Clifton Chronicles 01 - Only Time Will Tell (39 page)

The three of them raised their glasses and Harry took his first sip of brandy. He didn’t like the taste and was wondering if it would be thought discourteous if he didn’t finish it, when Lord Harvey came to his rescue.

‘Perhaps it’s time for us to join the ladies,’ he said, draining his glass. He put his cigar in an ashtray, rose from his place and marched out of the dining room, not waiting for a second opinion. The two young men followed him across the hall and into the drawing room.

Lord Harvey took the seat next to Elizabeth, while Giles winked at Harry and went across to join his grandmother. Harry sat next to Emma on the sofa.

‘How gallant of you to come all this way, Harry,’ she said, touching his hand.

‘I’m so sorry about what happened after the play. I only hope I wasn’t responsible for causing the problem in the first place.’

‘How could you possibly be responsible, Harry? You’ve never done anything that could have caused my father to speak to Mama that way.’

‘But it’s no secret that your father doesn’t think we should be together, even on stage.’

‘Let’s talk about it tomorrow morning,’ Emma whispered. ‘We can go for a long walk in the hills and be on our own, with only the Highland cattle to overhear us.’

‘I’ll look forward to that,’ said Harry. He would have liked to hold her hand, but there were too many eyes continually glancing in their direction.

‘You two young men must be very tired after such an exhausting journey,’ said Lady Harvey. ‘Why don’t you both go off to bed, and we’ll see you at breakfast in the morning.’

Harry didn’t want to go to bed; he wanted to stay with Emma and try to find out if she’d discovered why her father was so opposed to them being together. But Giles rose immediately, kissed his grandmother and mother on the cheek and said goodnight, leaving Harry with no choice but to join him. He leaned across and kissed Emma on the cheek, thanked his host for a wonderful evening and followed Giles out of the room.

As they walked down the hall, Harry paused to admire a painting of a bowl of fruit by an artist called Peploe when Emma came dashing out of the drawing room, threw her arms around his neck and kissed him gently on the lips.

Giles continued up the stairs as if he hadn’t noticed, while Harry kept his eyes on the drawing-room door. Emma broke away when she heard it opening behind her.

‘Good night, good night, parting is such sweet sorrow,’ she whispered.

‘That I shall say good night till it be morrow,’ Harry replied.

‘Where are you two off to?’ asked Elizabeth Barrington as she came out of the breakfast room.

‘We’re going to climb Crag Cowen,’ said Emma. ‘Don’t wait up, because you may never see us again.’

Her mother laughed. ‘Then make sure you wrap up well, because even the sheep catch cold in the Highlands.’ She waited until Harry had closed the door behind them before she added, ‘Giles, your grandfather wishes to see us in his study at ten o’clock.’ It sounded to Giles more like a command than a request.

‘Yes, Mother,’ he said, before looking through the window and watching Harry and Emma walking down the path towards Crag Cowen. They’d only gone a few yards before Emma took Harry’s hand. Giles smiled as they turned the corner and disappeared behind a row of pines.

When the clock in the hall began to strike, Giles had to walk quickly along the corridor to make sure he reached his grandfather’s study before the tenth chime. His grandparents and his mother stopped talking the moment he entered the room. They had clearly been waiting for him.

‘Have a seat, dear boy,’ said his grandfather.

‘Thank you, sir,’ Giles replied, and sat down on a chair between his mother and his grandmother.

‘I suppose this would best be described as a council of war,’ said Lord Harvey, looking up from his high-backed leather chair as if he was addressing a board meeting. ‘I’ll try to bring everyone up to date before we decide what the best course of action should be.’ Giles was flattered that his grandfather now considered him to be a full member of the family board.

‘I telephoned Walter last night. He was just as appalled by Hugo’s conduct at the play as I was when Elizabeth told me about it, although I had to fill him in on what happened when she returned to the Manor House.’ Giles’s mother bowed her head, but didn’t interrupt. ‘I went on to tell him that I’d had a long talk with my daughter, and that we felt there were only two possible courses of action.’

Giles sat back in his chair, but didn’t relax.

‘I left Walter in no doubt that if Elizabeth were even to consider returning to the Manor House, it would be necessary for Hugo to make several concessions. First, he must apologize unequivocally for his appalling behaviour.’

Giles’s grandmother nodded in agreement.

‘Second, he will never again, and I repeated, never again, suggest that Emma should be taken out of her school, and he will in future fully support her efforts to gain a place at Oxford. God knows it’s hard enough for a young man to make the grade nowadays, but it’s damn nigh impossible for a woman.

‘My third and most important demand, and on this I was quite adamant, is that he explain to us all why he continues to treat Harry Clifton so appallingly. I suspect it might have something to do with Harry’s uncle stealing from Hugo. The sins of the father are one thing, but an uncle . . . I refuse to accept, as he has so often claimed to Elizabeth, that he considers Clifton unworthy to mix with his children simply because his father was a docker and his mother is a waitress. Perhaps Hugo has forgotten that my grandfather was a jobbing clerk in a firm of wine merchants, while his own grandfather left school at the age of twelve and started out as a docker like young Clifton’s father, and just in case anyone has forgotten, I’m the first Lord Harvey in this family, and you don’t get much more nouveau than that.’

Giles wanted to cheer.

