Nuns and Soldiers (73 page)

‘It is true,’ said Manfred, ‘that I would be sad to see that money vanishing for which our great grandfather worked so intelligently and so hard.’

‘And some of us got some and some of us didn’t! At least Joseph always said he didn’t get a bean. I wonder if it was true, considering what he squandered on that bitch, and I never knew what happened to the Strad.’

‘Let’s not have Joseph today, Veronica. Guy was so deplorably unambitious with his money.’

‘At least he didn’t lose it.’

‘Unambitious,’ said Manfred sadly. ‘He never took my advice. More cognac?’

‘Thanks. I wonder where it’ll go if Tim doesn’t spend it. Do you think they’ll have any children? I know Gertrude can’t, but they might adopt.’

‘They might, when they get over the shock of being married. I see Tim as a father.’

‘Do you? Janet will be so cross. So you are at least interested in the money?’

‘Gertrude’s?’

‘Though you’ve got plenty of your own.’

‘When has that ever stopped a man from wanting more? It is only poor people who don’t want money, they lack the concept.’

‘So you might have gone after that, even if you didn’t want her.’

‘What depths of cynicism you attribute to me, Veronica.’

‘I suspect you are insincere. You
did
want her. Not just the money.’

‘You keep urging me to admit it.’

‘It’s true that you didn’t try very hard.’

‘What could I do with you and Janet against me?’

‘You jest. At least you would have had some sense of responsibility and kept the money for the family.’

‘And increased it, so Janet would have done better with me.’

‘Of course Janet and I had quite different motives -’

‘In chaperoning me everywhere and never leaving me alone with Gertrude for a moment!’ said Manfred. ‘All the same, if I had wanted to pay court to Gertrude I imagine I could have managed it somehow.’

‘Janet simply wanted to prevent Gertrude from marrying.’

‘
A cause des chères têtes blondes
as you said.’

‘Because of the children, yes.’

‘Whereas you, my dear Veronica -’

‘Whereas I -’

‘But didn’t you go a little far in sending that anonymous letter to the Count?’

Mrs Mount smiled and shifted her handsome silky legs. She sipped the cognac, then looked at Manfred. In the dim light she looked young, her face smooth, her dark eyes glowing.

‘How did you know?’

‘The Count showed me the letter and I recognized your typewriter. ’

‘Cunning old you.’

‘What I couldn’t make out was your motive.’

‘You know my motive.’

‘I mean your calculation. How was it supposed to help you to expose Tim’s fling with Gertrude?’

‘I reckoned the sudden publicity would force their hand. If it had stayed secret it would have been easier to dismantle if there were second thoughts. But confronted with us all Gertrude would be determined to go through with it.’

‘Not bad reckoning,’ said Manfred, ‘and of course I’m flattered, but you played a risky hand, Veronica. I gather you also obligingly informed Gertrude that Guy and I were lifelong enemies. Untrue incidentally.’

‘How do you know I said that?’

‘Gertrude told the Count who artlessly told me, only he didn’t put it quite like that.’

‘Nor did I quite.’

‘I can see the working here. But it could have misfired. It was likely to attract Gertrude’s attention to me. And it might have worked the other way and set off some deep anti-Guy particle in her of which we know nothing.’

‘Do you think there is such a particle?’

‘No. But one can’t be sure.’

‘I reflected on that, but I thought it more likely to put Gertrude off you.’

‘You are very thorough, Veronica.’

‘One must fight for one’s life.’

‘You exaggerate as usual.’

‘No.’

‘Then writing to tell Tim to try again, that was child’s play.’

‘It had a certain obviousness, and it worked.’

‘Tim quite loves you now I’m told.’

‘He imagines I feel a sentimental fondness for him, and that’s always endearing. I let him think so. Why miss an ally? And if Tim and I are dear friends I can monitor the marriage.’

‘Oh - my dear Veronica - !’

‘You would have said something. It was too interesting to keep mum about.’

‘About Tim and Gertrude? I don’t know.’

‘What made you so sure in France that they were having an affair, apart from their agitation?’

