Not that it mattered a toss now. If Betsy had bedded Michael – among he guessed maybe a thousand others – then she’d paid the price as far as Joe was concerned. And if Joe had ordered Michael’s execution, well, the man was finished himself now. He was this close to death, any fool could see that.
‘I been sitting here, looking at her down there in the water. I loved her, you know. She didn’t love me though. For her, it was… always Charlie.’ Joe hitched in a long, painful breath and looked at Rob. ‘So here’s what I want you to do. I want you both to go, and what I’m going to do is this: I’m going to lean forward a bit, I think I can do that, and get into the water. I’m weak as gnat’s piss, but I can manage that, I reckon. Finish this whole fuckin’ thing off. OK?’
Rob stared at the man and thought of the police, cells, prison hospitals. This was Kit and Daisy’s uncle. Slowly, he nodded.
‘We can’t!’ said Daisy to Rob, understanding that Joe was talking about drowning himself. He’d never have the strength to get out of the water, once he got in there.
Rob looked steadily at Joe. Then he turned away, looked at Daisy.
‘Put your shoes on, Daise,’ he said, and walked over to where she stood.
‘We can’t,’ she said again, almost pleadingly.
Rob took her arm. ‘We can,’ he said gently. ‘It’s the kindest thing, Daise. You know it is. Come on. Let’s go.’
118
They went back to Rob’s flat out near Holborn. Rob was worried about Daisy; she was shivering hard, her teeth chattering. She said nothing all the way there. Once inside his flat, he pushed a brandy into her hand.
‘Come on, drink it up.’
He downed one himself, too. It hadn’t been the best of days.
Daisy threw back the brandy with a shudder.
‘God, that was awful,’ she moaned.
‘Bathroom’s through there, go and have a nice hot shower.’ Rob was peeling off his jacket. ‘Don’t think about it, Daise. I know it’s sad, but shit happens. He was suffering and now he’s out of it. They both are. Try and think of it like that.’
Daisy went into the bathroom. Rob made his way through to the bedroom and found a robe that one of his girlfriends had left in the closet, in case Daisy needed it.
He went back into the living room and drank down another brandy. Now he could hear sobbing coming from the bathroom, over the background roar of the shower.
Oh, for fuck’s sake.
He stood listening to it for a minute. Then he went over to the closed door.
He knocked. ‘Daise? You all right in there?’
‘Fine,’ she said in a tearful voice.
And then it started again – the crying. He hated her crying. He grasped the handle and pushed the door open. Steam billowed around him. The noise of the shower was suddenly louder, and her gasping sobs were louder too.
‘Daise…’ he said, going over to the shower cubicle.
And all the while he was thinking, Mate, what the fuck are you doing…?
He opened the door, and there she was. More beautiful than he ever could have guessed at, her skin pinkened by the hot water, her naked body all hot luscious curves and her face a mask of tragedy, her blue, blue eyes reddened by tears.
She saw him there, and froze.
‘Daise…’ he murmured.
‘Rob…’
‘Jesus, Daise, there’s no way around you, is there?’ he said, and quickly threw off his clothes and stepped under the hot soothing spray with her, pulling her into his arms, pressing his naked body tight against hers, knowing that this was precisely what he had been wanting to do for a long, long time.
‘It’s just so sad,’ she mumbled against his shoulder. ‘That poor man, and that’s my uncle, and I never even knew him. He killed her. That’s so terrible. And they’ve got children, I don’t know them either. And they’re orphans now. It’s… horrible.’
‘Daise…’ Rob was kissing her hair, burrowing his face into her throat.
‘And the dog!’ Daisy stiffened. ‘Oh God, the dog’s going to starve in there, no one knows he’s shut in the kitchen!’
‘Fuck’s sake, Daise, I’ll phone the RSPCA from a phone box later on, say I’m one of the neighbours and I can hear him barking. Don’t worry.’
Daisy slipped her arms around him, cuddled in close. ‘It was awful,’ she muttered.
‘I know,’ he said, smoothing her hair back from her eyes, kissing her salty cheeks.
‘Oh God, Rob,’ she said, and their mouths met, and that was it. He gave up, gave in. There was nothing else he could do. ‘I’m such a mess,’ she murmured against his lips. ‘I cry at anything, and I’ve got this temper…’
‘It’s your hormones, after having the kids. My sister was the same. You can’t help it.’
‘And my breasts leak milk all the time, it’s embarrassing…’
Rob took Daisy’s breasts in his hands. He didn’t give a toss whether they leaked or not, they were delicious, fabulous, deeply erotic.
‘They’re gorgeous. You’re gorgeous,’ he said, and kissed her again, and couldn’t wait a moment longer. He lifted her, slipped his cock easily inside her. Nothing had ever felt so good.
‘Oh God – Rob!’ she cried out as he filled her.
He’d been fighting this for so long, but now he was lost and he didn’t care. He made love to her, right there in the shower. And it was better than he could ever have dreamed it would be.
119
Ruby phoned the London place first, but there was no answer. So she called the other house and told them she was on her way. She wrote a note for Daisy and placed it in their usual spot for messages, on the hall table. As she passed the mirror she saw her strained reflection there and thought back to that day when she took the phone call from Bella, and all that had happened since.
Blood will flow…
Maybe this would be an end to it.
She went upstairs and packed the essentials in her small overnight bag and got one of Kit’s boys to drive her to the railway station, where she got the train to Oxford. From there, she took a taxi out to Albemarle House, way out in the Oxfordshire countryside among a vast patchwork of fields and huge stretches of open country.
Finally the house loomed up, very tall, constructed in the sixteenth century, boasting a massive long gallery and a priest’s hole, a knot garden and a ha-ha. The home of Lord and Lady Albermarle.
Vi was expecting her. She opened the front door herself, a broad smile of welcome fixed to her face. She looked the same as always – polished, well groomed, her red bob sleek, her fingernails red, a mist of Devon Violets all around her.
‘Rubes! Well, this is a bit of a surprise. I’d have been back in town next week, you didn’t have to come all this way. What’s happened? Where’s the fire?’ she asked with a laugh. ‘Let me take your coat. An overnight bag! Are you staying in Oxford?’
Ruby nodded.
‘No, you must stay here. No arguments!’
‘I had to speak to you,’ said Ruby, letting Vi take her coat, stepping into the cavernous hallway with its walnut wood panelling and its vast array of hunting trophies.
A myriad of dead deer stared accusingly down at her from the walls. There was no fire in the big stone fireplace today. It felt cold in here, and as usual the place smelled faintly musty. In the winter, it was a freezing house to live in, Vi had told her. Thick cardies and hot water bottles were the order of the day. Good job the aristocracy were tough, she always joked.
‘What, it couldn’t wait?’ asked Vi, leading the way over to the drawing room.
‘It couldn’t wait,’ Ruby confirmed.
They went inside. The drawing room was decked out in damask pink with faded tapestries on the walls. Two hard-backed couches were pulled up in front of the empty fireplace. Vi indicated that Ruby should sit down, and gratefully she did.