Theirs Was The Kingdom (18 page)

“What was she like, after an experience of that kind?”

“Physically she was well enough. She slept through until afternoon and then I coaxed it out of her, bit by bit.”

“She told you everything?”

“Not quite everything, I imagine. But all that mattered. It seemed the right thing was to get her clear away from here, so I asked Denzil to take her to Edith’s.”

“But before that you went over to Courtlands?”

“Denzil drove me there. I only saw the old man. I was glad of that. I don’t think I could have stood a meeting with his son.”

“Well?”

“I told him Stella was never going back and I took her clothes away there and then.”

He stared at her, wondering anew at her hardihood and how, time and again, it continued to astonish him, as though she was some kind of phenomenon, a small, innocuous-looking mountain that continually erupted after one had come to terms with its quiescence and permanence. He remembered how she had taken his breath away when he returned here after a year’s absence spent learning to walk again, to find her not only running his business as capably as he had run it but the mother of a child he had not even known existed. And now, while he had been gallivanting about his network, telling himself how clever he was, she had coped single-handedly with a situation that would have reduced most women he knew to hysterics. Pride in her submerged every other emotion in him, even the rage and disgust he felt for Moncton-Price and that son of his, and to some extent this moderated his self-reproach, for at least she, as his deputy, had done something positive to atone for his stupidity and indifference.

He said, at last, “Did you accuse him to his face, on his own hearth?” “Yes, I did. It seemed to me the only way I could make him agree to a divorce.” “You’re telling me he actually admitted trying to seduce his own daughter-in-law?”

“Not really, although he didn’t deny it.”

With one part of his brain he continued to assess her strength and courage, but at a much deeper level he was already at work assembling the factors, risks, stresses, and counter-stresses of this extraordinary situation. The habit, formed over the years, of standing well clear of a crisis, and forcing himself to take an objective view of its complexities and likely developments, enabled him to do just this with something as personal as his daughter’s involvement with a lecherous old ruin and a homosexual. Already, as she recounted her story word for word, he began to see the vague outlines of his strategy. Stock, the lawyer, was almost certainly correct in his surmise that his daughter could extricate herself from the mess on a plea of non-consummation, but to do this, he supposed, evidence of her virginity would have to be submitted to a court and any compromise they reached would be bound to depend on the cooperation of the Moncton-Prices, father and son. However one approached it there was certain to be publicity, and most of it would be highly sensational, of a kind likely to put a tremendous strain upon any family, especially one bearing a name as well-known as his. Yet there were elements in Henrietta’s story that encouraged him to hope. Moncton-Price was not going to risk a public airing of his approach to Stella, however difficult that might prove to establish in a court of law. In the end, he imagined, it would come down to money, as most things did, so that he began to weigh the probable cost of a Moncton-Price stand-off in terms of hard cash. They were known to be in difficulties. Nothing short of near-bankruptcy would have persuaded a man like Lester Moncton-Price to marry in the first place, much less to marry into trade, and it occurred to him then that the wily old rascal who had promoted the match had had something like this in mind from the very beginning, banking, no doubt, on Stella’s reluctance to become the storm centre of a case like that of Ruskin’s wife, still the subject of bar-parlour jokes. He would probably be advised to leave the settlement undisturbed and although the prospect of this nettled him, he had never been a man to put money before peace of mind. If he got Stella clear of them the money could go hang.

He was dragged from his reverie by awareness of a change in the tone of Henrietta’s voice as she said, with a hint of reproach, “You haven’t asked about Alex.”

“Edith told me he was safe.”

“That’s so, and no thanks to you, I might add.”

He blinked at her. “You’re not holding me responsible for War Office blunders in Zululand, are you? I accept responsibility for Stella’s marriage. I was a damned fool from start to finish.”

She said, earnestly, “Just listen, Adam… no, perhaps now isn’t the time. You’re tired, and very much upset. But soon… well… we’ll have to have it out, and come to some kind of understanding.”

He gathered from this that she did blame him for Stella’s plight, as much as she blamed the Moncton-Prices possibly, but her broadening of the issue to include Alex puzzled him.

“Listen here, Hetty,” he said, affably, “I’m completely at fault as regards the girl. I should have known it couldn’t possibly work and that something rotten would emerge from it. But she ought to have been warned to some extent. She has instinct, presumably, and we didn’t keep her blinkered, as most parents do in this so-called enlightened age. She’s had far more freedom than most girls of her age. Damn it, I’d have credited her with as much common sense as a milkmaid but I was wrong apparently.”

“It isn’t just Stella,” she replied, stubbornly. “It’s all of us. I thought… well… never mind now, we’ll discuss it tomorrow, once we’ve made up our minds how to go about getting Stella’s freedom.”

He poured himself another brandy, his third, and a small one for her. “We won’t,” he said, “we’ll get it over and done with now. I’ve had enough of drifting for one evening…”

“That’s the point,” she exclaimed, vehemently. “In matters of business, anything remotely connected with those waggons of yours, you never once followed a policy of drift! You made plans and stuck to them. Or you took expert advice from one person or another. Or you sat down and worked everything out, down to the last detail. But you’ve never paid your children the compliment you pay those teams, those routes, or even the men who look to you for a livelihood.”

He heard her without irritation or displeasure. He was thinking again of the crisis in their own relationship, dating back to a time when he walked in here and found a dead chimney-sweep on his hearthrug. He countered, gravely, “I always paid you that compliment, Hetty.”

“Yes,” she said, eagerly, “you did, Adam. And I’ve always loved you for it, but I’m not talking of
me
, but of your children, from Alex and Stella down to the little ones. You’ve left them to me, or to Phoebe Fraser, or to their schoolmasters, and that isn’t fair and it isn’t wise either so it has to change, don’t you see?”

