I paired him with Jonny on the course, and I took Colin as my partner. Since he’s only a wee lad yet, I told him he could drive off the ladies’ tees. Mistake, Uncle Oz: the look he gave me would have done credit to his mother. (To emphasise his point, the tee-shot he hit off the first would have done credit to his grandfather.)
Harvey was nervous, when it came to his turn, but I told him to try to imagine that he was in the High Court, pleading before Lord Emslie. That seemed to settle him down, for he plonked one up the middle, around ten yards short of Colin’s ball.
We didn’t keep score. . it wouldn’t have been fair. . but under Jonny’s guidance Harvey did okay. I could tell he was concentrating: the Queen’s, like all the Gleneagles courses, is one of the most beautiful in the world, but he didn’t even notice the scenery. He was surprised when I shook his hand after we had holed our putts on the eighteenth, and even more so when Jonny and Colin did too. Like the rest of the game, that piece of etiquette was new to him.
‘Did you enjoy that?’ I asked him, as we walked back to the clubhouse.
‘I have to admit that I did, very much. Do you think I’m ready to play with your father yet?’
‘Have a few more rounds with the boys, and a couple of lessons from a good teaching pro. Then he should be able to take money off you honourably, which is all he’ll expect of you.’
‘That takes me back to my early years at the Bar.’ That was the first piece of humour I ever heard him try. ‘Are we still having lunch on Tuesday?’ he asked me, as the boys walked on ahead.
‘Let’s keep our options open on that one,’ I replied, ‘till we see how Prim’s business develops. But for the avoidance of doubt, I wish you and my sister all the best, and I hope you’ll be very happy together. I have to say, for the sake of formality, that if you mess her about then, judge or not, I will kill you without hesitation, but I don’t think there’s a cat’s chance in hell of that. Welcome to our crazy family.’
I stopped as we entered the hotel, and made a slight detour into the office area. I’m quite well known there, so just before lunch I’d taken advantage of the fact by asking if they could check something out for me. One of the booking staff knew Prim by sight too, and remembered her meeting up with an American guest.
The woman was waiting for me, looking pleased with herself. ‘I’ve run that check you asked for, Mr Blackstone. The gentleman you mentioned did indeed register under the name Paul Wallinger. He booked a three-night dinner-bed-and-breakfast package …’
‘Any golf included?’
‘No, just accommodation and evening meal; he settled his bill with cash.’
‘What, like ordinary folding money, the kind people hardly ever use here?’
‘It is unusual, I agree.’
I thanked her and gave her some currency for her trouble, then rejoined the guys.
We found Ellie, Susie and the kids in the coffee lounge. When she saw how sun-flushed and contented her new man looked, my sister smiled with sheer delight, and that pleased me. I ordered three pints of beer shandy, and a Coke for Colin; if the waiter wondered whether or not Jonny was eighteen, he didn’t worry enough to ask, so I didn’t enlighten him.
I was able to keep an eye on the entrance from my seat. About ten minutes after our drinks had been served, I saw David Phillips’s old Rover pull up on the driveway. Polite-ness, nothing else, made me go to greet them, although I didn’t expect him to wait. I saw Prim lean forward from the back seat to kiss his cheek, and say her goodbyes to her mother; then she got out. Elanore turned to look back at her as Dave drove off. I was shocked to see that she was wearing a wig. ‘Your mum,’ I said. It was a question.
‘Her cancer’s back, Oz. It’s in her lymphatic system. They’re giving her chemo down at the Western General in Edinburgh, but the prognosis isn’t too good. That’s why I didn’t say anything about Tom when I was here before.’
‘Maybe I was an idiot for making you do it today, then.’
‘No, you were right. She was blazing mad that I hadn’t told her as soon as he was conceived. Now I feel guilty as hell, for the chances are that she’ll never get to see him.’
She looked positively mournful, so I put a hand on her shoulder. ‘She will, kid. I promise you that; she will.’
‘But how, Oz? Tom’s on the other side of the Atlantic, and for all the things that Harvey and Greg are going to do in court, they’re not much use if we can’t find him.’
‘Didn’t you hear me, girl? I made you a blood oath there. You came to me for help before anyone else. I’m touched by that, and I’m not going to let you down. Elanore will get to hold her grandson.’
Chapter 12
On the way home, I told Susie what had happened in the meeting with Harvey, and that Prim was going to have to fly down to London next day to pick up some papers. ‘If you fancy chumming her for the trip,’ I said, ‘I’ll stay with the kids, since it’s Ethel’s weekend off.’
‘Nice thought, darling, but I find London unbearably stuffy at this time of year. You’re right, though; she should have company. You go with her.’
I wished that I’d kept my mouth shut. I didn’t fancy spending my Sunday on the bloody shuttle. ‘We could always send Conrad.’
‘They’ve gone to Arran for the weekend, remember. They won’t be back till tomorrow night. No, that’s settled; you’re going.’ I waited for Prim to protest that she could handle it on her own, but she just sat there and said nothing.
As Susie said, it was settled. I booked us on to the nine o’clock flight to London next morning, returning late afternoon. I didn’t say much on the drive to the airport; I never do, but Prim took it the wrong way.
‘Oz, I’m sorry,’ she said, as we drove east along the motorway. ‘You don’t really want to be doing this, do you? I’ve mucked up your life again with my troubles.’
‘Enough of that,’ I told her. ‘If that was true, I wouldn’t be here. You’d be in a taxi with a one-way ticket in your pocket.’
The flight to London was as quiet as I’d expected it to be; there was nobody within three rows of us. I declined British Airways’ offer of breakfast, and settled instead for pretending to sleep. It didn’t fool Prim, though; we’ve lived together for a good chunk of the last decade, so she knows the real thing when she sees … and hears … it.
We were over the Solway Firth when I felt a small sharp elbow in my ribs. ‘Why do you think he did it?’ she asked me, quietly.
‘For money. He’s a professional fraudster.’
‘You don’t think he might have loved me at the start?’
‘Did he make you believe that he did?’
‘Yes.’
‘Did you make yourself believe that you loved him?’
There was a long silence. ‘Honestly? No.’
‘Not ever?’
‘No.’
‘Not even when you were carrying his child?’
‘Not even then.’
Then I asked a very stupid question. ‘How about me?’
‘What do you mean?’
‘Did you ever make yourself believe you loved me?’
‘I didn’t have to.’
‘I wasn’t worth the effort, I suppose.’
‘No, you idiot. I didn’t have to make myself believe it, because I did love you. From the moment I set eyes on you, in fact.’
For a few seconds I was speechless. Until that moment, I’d managed to persuade myself that our relationship had been based on pure lust and self-interest. Of course we’d said the three words to each other, in the early stages, but I’d said them before and not meant them, and she had too.
I decided against stupid question number two.
Instead I asked, ‘So how can you look at Susie and me, far less be with us?’
‘Because I’m a realist. I know that you never really loved me, and I know that I was as much to blame for our breakup as you were. Don’t worry, I don’t harbour any secret dreams of winning you back. I look at you with Susie, and I see how much you’ve changed. I watched you with your family yesterday. Your dad used to be its bedrock, but now you are.’ That made me sit up, since Ellie had said much the same thing the day before. ‘You used to be a taker, Oz,’ she went on. ‘With me, even with Jan, you were a taker. Now you’re a giver, not because you’re rich and famous, but because you’ve realised what you were and become a different person.’