Kate's Progress (36 page)

The sound of the Brigadier’s car had hardly died away before Addison arrived. Kate heard the arrival from upstairs – first the sports car roaring in and screeching to a halt on the last of the gravel, then voices, then the unmistakable sound of Addison’s voice dominating everything, then noises on the stairs. They went the other way at the landing, to the family side, and grew fainter, though the underlying rhythm of her talking never quite ceased. After a time, there was a tap on Kate’s door, and Mrs B was there to tell her dinner was being put back half an hour: ‘So Miss Bruckmeyer can have time to change.’

She looked glum, and Kate said, ‘Is everything all right?’

‘No, it is not,’ she said. ‘I can’t be expected to change the way I cook after all these years. I’ve never had anything but compliments on my food, and suddenly it’s nothing but carping and fiddle-faddle and “can’t eat this” and “can’t eat that”. If it goes on I shall give my notice.’

‘Oh no! Surely you wouldn’t do that?’

Mrs B stuck her lip out, but her eyes were moist. ‘I never thought I’d leave Ed and Jack. They’re like my own boys. And we’d hate to have to find somewhere else to live, Bradshaw and me. But tofu and mung beans and I don’t know what else? Stuff I’ve never heard of, nothing but parrot-food. And no cream or butter or anything good and wholesome to eat? It’s not to be borne. If Ed’s not satisfied with my cooking, I shall go.’

‘I’m sure he’s perfectly satisfied,’ Kate said.

‘Maybe, but it’s not his opinion that matters any more, is it?’ And she stomped away downstairs.

Kate heard the others go downstairs, Addison still talking, and after a bit realized she had been forgotten. She could hop all right on the level, as long as she had something to grab on to, but stairs were beyond her. About five minutes later, however, Jack came galloping up to fetch her. ‘Sorry,’ he said. ‘We were wondering where you were when I suddenly realized you couldn’t make it alone.’

He
had wondered, she thought. Not Ed. Ed’s attention, of course, was now fully occupied.

‘Was the wait worth it?’ she asked. ‘Is she gorgeous?’

‘Surprisingly muted,’ Jack said, arm round her as she hopped through the door. ‘Almost virginal.’ After a pace or two he said, ‘Look, this’ll take all night. Why don’t you let me carry you?’

‘If you think you can manage,’ she said with relief. Hopping was exhausting.

‘You’re just a feather,’ he assured her. ‘Now if it was Pocahontas …’

‘She’s very slim,’ Kate pointed out.

‘She’s also very tall. And she gives the impression of being enormous. Not fat, I don’t mean, but unignorable, like an elephant. Don’t you think?’

Being in Jack’s arms was not like being in Ed’s, but it was very nice. ‘You smell nice,’ she told him.

‘So do you,’ he said promptly, and kissed her lightly on the lips.

‘Mrs B thinks Ed’s going to marry Addison and install her as mistress of the house, and then she’ll have to leave. Mrs B will.’

‘Over my dead body,’ Jack said.

‘You don’t think Ed will marry Addison?’

That made him think. ‘Dunno. I think
she
might marry
him
,’ he said at last. ‘If she sets up here, I’ll have to set up somewhere else with Mrs B.’

‘She’s already married,’ Kate told him.

‘You must be feeling better – you’re getting cheeky.’

In the drawing room, Addison was standing before the fireplace with a glass of champagne in her hand, looking magnificent in a clinging, draped white dress that ended just above the knee and was slit up the side to show her toned, brown thigh. Her super-shiny hair was in a great, loose chignon, and something sparkled in her ears – could they be real diamonds? Kate somehow couldn’t imagine her wearing fakes. She seemed to suck all the light in the room into herself, like a black hole, so that you didn’t see anything else – or if you did, it was only to notice how dull it was by contrast.

She was talking when they came in, but stopped abruptly to look at Kate with a smile that didn’t reach her eyes.

‘Ah, there you are,’ she said. ‘I thought you’d be eating upstairs.’
In the servants’ quarters
, Kate translated for herself. ‘How are you feeling?’

It was not a tender enquiry. It sounded almost brusque. ‘Fine, except for the foot, and a few bruises and sore muscles,’ she said.

‘You were very lucky, you know,’ Addison said severely. ‘Someone could have been badly hurt. And what if one of the horses had broken a leg? You really shouldn’t have ridden at all if you weren’t up to it.’

‘I was all right until you swerved across me,’ Kate said, managing at the last moment to control the tone of her voice, though the words slipped out.

