The encounter took the pleasurable edge off his afternoon. He was enjoying his pursuit of Isobel. She was something a bit different. He had had affairs with two aristocratic married ladies, several actresses and dancers and an artists’ model, but never before with a middle-class virgin. The fact that as a Packards employee she was forbidden fruit only added to the fun.
He made his way into the house, the spring quite gone from his step. This problem had to be solved, and quickly. If his grandfather got to hear of it, there was going to be trouble with a capital T. He might even be required to do something useful to justify his allowance. Money was such a damned nuisance. If only he had some shares in the company. Edward had been given shares on this twenty-first birthday, but Perry had not. It was not fair.
While he changed for dinner he pondered the possible solutions. Ultimately, of course, he intended to marry money, but he was certainly not ready to make even a pretence at settling down yet, and in any case his need was urgent. He had to have something to fob them off with by next week. He shelved the anxiety during the evening at the opera and drank enough to keep sleeplessness at bay, but in the morning it was still there. And of course there was only one solution – to go to his mother.
Winifred was sitting in her boudoir dressed in a loose robe of peach silk, going over her social plans. She looked up with something less than enthusiasm as her younger son came in.
‘Perry – you’re up early.’
He ignored this and came over to look at the tableplan she was preparing.
‘You can’t put him next to her any more. They’ve had a falling-out.’
‘Really?’ Winifred stared at the two aristocratic names, appalled. ‘I didn’t know that. When did you hear?’
‘Last night at the opera. It was all over the house.’
‘Good heavens. But it’s happened before and they’ve made it up. This dinner isn’t until a fortnight’s time. Do you think they might be back together again by then?’
‘Not from what I’ve heard. He’s taken up with la belle Roscroft.’
‘Well! Poor Christine,’ Winifred shook her head over the name on her plan. ‘In that case, she hasn’t a great deal of chance of getting him back. The Roscroft must be ten years younger than she.’
They were both silent for a moment or two, contemplating the fact that the unfortunate Christine would still attend Winifred’s dinner, with her husband, look across the table at her former lover, who would be there with his wife, and all four of them would behave as if nothing had happened. That was the price that had to be paid for straying.
Sensing that he was on the right foot now that he had given his mother such a valuable piece of gossip, Perry went on to consolidate his position by asking her about her plans for the coming Season.
‘Well, we shall have to have another ball for Amelie. If I don’t get her off my hands this year, she will be an old maid by next Season, and all the time there are new debutantes taking all the attention. I am quite out of patience with her. It’s not as if she isn’t blessed with looks. She’s a very pretty girl. She just doesn’t take a proper interest. I swear she deliberately frightens off any young man who does show any signs of being attracted to her. Look at the way she behaved towards your friend! I can tell you, I was very close to hitting her with my own hands.’
‘Melly’s got a mind of her own. At least she hasn’t taken up with the suffragettes. I can just see her putting bricks through windows,’ Perry said.
Winifred shuddered. ‘Don’t!’
‘And you have Tatwell now.’
‘Precisely. I have a proper house to which I can invite people for Saturday-to-Mondays. I can begin to entertain in the way in which I have been unable to up till now, and I’m saddled with an unmarried daughter. Young girls are such a burden.’
Perry saw his chance. ‘I shall have to see what I can do in the way of introducing her to someone suitable.’
Winifred looked sceptical. ‘You did that before, and look what happened.’
‘Ah yes, but I made a bad choice there, I have to admit it. Nothing wrong with old Georgy, but he isn’t the sort for Amelie, now is he? I see that now. What she needs is a sportsman, someone she can admire.’
‘Sportsmen have no conversation, in my experience, beyond telling one all about their last match, ball by ball. Amelie’s clever, that’s her real problem. Not clever in a proper, woman’s way. That would not be a problem. But she’s quite the opposite of that. She argues with men. I’ve heard her. Men don’t like clever women and especially ones who talk about shopkeeping.’
The last word was spat out as if it were something unpleasant.
‘So you need a chap who’s a sportsman with brains.’ This did tax Perry’s powers. He knew plenty of young men who were keen on polo or cricket or rugby, but very few of them had a thought in their heads beyond women and enjoyment. It would not be very useful to admit this to his mother, however. He feigned sudden inspiration.
‘Ah-ha! I know just the man!’
‘You do? And who might that be?’ Winifred sounded suspicious. ‘No fortune-hunters, remember.’
Perry looked pained. ‘Of course not You can trust me, Mama. There was nothing wrong with Georgy, now was there? Just that Melly didn’t like him. Problem with this chap I have in mind, he’s not exactly a friend of mine. Not even an acquaintance, really. It’s going to take a bit of time to get an introduction. Might take a bit of cash, too. ‘Fraid I’m a trifle short at the moment.’
Winifred tightened her mouth.
‘Now, Perry, you only had your allowance three weeks ago. I would help you if I could, you know that, but with the Season coming up and your sister to provide for, I really cannot see my way to giving you anything.’
‘If you get Mel married off, you won’t have to provide for her any more. Grandfather would pay for the wedding and the settlement.’
