Mingled With Venom

‘He could do that equally well from here. Lunn could take him to school and pick him up again each day.’

‘A sudden change of home life would not be a good thing at this stage, mother. Soon the school will break up for the summer holiday. You can have Gamaliel to stay with you then.’

‘And what about Fiona?’

‘I don’t know. I miss her as much as you do — more than you do, perhaps.’

‘Do you think another dinner party would be a good thing?’

‘Not if it turns out to be the fiasco the last one was. You should not hold out hopes which are not going to be realised.’

‘I had expected to set everybody’s mind at rest, but I had not bargained for Gamaliel.’

‘Evidently not. Do you wish me to issue invitations?’

‘Not to Rupert and Diana and those two uncouth children.’

‘The children were nervous, not uncouth. As for Rupert, he is a direct descendant and cannot be left out if you have any family business to discuss, and if you invite him Diana must come, too.’

‘So I am no longer mistress in my own house and able to issue my own invitations!’

‘Oh, mother, please don’t be difficult. You know as well as I do that a wife accompanies her husband on social occasions.’

‘I don’t want those children here.’

‘Very well. In any case, at present they are away at boarding-school.’

‘So they were last time and still they came.’

‘Well, you told us to invite everybody, so Fiona thought you meant what you said. There is no need for the children to come a second time. Their school would not want to release them again so soon.’

‘Do you think Fiona will come?’

‘How can I tell? Do you want me to send to London for Ruby?’

‘She is in the same position as Gamaliel. Her studies should not be interrupted at this stage. We can let her know what I intend later on, if there is any reason for her to know anything.’

‘Mother, what are your plans for Ruby?’

‘I have none. I shall continue to pay for her training and shall make provision for that. Once she is launched I presume to imagine that she will fend for herself.’

‘She may need help to begin her career. I believe she ought to have an agent and perhaps a publicity manager if she is to succeed. It is not easy for a new singer to get recognition at first.’

‘Oh, well, we must see how things turn out. There is plenty of time yet before she is launched.’

‘It would be as well, since Ruby is not to come, to leave out Gamaliel. Anything he needs to be told can come from Blue or Garnet.’

‘Why should the boy not hear from my own lips that he will benefit when he is of age?’

‘You do mean to discuss your Will this time, then? Am I at liberty to mention that in the invitations?’

‘Oh, I suppose so.’

‘Then you had better have Monaker here.’

‘Why so?’

‘Well, I suppose he has the draft.’

‘That he has not.’

‘You mean you have not made a Will?’

‘Oh, all the provisions of it are in my head.’

‘That is hardly the same thing as having them down on paper, duly signed and witnessed.’

‘Oh, Monaker will have it all in hand. I am not going to die just yet.’

Maria went off to the small room in which Fiona had had her desk and typewriter. Both were still there. The desk was not Chippendale, but was of the period. It was in heavy mahogany and had a long drawer over the kneehole and two smaller drawers, one on either side of it. To protect its polished top, the typewriter stood on four little padded hassocks which kept it away from the woodwork.

Maria lifted it with difficulty and staggered with it over to a small, unremarkable table. Then she rummaged in the middle drawer of the desk for writing paper and envelopes. The drawer contained nothing but a large jotter, so she tried one of the lesser drawers and met with success.

Her letters of invitation were brief and few. She wrote jointly to Bluebell and Parsifal, separately to Garnet and jointly to Rupert and Diana, to whose letter she added a postscript: Not the children this time. To Gamaliel she wrote that, although Romula looked forward to seeing him again, she herself wondered whether it would be better at this time for him not to break his concentration on his examinations and the revision required for them. She did not attempt to analyse her motive in making this suggestion, but, in the event, Bluebell, who knew Maria’s motive perfectly well, decided to ignore the hint and to bring Gamaliel with her as before.

Her task completed, Maria sealed and addressed the envelopes, and was about to rise and take them over to Lunn’s cottage and tell him to take the car and deliver them by hand, when curiosity caused her to lay them aside and take out Fiona’s jotter.