liked her, eccentricities and all, she would find life much more difficult.
It took just ten minutes to drive to Helmby Hall. An assortment of Range Rovers, Jaguars and Mercedes was drawn up outside, no doubt Lord Mablethorpe's shooting guests. I parked my little Peugeot beside them, walked up to the huge front door, and rang the bell. A butler showed me into a study where I waited.
The study was a comfortable place, full of the day-to-day bits of paper and books that the old Lord Mablethorpe had needed. I remembered the several occasions when I had been in this room as a boy, watching my father and Lord Mablethorpe laughing by the fire. Lord Mablethorpe had a huge laugh. His red face would split into a big grin and his massive shoulders would heave up and down. His hands were as large and well worn as my father's, as they cradled the whisky which he always broke out for these occasions. I checked the bookshelf behind me. Sure enough, a quarter-full decanter was propping up some old editions of Whitaker's
Finally Charles Mablethorpe arrived. He looked very different from his father. Thin and anaemic, I was surprised he could survive a whole day striding across the moors in search of grouse, let alone a whole week. He was about my own age, and an assistant director in the corporate finance department of an old, but now very minor, merchant bank.
'Hallo, Charles. Thank you for taking the time to see me,' I said, proffering my hand.
He shook it limply. 'Not at all, Murray, have a seat.'
He gestured to a small chair by the side of his desk. He sat in a large chair behind it.
I bridled at being treated as a loyal retainer by this prat, but sat down.
'I've come to talk to you about my mother's house,' I began.
'I know,' Mablethorpe interrupted.
'You know that when my father was killed, your father promised my mother that she could live there until she died.'
'Actually, I don't. In fact, I can't even find a tenancy agreement for the cottage. It would appear that your mother is living there illegally.'
'That's ridiculous,' I said. 'She isn't paying rent because she is living there rent-free. There isn't a tenancy agreement because there was no need for one. Your father was very happy to let her live there.'
'That may well have been the case; my father was a very generous and charitable man. But we have only your mother's word that he promised her the cottage for life, and she isn't exactly reliable, now, is she?' Mablethorpe drew a packet of cigarettes from his pocket and lit one. He didn't offer one to me. 'The problem is I have fearsome inheritance taxes to pay. I have got to sell off part of the estate, and fifty thousand pounds would come in very handy, thank you.'
'You can't throw her out,' I said. 'It's illegal. She's a sitting tenant. And don't think you can intimidate her to leave.'
'I'm terribly sorry, Murray, but I am afraid I can. You see, she has never paid any rent, and so she is not a tenant. She's really just a sort of squatter, you know. Don't worry, I have checked everything with my solicitors in Richmond. Technically, it may be difficult to evict her if she barricades herself in, but we will get her out eventually.'
'Your father would be furious if he knew you were doing this,' I said.
Mablethorpe pulled deeply on his cigarette before replying. 'You have no idea what my father would have thought. My father had many qualities, but financial acumen wasn't one of them. There is a lot of capital tied up in this estate, and it has to be made to provide a decent return. In the modern world, you can't just leave assets lying around generating no income. You work in finance-I am sure you can see that.'
'I know that you can't run an estate like you would the balance sheet of a bank,' I said, but I could see that there wasn't much I could do to change Mablethorpe's mind. Pleading with him wouldn't work, and I had nothing to threaten him with. There was no point in hanging around. I got up to leave. 'Dad always said your father thought you were a fool, and now I know why,' I said as I turned on my heel and walked out of the room. A cheap shot, but it made me feel better.
CHAPTER 18
The cold dawn air bit into my lungs with every breath. The muscles in my calves twisted and jarred on the stony path. I had forgotten how hard running up steep hills was on them. I was following the route I had run almost every day as a kid. Four miles up the steepest slopes in the area. The top of the hill was only two hundred yards away, but my progress was interminably slow. It felt bad enough now – I wondered at how I managed it as a twelve-year-old.
I recognised each odd-shaped stone, each sudden twist in the path. Recognition brought the pain of those runs flooding back. I had sought it out, looking forward to the daily struggle against the steep paths and the cold wind. It wasn't just a means of driving out that other pain of the loss of my father, although that was how it had started. I had developed a dependence on it, a need to focus my mind and my whole body on overcoming the pain and discomfort. It was a kind of self-indulgence, an opportunity to wrap myself up for an hour or two every day in my own world, which had my body and its aching muscles at its centre and the sometimes glorious, sometimes terrible hillside scenery as its backdrop. Every day a hard fought battle, every day a well-deserved victory.
Eventually I broke the brow of the hill and began the half-mile canter along the ridge between Barthwaite and Helmby. I loped along, dodging the sharper stones and the thicker clumps of heather which lurked along the old sheep-track, waiting to jar a foot or ankle. A brace of grouse darted out of the heather and flew fast and low along the line of the hill, before swooping out of my sight. The mist was just lifting from the valley floor around Barthwaite, and I could see the silver ribbon of the river sparkle in the morning sunshine, before turning sharp left behind the shoulder of a purple hill. I looked behind me at the broad desolate brown and purple expanse of the fell at the head of the dale. But I was running away from that, down towards the neatly parcelled green fields of the valley floor, and the grey stone village, where the first signs of morning activity could be heard; a tractor spluttering to life, dogs barking for their breakfast. I arrived back at my mother's house sore but refreshed, and with a decision taken.
I couldn't hope to change Mablethorpe's mind. Even if I found a way to fight him legally, he would get my mother out in the end. The effect of that on her delicately balanced psychology was incalculable. But perhaps I could buy the cottage. That would provide both me and my mother with the comfort of knowing she had a secure home for the rest of her life.
The trouble was, I couldn't afford fifty thousand pounds. But, with my ten thousand pounds of savings, mostly made up of my Gypsum investment, I could just afford to borrow another twenty, after taking into account the existing mortgage on my flat. How to get the cottage for only thirty thousand pounds?
Swallow my pride and ask him, I supposed. I rang the Hall and made another appointment for later that day. We met in the same study as the day before. I told Mablethorpe my proposition, the cottage for thirty thousand pounds. I regretted my parting comment of the day before, but Mablethorpe was a little more conciliatory; maybe some of my remarks had got through, after all.
'Thirty-five thousand,' he said. 'No less.'
'OK, thirty-five thousand,' I said, and held out my hand. I hoped I would get the finance from somewhere. He shook it limply. I think we were both aware of the strong friendship that had existed between our fathers, and felt ashamed at letting them down. We parted on cool but not cold terms.
My mother was very pleased when I told her. She insisted I stay another couple of days, which I did. After the strain of the last few weeks the enforced idleness and change of scenery did me good. I tried, and broadly succeeded, in banishing concerns about my future at De Jong & Co. Time enough to worry about that. I was less able to free my mind of Cathy. I wondered whether she would like Barthwaite. Idiotic thought! There was no reason on earth why she would ever have cause to consider the question. I kicked myself more than once for somehow screwing up what seemed to have been the start of a very promising relationship.
And then I had to borrow twenty-five thousand pounds from somewhere. It ought to be possible, just. After a year or two in the bond-trading world, my salary should rise quite rapidly, and it should quickly become more affordable. That was as long as nothing came of the TSA investigation.
