Another Woman (9781468300178)

by Vincenzi, Penny

  But for some reason Theo seemed in no danger of hitting him, not even of shouting at him. He just looked at him with an infinite sadness and said, ‘Yes and sometimes it’s the wrong decision.’

  Mungo was silent; he still felt slightly sick. Thank God Sasha had gone back to the hotel.

  ‘And I don’t mean Sasha,’ said Theo, ‘in case you thought I did. Now then, please, Mungo, please wait. For a while. Apart from anything else, and I’m sure you won’t have thought this one through, you’ll want children one day. And if your Alice is –’

  ‘Of course I’ve thought it through,’ said Mungo, angry again, ‘and it’s fine. Alice can still have children. She’s checked it out. I wish you had some respect for me, for what I want, for what I’m doing. Alice is – well, she’s very special. And I’m going to marry her. As soon as possible.’

  There was a long, leaden silence. Then: ‘Mungo,’ said Theo quietly. ‘Mungo, you simply can’t do this. You can’t.’

  ‘Dad, I can. You can’t stop me.’

  ‘Well,’ said Theo, ‘maybe not. But I intend to go on trying. I cannot and will not go along with this madness.’

  ‘It is not madness.’

  ‘It’s madness. On both your parts. And I wonder how influenced this woman –’

  ‘Her name is Alice.’

  ‘All right. I wonder how influenced Alice is by your situation.’

  ‘What situation?’

  ‘Oh Mungo, don’t be so naive. You are an extremely wealthy young man. A very good catch for someone –’

  ‘Dad,’ said Mungo, ‘just don’t. Don’t insult Alice. I’m in love with her and she’s in love with me.’

  ‘Oh really?’ said Theo. He had a very odd expression on his face.

  ‘Yes, really. I can’t expect you to understand that, of course, because you’re too bloody selfish and self-centred ever to have experienced it. You have to buy your wives.’

  ‘Mungo,’ said Theo, very quietly, ‘Mungo, I would advise you to be careful what you say to me.’

  ‘I won’t be careful because you don’t seem to understand. I don’t have to buy Alice, she’s going to marry me because she loves me, and just to prove it to you, I’m not going to take another penny from you as long as I live. I’m going to make my own way. With Alice’s help. And I’ll tell you something else, I’m glad. I’ve spent my whole life taking from you, being told by the whole bloody world how spoilt, how advantaged I was. Well in future that’ll stop, because I’m going to be standing on my own feet, making my own way, and I can tell you that’s a huge relief. You’d better remember this conversation, Dad, because it’s the last one we’re ever going to have. I’m going now, to London, and I won’t be back.’

  ‘Fine,’ said Theo calmly. ‘Absolutely fine. Bye, Mungo. Tell Sasha if you see her that I’d like her back out here, would you?’

  ‘Deliver your own messages,’ said Mungo.

  He was back in reception carrying his bag when he remembered that he had no car. Well, that was all right. He could call a minicab. It was a pity, it meant a delay, but there was no real problem. On the other hand he didn’t want to be hanging around the hotel waiting, quite possibly having to see his father again. Maybe he should get over to Oxford, take the train. He’d get Brian to take him to the station. Mungo was about to have Brian paged when he realized he was already doing exactly what his father had thought he would: calling on the apparently infinite resources that had been available to him all his life. Right, no Brian. He’d have to get a cab then. He picked up his bag and was about to walk out when he remembered the hotel bill. There was no way he was going to afford his father the satisfaction of picking up that one. He went over to reception, asked them to make out his share of the bill.

  ‘Certainly, Mr Buchan.’ The girl was wearing a tailored red suit and a striped shirt, the crisp neatness at odds with her wildly crinkly hair and heavily made-up face. She addressed herself to her computer with great self-importance; there was the usual delay, the endless whirring and spewing of paper out of the machine. As Mungo stood there, trying to look calm, still shaking with emotion, with rage and something worse now, with grief, hurt, a call came in to the switchboard.

  ‘Royal Hotel, Woodstock, how may I help you?’ said the girl, passing up the bill to Mungo with a smile. (Three hundred and eighty pounds. Shit, couldn’t be right, not for twenty-four hours.) ‘I think he’s in the grounds somewhere. I’ll see if I can have him paged. What name shall I say?’

  She looked up at Mungo again, said, ‘Your father is still outside, isn’t he, Mr Buchan?’