This was brutally true. Winifred sighed.
‘Very well, I can let you have a couple of hundred, but that’s all. And I do expect this introduction, remember.’
‘Of course!’
Perry tried not to let his disappointment show. Two hundred was not enough to fob off the bailiffs, let alone throw something at his other debts and carry on with his usual way of life. And now he was saddled with the problem of finding some man who measured up to the tale he had spun and getting his sister introduced to him. He left the room with a burdened mind.
The weather outside did nothing to raise his spirits. A chill wind blew down the street, flinging cold raindrops in his face. It felt more like winter than spring. Perry bowed his head and walked into it, not entirely sure where he was going. He felt a pressing need for somebody to cosset him and tell him that his problems would soon go away. If only he had got a little further with Isobel – well, a great deal further in fact. How pleasant it would be now to go and surprise her in the cosy little love nest he envisaged for her, to find her still warm and loose in her peignoir and rest his head on her wonderful breasts and tell her all his troubles. How sweetly she would sooth them all away. It did not occur to him that Isobel with her middle-class upbringing and the terrible example of what her father’s debts had done to the family would be very shocked to hear of his.
The daydream lasted until he found himself in Park Lane. A particularly heavy shower lashed him, making him both cold and wet. It was no use, he realised, going for a walk in the park, as it would be almost empty of company. And since he could not go and console himself with Isobel, there was still the problem of the money to solve. As earning any, or even making some economies in his spending, did not even cross his mind, then borrowing was the only solution. His mother had not been much use there, his father was likely to be as pushed for cash as he was himself and going to his grandfather was out of the question. That left his brother. He did not relish going cap in hand to Edward, but there did not seem to be any alternative.
He was just about to set off for Marble Arch and Oxford Street when
his attention was caught by a horseman trotting past, probably returning from a gallop in the park. He was not sure what made him look up, except perhaps that there were few riders about that day and most of the traffic was composed of closed carriages and motor cars. But having noticed the man, he vaguely recognised the features. They set off a train of connections in his mind that ended in the image of his sister watching the Diamond Sculls final at Henley, waving and yelling when most people were only giving the race half their attention at the most. And then it came to him. Hugo Rutherford. He looked after the tall figure on the dark bay horse, sitting with easy grace and apparently oblivious to the rain. Hugo Rutherford. Now he answered all the criteria needed for Mel. If Perry could get an introduction and it appeared to be working, he could touch his mother for a far bigger loan.
Feeling much more cheerful, Perry turned into Oxford Street. All he had to do was to get enough out of Edward to tide him over. Everything was going to be all right. He marched past the impressive façade of the new store that his grandfather and Edward and Mel seemed to be making such a fuss about, and wondered whether he could use Selfridges to his advantage in his interview with Edward. Offhand, he could not think of any way to do so. There must be something he could do, though, some lever he could lean on to move his brother. He breezed through the main doors of Packards and up the marble stairs to the gentlemen’s rest rooms to shake his wet clothing and run a comb through his hair. Then he looked in at Ladies’ Sportswear, teased Miss Higgs and the girls a little and had the pleasure of seeing Isobel blush at the very sight of him. Not long now with that one. Once they fell in love with you, it was easy.
He was just about to leave when Amelie came in under the archway, dressed in a dark green tailor-made with a stiff collar and little silk tie, and carrying a sheaf of papers, very much the businesswoman.
‘Oh, Perry,’ she said, ‘what are you doing here? I hope you’re not distracting my staff. What do you think of my spring display?’
‘Very pretty. Very tasteful,’ Perry said. And now that his attention had been drawn to it, he noticed that the department did look most attractive, done up in green drapes with branches of apple blossom, bunches of daffodils and displays of white sportswear. ‘As good as anything in Selfridges’ windows,’ he told her.
Amelie glowed. ‘That’s what I think. And what’s more, I’ve nearly persuaded Grandfather. I was right about the advertising, and now he’s beginning to see that I’m right about display as well. What we need to do is to employ one of the top Americans to arrange our windows, but failing that, I think we should take on a theatrical designer. Somebody young and full of ideas. That will make Edward sit up and think, when I have everyone talking about it and coming to Packards just to see what all the fuss was about.’
Perry could feel the stirrings of an idea in his head. He couldn’t quite get hold of it, but he knew it was there.
‘Edward wouldn’t like that,’ he said.
Amelie grinned. ‘He hasn’t got it all his own way. He might think he’s going to take over the store when Grandfather retires, but I’m sure Grandfather has no intention of retiring yet, and I’ve only just begun to show him what I can do. I’ve managed to get him to let me carry on doing the advertising. He did say I could have a try at it until April, but now I’ve persuaded him to let me continue. That means I can go into all the departments and see what’s happening in them while I’m working out their advertisements. You’d be amazed how much I’m learning. And of course Edward does not like it one little bit.’
Perry clapped her on the shoulder. ‘Keep up the good work, Sis. Edward needs taking down a peg or two.’
