contented repose, looking out over the sea. He was wearing lightweight black trousers with an open-necked mauve shirt and a white summer jacket. He was a careless dresser but could be foppish in his own way. His hawk-nosed face was dark with the irrepressible beard and with the curious cloud, perhaps the effect of his obscure brown eyes, which always seemed to hang over it. His brown hair was jaggedly untidy.
I suddenly thought, if he’s no longer in the army, why does he have to come and see me at a holiday weekend when the roads are full of traffic?
‘Are you doing anything?’ I said. ‘I mean, have you got another job or anything?’
‘No, gentleman of leisure.’
That was odd. It then came to me in a flash that of course James had not really left the army at all. He had gone underground. He was preparing for some top-secret mission, perhaps involving a return to Tibet. Why had he seemed so annoyed that I had seen that strange oriental figure in his rooms? My cousin had become a secret agent!
I was trying to think of some subtle tactful way of letting him know that I had guessed when he spoke again.
‘And what has happened about Mary Hartley Smith?’
‘Mary Hartley Smith?’
‘Yes. Your first love. You told me she was living here with her husband. That boy is her son. I asked you his name. Titus. Have you forgotten that too?’
The strange thing was that I had forgotten, I had completely forgotten telling James that story. Why had James wanted to know Titus’s name? ‘I must be mad,’ I said, ‘I had forgotten, but I remember now. You gave me some good advice.’
‘Did you take it?’
‘Yes. You were right of course. I was just imagining things. The shock of seeing her set off a lot of old memories. I’ve recovered now and of course I’m not in love with her, it wouldn’t make sense. Anyway she’s just a boring old hag now. The boy drops in occasionally. He’s a bit of a bore too.’
‘I see. So all’s well that ends well.’
‘Have you got a tie?’
‘A tie? Yes.’
‘You’ll need one to get into the dining room at the Raven Hotel. I’ll just see you to your car.’
I escorted him round by the side of the house so as to avoid further conversation in the kitchen.
‘Nice car. New one?’
‘Yes, it goes well. Where can I turn?’
‘Just beyond that rock. How dark it is. You almost need headlights. ’
‘Yes, it’s a funny day. Looks like a storm. Well, thanks for the drink, look after yourself.’ He handed me his empty wine glass.
‘Goodbye, drive carefully.’
The black Bentley moved, swung round, then shot off down the road. James waved, vanished round the corner. Would he come back? I did not think so.
I walked slowly across the causeway and into the house and shut the door. How odd that I had forgotten telling him those things. I must have been drunk. Well, tomorrow was destiny day. I was going to act tomorrow. I thought, I will take Hartley to London. This place is bedevilled somehow.
I stood in the hall for a while. I wanted to be by myself. I put Jame’s wine glass down on the stairs. I could hear the low conspiratorial voices of Gilbert and Titus who were talking in the kitchen. Tomorrow I would speak to Titus. Titus and Hartley and I would be alone together, in another place. My act, my will would create a new family.
I heard a faint straining scraping sound. I looked up and saw the wire from the front door bell quivering. Then I heard the resonant incoherent clamour. Ben? I turned round quickly and flung the door open.
Peregrine Arbelow was standing outside holding a suitcase.
‘Hello, Charles, what a funny place.’
‘I
‘What on earth are you doing here?’
‘What on earth am I doing here, he says. You issued an invitation, I accepted it. It’s Whit weekend, remember? I have had a very long and tiring drive. I have been looking forward to open arms and cries of joy for the last hundred miles.’
I could now see Peregrine’s white Alfa Romeo parked where James’s Bentley had lately stood.
‘Peregrine, I’m terribly sorry, you can’t stay here, there aren’t any beds and-’
‘Look, may I just push my way in?’ He did so.
Peregrine’s loud voice had alerted the conspirators in the kitchen.
‘Peregrine!’
‘Gilbert! What a pleasant surprise. Charles, I can have Gilbert’s bed.’
‘You bloody won’t, I shall defend my sofa.’
‘Introduce your charming boy friend, Gilbert.’
‘This is Titus Fitch. Not my property alas.’
‘Hello, Titus. I am Peregrine Arbelow. Gilbert, get me a drink, will you, there’s a good fellow.’
‘OK, but there’s nothing but wine and sherry here, you know. Charles doesn’t drink spirits.’
‘Oh, fuck, I’d forgotten, I should have brought a bottle.’
‘Peregrine,’ I said, ‘you won’t be happy here. There’s nothing for you to drink and nowhere for you to sleep. I’m sorry I forgot the date and I don’t actually think I invited you at all. There’s an excellent hotel just down the road-’
At that moment the front doorbell ran again. Peregrine turned to open the door and over his shoulder I could see my cousin James.
‘Hello,’ said Peregrine, ‘welcome to Hospitality Hall, proprietor Charles Arrowby, there’s nothing to drink and nowhere to sleep but-’
‘Hello,’ said James. ‘I’m sorry to come back, Charles, but the Raven Hotel is full up, and I wondered-’
‘I imagine that’s the place where he wanted to park me,’ said Peregrine.
‘Let’s go into the kitchen,’ said Gilbert.
Gilbert went first, then Titus, then Perry, then James. I stood for a moment, then picked up the wine glass from the stairs and followed.
‘I am Peregrine Arbelow.’
‘I think I’ve heard of you,’ said James.
‘Oh
‘This is my cousin, General Arrowby,’ I said.
‘You never said he was a general,’ said Gilbert.
‘I never knew you had a cousin,’ said Peregrine. ‘Hello, sir.’
I took James by the sleeve of his immaculate white coat and pulled him back into the hall. ‘Look, you can’t stay here, I suggest you-’
At that moment I saw James’s eyes widen, looking behind me, and I realized that Hartley was standing on the stairs.
At our sudden silence the other three emerged. We all stood there looking up at Hartley.
She was still wearing my black silk dressing gown with the red rosettes. It reached to her feet and with the collar turned up to frame her hair it had something of the effect of an evening dress. Her eyes, startled and large, had their violet tint; and although, with her disordered grey hair she looked old and mad, she seemed in that arrested moment like a queen.
I recovered in a second or two and made for the stairs. As she saw me move Hartley turned and fled. I saw the flash of a bare ankle, a bare foot. I caught her at the curve of the stairs and hurried her towards the upper landing.
We almost ran together along the landing and I pushed her in through the door of her room. She went at once