Addison’s nostrils flared. ‘I beg your pardon,’ she said icily. ‘It was you who impeded me. I was taking the correct line. You rode too far to the right and cut up my horse.’

Ed intervened hastily. ‘No post-mortems,’ he said firmly. ‘It was an accident, it’s over and done with, and that’s the end of it.’

Kate didn’t feel it was the end of it by any means, but Jack, who was in the process of putting her carefully down, pinched her hard in warning and she swallowed what she had been about to say. She wouldn’t embarrass Ed by quarrelling with his guest in his drawing room.

‘Have some champagne,’ Jack said, sealing her silence.

She accepted the glass and sipped. ‘Are we celebrating?’ she asked, to restart the conversation.

Addison gave her a pitying smile. ‘You don’t have to wait for a celebration to drink champagne. What a curious idea. We had it because we fancied it, didn’t we, darling?’ she said to Ed.

‘Well, I’m all for it,’ Jack said. ‘Cheers. Did you find out any more about that man, Ed?’

Before he could answer, Addison intervened. ‘Oh, no parochial business tonight. Let’s just enjoy ourselves. Where is Camilla, by the way?’

‘Out on a date,’ Jack said.

Addison looked pleased. ‘It’s about time she started looking around for another husband. Your father’s been gone a long time. She has to think about her future now. She needs a home of her own.’

‘This is her home,’ Ed said, rather woodenly.

‘Well, perhaps it is just now,’ Addison said, throwing him a fascin-ating smile, ‘but who knows what the future will bring?’

Ed didn’t bite, but Kate knew exactly what Addison meant.

They were called into the dining room, taking their glasses with them. Mrs B served them with a martyred air. The food didn’t seem very different to Kate, except that there was a salad course, American-style; and with the lamb chops, instead of Mrs B’s crisp sauté potatoes Addison had a dish of some kind of messy cereal stuff that looked a bit like the linseed mash you give horses after hunting.

Addison only picked at the food, but her jaw got plenty of exercise all the same. She talked. She talked about what she’d done in London, the deal she had had to go up to supervise, its global importance and how no-one else could have secured it. She talked about finance and politics, the new governor of the Bank of England and who she would have chosen instead, and the important financial post in the EU she had been offered and turned down. She talked about cars and the Maserati Grancabrio she was thinking of buying. She talked about property prices and property taxes, and finally, looking around disparagingly at the dining room, she talked about The Hall.

‘I don’t know how you could have lived like this all these years,’ she said. ‘The place is practically a ruin.’

‘I don’t really notice it,’ Ed said.

‘No, I suppose men don’t,’ she said with a brittle laugh, ‘but you’ll see the difference it makes to everything in your life when your surroundings match your lifestyle and your aspirations.’

‘I’m not sure I have aspirations,’ Ed said.

‘Darling, of course you do. And I’ve looked around this place with a critical eye and, frankly, I can’t see it.’

‘Can’t see what?’ Jack asked through a mouthful of claret. He seemed to be enjoying his brother’s apparent discomfort. Kate ate quietly and watched, feeling uneasily that a storm was approaching, though she wasn’t sure from which direction.

‘Can’t see how this house can be made viable,’ Addison answered. ‘I do see, darling,’ she added to Ed, ‘how you’d want a country place – and it can be a valuable tool. People love to be invited on country weekends, and it’s a good way to get important people together in the one place – and put them in a good mood. But Bursford’s too far from London. And from the airport. The journey takes far too long, the trains are impossible, and if you’re driving you can’t work. Global business moves fast these days, my sweet. People need to feel
in touch
, more
accessible
.’

‘Who are all these people?’ Jack asked in a slightly ribald fashion.

‘Our contacts. Our circle,’ Addison said impatiently.

‘What about friends?’ Ed said quietly.

‘Of course, once we’re set up, we can afford to have friends as well,’ she said graciously, ‘but they’ll have the same concerns. And we’ll see much more of them in London anyway. Now, I’ve been thinking, and I’m not sure at this stage it makes sense to buy a country place, not until we know where we’re going to be based. It would make more sense to rent one as we need it.’

‘I already have a country place,’ Ed said.

‘But I’ve explained to you, it would take too much investment to make it even tolerable.’

‘I like it as it is,’ Ed said stubbornly.

‘Darling, I know you have a sentimental attachment to the house, but even you must see it’s a horrible mess, a dump. And, frankly, I don’t envisage spending all that much time down here. Now, there are some nice places along the M40 corridor, with good transport links. We should be looking there. Have you any idea what this place would go for?’

