Gale Warning (27 page)

“What was it, sweetheart?” said Chandos.

“I do not think,” said Jenny, “that Audrey should have been there. She should have stopped at Poitiers, or even at Dax.”

“You’re perfectly right,” said Chandos. “She should have stopped at Poitiers. But it wasn’t our fault that she didn’t, my pretty maid.”

“A-a-ah,” said Jenny. And then, “I thought as much.”

“Tell me, Jenny,” said Audrey. “Would you have stopped at Poitiers, while William went on?”

Jenny opened her great, blue eyes.

“Of course I shouldn’t,” she said. “But that is a different thing. I am married to William, and William is all I have.”

“I know, my darling. But I’m going to marry John – and John is all I have.”

Jenny’s eyes were alight with mischievous merriment.

“I
thought
you were,” she declared, “and I am so glad.”

“My God, so am I,” said Chandos. He sat up and put out his hands. “And I think you deserve each other – I can’t say more than that.”

And that is very nearly the end of my tale.

We stayed for three weeks at Freilles, because we could not be married until that time had elapsed. And then, one July morning, we all set out for Bordeaux.

Leaving at nine, we were there by eleven o’clock, and ten minutes later we reached the Consulate.

And there was Mansel’s Rolls and Mansel himself, and Carson to open our doors, with a hand to his hat.

“Jonah, you darling,” cried Audrey. “How sweet of you to show up.”

“My dear,” said Mansel, “when you have hoped very hard for somebody’s happiness, you simply have to be there when they haul it aboard. Add to that that I know you inside out and I’m terribly fond of you – for so many very good reasons, but most of all, I think, because you’ve the greatest heart of any woman I know.”

So Jenny stood beside Audrey and Chandos stood beside me, and Mansel ‘gave Audrey away,’ to use a term which Consulates do not know.

And then we all repaired to
The Chapon Fin
, where Mansel had taken care to order a private room. There we were served with a ‘breakfast’ such as I never ate, for the wine was as good as the food, and the food was incomparable. And there we arranged our next meeting, because, of course, we could not ‘talk business’ there.

Mansel looked at Audrey.

“I’m told that you’re going to Anise for a week or ten days.”

“That’s right,” said my wife. “Jenny and Richard, you see, have put us wise.”

“I thought they would,” said Mansel. “I’m fond of Anise myself.”

“You found it out,” said Audrey.

“I believe I did,” said Mansel, “a year or two back.”

“Visit us there,” said Audrey. “And then we can talk by the stream where Richard caught Vanity Fair.”

Mansel nodded.

“I’ll be there one week from today.”

“Till then,” said Jenny, “he’s going to stay with us.”

“I’d love to,” said Mansel. “May I really go back with you?”

“What do you think?” said Jenny. “You know that after William I love you the best in the world.”

“And after Anise?” said Chandos.

“The mountains,” said I. “But not as seen from a certain village we know. A little further afield… And then – don’t think us mad, but we had thought of Amiens. There’s a ramshackle villa there – and we know the country about.”

Mansel laughed.

“That’s just where I’ve come from,” he said. “It has its faults, as a house, but it’s very conveniently placed. Then, again, I like Amiens. I like the cathedral stalls. And twenty odd years ago some battles were fought near there: and Carson and I have been going over the ground. Rowley is there at the moment, keeping an eye on the cook, who thinks, of course, that she’s keeping an eye on him. He tells me you’re taking him on.”

“That’s right,” said my wife. “I engaged him before we were married – in case we were. That is the sort of precaution I’ve learned from you.”

Mansel frowned.

“Provision – not precaution,” he said. “The word ‘precaution’ presupposes some doubt.”

Audrey appealed to me.

“Don’t you believe him, St John. Your wife’s a
nice
girl.”

It was while we were staying at Amiens that Audrey saw in
The Times
that Peerless was to be sold – with two hundred and fifty acres, instead of the seven thousand which George had ruled. And so, with his money, I bought it and gave it to Audrey, my wife.

It was in a way a venture for, when all was signed and sealed, I had very little left: but she had her private income, and before a year had gone by, I was at least earning my living by farming two hundred acres of those we had.

And so we both live at Peerless, as we had hoped to do, and I sometimes think that George St Omer is with us and glad that we should be there: for Audrey he loved, and I was his closest friend, and between us we brought to justice the man who had taken his life.

We seldom visit London, without dining at Cleveland Row, and sometimes we stay at Maintenance, Chandos’ Wiltshire home. Then we remember together the burden of those three months and the manifold changes and chances of our excursion.

