The original inn and the much larger annexe, which had a private bathroom to every bedroom, were separate buildings; but by an ingenious use of a passage made between the cellars of both, the lounge, the bar, the dining-room and the reception desk, which were all in the old building, could be reached without crossing over in the open air. Unless it was raining, however, most of the guests preferred to come out on to the terrace of the annexe, descend a short flight of steps and reach their objectives by crossing a corner of that courtyard which acted also as a car park.
This route was being taken by Dame Beatrice when a boorish man, thrusting past her on the steps, knocked into her and, with his momentum and his greater weight, caused her to lose her footing. She might have sustained a fall had not a dark-skinned, supple boy, who had been seated on the bottom step, leapt up and fielded her.
‘Well!’ she said, as he set her on her feer in the courtyard. ‘Whom must I thank for that?’
‘Gamaliel,’ said the youth, ‘but I like to be called Ubi.’
‘Where?’
‘Yes, Ubi for where. Where do I come from? Where am I going? The first I don’t know. The second is different. I am going to high places. I am going to be world champion.’
‘So far as I am concerned, you are world champion already. You have saved me from a very unpleasant fall.’
‘Yes, you are too old to be falling downstairs.’
‘I’m afraid you spilt your drink when you leapt up. You must let me get you another.’
‘No, because you would have to bring it out here. I am not allowed in the bar.’
‘Why, what have you done?’
‘Oh, nothing, and it is not my colour, in case you thought so. I am under age.’
‘Really? I should never have guessed it.’
‘No,’ said Gamaliel, well pleased. ‘Nobody thinks so, but there it is. I am sixteen years old and, of course, a man, but they do not allow me in bars. It is really very silly, because out here, if somebody brings me a bottle or a can, I can drink as much as I like.’
‘I hope that is not too much.’
‘Oh, no. I am very abstemious. Garnet would buy me anything I asked, but I am in training, also studying for my O levels.’
‘Oh, really? Good fortune attend you.’
‘It will. Either I pass and stay on at school to be head boy, or I fail and leave school and take up my career. My career is to be gold medallist at the next Olympic Games and then professional boxer like Muhammad Ali and into the big money.’
‘Splendid. I will get you your drink if you will tell me what you would like.’
On her way round to the bar she saw Bluebell, who was beginning to pack up her traps preparatory to returning to Seawards to cook the supper. In the bar was a thin man whose Viking head was supported on a scrawny neck balanced on an emaciated body. She ordered the beer for which Gamaliel had asked and a glass of sherry for herself.
As she made for the door the thin man caught up with her. ‘Let me take the sherry and open up for you,’ he said. He stopped when they reached Bluebell. ‘Ready to leave?’ he asked. ‘I won’t be a minute.’
Gamaliel beamed when he saw the brimming tankard.
‘Garnie,’ he said, ‘you must always catch old ladies when they fall downstairs. That is the way you get free beer.’ He tipped up the tankard, half-emptied it, lowered it, wiped his mouth with the back of his hand and added, ‘Is it correct to drink a lady’s health when she buys you some beer?’
‘Certainly, Ubi.’
‘Should she reply?’
‘That is up to her.’
‘What is your name, dear old lady?’
‘Beatrice Lestrange Bradley.’
‘I drink your health.’
‘And I yours.’ She took a sip of sherry.
‘We must be off. Blue is ready to leave,’ said Garnet. Dame Beatrice, glass in hand, followed them with her eyes until they turned the corner. A car came round from the village street and turned into the car park. Three women got out.
‘We’re not stopping,’ said the largest and handsomest of them. ‘Just called by to ask whether you’ve settled in all right. Why are you drinking out here?’
‘Because a man too young to be allowed in the bar has just saved me from a tumble down these stone steps.’
‘Good for him. Who is he?’
‘The future boxing champion of the world. And now, let me speed you on your way, or you will be missing your dinner in Falmouth. Goodbye, Mrs Trevelyan-Twigg; goodbye, Miss Boorman, my dear. Enjoy your sightseeing.’
‘I’ll be back in a fortnight,’ said the member of the trio who had spoken. ‘I’m like the poor; you have me always with you.’
‘Au revoir, then, my dear Laura.’
‘Did you really almost fall down these steps?’
‘Only because an unmannerly man jostled me. Have no concern on my account.’
She watched their car drive off and then went into the hotel.
Gamaliel, carrying Bluebell’s belongings in the wake of her and her brother, said: ‘Old ladies are very kind people. Do you think this one is as kind as my grandmother?’
‘Your great grandmother, Gamaliel.’
‘That makes her sound older than she is.’
‘She was married at eighteen.’
‘How long will she live?’
‘Quien sabe?’
‘Yes, a silly question.’ He hitched up Bluebell’s easel and folding stool and followed the other two in silence up the village street.
When he had dumped his burdens in the hall and gone off to have a last swim before supper, Bluebell said: ‘That was a strange question.’
‘What was?’
‘How long will she live?’
‘Well, you gave the only possible answer.’
‘Yes, I suppose so. He does not know yet that our grandmother has asked for him and that mother has capitulated and is to stay on at Headlands and that only Fiona is to come here.’
‘I wish she were not coming here.’
‘Well, she could hardly go and stay at Campions. That would be too embarrassing for Diana, as she made clear.’
‘Yes, of course. I wish grandmother had not asked for Gamaliel. I shall miss him terribly.’
‘Perhaps he will elect not to go. He is of an age to make up his own mind, as we’ve agreed.’
‘He might have expectations if he does as she wishes. I would not attempt to stand in his way.’
‘Neither would Parsifal and I, but the decision must be made by him and by him alone. It is not as though he were our own child. If he were, I might think differently.’
‘I believe I love him better than if he were your own, but, so far as you are concerned, what is the difference?’
‘Not in the degree of my love. But if Gamaliel were my own child I think I would be selfish enough to keep him here, whatever advantages grandmother was able to give him. As it is, for his own sake, I must let him go if he decides that way. It is so petty to be poor! If we weren’t, I’d see grandmother at the devil before I’d let him go!’
‘Did the old lady he rescued show any interest in the picture you were painting?’
‘I don’t think she so much as glanced at it, although she had passed from the dining-room to the annexe while I was there and, later on, passed me again to visit Trev in his office, and returned to the annexe once more.’
‘I noticed, when she came to the bar counter when I was there, what very fine rings she was wearing. Trev told me she had booked in at the hotel for a month and that will cost her a pretty penny at today’s prices. He tells me that she runs a luxurious car and has her own chauffeur.’
‘Then I hope that I can interest her in a picture. I wonder whether she would like to have her portrait painted?’
The object of these remarks had gone to her room to get ready for dinner. The room, booked for her by her secretary, Laura Gavin, overlooked the cove and from the window she had a view of rocks and headland and the lower end of the Seawards slipway from the garden down to the strip of beach from which Gamaliel and Garnet swam and Parsifal and Bluebell occasionally splashed about in the shallows when the weather was warm.