Justine Elyot (27 page)

His eyes were painful to look into. She shut hers.

‘That is what you think of me,’ he said.

‘Charles, you admit yourself that you carried on an affair with her out of revenge. What am I meant to think of that?’

She waited for an angry outburst, the tilting of the mattress, even perhaps a slap on the cheek, but there was only silence for a long, long moment.

‘No, I see,’ he said quietly. ‘I do see.’

She opened her eyes. ‘You regret it?’

‘Yes.’

He got off the bed, pulled on his bathrobe, moved over to the window and drew aside the curtain.

‘Rain,’ he said.

He turned around.

‘Edie, can we start this again? Can we rub out the past?’

‘The affair? The hatred? It’s not the Charles I know and …’ She swallowed.

‘What was that?’ The tiniest hint of a smile twitched at the corners of his mouth. ‘You know and …?’

‘You could be such a lovely man. You
are
, with me.’

‘You make me better than I am.’

‘No, I don’t. Not at all.’

‘You think there is hope for me, then?’ He laughed, somewhat desperately.

‘Oh, Charles.’ She held out her hands, bringing him back to her.

They lay down in each other’s arms and held each other in silence.

‘If I tell her,’ said Edie softly, ‘and she chooses to say nothing to anybody about it, what will you do?’

‘I couldn’t share this house with her. I couldn’t keep that secret. Not from my own father.’

‘So you would tell him?’

‘Not if it meant losing you.’

They looked at each other, trying to make sense of the decision that lay ahead.

‘Would it mean losing you?’ he asked in a whisper.

‘I’m lost already,’ she said. ‘Oh, dear. So very lost.’

A knock on the door.

‘Coffee, sir.’

‘Tom’s valet,’ he whispered, covering Edie with the sheets and drawing the curtains around the bed. ‘Bring it in,’ he ordered aloud. ‘Just put it on the table, would you? There’s a good fellow.’

‘I trust sir is feeling himself this morning?’

‘A tad under the weather, that’s all. Thank you. You may go.’

‘I was intending to lay out your clothes, sir.’

‘There’s no need. I’ll do it later. Thank you.’

‘Perhaps a bath?’

‘I can run a bath. I’m perfectly capable. Good morning.’

‘Good morning, sir.’

The puzzlement in his voice made Edie want to giggle despite her fear of being found out. Mind you, there would be talk below stairs now and perhaps her name would come into it. She couldn’t blame people for working out what was going on – it must be obvious by now.

‘Bath’s not a bad idea, is it?’ said Charles, releasing Edie from her sheet-bound hiding place. ‘I’ll go and run one. Help yourself to coffee.’

‘It should be my job,’ she said. ‘I do it for … Her Ladyship.’

He had no comment to make about that. He kissed the top of her head and wandered off to the splendidly modern en suite bathroom.

She poured a cup of coffee and took it to him. He sat on the lip of the bath and motioned her to put the drink down.

‘How hot do you like it?’ he asked.

‘Coffee?’ She was confused.

‘No, the water, silly. Come here. Test the temperature.’

She put a finger into the swirling depths.

‘You have hot-water pipes up here on this floor,’ she said. ‘Everyone else gets hot water from the kitchen. It takes so long to organise. It’s ridiculously old-fashioned.’

‘We’ll install more of these in due course,’ said Charles. ‘I got the first one. A coming-home present after the war, of sorts. That kind of alteration takes time in a great place like this, though.’

‘It must do. Expensive, too, I imagine.’

‘You haven’t told me if it’s too hot.’

‘It’s lovely and warm.’

‘Then what’s stopping you? Jump in.’

‘I wish I’d brought my toothbrush down,’ she said shyly.

‘I have an unused one in the cabinet. Use it, by all means.’

It felt wildly indecent to be brushing her teeth in front of a man – in a way, strangely more so than the physical act of coupling. She thought she must be breaking all kinds of rules, but Charles had no qualms, sitting sipping his coffee while she scrubbed.

‘You haven’t smoked a cigarette this morning,’ she noted, rinsing the brush and putting it away.

‘Don’t remind me,’ he said, teeth gritted.

‘Why not?’

‘I don’t have any. I need to get to the village as soon as I’ve had breakfast. Before I’ve had breakfast.’

‘Oh, dear. You’re on edge.’

‘I’d be a lot worse if it weren’t for you. I find that waking up with a beautiful girl in my bed rather dulls the pain of tobacco withdrawal.’

