‘His
‘Oh, have you not fathomed the relationship between Garnet and Gamaliel? Gamaliel has adopted my twin brother. I am thankful it is nothing worse than that.’
‘Even supposing a divorce did take place, I am sure that Diana would never tolerate Gamaliel as a member of her household.’
‘Isn’t that what I’m saying? Anyhow, although the sighting-shots regarding mother and Fiona have been fired, nothing is settled yet. There is another thing, Parsifal. If we have my mother and Fiona here, we can say goodbye to anything grandmother may have decided to leave us in her Will.’
‘That Will is a will o’ the wisp. We have discussed it so often that I have abandoned all belief in it. I thought we were to hear something at the dinner party, but, beyond vague hints and what I took to be undertones of warnings, nothing tangible emerged.’
‘I think grandmother likes playing cat and mouse with our hopes. Wealthy people can be very cruel.’
‘All power leads to cruelty and the power of wealth is very great. Do you think she took a fancy to Gamaliel? Not that I would wish our future to depend on him.’
‘Oh, it will not. Gamaliel is well-meaning and amiable, but he is also the complete egoist. If our interests clashed with his, ours would go to the wall. Besides, why should he benefit us? We adopted him for our own reasons, not for his.’
‘That is the reason people have children, their own or by adoption. The child has no choice in the matter, and Gamaliel had none.’
‘Suppose grandmother wanted to take him to live in her house?’
‘Then he would be old enough to have a choice, and rightly so. We could hardly stand in his way.’
‘So long as we are agreed upon that.’
‘But if he should find favour and should decide to benefit us, you would not refuse his bounty, would you?’
‘Anything she leaves him will be held in trust for him, I expect. She would see to it that he could not touch it until he comes of age. By that time he would be off our hands and would (rightly) have no further use for us.’
‘That is in two years’ time, but she is not dead yet. I don’t think we need count any chickens.’
Gamaliel joined them. ‘We could have a picnic today,’ he said, ‘with some of the things my great grandmother packed up for me after the party.’
‘Why haven’t you gone to school?’ asked Bluebell.
‘The O level people are excused. We are to study at home for the rest of the week because the examinations begin on Monday.’
‘Well, you had better go off and study, then.’
‘No picnic?’
‘We will have lunch here on the terrace. Won’t that do?’
‘Oh, yes, if you say so. When shall I see my great grandmother again?’
‘You asked me that yesterday. You must wait to see her again until she invites you to her house.’
‘She has promised that her groom will teach me to ride.’
‘It will make you bandy-legged.’
Gamaliel looked down at his bare, brown, handsome limbs. He was wearing nothing but a pair of the briefest of shorts and looked superb.
‘I will go and study,’ he said. ‘I am not looking forward to my O levels. I am taking nine subjects, far too many. My mind has not that number of sides to it.’
‘If you pass in five we shall be satisfied. I myself think nine is too many,’ said Bluebell. ‘When we know how well you have done, we shall know what to choose for your A levels.’
‘The school will choose those for me if I stay on, but I don’t want to stay on. I am entitled to leave school at sixteen and that is what I want to do.’
‘I thought you wanted to be head boy next term. It would help your career to end up like that.’
‘It would not help the career I have chosen.’ He turned and went indoors.
Bluebell seated herself in one of the basket chairs on the verandah and gazed out to sea. Beyond the narrow cove with its bare rocks and its smugglers’ cave rose a high green hill up which a narrow, well-worn path climbed slantingly to a rounded shoulder below which the sea rolled in against a tiny spit of sand. From the shoulder of the hill, but out of sight from where she sat, Bluebell knew that a narrower path, rough, steep and uneven, made a walker’s short cut to the woods around Campions, the house occupied by Rupert and Diana. There was a much longer way to it by a road through the village past the hotel and the pub, a road which branched off into a bridle- way. This would be the route, Bluebell reflected, by which her mother and Fiona would travel, for surely Romula would not refuse them the services of her car and chauffeur, however bitterly she had quarrelled with them.
Parsifal stood irresolutely beside his wife’s chair for a few moments and then said: ‘I feel like a good stiff walk. How would it be if I toddled over to Campions and had a word with Diana? She will be on her own with Rupert at his desk or out botanising and the two children at school. She may have gathered more of your grandmother’s intentions than we did and she will be interested to hear the news about your mother and Fiona.’
‘To take a walk will only follow your usual custom. It is barely half-past nine, so on your way back you could call at the hotel for a packet of their crab sandwiches. Gamaliel likes those and they will help to make lunch out here into more of a picnic. Ask Garnet whether you shall also bring him some beer. Gamaliel likes that as well, and Garnet will pay for it. There will be a bottle for you, too, I dare say, and perhaps you could bring me a bitter lemon drink if you are bringing beer. Take Diana the smaller of my two sponge sandwiches. It will make an excuse for calling on her.’