  ‘Yes, I think so,’ said Mungo shortly, ‘by the tennis courts.’

  ‘Miss Forrest, if you could just hold on a moment, I’ll –’

  ‘Hey, I’ll take that,’ said Mungo, his heart lifting at the thought of Harriet’s slightly tough clear-sightedness. ‘Tell her I’ll take it. I need to talk to her anyway.’

  ‘Well – Miss Forrest, Mr Buchan junior is here. Can he help you at all? Oh I see. Right. Well, then, if you’ll hold, as I said I’ll have him paged.’ She looked up at Mungo, her face carefully, politely blank. ‘I’m sorry, Mr Buchan, she said it was specifically your father she wished to speak to.’

  ‘Oh,’ said Mungo. ‘Oh all right.’ He felt disproportionately put out. ‘Er – this bill. I don’t quite see why it’s so high –’

  ‘Ah, well, let me just go through it for you,’ said the girl, sweetly deadpan. ‘There’s the room, of course, that’s a hundred and eighty. Your luncheon yesterday, for yourself and your friend, seventy pounds, that was mostly the wines of course, then the bar last night before dinner, thirty pounds, and the two bottles of champagne through room service, they came to sixty, and then –’

  ‘Yes, yes, of course,’ said Mungo, passing her his gold Amex card. ‘Sorry. That’s fine. Right. Well I’m off now. To Oxford,’ he added, not sure why he should feel it necessary to tell her that.

  ‘Can I call you a taxi, Mr Buchan? I can have it here in about three minutes.’

  ‘Oh – yes. Yes, that would be very kind.’

  He sat down again, picked up a copy of The Field and started thumbing through it. The girl was engrossed with her switchboard; taking calls, putting them through, taking messages; then he heard her saying, ‘I’m sorry, Miss Forrest, we can’t find him at the moment. Can I have him call you? I see. Well, all right, fine. You could try in half an hour maybe.’

  What on earth was Harriet doing, refusing to speak to him, refusing to let Theo call her back? It was so unlike her. Well, they were all upset, nobody was behaving quite normally; if only Cressida would – Mungo suddenly went very cold. He stood up and walked over to the desk. ‘Excuse me,’ he said, ‘but that call, from Miss Forrest, for my father, did she give another name? A first name? Or did she just say Miss Forrest?’

  ‘Oh no,’ said the girl, and he realized how silly he had been, that the hotel staff would surely have picked up on the drama, would have known Cressida had disappeared, would certainly have reacted to her name. ‘No, just Miss Forrest.’

  ‘And you have no idea where the call came from?’

  ‘No, I’m afraid not. You never can now, not with direct dialling.’

  ‘No, no, of course not. And it was a good line?’

  ‘Yes, very good.’

  ‘Oh. Oh, I see. Well – well, never mind. Could I just – make a call please?’

  ‘Yes, certainly. If you go into that booth over there, I’ll give you a line.’

  He stood there, dialling the Court House, stood waiting, his heart thudding. It was just a chance, a very very slight chance, but he had to check up on it. It was too important not to.

  ‘Wedbourne 356. James Forrest speaking.’

  ‘Oh – James. This is Mungo. Could I – could I speak to Harriet please?’

  ‘Yes of course. I’ll get her.’

  There was a long silence: then Harriet came on the line. ‘Mungo, hi.’

  ‘You’re – you’re spe
aking to me now then?’ he said, trying to sound light-hearted, afraid of creating a drama before it was necessary.

  ‘What? What are you talking about, Mungo?’

  ‘You didn’t just ring? Ask to speak to Dad?’

  ‘No. No of course I didn’t.’

  ‘Well in that case Cressida did.’

  ‘I don’t understand.’

  ‘A call just came through. From a Miss Forrest. I thought it must be you.’

  ‘Shit. And she wouldn’t speak to you?’

  ‘No. And they couldn’t find Dad. So she rang off. She’s ringing back, though.’

  ‘Oh God, Mungo, what do we do now?’ Harriet’s voice was very quiet. ‘Oh how awful to have missed her. So near and yet so far. Can you find your father, talk to him? He must know something, he must.’

  ‘Well – it might be difficult,’ said Mungo. ‘We just had a major fight.’

  ‘Why? Has he gone back to London or something?’

  ‘No. No he’s here. I think. But we just had a mega fight.’

  ‘What about?’

  ‘Oh – I’ll tell you when I see you.’