She laughed, blushing. ‘Warm water is said to have analgesic properties too,’ she said. ‘Why don’t you get into the bath?’

‘Only if you’ll get in with me.’

‘Oh! Well. All right then.’ Sharing a bath couldn’t be any more indecent than sharing a bed, surely.

She watched Charles drop his robe and lower himself into the water until he lay submerged to his chest, his face already sheened with steam.

‘Well?’ He blew a strand of hair from his eyes and treated Edie to his most seductive smile. ‘Aren’t you joining me?’

There was a peaceful quality to lying in the hot water in Charles’s arms that made Edie wish they could stay there, careless of wrinkling skin and the ever-cooling temperature, for as long as possible.

Charles, however, was in a rush to find his next cigarette, so he kept proceedings brisk, scrubbing Edie all over and lathering up her hair before rinsing it clean.

He dressed quickly, telling her that he was going to the shop for cigarettes.

‘If they get back before me, hold fire, won’t you? Wait for me before you say anything to the – I mean, your mother.’

Securing her consent, he kissed her brow and ushered her out of his room.

***

From her window she watched him drive away, insouciant in white linen and a striped blazer, although his face was shadowed and thoughtful.

Was she really going to tell Lady Deverell her story today?

If so, the time was coming very close indeed. Almost as soon as Charles’s vehicle disappeared into the cover of the long wooded drive, Lord Deverell’s Rolls Royce emerged.

They were back.

Edie stepped away from the window and hurried to don her uniform, expecting that Lady Deverell would call for her as soon as she was back in her rooms. Quite some time passed, though, before the knock at the door came, and in the interim she could hear a lot of raised voices in the corridors and rooms on the floor below.

Charles was back from the tobacconists and he stood lounging against the wall outside Lady Deverell’s bedchamber, smoking moodily, when Edie came down.

‘Just to warn you,’ he said in a low voice, checking that they were not observed. ‘There’s a most fearful row. Pa’s still in London.’

‘What?’ Edie gripped the doorknob tightly, terrified that her story might have come out already, without her, unlikely as this was. ‘Why?’

‘She’ll tell you herself, no doubt. I think we’d better postpone any further revelations for the time being.’

‘Come in then, if you’re coming.’ Lady Deverell’s voice from the other side of the door was querulous.

Edie nodded at Charles and left him outside in his cloud of smoke.

‘Edie,’ she said, looking her up and down dispassionately. ‘Unpack my cases, would you?’

Edie was surprised and a little disquieted to see that Lady Deverell was smoking as well, something she had never before seen her do. She stood at the window, using a long, varnished cigarette holder.

‘I hope you had a pleasant trip,’ ventured Edie, opening the case and sorting through the crumpled contents.

An expostulation that could have been disgust or irritation was her only reply.

‘Did you buy any new gowns?’

‘Never mind new gowns,’ she said. ‘We’re going to have to cancel this damn weekend party. I’ll have to write and put everyone off. I only hope it’s not too late.’

‘What? Oh, but that was your whole reason for going to London, wasn’t it? To buy new clothes for the weekend.’

Lady Deverell crossed to her bedside table and stubbed out the cigarette in a pretty china ashtray.

‘We can’t very well host a party when the host isn’t here, can we?’

‘Lord Deverell …?’

‘Still in London. And there he’ll stay until he finds that perishing girl.’

‘Perishing girl?’

‘Mary, of course. Silly bitch has run off and nobody knows where to find her.’

Edie paused in the act of unravelling a ball of bunched-up stockings and stared at her mistress and mother.

‘Mary has run away?’

‘That’s what I said, isn’t it?’

‘You must be terribly worried.’

‘If you have nothing more helpful to say than that, perhaps it is best you hold your tongue.’

Charles was right. It was not a day for further upset. It was with some relief that Edie determined to postpone her unburdening. She offered silent thanks to Mary, at the same time hoping fervently that the girl was somewhere safe and well.

She was desperate to get away and ask Ted exactly what had gone on, Lady Deverell having reverted to monosyllables and terse commands after her initial explanation. Once the mistress was seated at her writing desk in preparation for composing many dreary letters to invited guests, Edie was free to make her investigations.

***

She found Ted in the garage, buffing the Rolls with an oily cloth.

He looked up as she came in.

‘Aye aye,’ he said. ‘Look what the wind’s blown in.’