‘What about me?’ Jack put in, pouting, but with a covert wink at Kate. ‘What about Camilla and Jocasta? Are we all going to live with you?

Addison’s nostrils flared again. ‘If necessary, a small house can be found for you.
We
shall be spending most of our time in London.’

‘I’m not selling this house,’ Ed said quietly. ‘You don’t seem to understand, Addison, that it’s my responsibility to keep the estate together.’

She waved a hand. ‘Oh, I know you have a
thing
about that, darling, but you have a manager, or whatever he’s called, that horrid little man I see about the place. It’s his job to run the estate, not yours. Any executive decisions that have to be referred to you can be done remotely. That’s what email is for.’

‘I’ve put the coffee in the drawing room.’ Mrs B spoke from the doorway. Kate wondered how long she had been standing there.

Addison got up at once, and so the men had to stand too, and they all followed her into the other room. She looked round it with distaste. Sylvester was comfortably ensconced in an armchair, paws tucked under and eyes half-closed, but as soon as Addison appeared he was wide awake, jumped from the chair and scooted out of the door as if scalded. Ralph was lying on the sofa chewing something, and was too busy to notice in time that he had been spotted. ‘Those damned animals are on the furniture again,’ Addison said angrily, turning to Ed. ‘I’ve asked you to keep them off. The way you let them run riot around this house is simply disgusting. It’s insanitary to allow animals into your living space.’

‘Ralph, off,’ Ed said. Ralph looked at him to judge how serious he was, and climbed down in leisurely fashion, depositing the rag he was chewing at Ed’s feet.

‘What
is
that thing?’ Jack asked.

Ed picked it up and unravelled it. It was a bright red pair of skimpy lacy knickers, now irrevocably soaked in dog saliva and the worse for teeth.

Addison was suddenly almost as scarlet as the underwear. ‘That’s mine!’ she cried. ‘Who gave my panties to that filthy dog? Is this your idea of a joke?’ she demanded of Jack.

He held up his hands. ‘Not guilty.’ He was laughing.

She whirled on Kate. ‘Then it’s you! I know how you feel about me. You’re eaten up with jealousy – and you’re mad about these flea-ridden dogs.’

‘Kate’s been tied to the bed and the sofa since Monday,’ Ed said. ‘She can hardly walk.’

‘She could walk enough for that if she wanted,’ Addison said venomously.

That was true. ‘But I didn’t,’ Kate said. ‘Maybe he’s been in your room.’

‘I always leave the door shut.
Someone
must have deliberately opened it.’ Her panties were still dangling from Ed’s fingers. ‘Oh,
give
me that!’ she cried, exasperated, and snatched them away. Ralph grinned, seeing a game starting up, and jumped up at them, his teeth snapping closed several inches from Addison’s hand.

She shrieked. ‘He tried to bite me!’ She backed away, holding the panties high over her head, and Ralph danced after her, jumping up in glee. ‘Get him off !’

‘He thinks you’re playing,’ Ed said. ‘Stop waving those things about and he’ll stop.’

But she was too agitated to heed him. ‘Get him off me! Get him off !’ she kept shrieking. Jack, laughing fit to bust, grabbed hold of Ralph’s collar and pulled him away.

Addison, breathing hard, glared at Ed. ‘Will you have the kindness to shut that animal out of this room?’ she hissed. ‘You ought to have it put down. It’s dangerous. It tried to bite me.’

‘I’ll take him,’ Jack said, towing Ralph towards the door. But as he reached it, Chewy pranced in, with what was only too obviously an expensive high-heeled shoe in his mouth. It was black patent, with a six inch heel, and a shiny red sole.

Addison goggled. ‘My Laboutins!’ she cried in a voice of genuine bereavement.

Ed stepped forward, efficiently removed the shoe from Chewy’s mouth, and examined it. ‘Hole right through it, I’m afraid,’ he said. ‘I’m sorry.’

‘
Sorry
?’ Addison took it from him, and recovered her breath. ‘Do you know what they cost?’ she moaned.

‘I’ll buy you a new pair,’ Ed promised.

Addison was not placated. ‘This is beyond enduring! Someone has deliberately let those foul dogs into my room to root about in my things. It’s a deliberate ploy to humiliate me.’

‘Oh, come on,’ Ed said, ‘it’s nothing of the sort. You probably didn’t pull the door closed hard enough. Those latches are old, and they sometimes don’t catch.’