The idea was definitely taking form now. Perry parted from his sister and walked more slowly through the store, letting it grow. By the time he reached the office floor, he thought he knew what approach he was going to take.
He was given more time by the fact that Edward was not in his office when he arrived. His secretary, a plain young woman with a severe manner of dress and even more severe hairstyle, requested him to wait. Perry was vaguely irritated. Now that he was here, he wanted to get it over with. There were more important things to be done today, like looking up an old pal who had just come up from the country.
When Edward finally came marching into the office, he looked at Perry with some surprise.
‘Oh – you received my message, then? They said you weren’t at home.’
Perry just stopped himself from saying ‘What message?’ and adopted his most insouciant air.
‘Don’t know a thing about a message, old boy. Just thought I’d call in and see how things were going in the family store, don’t y’know.’
Edward sat down behind his wide mahogany desk.
‘You care about the family store, then, do you?’
‘But of course I do. Where would we all be without it?’ He realised that he might be taking the wrong tack here and qualified his statement. ‘Not that I know anything about the running of it, of course. Don’t need to, do I? Not with you to see to it. You and Melly.’
The effect was not as dramatic as he had hoped, but the light of suspicion did flare briefly in Edward’s eyes.
‘What do you mean, Melly? She has nothing to do with it.’
Perry shrugged. ‘She looked very much part of the place just now when I ran into her.’
‘She’s playing at it, that’s all. It pleases the old man to let her have her head a bit.’
Perry was about to say something about the way in which Amelie always got her way where their grandfather was concerned, when Edward changed the subject.
‘That’s not what I wanted to see you about. Something has come to my attention that I am not at all happy about.’
His tone of voice sent a shiver of apprehension through Perry. His little plan suddenly seemed very flimsy when measured against his brother’s formidable strength of purpose. Edward always played to win.
‘Whatever do you mean?’ he asked, all innocence, and even as he said it, he knew. Somehow, Edward had found out about Isobel.
‘You know exactly what I mean,’ Edward said, confirming his fear. ‘You’re a fool, Perry. I warned you last summer. What on earth made you think you’d get away with it? You know how Grandfather expects our shopgirls to be a cut above the general run. This store is not the place for a cheap pick-up, and you as a family member must absolutely not be seen to treat it as such.’
Perry tried to talk his way out of it.
‘It wasn’t like that at all. I don’t know where you got your information, but it’s all gossip, I can tell you. I was sorry for the girl. All I did was to take her out for the occasional run in the country and a nice tea. All very respectable.’
Edward was impatient. ‘I can’t think that you really expect me to believe that.’
‘But it’s true! That girl’s as unbroken now as she was the day she was born.’
When Edward looked incredulous he found himself struggling to explain.
‘I was softening her up. She was worth it. She’s certainly not been with anyone else. It makes a change to be with a girl who doesn’t know every trick in the book.’ But he could see that Edward was not convinced.
‘It’s a good story, Perry. I’m almost tempted to believe it. But nobody else is going to, least of all Grandfather.’
The threat dropped into Perry’s understanding like a lead weight. If his grandfather got to know about this, it could mean the end of his allowance. He swallowed.
‘He – he needn’t find out.’
‘No, not if I stop the gossip at its source.’
Perry broke out in a sweat. The end of his allowance would mean the end of his whole way of life. Having the bailiffs after him suddenly seemed like a mere nothing. He had to convince Edward that it was worth his while to keep quiet. His strategy for extracting a loan had to be turned into a weapon to save his skin.
‘I could be useful to you,’ he offered. ‘I could get Melly out of your way. I know
just the man to distract her.’
Edward appeared unimpressed.
‘I seem to remember you saying something of the sort last year and all you could come up with was that fool Georgy Teignmereton.’
‘Well, he did propose to her, didn’t he? I can’t help it if Melly turned him down,’ Perry protested, in a brave attempt to give some substance to his offer.
‘Anyone could see that he was a nonrunner from the start.’
‘Well this one’s different. He’s a sportsman and – and a scholar and a jolly decent chap. Just the sort for Melly.’
‘Indeed? Who is this paragon, then?’
‘Hugo Rutherford. You remember – chap who won the Diamond Sculls.’
‘Oh yes. And you know him, do you?’
‘He’s an acquaintance – friend of a friend.’ He prayed that he sounded convincing. ‘Once the Season gets going it shouldn’t be too difficult to get them together. Nice little jaunt down to Hurlingham when he’s playing. Tea in the interval, treading the old divots, that sort of thing.’
‘And what makes you think that he will like Melly?’
Perry opened his mouth and shut it again. How on earth could he guarantee that? However confident he managed to sound, Edward would not believe him. He resorted to honesty.
‘Can’t vouch for that, now can I, old boy? No knowing what two people are going to think of each other. All I can do is get them together. But Melly’s a pretty girl and Lord knows she can talk about sport with the best of them. Must be an attraction to a chap who’s an all-rounder like Rutherford. You have to admit, it does sound like a runner, now doesn’t it? And I could get them to the starting line, so to speak.’
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