‘All the time in the world,’ whispered Bibi, unhooking her pearl earrings and putting them on the mantelpiece.
‘I am playing in the Mundialito this afternoon,’ said Angel, hooking them on again. ‘There’s a horse in Pilar Chico I very much want to try before. If we ’urry we ’ave time.’
Then, seeing the outrage on Bibi’s face, ‘On zee way we look for a ring, I buy it,’ he added hastily. ‘I sell my watch this morning, and tonight after zee match, I make love to you so you won’t get up for three days.’
Despite such promises, Bibi managed to gird her ransacked loins and meet Angel’s grandmother at the Plaza the next day.
‘But who is she?’ Angel’s grandmother kept saying to Betty beforehand.
‘She’s very rich, Mama. You know Angel hasn’t got any money.’
‘But who are they?’
‘Aeroplanes,’ explained Betty.
‘Better than cars, not as good as railroads. Not a great beauty, is she?’ added Angel’s grandmother loudly as Bibi approached. ‘She’ll never hold him.’
‘My dear,’ she advised Bibi later, ‘you must remember that in Argentina flattering the husband’s ego is of supreme importance. You must constantly demonstrate how much you love him.’
‘Oh, I do,’ sighed Bibi.
‘But I ’ave to warn you, Jean-Baptiste, my ‘usband, was constantly unfaithful to me, my son Pierre was constantly unfaithful to his wife. That’s why she run away with this Italian. Rafael will be unfaithful to you. American women who marry Argentines are always shocked by their promiscuity, but you mustn’t take it personally. They just have to demonstrate their virility.’
41
Despite being the long-distance target of Angel’s obsessive loathing, Drew Benedict had an excellent season in England. Not only were he and Bas on the Rutshire committee, where they made themselves very unpopular with Fatty Harris by putting the club on a sounder commercial footing, but Drew had also been elected to the handicap committee of the British Polo Association, polo’s governing body. This meant players and patrons alike courted him for inside information, the latter even offering him large backhanders to keep the handicaps of their team members down. Drew never accepted cash, but several extremely nice ponies found their way into his yard which Sukey, who handled Drew’s tax returns, was amazed he had acquired so cheaply.
One of Drew’s first tasks was to handicap Ricky and Dancer. Turning up at the Rutshire at the beginning of the season, Drew noticed with a stab of envy that Ricky was back to his old form; hitting the ball with relentless accuracy, getting the last panting ounce out of his ponies, but still hogging the play, too often roaring at Perdita, Dancer, and even Bas, to leave the ball. On Drew’s recommendation, Ricky was rated at seven, two places lower than his handicap before he smashed his elbow. He could always be put up in July. Perdita, riding Spotty and Tero, was so improved that, to Ricky’s intense irritation, Drew put her up to two. He was even crosser when Dancer, whom Ricky wanted rated as minus one to keep the team’s collective handicap down, was, after a freak forty-yard forehand slap between the goal posts, rated by Drew at nought.
‘The bugger barely watched two chukkas,’ exploded Ricky in the bar afterwards. ‘How can he assess anyone on that?’
‘Drew,’ said Bas philosophically, removing a sprig of mint from his Pimm’s, ‘has other fish to fry. He only spent ten minutes at a Rutshire committee meeting the other night before beetling off. Must be establishing alibis. Any idea who she might be?’
‘Haven’t a clue,’ snapped Ricky, who didn’t want to hear about other people’s extramarital rompings.
With Bas on six, the collective handicap of the team was fifteen, which meant they could play together in medium-goal tournaments. Thus Apocalypse was born. Looking it up, they found that the four horsemen of the Apocalypse, Famine, Justice, Pestilence and Death, had stalked through the land on white, black, red and pale horses so the beautiful jet-black shirts designed by Dancer’s marketing department each had a different coloured horse on the front and a number in the same colour on the back. The helmets were also black, giving the entire team a sinister air. Bas was Justice, Perdita Pestilence, the lean, emaciated Dancer appropriately Famine and Ricky the pale rider on the pale horse – the custard-yellow Wayne filled the bill perfectly – was Death. As a team their first problem was that they were all attacking players and Bas, as the second-best player in the team, was reduced to playing back which didn’t suit him at all.
The second problem was organizing their schedules. Dancer had endless concert, recording and television commitments. Bas, as well as running the Bar Sinister in Cotchester High Street and pulling off numerous property deals, was always sloping off to Paris or the South of France or even the Seychelles to appease one of his demanding mistresses.
Even worse, in May, just before the season proper began, Bas joined forces with Rupert, Declan O’Hara and various businessmen and local worthies and set up a consortium called Venturer. Venturer’s aim was to oust the local ITV station, Corinium, which was run by Bas’s corrupt and machiavellian brother, Anthony, second Baron Baddingham. This meant that Bas had to spend much of the summer in secret meetings or canvassing round the area which drove Ricky mad because Bas kept missing matches or having to switch dates.
‘It just takes a lot of spade work,’ explained Bas soothingly. ‘Impressing the right people that we’re the right people to run a television station.’
‘I can’t see you are at all,’ snapped Ricky. ‘You can’t even organize yourself to play in a polo team.’
‘When Venturer get the franchise, Rupert and I are determined to get polo, particularly the Rutshire, regularly on television. It’s the ideal television sport – brave and incredibly charismatic men.’
‘Speak for yourself.’
‘And ravishing women. It just needs promoting. You’ll be grateful next year.’
‘I am not interested in next year, we’ve got a Merrill Lynch match tomorrow and we’ve already changed the date three times to fit in with you. Anyway, what makes you so sure you’ll get the franchise?’
‘Because my brother is such a shit,’ said Bas. ‘And Corinium’s programmes are so frightful and all the staff are in such a state of anarchy since Declan left, we can’t not.’
Despite Bas’s frequent absences, Apocalypse had a wonderful first season, with Ricky’s handicap going up to eight, Perdita’s to three and Dancer’s to one in the July ratings. Venturer’s publicity, on the other hand, got worse and worse and, as autumn gave way to winter, it looked less and less likely that they would wrest the franchise from Corinium.
For a start the press got wind of the story that Rupert was running after Declan’s teenage daughter Taggie, then that he had seduced Cameron Cook, Anthony Baddingham’s mistress and Corinium’s star producer, into his bed and on to Venturer’s side. This was followed by endless leaks about other staff Venturer had poached. It was also rumoured that Bas was having an affair with Declan’s wife, Maud, and was also keen on Taggie.
With Rupert and Bas behaving so irresponsibly, Drew didn’t see why he should behave any better. Having played one season with the repulsive and demanding Kevin Coley and his dreadful wife, Enid, whom he frequently wished Perdita had drowned in the swimming-pool, Drew was looking for another patron. He found being dependent on Sukey more and more irksome, but if he left her he would be solely dependent on patrons like Kevin. He had also become accustomed to having money, which enabled him to spend a lot of time with Daisy Macleod. His endless committee meetings in fact gave him the perfect alibi. He also established a commendable reputation for uxoriousness. Leaving long before the end of the meeting, never staying for drinks afterwards, he pretended he must rush home to Sukey, then beetled off to bed with Daisy.
As a loving wife, Sukey accompanied him to most matches, so Daisy avoided these except when Perdita was playing. On these occasions Drew would invariably manage to touch Daisy’s hand in the pony lines or murmur some endearment as he passed her at treading-in time.
Sometimes when he rode out Daisy would meet him in her car and when autumn came it was extraordinary
