She was in the front row and had Bill on one side of her and Jim on the other, but Xander seemed to have left the group again. She caught a glimpse she thought was him, away to the side of the hall, standing up among the crowds for whom there weren’t enough chairs.
‘You don’t want to be in the front row with the stuffy people. Stay with me and we’ll stand at the side where we can see people’s faces. Much more fun.’
Jenna wondered if that’s why Xander had moved.
‘Too late, anyway,’ Harry went on. ‘There’s the bigwigs going up on the stage. You’ll disrupt everyone, going down to the front now: they’ll all look at you, you gorgeous, showy creature! You’ll have to stay with me.’
They stood in the shadows at the side of the hall as the chairman thumped his gavel and called the meeting to order. Just as he started speaking, Harry dug her in the ribs and whispered, ‘Caro’s not here. Odd.’
Was it odd? With a glance around, Jenna thought she must be the only person in a ten mile radius who wasn’t, so perhaps it was.
There was quite a festival mood as everyone spilled out on to the street afterwards. ‘To The Crown!’ Bill exclaimed. ‘This demands a celebration.’
‘I can’t believe we’ve won,’ Kitty said, beaming at Jim. ‘I did hear correctly, didn’t I? He did turn down the application?’
‘You heard correctly,’ Jim said, restraining himself from hugging her.
‘One for the good guys!’ Bill crowed. ‘Come on, the first round’s on me!’
Jenna was forcing her way through the crowds, with Harry at her heels, insisting that she had to congratulate Kitty, though he wanted to whisk her away. ‘I only said I’d have a drink with you,’ she told him.
‘Yes, but I didn’t expect a victory celebration. Everyone’s going to be in The Crown. Let me take you somewhere else. I want you to myself.’
‘Oh, stop pouting,’ Jenna said, and broke through into Kitty’s circle.
‘Jenna, there you are!’ Kitty cried, and they hugged each other.
‘I’m so pleased for you. For everyone, really,’ Jenna said.
It gave Kitty pause. ‘Except poor old Benson, of course. He did look blue.’
Jenna laughed. ‘You can’t feel sorry for him now, just because he’s the underdog. It’s absurd. You called him unscrupulous before.’
‘Oh, you’re right. I’m very silly.’ She turned to Xander, who was hovering uncomfortably behind her, avoiding Jenna’s eye. ‘You’re coming for a drink, aren’t you? What happened to Caroline? I thought she was coming.’
‘So did I,’ Xander said. ‘I expect she was held up somewhere. I don’t think I’ll come for a drink, though.’
‘Oh, nonsense, of course you must. It’s a special occasion. And if Caroline does get here, she’ll look for you in The Crown. Oh, there’s the planning inspector talking to the vicar. What was his name? Purcell, wasn’t it? Do you think we should get him to come for one?’
Jenna turned to speak sotto voce to Harry. ‘You see we’ll have to go, even if it’s just for one. Kitty will insist.’
‘All right,’ he muttered, ‘but I reserve the right to use all my powers to abduct you once your duty is done.’
‘You can try,’ Jenna said with a grin; and then, turning back, saw Xander’s eyes on her, and felt a pang of – what? Guilt? Hardly. Regret then? Possible. She didn’t want him to think there was anything between her and Harry. She didn’t know why she didn’t want that, but she didn’t.
The talk went on. Why didn’t they get on with going to the pub? Why did everyone have to stand around in the road?
‘Oh, there’s Caroline,’ Kitty said suddenly. ‘I didn’t see you arrive. We’re just going to The Crown for a celebration. Did you hear? We won!’
‘Did you? How wonderful!’ Caroline said, sidling up to Xander and kissing his cheek. ‘Hello, darling. Sorry I’m late. Got caught up in some things.’
The vicar came over. ‘I asked Purcell if he’d care to imbibe one with us, but he said he’s being given a lift to the station, so he can’t. He’s just left.’
Slowly, by painful inches, the crowd made its way to the pub. Jenna discovered Harry was missing from behind her; but before she was actually at the door, he was back.
‘Blimey, they should call you the Shadow,’ she said. ‘You really do become invisible. What were you doing?’
‘Sleuthing.’ He had a gleeful look. ‘I’ve just had a bit of an “oho!” moment.’
