Into Temptation (Spoils of Time 03) (20 page)

Then she really did feel ashamed.

He left with Cathy mid-afternoon; she stood with Jenna on the steps waving him off.

‘He’s just so nice,’ said Jenna, and this time she was not conniving, it was clearly genuinely meant. ‘Don’t you think so, Mother? And it was great him being here. Can he come again?’

‘We’ll see,’ said Barty, ‘we’ll see.’

Geordie had gone. He had packed all his things up, his clothes, his books, his beloved portable typewriter, and moved into a small flat in St James’s.

‘It’s comfortable and quite big enough and it has a spare bedroom for Clio when she comes to stay. I’d like to have her most weekends. But I hope we can be civilised over arrangements. Noni can come and see me too, if she wants too.’

‘Of course she’ll want to,’ said Adele wiping her streaming eyes. ‘Oh Geordie, don’t do this, please, please don’t. I love you so much—’

‘Not enough, it seems,’ he said, his grey eyes quite steely as he looked at her. ‘Not enough to put me first.’

‘How can I put you before my own son when he’s so desperately unhappy? How can I? It’s an impossible thing to ask.’

‘Well, there’s no point running over it all again. And I haven’t noticed any improvement in his attitude towards me, even since he was allowed to return to Westminster. Had there been, I might have – well, never mind. I would never have believed, Adele, it could come to this. But—’

‘Don’t you think,’ she said, for the last desperate time, ‘you’re just – well, over-reacting?’

‘No, I don’t. And it proves how little you understand, that you should still be talking in such terms. I have been made to feel miserable and unwelcome in my own house, have sat feeling angry and uncomfortable at my own dinner table, have been forced to witness a division in my own family.’

‘What’s that supposed to mean?’

‘How do you think it is for Noni? Forced to observe this, to take sides? Or rather not to take sides? What does it feel like for her, do you think, to sit through every mealtime in an atmosphere of tension? I’ve watched her trying to ease things, to make conversation, to crush arguments before they begin, and it’s extremely sad. No, it’s best if I go, since Lucas clearly never will. I hope you and he are well pleased with your work.’

She missed him dreadfully; as well as being her husband, and her lover, he was her best friend, proud of her, supportive of her work, creative in his suggestions for it. He had been a superb stepfather to Noni, and adored the small Clio, who adored him in return. She called him Darling, rather than Daddy, having grown up hearing her mother address him thus; when, on the third day after Geordie had left, she turned to her mother and said, ‘When is Darling coming home?’ Adele had to leave the room and cried until she could cry no more.

Her only consolation was that she knew she had had no option: there was no way she could have sent Lucas back to Fletton. As, gradually and painfully – for he had felt shame as well as misery – the details came out, she became increasingly angry on his behalf, and more fiercely protective. She felt too that some retribution was due to him, that if he could be given his heart’s desire, after all that he had had to endure, then he deserved it. So Westminster were approached, had the position explained to them – and they did agree to take him back.

‘He is an exceptional boy, Mrs MacColl,’ said the Head. ‘He has an exceptional brain and he and the school can still, we feel sure, do a lot for one another. But it won’t be easy for him, he should understand that. He can’t expect just to walk in and take up where he left off. There will be bridges to be built, and of course his friends will have changed, moved on.’

Adele explained all this to Lucas; he looked at her with his great dark eyes – Luc’s eyes – and said simply when she had finished, ‘I know, I won’t regret it.’

‘This – hasn’t been easy for me, Lucas. The cost has been quite high.’

‘That’s not my fault,’ he said, and didn’t even smile at her. ‘He’ – Lucas never referred to Geordie by name – ‘he should have listened to me.’

‘If you had been more courteous to Geordie, Lucas, then he might have done.’

‘He didn’t want to,’ said Lucas, and got up to walk out of the room; Adele seized his arm.

‘At the very least, you owe me some gratitude. This could all have been accomplished with much less pain, if you had made more effort.’

There was a long silence, while his pride and his hurt plainly struggled with his love for her. Then he said, ‘I’m sorry. And I do thank you. But—’

‘No buts. I don’t want to hear them. What I do want is some outward sign of your gratitude. It is too late, I am very much afraid, for any courtesy to Geordie to make any difference. But your attitude to your grandmother, in particular, and to Venetia and, indeed, to all the Warwicks, has left a great deal to be desired. I hope I shall see an improvement in that.’

Silence.

‘Lucas!’

‘Yes,’ he said finally, the words clearly dragged out with an immense effort. ‘Yes, I will – try.’

‘Thank you.’

And he did; and after Henry and Clarissa’s wedding, a most splendid affair, five hundred guests and a reception at Claridges, Celia was heard to remark to Adele that she had observed a great improvement in his manners.

‘I still don’t agree with your giving in to him, and I think it’s quite tragic what has happened to your marriage—’

‘Mummy, what choice did I have? Tell me truthfully what would you have done?’

For she had told her mother what Lucas had had to endure, in all its grisly detail.

And greatly to her surprise Celia said, ‘Probably exactly the same.’

From which Adele drew great comfort.

