Just as she finished feeding William, there was a knock on the door. To her amazement it was Noel.
‘I thought I’d leave the men to their port,’ she said. ‘What a gorgeous baby. May I hold him?’
‘He’s very tricky with strangers,’ said Harriet dubiously.
But Noel had already gathered William up in her arms, and had soon reduced him to fits of uncontrollable giggles, tickling him and giving him butterfly kisses with her long, long eyelashes.
How beautiful she is, thought Harriet enviously.
Suddenly Noel stopped tickling William and turned her huge eyes on Harriet. ‘Tell me truthfully — how is Cory? Did he mind my coming today?’
Harriet was caught off guard.
‘Yes he did. Particularly with you bringing Mr Acland.’
‘Oh I know I shouldn’t have done that,’ said Noel. ‘But Cory’s so off-hand with me these days and, somehow, I felt I wanted to jolt him. I expect you think I’m wicked, but you’ve no idea how difficult it was being married ten years to a man who’s married to his typewriter. And yet, you know, I don’t really find other men lastingly attractive,’ Noel went on. ‘Every affair I’ve had has really been an attempt to shake Cory into loving me more.’
‘But he adores you!’ said Harriet amazed.
‘Maybe he does in his fashion — but that didn’t stop him switching off for hours on end when he was married to me, bashing out those bloody scripts. And he’s horribly arrogant. All the Erskine family are the same. You must admit he’s tricky to live with.’
She looked at William who snuggled his head against her.
‘I wish they were all as easy to cope with as you,’ she sighed. ‘If only I could be certain I was doing the right thing, divorcing Cory and marrying Ronnie. What do you think I should do?’
‘I don’t know,’ muttered Harriet. She shouldn’t talk to me like this, she thought desperately. I don’t want to discuss Cory with her.
But Noel hadn’t finished turning the screw. ‘Do you really think Cory does love me and nobody else?’
Harriet thought for a minute. ‘Yes, I do. I think he’s being torn to pieces.’
Noel put William down and, smirking slightly, wandered over to Harriet’s dressing table. For a minute she examined herself in the mirror, then her eyes lighted on Simon’s photograph.
‘My, he’s pretty. Good God, it’s Simon!’ She looked at William and, in a flash, put two and two together. ‘He’s your baby’s father?’
Harriet nodded, unable to speak.
‘But I know him!’ said Noel. ‘Very well. He’s doing brilliantly. There’s even talk of him doing a film with me this summer. And he’s this baby’s father? Well! Does he know?’
‘I wrote to him,’ said Harriet.
‘Well, he can’t have got the letter. He adores children. He’s always saying he wants at least ten of his own.’
Harriet’s eyes filled with tears. ‘Tell me how he is,’ she said.
Later, Kit went to sleep on the sofa. Noel and Ronnie took the children out to tea up the valley, Cory shut himself in his study, and Harriet was thankful to be left with the washing-up and her own tangled emotions.
When Noel returned she went into Cory’s study, but after a few minutes came out looking like a thundercloud and went upstairs to change. She and Ronnie were going out to dinner.
Eight-thirty found Ronnie pacing up and down the drawing room. ‘I don’t know if Erskine had this trouble with her,’ he said to Kit and Harriet, ‘but Noel’s incapable of getting anywhere on time. Rather embarrassing. We’re dining with friends of my father’s. Shouldn’t keep that generation waiting.’
Kit was eating potato crisps. ‘My advice,’ he said, ‘is to treat her as you would a nasty boy of ten.’
Cory came in and poured himself a drink. He looked absolutely exhausted.
‘How’s the script going?’ asked Kit.
Cory shrugged his shoulders.
‘So so. I spent today crossing out most of what I wrote yesterday. I suppose it’s good for the wrist.’
‘What’s good for the wrist?’ came a mocking voice, and Noel walked in.
Harriet heard Cory’s sharp intake of breath. Ronnie choked over his cigar.
‘Christ!’ said Kit.
Noel was wearing a transparent black dress. Only her hips were concealed by a thin layer of ostrich feathers. The rest of her body, including the magnificent breasts, gleamed pearly white through the thin, black material. Her blonde hair was piled up on top of her head, diamonds glittering round her throat, in her ears, on her wrists. She looked staggering.
Kit was the first to recover.
‘You look just like a picture I saw outside Raymond’s Revue Bar the other day. I didn’t know you’d gone into cabaret,’ he said.
Ronnie Acland looked dazed. ‘Very simple friends of my father’s we’re going to see, Noel, darling. Is it quite the thing, do you think?’ Noel just shrugged.
Kit poured himself another drink. ‘I shouldn’t worry, Ronnie,’ he said. ‘That generation expect actresses to look unbelievably tarty.’
Noel’s lips tightened. ‘Go and fetch my coat, would you, Ronnie?’
She turned to Cory, who was still standing as if turned to stone.
‘What do you think of me, my darling?’ she said softly.
Cory walked over and stood in front of her, looking her over very slowly. His hands were clenched, a muscle was leaping in his cheek. Only the ticking of the grandfather clock broke the intolerable silence. Then he put out his hand. ‘Goodbye, Noel,’ he said.
‘You don’t really mean that,’ she said slowly, her yellow eyes blazing.
‘Yes, I do, I do, I do,’ he said wearily, as though he was trying to convince himself.
‘Come on, darling,’ said Ronnie Acland, bustling in and knocking over a small table in his haste to get something more substantial round Noel’s body. ‘We’re embarrassingly late as it is.’
In the hall, Jonah’s face was putty-coloured, the tears kept well back. Chattie, in a scarlet dressing gown, had no such reserve. ‘Please don’t go, Mummy!’ she cried, flinging her arms round Noel’s legs and bursting into tears.
‘I must go,’ said Noel, detaching herself gently. ‘Careful, or you’ll ladder my tights.’
‘Oh, Mummy, Mummy,’ whispered the choked little voice. ‘I can’t bear it. When will you come back?’
‘I can’t say, bebé. You must make the best of it.’
She didn’t say another word to Cory, but as she climbed into the huge Rolls-Royce, she turned to Harriet. ‘Goodbye, I’ll certainly tell Simon I’ve seen you.’
Chattie began to howl in earnest as soon as Noel had gone.
‘Hush darling,’ said Harriet, picking her up. ‘You’ll see her again soon.’
Cory went into his study and slammed the door behind him.
I wish I could comfort him as easily as Chattie, thought Harriet.
Kit left soon after Noel. He handed her his telephone number and address in London. ‘If you get into any difficulties, ring me. I’m worried about Cory, but you’re a warm, lovely girl and I’ve a feeling you’re going to be the one to get hurt the most.’
Cory refused any supper, and Harriet, feeling exhausted, went to bed early, but found she couldn’t sleep. She tried to work out exactly what she felt about Simon. But he seemed to have become a shadowy figure, and her thoughts kept straying back to Cory, and the hell he must be going through.
Oh, why can’t I fall for straightforward men who fall in love with me, she thought miserably.
About midnight, the storm broke. Lightning brighter than day, followed immediately by great poundings of thunder. Wandering down the landing to see if the children were all right, Harriet heard the sound of crying coming from Jonah’s room. She went in and turned on the light.