The Hellfire Club

'Is my mother in there, too?'

'Oh no, oh no, your poor mother she can't leave her room.' Maria stepped back and held the door.

'When I was a little kid, he always chewed me out in the library.' In the living room, a water stain twice the size of the suitcase darkened the carpet at the foot of an empty pedestal intended for a Venetian vase. A second large stain dripped down the wall beside the fireplace.

At the far end of the living room, the door to the library was closed. 'Here goes nothing,' Davey said, and opened it.

Wearing a blue pin-striped suit he had put on for the occasion, Alden stood up from a red leather chair at the far end of an Oriental rug bursting with violent blues and reds. 'I think the first order of business is the surrender of the manuscript.'

Davey walked toward his father as a man armed with a Swiss Army knife approaches a hungry tiger. Alden accepted the suitcase and put it down. He pointed at a tufted leather couch behind a leather-topped coffee table. 'Sit.'

'Dad-'

'Sit.'

They moved around the table and sat. Alden placed himself on the chair and moved his foot to press a raised button set into the floor amid the fringes of the rug.

'Dad, none of this is -'

'Not now.'

The door opened to admit Jeffrey.

'The object is now returned,' Alden said. 'Take it upstairs to Mrs Chancel and place it in her hands.'

Jeffrey bent to pick up the suitcase and turned around to carry it off as if he were disposing of a dead animal. On his way out, he gave Nora a dark, unreadable glance. The door closed behind him.

'You have nothing to say in this matter,' Alden told his son. 'Unless, that is, you encouraged either your wife or your mother in their actions.'

'Of course I didn't,' Davey protested. 'I told Nora to stay away from Mom's work. I knew something terrible would happen.'

'As it did. Now we must deal with the fallout. Your mother is in great emotional extremity. When I came home this evening, I found her weeping and hoarse from screaming. The living room was littered with broken glass. Maria was too frightened to cope, and Jeffrey, who must have understood that his role in this unhappy matter would rebound on him, was cowering in his apartment.'

'Jeffrey?' Davey said. 'What role did Jeffrey have?'

Alden ignored him 'Of course Jeffrey was responding to a request on the part of his employer. I have spoken to him, and we can all be sure that Jeffrey will never again be involved in any transaction of this kind. But nothing like this is ever going to happen again.'

'What did he do?' Davey asked.

'He drove her,' Nora said.

'Yes. He drove Daisy to the house you share with this viper.'

'Please, Dad, don't call her names. I want you to understand what really happened. Mom called Nora and insisted that she read the book. She didn't give her a chance to say no.'

'Really.' Radiating contempt, Alden turned to Nora, 'You have no free will? You don't have the excuse of being on our payroll, except indirectly, and you cannot be said to be a friend of Daisy's. Daisy doesn't have friends. Were you being a dutiful little daughter-in-law?'

'In a way, that's right,' Nora said. 'I did think I might be able to help her in some way.'

'So you suggested that you read what she had written in order to offer editorial advice.'

'No, just to give her someone to talk with about her book. Give her support.'

'We see how well that worked. But you don't deny that this evil suggestion came from you?'

'I wanted to be helpful.'

'I repeat. The suggestion was yours?'

'Yes, but Davey and I talked about it, and I agreed not to pursue it. Today Daisy called me and said it was crucial that I read her book and she was coming over right away.'

'At which point you could have told her that you were too busy, or any one of a hundred other things.'

'She wouldn't have accepted any excuses. If I had tried to back out, she would have been terribly insulted.'

'You encouraged her mania instead of dampening it. But that wickedness is nothing beside the unspeakable obscenity of claiming that my wife is the author of Clyde Morning's and Marietta Teatime's novels.'

'What?' Davey whirled to stare at Nora.

'She is,' Nora told him. 'In her book, there are those crosshatched scuff marks and sentences starting with 'Indeed.''

'Why didn't you tell me before this?'

'I forgot,' she said, which was the truth. 'There was so much else, it just slipped my mind.'

Alden said, 'Are you starting to see the kind of woman you married? Is a bit of light beginning to dawn?'

'He doesn't want you to know,' Nora said. 'He doesn't want anyone to know.'

'Shut your vile mouth,' Alden shouted, pointing at Nora. 'Not only does this lie insult my wife, who considers herself an artist and has never even read one of our horror novels, it throws mud at my firm and myself. You are endangering our reputation and mine. It's scandalous, and I won't stand for it.'

'Oh, God,' Davey said.

'Davey, stop moaning and pay attention to me.' Alden inhaled. 'Your marriage was a mistake. This creature has brought discord into our family from the moment she appeared. She has injured you in ways you can't even begin to comprehend.' Alden, who had begun to shout again, brought himself under control. 'Maybe we share a taste for erratic women.'

'I'm leaving,' Nora said, and stood up.

'You generally run away when you hear the truth, don't you?'

'I don't take orders from you, Alden. Davey, let's go.'

Looking only half awake, Davey began to stand up.

'Sit down,' Alden said.

Davey sat down.

'I am going to make this very simple for you, Davey. I am presenting you with a choice. If you divorce this woman and get your life in order, you stay on at Chancel House and remain in my will. If you refuse to see reality and stay in your marriage, you're out of both your job and my estate. You'll have to find a way to support yourself - if you can, which I'm sorry to say I doubt.'

'That's not a choice, it's an ultimatum,' Nora said.

'As far as I'm concerned, you are no longer in this room. Davey, I want you to think about your decision. Think hard. Do you want to stay with the madwoman you married, or do you want the life you deserve? We would be more than delighted to have you back with us.'

'Do you really mean all this?' Davey asked.

'You have a while to think things over. I want you to do the right thing, and I think you will see that I am acting in your best interests.'

Nora said, 'You're using your money like a club. If you stick to this sadistic plan, you'll wind up losing your son. Do you want that to happen?'

Alden stood up. 'Davey, you may leave. I have to go upstairs and deal with your mother.'

Davey obediently stood up. Alden marched to the door and held it open.

'Dad,' Davey said.

'I'll speak to you next Sunday.'

Davey moved toward the door. 'Boy, are you going to be sorry,' Nora said. Pretending that he could not see or hear her, Alden patted Davey on the back as he went through the door. Nora suppressed the impulse to slap away his hand.

Clutching a white cloth in a distant corner of the living room, Maria quivered and began to move toward the