  ‘Well, I think this has to be more important. There’s some fairly staggering news this end too. I’ll tell you when I see you.’

  ‘Well –’

  ‘Mungo, really. Look, I’ll come over. But I don’t want to raise any hopes here. I’ll make some excuse. OK?’

  ‘Yes. Yes, OK. I was just – going to London actually.’

  ‘Oh Mungo, you can’t. Not now. Can’t it wait?’

  ‘Yes,’ he said, ‘yes, of course it can.’

  Alice was very sweet about it. He told her he couldn’t get away after all, that there was some family conference going on about Cressida.

  ‘Oh, and I told my father about us.’

  ‘What about us?’

  ‘That I intend to marry you.’

  There was a long silence, then she said, ‘And?’

  ‘And he didn’t take it too well, I’m afraid.’

  ‘Well – I’m not surprised. Mungo, you shouldn’t have rushed it. You should have introduced him to the idea slowly.’

  ‘I couldn’t. I wanted to tell him. I want to tell everyone. Well, I’ve done it now. I want us to get married very very soon.’

  ‘Well – yes.’

  ‘You want that too, don’t you?’

  ‘Yes. Yes, of course I do. Well, quite soon. When you say he didn’t take it too well, what did you mean?’

  ‘Oh – huge dramatics. But he’s like that. He’s like a child. He says I am, but he’s worse. Anyway, I’ve told him that as far as I’m concerned we’re finished. I don’t ever want to see him or have anything to do with him again. Or take anything from him. He thinks I won’t be able to manage, but I will. I’m sick of living in his pocket anyway, being beholden to him. This is my big chance, Alice, to prove myself. With your help. And I feel really good about it. As if I’m starting all over again.’

  ‘Well,’ said Alice, her voice soothing, ‘I don’t believe either of you meant it. I’m sure you’ll be friends again soon.’

  ‘Alice, I meant it and he meant it. And, like I said, I’m glad. I don’t want any of his charity.’

  ‘Hardly charity, Mungo. He is your father.’

  ‘He sees it as charity, I can tell you. He sees it as one big handout. Which I’m just not going to take any more.’

  ‘Well,’ said Alice gently, ‘well, we’ll see.’

  ‘Alice, there’s nothing to see about. You seem rather concerned about all this. If –’

  ‘Of course I’m concerned. But only for you. It seems so – sad.’

  ‘Not sad at all. My father’s a monster. And I find the thought of it all, of managing on my own, very exciting. Challenging. So what if he pays the rent on my office and lets me use his executive jet? Who needs it? I certainly don’t. We can get married next weekend, if you like. In fact I think we should. Now look, I’ll see you tomorrow. I really don’t see myself getting up tonight, I’m afraid. But I can ring you, can’t I? Any time?’

  ‘Of course you can. Well, maybe not much after ten. I’m very tired. Tough day at the office.’

  ‘Poor baby. Well, you’ll be able to give all that up soon.’

  ‘Yes,’ said Alice. ‘Yes, of course. Goodbye, Mungo.’

  ‘Bye, darling.’

  He didn’t know quite what to do until Harriet arrived; he certainly didn’t want to risk bumping into his father. He went into the bar, and saw Sasha sitting there alone. She was drinking champagne and flicking through Tatler; she had changed into a brilliant blue silk suit with a very short skirt, her tanned legs bare. She really was gorgeous, thought Mungo; if it wasn’t for Alice he would quite seriously fancy her.

  ‘Hi, Sasha.’

  ‘Hallo, Mungo. Are you – OK?’

  ‘Oh yes,’ he said, smiling at her. ‘Very much so. I’m sorry about the scene.’

  ‘I felt so sorry for you, Mungo. But –’

  ‘Let’s not talk about it. What are your plans?’

  ‘Long-term? Or right now?’

  ‘Right now,’ said Mungo, slightly surprised that Sasha should have anything as impressive as long-term plans.

  ‘Oh, I think we’re going to have dinner quite early. And then the idea is we go over to the Forrests. Theo feels he ought to be with them.’

  ‘Harriet’s actually on her way over here,’ said Mungo. He felt Sasha stiffen slightly, and looked at her interestedly. ‘You really don’t like Harriet very much, do you?’

  ‘Yes, of course I do,’ said Sasha briefly. ‘She’s fun.’

  ‘But you prefer Cress?’

