Mingled With Venom

that there was some sufficient reason for the unexpected summons and all except the two children and Gamaliel concluded that it had something to do with Romula’s disposal of her property.

‘Not that we’re likely to come in for much,’ said Rupert almost amiably to Diana. ‘She can’t forget that I was born on the wrong side of the blanket, although how I could help that happening I can’t possibly say.’

‘I don’t intend to go.’

‘Oh, I don’t know. Better humour her, I think.’

‘Why? She’s never been here, she has never shown the slightest interest in the children or in me and she repudiated your father. Why should you suddenly turn round and lick her boots?’

‘Is there any need to be offensive? I should like to go if only to please Aunt Maria. She brought me up when my parents died and was kind to me. Besides, if my grandmother has invited us, she will have invited the others. I wouldn’t mind having a talk with Garnet and Bluebell again. They were like brother and sister to me when I was a boy. Then there are our own youngsters to consider. She may pass me over, but surely she won’t attach any stigma to Quentin and Millament? We ought not to stand in their way and they are included in the invitation.’

‘They are at school until the middle of July.’

‘The invitation is for a Saturday. There would be no difficulty about their getting weekend leave.’

‘Well, you must please yourself what you do. I certainly shall not go.’

‘Oh well, if you want Fiona and Ruby to bounce your children out of their inheritance, I have nothing more to say.’

‘Fiona and Ruby? But they’re not family! They couldn’t have the slightest claim!’

‘That’s what you think! One thing I can tell you, and I’ll give it you straight. If she does cut them, or either of them, in for the lion’s share, I shall not contest the Will and Maria, Garnet and Bluebell can’t afford to go to litigation, so bang will go her money straight out of the family and there you have it.’

‘My price is a new dinner gown.’

‘Done!’ Rupert was tempted to add: ‘I knew you’d see reason if I mentioned Ruby’ but he bit the words back and merely remarked, ‘will Truro or Exeter do, or will you want to go up to Town to buy it?’

Garnet and Bluebell were equally convinced that something was in the wind.

‘I haven’t known her call the whole family together since my father died, and that was long enough ago, goodness knows. Do you think she means to spill the beans about her Will?’ said Garnet to his sister.

‘I can’t think of any other reason for calling up the clan. What chance do you suppose we stand?’

‘She can’t leave us out altogether.’

‘I’m not so sure. There are Rupert’s children.’

‘I wouldn’t worry so much about those. She thinks Rupert comes of tainted stock. No, it’s Fiona and Ruby who tangle in my hair.’

‘Well, they are on the spot, of course, but so is our mother, and we do not come from a marriage over the tongs.’

‘We’re our father’s children and she was bitterly opposed to mother’s marriage. Besides, she may have a colour bar. What is she going to think when she sees Gamaliel?’

‘Do we need to take him with us?’

‘He received a separate invitation. I think Fiona did that deliberately to put you and Parsifal in a quandary,’ said Garnet. ‘I don’t see how you are going to explain to him that he can’t go. He showed me the card he’s had and is bucked to death about it. It would be inhuman to cut short his pleasure. Besides, he’s such a handsome, delightful boy that grandmamma may take a liking to him.’

‘I’m not so sure. She’s very much the memsahib, you know, and she was neither consulted nor informed when we adopted him.’

‘Anyway, I don’t see how you can do him out of what he obviously regards as a treat. Of course, he’ll need a dinner jacket.’

‘Oh, nonsense! He’s only sixteen. His dark suit will do very well.’

‘I’ll tell you what then. I’ve got a white mess-jacket somewhere. I’ll rout it out and get it cleaned and pressed. That, with his dark trousers, will fill the bill. Stick a red carnation in his buttonhole and he’ll knock grandmamma for six. Want to bet on it?’

‘I wish you wouldn’t spoil him the way you do.’

‘Spoil him nothing!’ Garnet turned away whistling and went out of the room. Parsifal said: ‘I would prefer that Gamaliel wore his dark suit. He will be quite conspicuous enough without being dolled up in a white mess-jacket and a red carnation.’

‘I know, but what can I do? I’ve no doubt Garnet has already promised him the mess-jacket,’ said Bluebell.

At Headlands preparations for the dinner party were going ahead with what Fiona, who was superstitious, decided was uncanny smoothness. Mrs Plack had recovered from her crise de nerfs and had actually agreed without fuss to Maria’s suggestions for the menu; Garnet, contacted by Fiona in person, had told her that he no longer had a dog; Bluebell now accepted meat as a suitable food and Diana was no longer on a diet.

It was all far too good to be true, thought Fiona, and was soon justified in this assumption.

The places at table had been settled and the place-cards written so that there could be no confusion as to where everybody was to sit, when Ruby sprang a most unwelcome surprise announcement. ‘You’ll have to put