‘What’s that when it’s at home? Washing powder?’
‘That’s Omo. It means, “Oho, so that’s how the milk got into the coconut!”’
‘And how did it?’
‘Are you ready for this? Caroline arrived—’
‘I know, I saw her.’
‘Wait! She arrived in a car, which stopped a bit further up the road to let her out, almost as if she didn’t want anyone to see how she got here. And that car, ladies and gents, was a dark blue Aston Martin.’
‘No!’ Jenna said, gratified; and then, distressed: ‘Oh no!’
‘Yes, but that’s not all. The planning officer from the Department of the Environment has just walked off up the road, and got into the same car.’
Jenna stared at him. ‘Are you serious?’
‘Absolutely.’
‘The vicar said he said he was getting a lift to the station.’
‘Maybe he is.’
‘So – the planning officer secretly knows Derek Sullivan? Who secretly knows Caroline? What does it all mean?’ She stared at Harry with buckled brow.
He looked portentous, approached his head close to hers, and spoke in a grave, hushed voice. ‘I haven’t the faintest idea,’ he said.
Twenty
The Buckminsters’ dinner, which Jenna had not been particularly looking forward to, actually came as a welcome break in what had rapidly become the routine of work on the house opening. There was so much to do, much more than Jenna had anticipated, and though she was sure she could get through it in time, it was no longer a dilettanti frolic but a hard grind.
She hadn’t spoken much to the Buckminsters at Kitty’s party, but had seen them as rather overpowering and very, very county. They were in their sixties like Kitty, but the heavyweight version, large people with well-kept clothes that had obviously been bought to last; leading lights of the various organizations that kept the countryside going, parish councils and WIs and police authorities and so on. In addition, Arthur Buckminster was a JP – Justice of the Peace – and Gloria was on the board of a big orphanage and care home in Wenchester. At Kitty’s dinner they had spoken kindly to her, welcoming her to the village, but beyond discovering that she was a Londoner and that she didn’t play bridge, they hadn’t really engaged with her.
The Buckminsters lived in The Old Rectory, a large mid-Victorian house in ample grounds. Like Holtby House it had a spacious conservatory built on to the back, and that was where dinner was laid. ‘Might as well enjoy this weather while we have it,’ Gloria Buckminster said. She and her husband seemed different now they were hosts in their own house – no less overpowering, with their big voices and county solidness, but hearty and affable, sticking a vast gin and tonic into Jenna’s hand as soon as she arrived and addressing her as if they were old friends.
‘I won’t bother introducing all these people,’ Gloria said, waving a hand. ‘Some you know and some you don’t, but it’s a bore trying to remember names on occasions like these. Now come out and let me show you the garden. Everyone else has seen it.’
Everyone else had settled into eagerly conversing groups, still standing up facing inwards, as if they had far too much to say to waste time finding seats. Arthur was already topping up the G and Ts – it looked like being a hard-drinking evening. Jenna followed Gloria out into the garden, but she before had time to exclaim over how lovely it looked – and it really did – the true reason for the segregation emerged.
‘Now, tell me about this scheme of yours for Holtby Hou
se,’ she commanded. ‘Everyone is so excited. We’ve been worried about the situation for years. Simply must keep Kitty in residence. Can’t have all the old families driven out. Besides, you never know who you’re going to get in their place, and it’s rarely a pleasant surprise. So, will it work?’
‘I think so,’ Jenna said, and told Gloria the plan.
Gloria listened attentively and her questions were sharp and intelligent. ‘It sounds as though you’ve thought about it carefully,’ she pronounced at the end. ‘You must tell me if there’s anything I can do to help.’
‘Thank you, I’m sure there will be. Most important now is to get a pool of volunteers to man the rooms when the house is open.’
‘As in the National Trust,’ Gloria interrupted briskly. ‘Yes, I know the drill. Done it myself in the past, before I got too busy. Don’t worry, I’ll start rallying the troops. I know Kitty’s been asking, but she’s too nice. People need chivvying, like hens, even to get them to do what they want to do anyway. There’ll be no shortage, I promise you. There’s tremendous goodwill for the scheme, and for Kitty, and I shall help her with the organization of the volunteers, otherwise we shall have a slacking off when the first excitement fades.’
