‘Lolita! At last!’ Harriet drew back. ‘My name’s Charles Mander,’ he went on. ‘You’re not local are you?’
‘Yes,’ said Harriet, defiantly. ‘I look after Cory Erskine’s children.’
‘How electrifying! Lucky Cory.’ His eyes, alert with sudden interest, travelled slowly over her body, stripping off every inch of clothing.
‘And have you met Noel yet?’ Then he began to laugh. ‘No, of course you haven’t. She’s not silly enough to let a pretty girl like you under her roof.’
‘What do you mean?’ said Harriet angrily.
Then Cory was by her side.
‘Hullo, Charles.’
‘Hullo, Cory, old boy. Long time no see.’
The greeting was amicable enough, but Harriet could tell that the two men hated each other.
‘I’ve just met your charming little — er — friend. I congratulate you, Cory. Such a comfort on these long winter nights.’
Cory gave a cigarette to Harriet, selected one himself and lit them both before he replied, ‘You always did have your mind below your navel, Charles.’
Charles Mander started to laugh again. ‘It reminds me of that song we used to sing in the nursery. How does it go? Something about “God bless Nanny, and make her good”. I must say, I wouldn’t mind making Nanny myself.’
There was a frozen pause.
‘If I were a gentleman, Charles,’ said Cory, in a voice that sent shivers down Harriet’s spine, ‘I’d knock you down. But it would only give you the satisfaction of being a public martyr.’
He turned, deliberately looking at a fat blonde woman lurching towards them.
‘Your wife’s drunk again,’ he added quietly.
Cory and Harriet didn’t speak until they were nearly home. Gone was the easy cameraderie of the past few weeks.
Then Cory said, ‘I’m sorry about Charles Mander. There’s no point in beating about the bush. He used to be a lover of Noel’s, probably still is, so he can never resist bitching me up. I imagine you heard the same sort of remark as you came out of the kitchen.’
Harriet nodded.
‘What did they say?’
Harriet’s tongue seemed to be tied in knots. ‘They said William was your child.’
‘Charming,’ said Cory. ‘The hunting season’s been so frightful they’re very short on gossip. Doesn’t bother me. But I should never have exposed you to that snake pit. I should have realized how vulnerable you are.’
‘It was so lovely,’ she muttered. ‘Everything’s spoilt now.’
‘It needn’t be,’ he said as he turned the car into the drive.
Once inside, he followed her up to her room. Outside the door, she paused and stammered out her thanks for taking her to the party.
‘I enjoyed taking you,’ he said and, putting out a hand, smoothed back a loose strand of hair that had fallen over her eyes. ‘I was watching you this evening. You had that lost wistful look of the moon when it suddenly appears during the day. I must say I’ve been wondering about you myself lately.’
Harriet looked up, startled. Cory’s face was in shadow. Then suddenly they both jumped, as unmistakably down the passage came the sound of Sevenoaks drinking noisily out of the lavatory. The tension was broken. Harriet went off into peels of laughter.
‘The enemy of promise,’ said Cory. ‘Go to bed little one, and don’t worry.’
Harriet went to bed, but couldn’t sleep. What had Cory meant that he’d been wondering about her lately? It seemed her relationship with him was something so fragile, a candle that she had to protect with both hands because everyone was trying to blow it out.
Chapter Sixteen
She felt staggeringly untogether in the morning. She had a blinding headache. It was as much as she could do to feed William. Chattie, recognizing weakness, started playing up.
‘We’re going to the meet with Daddy,’ she said. ‘Can I wear my party dress?’
‘No, you can’t,’ said Harriet.
‘Well my red velvet dress then?’
‘Trousers are much warmer.’
‘I don’t want to wear trousers. I’m not a boy.’
‘Oh Chattie, please,’ she said in despair.
‘You’ll wear them and bloody well like it,’ said Cory, coming in tying a stock, his long legs encased in boots and tight white breeches.
Chattie tried a different approach.
‘Can I have a two-wheeler with stabilizers?’ she said.
‘Only if you do what Harriet tells you. How do you feel?’ he said to her.
‘Frightful.’
‘So do I,’ said Cory. ‘God knows what Arabella gave us to drink. Some fruity little paint stripper, I should imagine. One could almost hear the enamel dropping off one’s teeth.’
‘Why do you go on wearing a dinner jacket, Daddy,’ said Chattie, ‘if it always makes you feel sick in the morning?’
Harriet suspected he’d gone on drinking long after she’d gone to bed.
‘Can Harriet come to the meet with us?’ said Jonah.
‘Oh please yes,’ said Chattie.
‘It’s too much of a hassle with William and things,’ said Harriet.
Cory, a cigarette hanging out of the corner of his mouth, was filling up a hip-flask with brandy.
‘You can leave William with Mrs Bottomley,’ he said. ‘Do you good to get some fresh air. There’s a button missing from my coat. Can you sew it on?’
‘Are you taking Python?’ said Harriet.
‘Yes,’ said Cory. ‘As a second horse. I’d like to see how she makes out.’
The horses went to the meet by box. Cory drove Harriet, Jonah, Chattie and the dogs by car.
The mist had rolled back from the hills to reveal a beautiful mild day. The ivy was putting out shining pale leaves; young nettles were thrusting through the green spring grass. Catkins shook in the breeze, the bracken burned the same rusty red as the curling leaves that still clung to the oak trees. The wet roads glittered and the stone walls gave off an almost incandescent whiteness in the sunlight.
‘I’m hot,’ said Chattie. ‘I could have worn my party dress.’
‘Chattie I’ve told you a hundred times,’ said Harriet.
‘No you didn’t, you only told me twice.’
‘Don’t be rude,’ said Cory.
There was a pause.
‘It’s raining, it’s pouring,’ sang Chattie. ‘The old man’s snoring. He went to bed and bumped his head, and couldn’t get up in the morning. The doctor came and flushed the chain and out flew an aeroplane.’
Both children collapsed in giggles.
‘The doctor came and flushed,’ sang Chattie.
‘Shut up,’ said Cory.
‘Ouch. Sevenoaks is treading on me.’
‘Can we stop for some sweets? There’s an absolutely brilliant sweet shop in Gargrave,’ said Jonah.
Gradually they caught up with riders hacking to the meet. Soon there was a steady stream of cars and horse
