“Perfectly.”
“I can’t do without money, and I can’t do without people. I’ve got to get back to town.”
He said quite seriously,
“Lois, I think you’re being stupid. What have you been making all these changes for if you’re not going to be here? You’re clearing the house, you’ve got a new staff coming in. You’re planning to entertain-to have people down here. Jimmy won’t stop you-he likes having the house full.”
She laughed.
“No-Jimmy won’t stop me.”
He would rather she had remained sullen, but he laughed too.
“Well then, what do you want?”
She turned her head and looked past him again, but this time she was smiling.
“I’ll tell you if you like. Or perhaps you can guess. And when I want things I generally get them.”
“Do you?”
Their eyes met for a moment. Hers were full of a sparkling vitality. The current was dangerous again. Then she laughed.
“I shall have my flat in town. You’ll come and see me there, won’t you? We can have week-end parties down here, just to keep the staff up to the mark and give the village something to talk about.”
“It sounds marvellous. And now don’t you think we’d better go in?”
“And join the community singing?” She dropped her voice a note. “Afraid of being alone with me, darling?”
She got a black frown.
“Look here, Lois-”
“Saint Anthony?”
Under the frowning brows his look was cold.
“I suppose you know what you’re playing at.”
“Don’t you?”
“Oh, certainly. You’ve had a row with Jimmy, and you think it’s a bright idea to annoy him by flirting with me. And I’m telling you quite seriously and frankly that there’s nothing doing, and that you’d better watch your step! I won’t be used to annoy Jimmy!”
She looked up at him with a provoking smile.
“You’d make an awfully good-looking parson. Have you ever thought of taking orders?”
“Lois, listen a moment! You’re bored. You’re angry with Jimmy-”
“And you’ve turned my head. Darling, do go on-this is thrilling!”
“Yes, I’m going on. I said you’d better watch your step, and I meant it. I’ve seen Jimmy in this mood before-not very often-perhaps three or four times. Well, there’s no knowing what he might do. He got up against his father once-Marcia told me about it-when he was about twenty. And he just walked out of the house and off the map. They didn’t know whether he was alive or dead for a year. Then he turned up again-walked in full of bonhomie as if nothing had happened. But he never told them where he had been, or what he had been doing. That’s a new light on Jimmy, isn’t it?”
“Oh, quite-very intriguing. Are you trying to warn me that Jimmy will vanish out of my life if I walk in the garden with you for half an hour in broad daylight? I’ve got a feeling I might be able to bear it, you know.”
He gave her a dark, hard look.
“I’m trying to warn you. You’re getting what you want all along the line. The girls are clearing out-Minnie will be clearing out. We’ll all be off on our own business, and you’ll get the place to yourself. Well, that’s all right-that’s what you want. But Jimmy doesn’t like it. He’s clannish-he doesn’t see any reason why the family shouldn’t continue to lead the tribal life at Latter End. Quite out of date, and flat in the face of human nature-families don’t do that sort of thing any more. Well, just ride him easy whilst you’re changing over. Most men hate changes. Jimmy loathes them. He’s got you on a pedestal about a mile high. Don’t choose this moment to come unstuck. It’s a damned long way to fall.”
He had not cared whether she was angry or not. She showed no sign of anger, but stood there, her face lifted to his, her smiling eyes intent upon him.
“You say I’m getting what I want. I told you I generally did.”
“You’ll be getting rid of us, won’t you?”
“And you think I want to get rid of you?”
The final word was undoubtedly stressed. She made a movement which brought her very near. Not near enough to touch him, but there was a sense of being touched-a most disquieting sense.
Antony had often been glad to see Julia, but never so glad as he was at this moment when she came round the corner of the yew hedge a dozen feet away. She came directly up to them and said in an uncompromising tone,
“Jimmy wants to play bridge. Will you come in and make up a four?”
CHAPTER 15
It was not a comfortable game of bridge, but at least it afforded no opportunity for a tête-à-tête. Jimmy was fuddled, touchy-the word suspicion presented itself and was rejected-but he was, most undoubtedly, in every way the opposite of his usual self. He held magnificent cards, and played them with a lavish disregard for everything except the whim of the moment. Julia, who partnered him, had the air of being somewhere else. Her features seemed to have closed down over her thoughts. From start to finish she did not utter an unnecessary word. Lois looked merely bored. If she did not speak, it was because, very plainly, it wasn’t worth the trouble. No, not a comfortable game, but vastly preferable to being alone with Lois.
“I’m afraid I’ll have to be off rather early in the morning.” Antony addressed Jimmy. “There’s a man I want to catch. He’s only passing through London -coming down on the night train from Scotland. It’s rather important for me to see him. I think I’d better try and catch him at breakfast-he’s not going to have much spare time.”
Jimmy gave a sort of grunt.
“Rather sudden, isn’t it?”
“Well, no-not really. It was my coming down here that was sudden. I had to fit it in, as you wanted to see me on business.”
Lois raised her eyebrows.
“Business?”
“My business,” said Jimmy Latter.
Julia looked suddenly and directly at Antony. Her face had come awake. She said nothing, and almost immediately took up the cards and began to deal.
Lois laughed.
“I hope you don’t expect any of us to get up and see you off!”
At half past ten everyone was ready to say goodnight.
Antony went up to the room which had been his since he was ten years old. It was on the first floor, but separated from the principal bedrooms by a door giving upon the back stairs. The stairs went down steeply from a landing with, on the left, a small sewing-room where Marcia Vane’s maid used to work in the days when people had maids to sew for them, and, on the right, the room which was still called “ Antony ’s room.” There was also a bathroom.
As he was going along to have a bath, a girl came up the back stairs. He slowed down to let her go to wherever it was she was going, and saw her pass along the passage to the old sewing-room. Just before she got to it she looked back at him over her shoulder. He saw extravagantly waved fair hair, extravagantly darkened lashes, a mouth like a scarlet gash, and peeping pale blue eyes.
He went into the bathroom and shut the door. If this was Gladys Marsh, he was not surprised that she didn’t go down well with Julia and Ellie. As he turned on the taps and blessed Manny for having the water piping hot, he reflected that if Joe Marsh had been lacking in filial piety, he would probably not go unrequited.
He lingered in the hot water. The worst was over. He would take the road before seven, and wild horses wouldn’t get him back to Latter End until-he had a feeling that it might be the Greek kalends. Whether Lois was serious or not, it was extremely evident that she meant to precipitate a scene. Just why, he wondered then and was to wonder more in the horrible days to come-and never to be quite sure that he had found the answer.
He put it away and switched his thoughts with determination to his business with Latimer. His book was extraordinarily good-there was no doubt about that. The firm took exception to the handling of certain incidents. They were getting him to tackle Latimer, who was notoriously touchy. Antony had served with him in the early part of the war. There was some degree of friendship. The middle-aged partners had patted the new boy on the back and told him to go to it. “You’ll have to exercise tact. We don’t want to lose him, but we can’t publish those chapters as they stand.” He wondered how prickly Latimer was going to be, and then found himself thinking that he owed him something for providing such a good excuse for an early start. Nobody but Julia was to know that Latimer and he were to have lunched together. For that matter, they would probably do so still. Breakfast after a night in the train wasn’t perhaps the moment when a tactful approach would be appreciated, but as an excuse it served a useful turn.