“Not really,” he said, with a touch of humour. “Why don’t you explain precisely what you’re driving at in your own words? And don’t say you can’t for I know very well that you can. I’ll listen, I promise you.”

“Well, then,” she said, taking a deep breath, “there’s Stella, of course. I was worried about her from the start, but I’m not excusing myself on that account, for I didn’t act on it, or try and talk you into acting. What surprised me at the time was you giving in to Stella so easily and I think I know now why you did. Years ago you never had much time for the airs most people in your position put on, grasping at every opportunity to climb the social ladder, and hoping everyone forgets just how they came by their money, but I can’t help thinking some nonsense of that kind played a part in letting Stella have her way and marry into that awful family. Am I right or wrong about that?”

“Only half-right,” he said, “but I was indulging Stella more than myself. You once had delusions of grandeur, I recall. Perhaps Stella inherited some of them. You’ve outgrown yours, and I daresay she’s shed most of hers by now. Where you come far closer to the truth is when you say I’m obsessed with the network. The fact is a man can only carry so much in his head at any one time, and I didn’t give that marriage nearly as much thought as it merited. But if you had made a stand I should have listened. So we’ll split the blame fifty-fifty.”

“But not as regards Alex,” she said, obstinately. “Alex, or Giles for that matter.”

“Where the devil do they come into it?”

“You oughtn’t to need me to point that out to you.”

“Well I do.”

“Very well. You’ve fought in two wars and spent years as a soldier, but you let that boy scamper off to Africa just as if he was catching a train to London Bridge. I was all for him taking up a military career, and when you read his letter you’ll see it wasn’t so fanciful as you’ve always thought, but you could have stirred yourself, used your influence, and got him into a good regiment where he would have had the benefit of basic training. As it was he was extremely lucky not to get himself killed.”

“Where does that leave Alex?”

“I want him home now, and properly prepared for his work, the way you would train the least of your employees earmarked for a special job of work.”

He thought briefly of his words to Fraser about Jake Higson, selected for the Scottish post, and at once conceded her point. “That makes good sense, Hetty, and I’ll act on it. Now, what about Giles?”

“He’s unhappy at Mellingham.”

“He
is
?”

“Yes. It isn’t the right school for a boy of his kind. For one thing he’s not as strong as the others and that cough of his is beginning to worry me. He needs upland air and a smaller, less anonymous school, an environment where he isn’t poured into a mould, like his brothers.”

“Has he complained?”

“Good heavens, no, of course he hasn’t! And if you knew him well you’d know he never would. But I can read between the lines of his letters, and you could if and when you take a moment to read them.”

“How about the others? Are they in such dire need of a father’s guidance? No, Hetty… I’m not teasing, there’s something in what you say, and on the whole I plead guilty. There must be more to raising a family than providing a good home, three square meals a day, and an education. But remember one thing in extenuation. All day and every day I’m involved with youngsters who haven’t had that, not even in small measure. Most of those vanboys of Keate’s slept under sacks on wharves and when we found them not one in five could lay claim to a mother, much less a father.”

“That’s all very well,” she said, impatiently, “but I’m concerned with the children under this particular roof. I’m a wife and a mother, not a missionary!”

For all her vehemence she still had the power to make him laugh aloud. His mind returned to Edith’s Tom, an ex-convict, who once walked the streets with a revolver strapped to his wrist, and then again to all those derelicts Keate was always sweeping into the yard. Suddenly it occurred to him that perhaps the social reformers of the nation were all on a wrong tack, that extreme deprivation was more likely to foster hardihood and self-reliance than vice. How else did one explain poxed out failures like the Moncton-Prices or, for that matter, his own daughter’s utter lack of instinct and common sense?

He said, “George. You haven’t mentioned George.” She replied, sharply, “George will always be able to look after himself.”

“Maybe,” he said, “but it occurs to me, in view of the family post mortem we’re having, that even George might need a push to head him in the direction I want him headed. I’ll make sure Alex gets into a good regiment. I’ll write to my old friend Roberts—
General
Roberts now, if you please—and I’ll see Giles within the week, and talk his future over with him. But unless I’m mistaken my business stands or falls with George, so I’m taking no chances there. No damn sense in wasting time making a gentleman of George. He’ll get his education on the network, and start as soon as maybe. As to the others, I’ll promise you one thing, my dear. From here on they’ll be spied on from afar, the way I spy on my managers and foremen waggoners. So I daresay this wretched business might show us a profit in the end.”

She was not surprised that her directness had had this effect on him, but it warmed her nonetheless, clearing away the fog of uncertainty and apprehension that had clouded her life over the last few days. For possibly the thousandth time since she had met him on that rain-soaked moor half a lifetime ago, she thanked God he was a man open to reason, a man who, despite his dominance and towering success in business, was yet able to get along without the insufferable arrogance one took for granted in the male animal. She said, yawning, “Well, that’s surely enough for one night. Let’s go to bed,” and without waiting for his assent crossed over to extinguish the lamp and set the guard before the fire.

He followed her to the door, stumbling a little with fatigue, but not too fatigued to catch her by the shoulders as she stepped into the hall and hold her close against him for a moment, lowering his head to kiss her neck where the fastening of a thin, gold chain showed above the collar.

“I’ve struck a lot of bargains in my time,” he said, absently, “but taken all round you were the best of ’em, Hetty.”

She warmed her hands at that all the way upstairs and the time it took her to undress, brush her hair, and climb into bed, by which time he was asleep and snoring heavily.

Settling, she indulged herself in one of her suppressed, schoolgirl giggles, for it occurred to her to wonder if he would endorse the testimonial when he learned that she was pregnant again.