Celia’s attention at the wedding had actually been largely focussed on Izzie. The girl looked dreadful, she thought, white and exhausted, under her rather heavy make-up, and she had lost a great deal of weight. The palepink meringue of her dress seemed to engulf her; and even her lovely golden-brown hair, under its crown of sweetheart roses, looked dull and lifeless.

She moved about the room chatting dutifully to people, but with clearly so great an effort that Celia could hardly bear to watch her; after the speeches, when Henry and Clarissa had gone upstairs to change, she beckoned her over.

‘You look very tired.’

‘I am a bit. Weddings are tiring, aren’t they?’

They shouldn’t be, Celia thought, for girls of twenty-five, chosen to be one of the two chief bridesmaids, they should be a whirl of happiness.

‘How’s your father?’ she asked abruptly. That might be the reason for Izzie’s distress. Sebastian was no longer young, he pushed himself dreadfully –

‘Oh – he’s fine. Yes, very well. He’s in Scotland at the moment, doing some kind of lecture tour.’

‘Yes, I heard. Which provided a mildly graceful excuse for his absence today.’

‘Celia—’

‘Oh, I know, I know. Let’s not go down that road. Tell me, have you seen Kit lately?’

That did hurt: having to ask, having to speak his name, even. Not a day passed but she felt the hurt of his loss to her life, not a night ended without her waking to the memory of it and grieving for him.

‘Yes. He’s absolutely splendid, he’s very happy at – oh, sorry.’ She bit her lip and flushed.

‘At Wesley, yes, yes, I know. But – there’s no trouble between you, nothing like that?’

‘No, of course not.’ She looked away; of course Celia had known, known about – that. But they had never spoken of it.

‘You’re still good friends?’

‘Very good. We have supper quite often.’

‘Good. So, then, what is the matter?’

The question took Izzie by surprise; she stared at Celia in silence, her great brown eyes brilliant with tears.

‘Nothing,’ she said finally, ‘nothing, honestly, I’m just tired.’

‘Isabella, there is clearly something very wrong. Everyone is worried about you.’

‘How do you know?’ she said sharply.

‘All the girls tell me you don’t seem to be yourself, Noni is particularly upset about it, Adele has been very worried, you know how much she loves you, and Venetia too, of course. Unfortunately, I have no idea whether your father is concerned or not. I feel sure he must be. But – ’ she peered into Izzie’s eyes, handed her a handkerchief ‘ – there’s clearly something wrong. And you need to tell someone. It might as well be me. There’s nothing in the world that could shock me, my darling, I do assure you, and you never know, I might even be able to help. I won’t tell anyone, anyone at all. Now, come along, we have to wave them off. That girl is certainly very pretty. And Henry is a good-looking young man. Thank God he’s married at last, though, and we can hear an end to all this nonsense about him marrying you. It did irritate me so much. You too, I expect.’

‘Quite a bit,’ said Izzie, trying to smile, and then she suddenly broke down entirely and ran from the room, with Celia’s handkerchief held to her lips. Celia looked after her, deeply distressed. Surely she couldn’t have actually wanted to marry Henry?

Izzie telephoned her next morning; she was sorry she had never said goodbye, ‘and that I made such a fool of myself yesterday.’

‘You didn’t. Nobody noticed. Now, do you want to come and see me? Come for luncheon, Lord Arden isn’t here, I’ve sent him back to Glenworth.’

‘Well – ’

‘Isabella’ – she and Sebastian were the only people who used that name – ‘don’t be stubborn. Come and see me. You obviously need to talk to someone. And as I said, there’s certainly no one in the world I will tell. Whatever it is.’

Two days later, Izzie wrote to Barty.

I wonder if I could take you up on your invitation to come and stay for a while? I would try not to be a nuisance, maybe I could look after Jenna or something? I haven’t been terribly well, one too many chest infections this winter, and I’ve been a bit depressed, as well. I saw Celia’s doctor, who said he thought a complete change of scene would be a good idea. I won’t stay for too long, just a couple of weeks, but I’d so love to see you and to go out to South Lodge again especially. Let me know what you think.

A telegram arrived:

Wonderful, wonderful news. Room always ready for you. Jenna beside herself with excitement. Come soonest, stay longest. Writing. Best love, Barty.

Izzie asked Michael Joseph if she might take her holiday and add an extra couple of weeks unpaid.

He looked at her fondly across the desk. ‘You take as long as you want. Regard it as a sabbatical. You can come back any time, in three, six months, even a year. If you’re going all that way, you might as well make the most of it. We’ll miss you, but you don’t look well, a proper break will do you good.’

Izzie thanked him and wondered why everyone was being so kind.

The twins both thought it was a wonderful idea; Noni was rather sweetly sad.

‘I shall miss you so much, Izzie. Don’t stay too long.’

It was like history repeating itself, Izzie thought, hugging her, when Barty had left her to go to America for the first time.

‘I promise I won’t. Promise. Now, how are things with you? I’ve been so wrapped up in myself lately, I’ve neglected you dreadfully. I hear you see Geordie quite a lot.’