‘Thank you,’ Jenna said. ‘That’s the biggest worry off my mind.’
‘You can ask me for any help and advice you need, any time,’ Gloria said. ‘I was organizing things in my cradle, so it’s no effort for me.’
‘I’m good at organizing things, but I haven’t had much practice with people,’ Jenna admitted. ‘And I was rather worried about the long term, how Kitty would keep it going, because of course I shan’t be here for much longer.’
‘Won’t you?’ Gloria said, looking surprised. ‘I thought you were a fixture. Family, aren’t you?’
‘Distant cousin,’ Jenna said. This staccato delivery was catching. ‘Kitty asked me for a month, though we’ve extended that to cover the Gala Opening, but that’s all.’
Gloria looked at her penetratingly, and then said, ‘Oh, well, let’s wait and see how things pan out. You might find you want to stay longer.’ After a beat, she went off on another tack. ‘I hear you’re having a fling with young Harry Beale?’
Jenna blushed. ‘Hardly that. We had a date.’
Gloria overrode her. ‘I feel so sorry for that boy. He’s virtually had to bring himself up, with his mother dying when he was so young, and his father – well, the less said about Roger Beale the better! The man’s a disaster. And then when he does get Harry a stepmother, it’s that ghastly Mona Russell woman. Caroline’s mother.’
‘Ghastly in what way?’ Jenna felt emboldened to ask.
‘Naked greed and ambition,’ Gloria said succinctly. ‘Mona Dillinger she was – I was at school with her, God help me! Boarding school in Queen’s Camel. She was one of those showy flowers that blooms early and only lasts a day. Not worth cultivating. Played on her looks to marry Phil Russell. Transferred her ambition to Caroline. Push, push, push. Like one of those frightful ballet mothers, you know?’
Jenna didn’t, but she nodded as if she did.
‘Hardly a wonder that Caroline turned out the way she did. Mona and Roger Beale deserved each other, but Caroline was quite a sweet girl when she was six or seven. I followed her subsequent career with a sort of breathless horror. One bad hat to another.’
‘Alexander isn’t a bad hat,’ Jenna pointed out.
‘No, quite the contrary. He’s perhaps a bit too bland.’
Jenna was shocked. ‘I never thought of him as bland.’
‘The egg without the salt,’ Gloria said. ‘Men need a seasoning of drive and ambition. I didn’t like the way he went to pieces when that girl Stephanie dumped him. Showed a lack of character. Of course, he was a child of divorce, but still. And now he’s been caught by Caroline Russell.’
‘Don’t you think perhaps she really loves him?’ Jenna said, more in hope than belief.
‘I suppose she must,’ said Gloria, frowning over the problem, ‘because he has nothing she could possibly want. But it won’t last. Marriage for love never does.’
‘But don’t you—?’ Jenna stopped herself, but not quite in time.
Gloria’s eyebrow went up. ‘Goodness, we are being frank, aren’t we? Yes, of course Arthur and I love each other, but that sort of love comes later. It grows out of liking each other and getting on well and having the same interests. Remember that, when you come to marry. The romantic stuff’s all right, but it’s much more important to be friends. There’s sex, of course – but your generation has it much easier that way. Fortunately Arthur and I clicked in that department, because our generation had no opportunity to find out beforehand. I wonder if Caroline and Alexander have tried?’ she mused. Jenna had wondered the same thing and often wished she hadn’t. ‘I suppose they must have, but it’s an odd thing, somehow one can’t imagine them doing it. Like a dog riding a bicycle – it doesn’t seem natural.’
Jenna was intrigued by this insight; but they had reached the end of the garden and turned on to the path back and she thought that, since her hostess was in such a frank mood, she ought to get in a few questions of her own while she had the chance. ‘Do you know a man called Derek Sullivan?’
‘Unfortunately, yes. One of Roger Beale’s shady chums,’ she said promptly. ‘Why do you ask?’
‘I thought I saw him after the planning meeting the other day,’ she said, stretching the truth a little. ‘I wondered what he had to do with it.’
