The Hellfire Club

'Good.' She slapped her hands together and took two steps away from the range. 'Let's get Sophie doing something useful. How's the packing going?'

'Almost done with this one,' said one of the girls at the table.

'Maribel, get Sophie to help you carry them out to the van.' A tall, red-haired girl with round horn-rim glasses moved toward the arch. The older woman looked at her watch. 'Jeffrey picked a busy day to drop in. We're doing the Asia Society at nine, and a dinner party in Chesterfield just before that, but I think everything is running on schedule.' She made another quick inspection of her troops and turned to Nora. 'So here you are, the woman we've all been reading about. Jeffrey says you want to talk to me about Katherine Mannheim.'

'Yes,' Nora said. 'If you can spare me some of your time.'

'Of course. We'll get out of here and sit in the front room.' She held out her hand and Nora took it. 'Welcome. I gather that you may have to conceal yourself for a time. If you like, you could pitch in here. I can't give you a room, but you could sleep on a sofa until we find something nicer for you. I can always use another hand, and the company's enjoyable for the most part.'

'I think I'll get her a room at the Northampton Hotel,' Jeffrey said.

Jeffrey's mother had not taken her eyes off Nora. 'Do whatever you please, of course, but if you're at loose ends, you can always pitch in here.'

'Thank you. I'll remember that.'

'I'd be happy to help the woman who married Davey Chancel.'

Nora looked in surprise at Jeffrey, and his mother said, 'I take it that my son left the explanations to me.'

'Would I dare do anything else?' Jeffrey asked.

Sophie and Maribel had paused on their way to the table to help themselves to Swedish meatballs from a steaming platter, and the older woman said, 'Pack the van, my little elves.' Chewing, they hurried across the kitchen. 'Let's go to the front room and sit down. I've been on my feet all day.'

She gestured toward the sofa where Sophie had sprawled in front of the television. Nora sat, and Jeffrey put his hands in his pockets and watched his mother switch off the set. She placed herself at the end of Nora's sofa and rested her hands on her knees. 'Jeffrey didn't introduce us, and I gather that you have no idea of who I am, apart from being this person's mother.'

'I'm sorry, but I don't,' Nora said. 'You knew Katherine Mannheim? And you know the Chancels, too?'

'Naturally,' she said. 'Katherine was my older sister. I met Lincoln Chancel at Shorelands, and before I knew what was what, he hired me to work for him. I was still there when your husband was just a little boy.'

Nora looked from the older woman to Jeffrey.

Jeffrey cleared his throat. 'Mr Chancel disliked the sound of Italian names.'

'When Mr Chancel hired me, I was Helen Deodato, but you may have heard of me as Helen Day,' his mother said. 'I got so used to it that I still call myself Helen Day. When Alden Chancel and his wife took over the house, they used to call me the Cup Bearer.'

BOOK VIII

THE CUP BEARER

For a long time, Pippin sat in the warmth and the flickering light of the fire without speaking.

He gazed into the old woman's face. After all she had told him, the white whiskers sprouting from

her upper lip and pointed chin no longer frightened him.

Not even the skull from which she drank her foul brown potion, nor the heap of skulls behind her,

frightened him now. He was too interested in her story to be afraid. 'I don't understand,' he said.

'You are his mother, but he is not your son?'73

For what seemed to her an endless succession of seconds, Nora could not speak. She could not even move. The decisive old woman before her, her necklaces of antique coins, of heavy gold links, of pottery beads, silver birds, silver feathers, and shining red and green stones motionless on her chest, her broad hands planted on her knees, sat tilted slightly forward, taking in the effect of her announcement as Nora stared at the firm black eyebrows, clever black eyes, prominent nose, full, well-shaped lips, and rounded chin of Helen Day. The Cup Bearer, O'Dotto - Day and O'Dotto, the two halves of her last name - unknown to Davey because his grandfather had thought Italian names too proletarian to be used in his house.

The woman said, 'Jeffrey, you should have told her something, at least. Springing all this on her at once isn't fair.'

'I was thinking about being fair to you,' Jeffrey said.

'I'll be all right,' Nora said.

'Of course you will.'

'It's a lot to take in all at once. I've heard so much about you from Davey. You're legendary. They still talk about your desserts.'

'Whole family has a sweet tooth. Old Mr Chancel could eat an entire seven-layer cake by himself. Sometimes I had to make two, one for him and one for everyone else. Little Davey was the same way. I used to worry about his getting fat when he grew up. Did he? No, I suppose not. You wouldn't have married him if he'd been a great lumbering bag of guts like his grandfather.'

'No, I wouldn't have, and he isn't.'

'Who am I to talk, anyhow?' Helen Day seemed almost wistful. 'Davey must have missed me after his parents got rid of me. Poor little fellow, he'd have had to, with, those two for parents.'

Nora said, 'He once told me he thought you were his real mother.'

'His real mother hardly spent much time with him. Hardly knew he was in the house, most of the time.'

'And of course even she wasn't his real mother,' Nora said. 'You must have been at the Poplars when the first child died,'

Helen Day put a forefinger to her lips and gave Nora a long, thoughtful look. She nodded. 'Yes, I was there during the uproar.'

'Daisy and Alden didn't even want a child, did they? Not really. It was Lincoln who made them adopt Davey.'

Another considering pause. 'The old man let them know he wanted an heir, I'll say that. There weren't too many quiet nights on Mount Avenue during that time.' She looked away, and her handsome face hardened like cement. 'According to Jeffrey, you wanted to talk to me about my sister.'

'I do, very much, but can I ask you a few questions about other people in your family first?'

She raised her eyebrows. 'Other people in my family?'

'Is Sabina Mann your sister?'

The old woman flicked her glance toward Jeffrey.

'We had to see Ev Tidy,' Jeffrey said. 'His number is unlisted, so I called Sabina and asked her to invite him to her house.'

'Which she was delighted to do, I'm sure. I bet she bustled in and out with lots of cheap cookies and cups of Earl Grey.'

'It was Gunpowder, and she only bustled in once. I have to admit that she was peeved with me.'

'Gunpowder,' said Helen Day. 'Dear me. She'll get over it. You wanted to talk to Everett about Shorelands because of his father, I suppose.'

'That's right,' Nora said.

'And was he helpful?'