contemporary curiosities. Milton was willing to go anywhere as long as it did not involve