‘Nothing, one hopes,’ Gloria said. ‘Apart from Beale Cartwright, he has connections with another development company, English Country Homes – I wonder if that’s who Benson was going to sell to if he got planning permission?’ she added in parenthesis. She shook it away. ‘But the permission’s been denied, so that’s all over anyway. Benson will have to sell it as agricultural land, and that won’t be enough for his villa in Tenerife, or whatever it was he wanted. Serves him right, the grubby little man. I took him on as a gardener when he got laid off from the atomic plant at Corvington, though I didn’t really need him. Everyone in the village has helped him out in one way or another over the years, and that’s the loyalty we get.’
‘When you say “connection” to English Country Homes . . .?’ Jenna said.
‘Sullivan was a local councillor for Wenchester,’ Gloria said tersely. ‘The government demanded every county build so many new houses. Once the land was designated, he made sure English Country Homes got the contract to build them.’
‘And what did he get in return?’
‘English Country Homes gave a large donation to the Labour Party, and now of course Sullivan’s been adopted as their candidate for the next election. Not possible to prove any connection between the two, of course.’ She looked thoughtful. ‘If he’s to run for MP, he’ll need campaign funds. I wonder if he was hoping to repeat his coup with Benson’s land? If so, he’s fallen on his face.’
They had reached the house. The thoughtful look vanished and Gloria was straight back into social mode. ‘Fascinating talking to you. We must find a way to keep you here, my dear, because you’re a definite asset to our community. Find some suitable young man to bed and wed you. Not Harry Beale, though – too much of a lightweight, as I suspect you know if you’re half as sharp as I think you are.’ She smiled, like a light switching on. ‘Come in and let Arthur top you up.’ She looked around for someone to scrape Jenna off on to, and her eye alighted on Xander, who had arrived meanwhile and managed to get himself into a corner out of the way where he was scowling at the company as if he wished he were anywhere but here. ‘Oh, there’s Alexander. I’ll leave you in his capable care because I have to speak to Dolly Cornwall about the retaining wall in Deeps Lane. If she doesn’t do something about it we’ll have it falling on someone’s pushchair or pet dog, and then we’ll be in the papers for all the wrong reasons. Alexander – delighted to see you, dear boy!’
Arthur arrived at the same time, filled both their glasses anew,
and then both Buckminsters disappeared, with an effect like two vast liners departing: the backwash drove Jenna practically into Xander’s arms.
‘They displace a lot of water, don’t they?’ she said, in the hope of making him laugh. His gloom didn’t lighten one whit. ‘Look, we only have to be polite to each other. Shall we talk about the weather? Or I could move away,’ she added when this elicited no response.
‘This scheme of yours,’ he began.
‘Oh dear. What now?’ she said wearily.
‘Everyone’s talking about it as a done deal. Why wasn’t I consulted?’
She was surprised. ‘If Kitty had wanted to consult you there was nothing stopping her.’
‘It’s put me in a very embarrassing position. Everyone thought I knew all about it. I suppose that was your doing, keeping me out of the discussion stages?’
‘Of course not. It was nothing to do with me. Why would I want to keep you out of the discussions? I’d have assumed you’d be all for it.’
‘It’s a crackpot scheme,’ he said. ‘In the first place, it can’t work. And in the second, have you even considered the strain it will put on Kitty? A frail, elderly woman, trying to shoulder a burden like that? The responsibility, the work, the endless worry – and when it fails, it will make leaving Holtby all the harder for her. You’ve gone into this for your own glory – if you haven’t got other, more sinister reasons – without giving a thought to the effect it will inevitably have on an old lady who’s shown you nothing but kindness.’
‘And that’s Caroline’s opinion, I take it?’ she said shrewdly.
‘Yes, and she—’ He pulled himself up, realizing the trap she had set for him, and he coloured angrily. ‘It’s my opinion, with which she happens to agree.’
‘I’ll bet,’ Jenna said. ‘Look, if it’s your opinion, go and express it to Kitty. Have it out with her. Why throw it at me, as if she hasn’t a mind of her own? She isn’t a frail old lady, and I think if you go and tell her to her face that she is, she might well deck you with a clout to the side of the head, which you will thoroughly deserve.’ He opened his mouth to answer and she carried on quickly. ‘Everything I have done, and everything I am doing, is entirely at her request. She can change her mind or pull out at any time. Why don’t you try and talk her out of it if you feel so strongly? I’m sure your influence must be stronger than mine – and Bill’s, because she’s discussed everything with him, you know.’
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