  Sasha looked at him thoughtfully, clearly debating something. Then she said, ‘Actually, Mungo, between you and me, I can’t stand Cressida.’

  ‘You can’t stand Cressida? Why on earth not?’

  ‘I think she’s devious and manipulative. And she did something totally out of order to me.’

  Mungo was so astonished he didn’t notice that Sasha was sounding quite different from her usual self.

  ‘What?’

  ‘I can’t tell you. Now. But it was malicious and very destructive. I couldn’t believe it at the time. I can hardly believe it now.’

  ‘Sasha, you can’t do this,’ said Mungo. ‘Give me tantalizing little morsels so that I’m drooling and then declare the banquet’s over for the day.’

  ‘I’m sorry, Mungo. I really can’t say any more. Maybe one day. I probably shouldn’t have said that much actually. It just came out.’

  ‘I think,’ said Mungo, deciding she was after all to be trusted, thinking it might prompt further revelations, ‘that she just phoned.’

  ‘Phoned? Cressida phoned here?’

  ‘Yes. Asked for Dad. Wouldn’t speak to me. But they couldn’t find him. And I didn’t realize until she’d rung off that it was her. Thought it was Harriet. Do you know where he is?’

  ‘He’s gone for a walk. A long walk, he said.’

  ‘Uh-huh. No doubt reflecting upon the incompetence and ingratitude of his younger son.’

  ‘Mungo, he loves you so much. You mustn’t let it get to you. And you know he doesn’t mean it.’

  ‘Sasha, I really don’t care if he means it. I mean it.’

  ‘I’m sorry?’

  ‘I’m absolutely determined to manage on my own. I don’t want to have anything more to do with him. Or his lousy money. I don’t need it.’

  ‘Mungo –’

  ‘And don’t try telling me I do, there’s a good girl.’

  ‘Mungo,’ said Sasha mildly, ‘I do hate being talked to like that.’

  ‘Like what?’

  ‘Down to. Please don’t do it.’

  ‘Sorry,’ said Mungo. Sasha was suddenly proving very unpredictable.

  Theo and Harriet arrived almost simultaneously. They nodded and smiled briefly at one another; things were clearly not entirely happy between them. His father had probably been trying to tell Harriet how
to run her business, thought Mungo; as if she needed that kind of advice.

  Theo nodded equally curtly at Mungo. ‘Thought you’d gone.’

  ‘I was just leaving,’ said Mungo, ‘but there’s been a development.’

  ‘What kind of development?’

  ‘Cressida phoned you.’

  ‘What do you mean she phoned me? Why wasn’t I told?’

  ‘They paged you. They couldn’t find you.’

  ‘Christ,’ said Theo. ‘Christ Almighty. They can’t have tried very hard. Why didn’t you come and look for me, or Sasha?’

  ‘We didn’t realize it was her, for God’s sake,’ said Mungo, ‘until she’d rung off. But she’s phoning again. Quite soon hopefully.’

  ‘And there’s something else,’ said Harriet, ‘something totally unexpected, something you have to know. Apparently she’s –’

  ‘Oh Theo,’ said Sasha and her expression was sweetly, carefully contrite. ‘Sorry to interrupt, Harriet. I’m so sorry, Theo, I almost forgot with all the excitement. Could you call Mark? He said it was very urgent. Very urgent indeed. I tried to find you but –’ her voice trailed away.

  Mungo looked at her. The coolly composed woman who had been sitting in the bar half an hour earlier reading Tatler and drinking champagne had not seemed too much like someone anxious to give her husband a very urgent message. The fifth Mrs Buchan had stepped sharply out of character; he wondered suddenly if it could possibly have anything to do with Cressida’s disappearance.

  ‘For Christ’s sake when?’ said Theo. ‘When did he call? You don’t have a great deal to remember, Sasha, I wish you’d – look, I’m going upstairs to call him. If Cressida phones, they can just interrupt the call, put her through. All right?’

  ‘All right,’ said Harriet. She had an odd expression on her face. Theo disappeared; they all sat picking compulsively at peanuts, not looking at one another. Not for the first time that day Mungo felt as if he was caught up in some rather strange film.

  ‘Apparently,’ Harriet said abruptly, in between munches, and Mungo never forgot that moment as long as he lived, the almost casual way she dropped her bombshell, ‘apparently Cressida was pregnant.’ She smiled brightly at them both, brushed some salt off her navy shorts. They stared at her.