A Suitable Vengeance

fingers against it thoughtfully as she observed her friend. St James did not look up from his work.

That had always been his most effective defence. Work-tables and microscopes became ramparts which no-one could scale, incessant labour a narcotic that dulled the pain of loss. Lady Helen surveyed the lab, seeing it for once not as the centre of St James' professional life, but as the refuge which it had become. It was a large room scented faintly by formaldehyde; walled by anatomy charts and graphs and shelves; floored by old, creaking hardwood; ceilinged by a skylight through which milky sun provided an impersonal warmth. Scarred tables furnished it, as did tall stools, microscopes, computers, and a variety of equipment for studying everything from blood to bullets. To one side, a door led into Deborah Cotter's darkroom. But that door had been closed for all the years of her absence. Lady Helen wondered what St James would do if she opened it now, flinging it back like an unavoidable invasion into the reaches of his heart.

'Deborah's coming home tonight, Simon? Why didn't you tell me?'

St James removed one slide from the microscope and replaced it with another, adjusting the dials for a higher degree of magnification. After a moment of studying this new specimen, he jotted down a few notes.

Lady Helen leaned across the work-table and clicked off the microscope's light. 'She's coming home,' she said. 'You've not said a word about it all day. Why, Simon? Tell me.'

Instead of answering, St James looked past her shoulder. 'What is it, Cotter?'

Lady Helen swung around. Cotter was standing in the doorway, frowning, wiping his brow with a white linen handkerchief. 'You've no need to fetch Deb from the airport tonight, Mr St James,' he said in a rush. 'Lord Asherton's to do it. I'm to go as well. He rang me not an hour ago. It's all arranged.'

The ticking of the wall clock made the only immediate response to Cotter's announcement until somewhere outside a child's frantic weeping – rife with outrage – rose on the air.

St James stirred to say, 'Good. That's just as well. I've a mountain of work to get through here.'

Lady Helen felt the sort of confusion that requires an accompanying cry of protest. The world as she knew it was taking on a new shape. Longing to ask the obvious question, she looked from St James to Cotter, but their reserve warned her off. Still, she could tell that Cotter was willing to say more. He appeared to be waiting for the other man to make some additional comment that would allow him to do so. But instead St James merely ran a hand through his unruly black hair. Cotter shifted on his feet.

‘I’ll be about my business, then.' With a nod, he left the room, but his shoulders looked burdened and his steps were heavy.

'Let me understand this,' Lady Helen said. 'Tommy's fetching Deborah from the airport. Tommy. Not you?'

It was a reasonable enough question. Thomas Lynley, Lord Asherton, was an old friend to both St James and Lady Helen, something of a colleague as well since for the past ten years he had worked in the Criminal Investigation Department of New Scotland Yard. In both capacities, he had been a frequent visitor to St James' Cheyne Row house. But when on earth, Lady Helen wondered, had he come to know Deborah Cotter well enough to be the one to meet her at the airport after her time away at school? To phone her father coolly with the arrangements every bit as if he were… what on earth was Tommy to Deborah?

'He's been to America to see her,' St James replied. 'A number of times. He never told you that, Helen?'

'Good heavens.' Lady Helen was nonplussed. 'How do you know that? Surely Deborah didn't tell you. As for Tommy, he knows that you've always-'

'Cotter told me last year. I suppose he'd spent some time wondering about Tommy's intentions, as any father might.'

His dry, factual tone spoke volumes more than any telling comment he might have chosen to make. Her heart went out to him.

'It's been dreadful for you, hasn't it, these last three years without her?'

St James drew another microscope across the table and gave his attention to the removal of a speck of dust that seemed to be adhering stubbornly to its eyepiece.

Lady Helen watched him, seeing clearly how the passage of time, in conjunction with his wretched disability, was doing its best to make him every year less of a man in his own eyes. She wanted to tell him how untrue and unfair such an assessment was. She wanted to tell him how little difference it made. But to do so bordered too closely upon pity, and she would not hurt him by a display of compassion he did not want.

The front door slamming far below saved her from having to speak at all. Rapid footsteps followed. They flew up three flights of steps without a pause for breath and served as harbinger of the only person with sufficient energy to make so steep a climb in so little time.

'That sounds like Sidney,' St James said moments before his younger sister burst into the room.

'I knew I'd find you in here,' Sidney announced, brushing a kiss against his cheek. She flopped onto a stool and said by way of greeting her brother's companion, 'I do love that dress, Helen. Is it new? How can you manage to look so put together at a quarter past four in the afternoon?'

'While we're talking of being put together…' St James eyed his sister's unusual attire.

Sidney laughed. 'Leather pants. What d'you think? There's a fur as well, but I left it with the photographer.'

'Rather a warm combination for summer,' Lady Helen said.

'Isn't it beastly?' Sidney agreed happily. 'They've had me on Albert Bridge since ten o'clock this morning in leather pants, a fur coat, and nothing else. Perched on top of a 1951 taxi with the driver – I wish someone would tell me where they get these male mannequins – leering up at me like a pervert. Oh, yes, and a bit of au natural showing here and there. My au naturel, if it comes to that. All the driver has to do is look like Jack the Ripper. I borrowed this shirt from one of the technicians. We're breaking for now, so I thought I'd pop over for a visit.' She looked round the room curiously. 'So. It's past four. Where's tea?'

St James nodded towards the package which Lady Helen had left leaning against the wall. 'You've caught us in disarray this afternoon.'

'Deborah's coming home tonight, Sid,' Lady Helen said. 'Did you know?'

Sidney's face lit. 'Is she at last? Then, those must be some of her snaps. Wonderful! Let's have a peep.' She hopped off her stool, shook the package as if it were an early Christmas gift, and blithely proceeded to remove its outer wrapping.

'Sidney,' St James admonished her.

'Pooh. You know she wouldn't mind.' Sidney tossed away the sturdy brown paper, untied the cords of a black portfolio, and picked up the top portrait from the stack within. She looked it over, whistling between her teeth. 'Lord, the girl's handier with a camera than she's ever been.' She passed the photograph to Lady Helen and went on with her perusal of the others in the stack.

Self and Bath. The three words were scrawled in haphazard script across the bottom edge of the picture. It was a nude study of Deborah herself, arranged in three-quarter profile to the camera. She had composed the piece cleverly: a shallow tub of water; the delicate arch of her spine; a table nearby on which sat a pitcher, hairbrushes and comb; filtered light striking her left arm, her left foot, the curve of her shoulder. With a camera and using herself as a model, she had copied The Tub by Degas. It was lovely.

Lady Helen looked up to see St James nod as if in appreciation of it. He walked back to his equipment and started sorting through a stack of reports.

'Did you? Did you know it?' Sidney was asking them impatiently.

'Know what?' Lady Helen said.

'That Deborah's involved with Tommy. Tommy Lynley! Mummy's cook told me, believe it or not. From what she said, Cotter's quite up in arms about it. Honestly, Simon, you must talk some sense into Cotter. For that matter, talk some sense into Tommy. I think it's completely unfair of him to choose Deb over me.' She resumed her stool. 'That reminds me. I've got to tell you about Peter.'

Lady Helen felt a margin of relief at this welcome change of subject. 'Peter?' she said helpfully.

'Imagine this.' Sidney used her hands to dramatize the scene. 'Peter Lynley and a lady of the night – dressed all in black with flowing black hair like a tourist from Transylvania – caught in flagrante delicto in an alley in Soho!'

'Tommy's brother Peter?' Lady Helen clarified, knowing Sidney's proclivity for overlooking pertinent details. 'That can't be right. He's in Oxford for the summer, isn't he?'