‘Lady Deverell’s busy writing letters. She’s released me for an hour or so. Ted, what happened in London?’

‘I’m sure you’ve heard. Lady Mary’s gone AWOL.’

‘But why? Doesn’t anyone have any idea where she is?’

He stopped his buffing for a moment and stood, shirtsleeves rolled up to the elbow, passing his rag from one hand to the other.

‘She was in Bond Street with Lady D, getting fitted for frocks. Lady D goes into the back room to try something on. When she comes out, Mary ain’t there. And that’s all I know.’

‘Were you in the car, waiting outside for them? Did you see anything?’

‘I was parked up round the corner, and no, I didn’t see a thing.’

‘What if she was kidnapped? Have they called the police?’

‘She weren’t kidnapped,’ said Ted with a shake of his head and a smile. ‘They’d been rowing non-stop all the way up to town and they were still at it when I drove them to Bond Street. Mary wanted to stay and go to some party her friends were throwing. His Lordship said no dice.’

‘Then I suppose she may be with those friends?’

‘His Lordship’s up there looking for her. I expect you’re right. It’s nothing to worry about, leastways. That’s my estimation.’

‘Not everyone is as sanguine as you.’

‘As what-guine?’

‘It doesn’t matter.’

‘Just between you, me and that garage door,’ said Ted, lowering his voice and moving closer to her. ‘I think it might all be up between His Lordship and our Ruby Redford too.’

Edie sucked in a breath. ‘Really?’

‘Fierce row, they had, over whether he should have allowed Lady Mary to stay in London or not. Lady D took Mary’s side; he was having none of it. I didn’t hear all that was said but I picked up a few choice words. Let’s see what happens when he gets back.’

‘Oh dear,’ said Edie, meaning it. If the edifice of the Deverell marriage was already crumbling, could she be the one to strike its death blow?

‘Perhaps she’ll go back to the stage and you can be her dresser, eh?’ he said with a wink. ‘It’s a glamorous life, I’ve heard. Though I don’t suppose you can beat being a lord’s little bit of crumpet for glamour.’ The smile was gone and his expression was stony, the rag bundled up tight in his fist.

‘What do you mean?’

‘I mean, my dear, that there’s a lot of talk about you below stairs. A
lot
of talk. Some reckon your bed wasn’t slept in last night.’

‘Some can keep their disgusting opinions to themselves,’ shot back Edie, trembling all over. ‘And while they’re at it, they can keep their beaks out of other people’s business.’

‘So it’s true, then? You and Charlie boy?’

She made to storm out of the garage but Ted caught her by the wrist and held her back.

‘Never mind,’ he said quietly, once she had worn herself out with struggling. ‘It don’t signify, not any more.’

‘The village dance is off,’ she said.

‘Yes. Yes, I daresay it is. Go on, then. His bed’ll be getting cold.’

‘Don’t you dare go spreading scurrilous gossip through the kitchens. Don’t you dare.’

He stopped her again, grabbing her shoulder as firmly as he had taken her wrist.

‘Scurrilous gossip,’ he repeated. ‘You do have a nice turn of phrase, Edie. I’ve always thought so. Just out of interest, who the bleeding hell
are
you?’

‘You know who I am.’

‘No. I don’t, because you haven’t told me. Tell me now, while you still can.’

‘While I still can?’

‘Times are changing for Deverell Hall, love. You can see that. Who knows if and when we’ll meet again?’

‘Stop it. You’re frightening me. Tell me what you mean.’

He half-laughed and released her shoulder.

‘Sorry. Take no notice of me. I’m a bit rattled by what’s gone on, that’s all. And I’m disappointed in you, falling for that plummy-voiced bastard, if you’ll pardon my French. I don’t know why. I shouldn’t be surprised, should I? You’re pretty, and he can seduce anything that moves. It was always going to happen. But I did think for a moment there …’

‘Ted,’ she said gently, putting her hand on his. ‘Nothing is as it seems. Nothing is what you think it is.’

‘Well,’ he said after a pause during which he stroked her fingers. ‘You’re right there, girl. You ain’t far wrong. Now, if you don’t mind, I’ve got to get on. Back to London to ferry His Lordship up and down the City Road and in and out the Eagle.’

‘That’s the way the money goes,’ said Edie absently.

‘Pop goes the weasel,’ they both chorused, then they laughed, the tension between them dissolving for that one sweet moment.