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Atonement by Ian McEwan Pages 61 - 80

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(Brought to you by jat impatientreader.com) Cecilia tells Leon that Paul is going to be staying on the second floor. She, Leon and Paul sit in folding chairs around the pool and talk about their business, which is selling something called an "Army Amo", a ration bar wrapped in a green candy shell.

Cecilia wonders how it would be to be married to someone like Paul Marshall, and how it would be to have his children. Her eyes turn to her brother, and she remembers how they used to look significantly at each other when they were children and be able to pass secrets or just make each other laugh at inappropriate times.

Paul finishes his discussion, and Leon gets up and tells Cecilia that he's invited Robbie to dinner. Cecilia is irritated and tells Leon that he should have asked her first. He tries to get her to admit why she doesn't want him to come to dinner, but she moves off without telling him to go smoke a cigarette.

They stand apart for a moment, and then she suggests that they go in and have a drink. Leon goes into the house first, and as Paul lets Cecilia get past him in the door, she almost feels him touch her lightly.

Briony appears to have abandoned the rehearsals of the play when she abruptly leaves Lola and the twin boys. While they wait for Briony to come back, Lola goes into one of the bedrooms and notices a leather suitcase on the bed. She touches the latch, and it pops open. She quickly closes it and goes back to her bedroom where the boys are wrestling on the bed.

Later on they are all in the nursery, and one of the boys complains that he doesn't like it there, and that their parents are going to get divorced. Both Lola and the brother are shocked, and Lola tells him never to use the word again. Suddenly they notice that Paul is at the door, and he introduces himself to them. Lola is flustered and can barely talk to him.

She asks if he knows their parents, and he says he does. She warns him not to talk about them in front of her brothers, and he agrees. Paul reassures the twins that their parents are fine people and love them very much. After having drinks with Cecilia and Leon, he had fallen asleep in his room.  He had a disturbing dream, and then woke up hearing Lola and her brother's voices in the room nearby, and decided to come by and see them.

He and Lola talk for a while, almost flirting with each other. Paul remarks that he has something to show Lola, and pulls out one of his Army Amo bars. He gives it to Lola, who tastes the candy shell tentatively. Paul has to urge her to bite into the bar.
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