We speak of Sermon Square and the leads of the church of St Ives, and then of Dieppe at daybreak and Rouen’s Cathedral
place
: we take the road to Chartres and from there to Tours, and thence to Chatellerault – in ‘The Kingdom of Heaven’s’ car: we climb again to the telegraph-room at Poitiers, we watch the train pull out of the station at Dax, and then we go up to Midian – and matters of life and death. We see the barn and the spur, the cliff and the angry water, the glade where we hid the Lowland and the sunlit flags of the terrace we were to know: we live again those terribly crowded moments, when Audrey was actually under Barabbas’ hand; and we stand again in that luxurious chamber in which, one after another, two butchers came by their own.

Of such remembrance, I think I shall never tire: and though, because of my darling, my life is as rich and as gay as that of some sparkling fountain that always plays, I must confess that there is no pursuit to compare with that which can only be followed ‘without the law.’ For that is the real thing, and once you have followed it, no imitation will serve.

(in order of first publication)

These titles can be read as a series, or randomly as standalone novels

(in order of first publication)

These titles can be read as a series, or randomly as standalone novels

(in order of first publication)

These titles can be read as a series, or randomly as standalone novels

(in order of first publication)

Published by House of Stratus

Adèle & Co This is the first full-length novel featuring Yates’ finest comic creation, Bertram ‘Berry’ Pleydell. The popular character of Adéle is based on the author’s first wife, Bettine, a highly gregarious American dancer and actress. Written in response to massive public demand for the Berry stories, this is regarded as one of Yates’ best books. Amongst the madcap escapades of the Pleydell clan as they career about the French countryside you will find ‘crime, criminals, and some of the funniest writing in the English language’.

And Berry Came Too Eight stories in which we encounter ‘the hair-raising adventures and idiotic situations of the Pleydell family’ ( Punch ). Along with John Buchan and ‘Sapper’, Yates dominated the adventure book market of the inter-war years, and Berry is regarded as one of British comic writing’s finest creations, including Tom Sharpe amongst his fans. Read these and weep (with laughter).

As Berry & I Were Saying Reprinted four times in three months, this semi-autobiographical novel is a humorous account of the author’s hazardous experiences in France, at the end of the World War II. Darker and less frivolous than some of Yates’ earlier books, he describes it as ‘really my own memoir put into the mouths of Berry and Boy’, and at the time of publication it already had a nostalgic feel. A great hit with the public and a ‘scrapbook of the Edwardian age as it was seen by the upper-middle classes’.

B-Berry & I Look Back This is Yates’ final book, a semi-autobiographical novel spanning a lifetime of events from the sinking of the Titanic to the notorious Tichborne murder case. It opens with Berry, one of British comic writing’s finest creations, at his funniest, and is a companion volume to As Berry and I Were Saying . Pure, vintageYates.

Berry & Co This collection of short stories featuring ‘Berry’ Pleydell and his chaotic entourage established Dornford Yates’ reputation as one of the best comic writers in a generation, and made him hugely popular. The German caricatures in the book carried such a sting that when France was invaded in 1939 Yates, who was living near the Pyrenées, was put on the wanted list and had to flee.

The Berry Scene These stories, written by huge popular demand, give us classic Berry Pleydell – Yates’ finest comic character – at the top of his form. The first story sees Berry capturing a German spy at a village cricket match in 1914, and things get more bizarre from then on. A self-consciously nostalgic work harking back to more decorous days, here are tense plotting and high farce of the best kind.

Blind Corner This is Yates’ first thriller: a tautly plotted page-turner featuring the crime-busting adventures of suave Richard Chandos. Chandos is thrown out of Oxford for ‘beating up some Communists’, and on return from vacation in Biarritz he witnesses a murder. Teaming up at his London club with friend Jonathan Mansel, a stratagem is devised to catch the killer. The novel has compelling sequels: Blood Royal , An Eye For a Tooth, Fire Below and Perishable Goods .

Blood Royal At his chivalrous, rakish best in a story of mistaken identity, kidnapping, and old-world romance, Richard Chandos takes us on a romp through Europe in the company of a host of unforgettable characters. This fine thriller can be read alone or as part of a series with Blind Corner , An Eye For a Tooth , Fire Below and Perishable Goods .

Brother of Daphne Daphne is ‘well-born, elegant, beautiful, and not especially bright’. In this, Yates’ earliest collection of stories, we meet the Pleydell clan and encounter their high-spirited comic adventures. It is a world of Edwardian gentility and accomplished farce that brought the author instant fame when the stories appeared in Windsor Magazine .

Cost Price A story from Dornford Yates’ later career, of stolen treasure, set against a backdrop of World War II: adventure, a travelling circus and much more besides. Lots of favourite Yates characters are here, as well as some new ones, like the Portuguese mule in trousers, and a few striking villains. This is the legendary Chandos’ final fictional appearance. A tense, assured plot and vintage comedy from a master of the genre.