Mingled With Venom

‘Yes, of course. I always do.’

‘You are misunderstanding me wilfully. Don’t be impertinent. What did she have to say?’

‘Are you deliberately driving her out of this house?’

‘Is that what she said?’

‘Not in so many words. It amounted to that, I thought.’

‘Is she really going?’

‘Such appeared to be her intention when she left me.’

‘I am not driving her away. She is in a mood. I think she is angry because I did not disclose the contents of my Will last night. Why should I?’

‘Well, when you began to speak, I think we all expected to hear something about it. I must say that you gave me to understand as much when you told me to issue the invitations. We all concluded that that was the reason for calling us all together.’

‘Yes, well, I had some such intention in mind, but, over dinner, I abandoned it.’

‘With Gamaliel in mind, one assumes.’

‘You have no right to assume anything of the kind, Fiona. Where did you sleep last night?’

‘Oh, so that is what you wanted to see me about, and not Maria’s doings at all.’

‘I should like an answer to my question.’

‘It is an impertinent one and I do not feel disposed to answer it. However, if you want to know, I slept in my own room, as usual.’

‘With whom?’

‘I had very little choice so I slept with Rupert. I think you knew I would when you agreed to his spending the night here.’

‘He will get a divorce, I suppose.’

‘What about his children? Divorce would come hardest on them and neither he nor I would want to cause them distress. Children, for all their nuisance value, are helpless and should be shown mercy.’

‘Those particular children would be better away from their parents, it seems to me—from both parents.’

‘Oh, you know about Diana and Garnet, as well as about Rupert and me, do you? Can none of us keep our indiscretions a secret?’

‘I did not know, but I know now. Fiona, you had better leave my house. What Diana and Garnet get up to is their business, but I will not condone your goings-on and under my roof.’

Chapter 4

Campions and Seawards

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‘But we can’t have both of them,’ said Parsifal, his long-lipped camel-face lengthening lugubriously. ‘Will they pay us anything?’

‘If they don’t, we truthfully plead poverty and say they simply must.’

‘Are you prepared to tell them that?’

‘Perfectly. Why not? It is not our place to support them, even if we could afford to do so.’

‘We had better find out what Garnet thinks about it all. This house is his.’

‘Like me, he can hardly refuse point-blank to have our mother here. Fiona is a different matter entirely. I think we must tell her she will have to share mother’s room. That should put her off.’

‘Could we suggest she goes to stay at Campions for a bit?’

‘Diana wouldn’t like that. She wouldn’t agree.’

‘She doesn’t know anything about Fiona and Rupert.’

‘Don’t be too sure about that.’

‘You surely don’t think she does know!’

‘She not only knows; she condones it because of herself and Garnet. Rupert’s misdeeds are a cloak for her own and, of course, a welcome one.’

‘There ought to be a divorce, then Rupert and Fiona could marry and so could Diana and Garnet. A divorce would settle everything.’

‘Except the fate of Rupert and Diana’s children.’

‘Each party could take one of them.’

‘There speaks a childless man! Besides, what would Gamaliel do without his foster-son?’