‘Now, none of us can have failed to notice,’ continued Lord Harvey, ‘how Emma and Harry feel about each other, which is hardly surprising as they are two exceptional young people. If, in the fullness of time, their relationship blossoms, no one would be more delighted than Victoria and I. On that subject, Walter was in full agreement with me.’

Giles smiled. He liked the idea of Harry becoming a member of the family, even though he didn’t believe his father would ever accept it.

‘I told Walter,’ continued his grandfather, ‘that if Hugo felt unable to abide by these terms, Elizabeth would be left with no choice but to institute divorce proceedings immediately. I would also have to resign from the board of Barrington’s, and make public my reasons for doing so.’

Giles was saddened by this, as he knew there had never been a divorce in either family.

‘Walter kindly agreed to get back to me in the next few days, after he’s had a chance to talk things over with his son, but he did tell me that Hugo has already promised to stop drinking, and that he appears to be genuinely contrite. Let me finish by reminding you that this is a family matter and should not in any circumstances be discussed with outsiders. We must hope that this proves to be nothing more than an unfortunate incident that will soon be forgotten.’

The following morning, Giles’s father telephoned and asked to speak to him. He apologized profusely, saying how sorry he was to have blamed Giles for something that was entirely his own fault. He begged Giles to do everything in his power to convince his mother and Emma to return to Gloucestershire so they could all spend Christmas together at the Manor House. He also hoped that, as his father-in-law had suggested, the incident would be quickly forgotten. He made no mention of Harry Clifton.

41

O
NCE THEY’D DISEMBARKED
from the train at Temple Meads, Giles and his mother waited in the car while Emma said goodbye to Harry.

‘They’ve just spent the last nine days together,’ said Giles. ‘Have they forgotten that they’ll be seeing each other again tomorrow?’

‘And probably the next day,’ said Giles’s mother. ‘But try not to forget, unlikely though it might seem, that it could even happen to you one day.’

Emma eventually joined them, but when they drove off she continued to look out of the back window and didn’t stop waving until Harry was out of sight.

Giles was keen to get home and finally discover what it was that Harry could have done to make his father treat him so cruelly over the years. Surely it couldn’t be worse than stealing from the tuck shop or deliberately failing your exams. He’d considered a dozen possibilities but none of them made any sense. Now, at last, he hoped he was going to find out the truth. He glanced across at his mother. Although she rarely displayed her emotions, she was clearly becoming more and more agitated as they approached Chew Valley.

Giles’s father was standing on the top step waiting to greet them when the car drew up outside the house; no sign of Jenkins. He apologized immediately to Elizabeth and then the children, before telling them how much he’d missed them.

‘Tea is set up in the drawing room,’ he said. ‘Please join me there as soon as you’re ready.’

Giles was the first back downstairs and he sat uneasily in a chair opposite his father. While they waited for his mother and Emma to join them, his father confined himself to asking Giles how he’d enjoyed Scotland, and to explain that Nanny had taken Grace into Bristol to buy her school uniform. At no time did he mention Harry. When Giles’s mother and sister entered the room a few minutes later, his father immediately stood up. Once they were seated, he poured them all a cup of tea. He clearly didn’t want any servants to overhear what he was about to reveal.

Once everyone had settled, Giles’s father sat on the edge of his seat and began to speak softly.

‘Let me begin by saying to all three of you how unacceptable my behaviour was on the night of what everyone has described as Emma’s great triumph. That your father was not there for the curtain call was bad enough, Emma,’ he said, looking directly at his daughter, ‘but the way I treated your mother when you returned home that night was quite unforgivable, and I realize it may take some time before such a deep wound can be healed.’

Hugo Barrington placed his head in his hands and Giles noticed that he was trembling. He eventually steadied himself.

‘You have all, for different reasons, asked to know why I have treated Harry Clifton so badly over the years. It is true that I cannot bear to be in his presence, but the fault is entirely of my own making. When you learn the reason, you might begin to understand, and possibly even sympathize.’

Giles glanced at his mother, who was sitting stiffly in her chair. There was no way of telling how she felt.

‘Many years ago,’ continued Barrington, ‘when I first became managing director of the company, I convinced the board that we should branch out into shipbuilding, despite my father’s reservations. I signed a contract with a Canadian company to build a merchant ship called the
Maple Leaf
. That not only turned out to be a financial disaster for the company, but a personal catastrophe for me, from which I have never fully recovered and doubt if I ever will. Allow me to explain.

‘One afternoon a docker burst into my office insisting that his work mate was trapped inside the hull of the
Maple Leaf
and if I didn’t give the order to break it open, his life would be lost. Naturally I went down to the dock immediately and the ganger assured me there was absolutely no truth in the story. However, I insisted the men down tools so that we could listen for any sound coming from inside the hull. I waited for some considerable time, but as there was no sound, I gave the order for them to return to work, as we were already several weeks behind schedule.

‘I assumed the docker in question would sign on for his usual shift the following day. But not only did he not turn up, he was never seen again. The possibility of his death has been on my conscience ever since.’ He paused, raised his head and said, ‘That man’s name was Arthur Clifton, and Harry is his only son.’

Emma began to sob.

‘I want you to imagine, if you possibly can, what I go through whenever I see that young man, and how he would feel were he ever to find out that I might have been responsible for his father’s death. That Harry Clifton has become Giles’s closest friend, and fallen in love with my daughter, is the stuff of a Greek tragedy.’