‘Gertrude said Tim had just arrived, but I looked at his drawings and there were too many local ones, he must have been there several days.’

‘So you think it’ll stick? After Guy, it’s so very odd.’

‘Not really,’ said Manfred. ‘A bereaved woman often falls quickly in love with a quite different man. And as you said yourself, Gertrude is a person who must love somebody. It was a terrible bereavement and she couldn’t bear it alone. She had to run to someone for consolation.’

‘To someone. It’s just as well I forced myself into your car on that occasion.’

‘No force was necessary.’

‘Well, I know you are a man who never does what he doesn’t want to do, that’s why I feel so safe with you. All right, you did what you pleased. But if Gertrude had come on to Rome instead of staying in France she might have fallen in love with you and not with Tim.’

‘And what would I have done then I wonder.’

‘I hate to think. You’ve always wrapped yourself in mystery. I feel I’ve had a narrow escape.’

Manfred smiled his bland smile. He said, ‘You’ve had a narrower escape than you realize, my dear.’

‘You mean that if Gertrude -’

‘Nothing to do with Gertrude.’

‘What then?’

‘I fell in love.’

‘What?’

‘This summer I fell terribly in love.’

‘Oh my God,’ said Mrs Mount. She sat up straight, putting her feet on the rug. ‘Who in heaven’s name with?’

‘Anne Cavidge.’

‘No!’ Mrs Mount was silent, taking it in. Then she said, ‘An unfrocked nun. You would.’

‘You are taking it sensibly.’

‘Were you
afraid
of how I’d take it? That’s some consolation. But I’m not taking it sensibly. I’m shattered, I’m terrified. Are you still in love?’

‘I got nowhere.’

‘
Are you still in love?
’

‘Very considerable discomfort remains. But it will pass. She is gone. I got nowhere.’

‘Oh - poor - old - you - But did you try?’

‘Discreetly. I was soon aware of a major difficulty.’

‘What?’

‘Her affections were engaged elsewhere.’

‘Gertrude.’

‘No, the Count.’

‘
Really?
I had quite set her down as being of the other persuasion. Surely Gertrude was her whole point, the object of her affections, the occasion of her departure?’

‘No doubt she loves Gertrude too,’ said Manfred, ‘but she was madly in love with our Pierre. She
wanted
him.’

‘So you hadn’t a chance.’

‘I hoped.’

‘But why should she run and not fight? Or did you somehow wreck it?’

‘I did nothing. Unlike you, Veronica. I am not prepared to stoop in order to obtain what I want.’

‘You accept the homage.’

‘I’m touched. You like living dangerously.’

‘Anyway, you did nothing. Gertrude acted.’

‘As you said, she simply reached out her hand and secured the Count.’

‘I suspect he was ready to vanish and Gertrude knew it. But was the Count aware of the passion he had inspired in that chaste bosom?’

‘No, I’m sure he had no idea. He loved Gertrude and he classified Anne.’

‘And Gertrude didn’t know?’

‘No. She might have cursed but she would have held back.’

‘I must say, I hardly noticed Anne at all, I couldn’t
see
her -’

‘Yes. A nun’s invisibility. I worshipped it.’

‘Still, it’s strange that I missed the whole business -’

‘Considering how relentlessly you watch. I thought the less you knew the better, dear Veronica.
Je te connais.
’

‘Ah, if I had known it all -’

‘As for Anne not fighting, consider how the poor thing was placed, loving both of them. What could she do? She had to give the Count a clear field. She probably felt she ought to
help
him to secure Gertrude.’

‘She never thought much of Tim.’

‘Then when Tim came back -’

‘The Count didn’t put up much of a fight either.’

‘No. The Count is a moral oddity and so is Anne. They were made for each other, but alas it was not to be.’

‘I think they’re a spineless pair. Couldn’t she have made
some
effort once Tim was back?’

‘The Count was obsessed. I think she hoped to win him by silent patient love. And she didn’t foresee Gertrude’s move.’

‘Then she’s a fool. I would have done. All right, don’t comment. Anyway, she waited and then hey presto it was too late.’

‘She realized how much it meant to Gertrude to have the Count eternally around the place.’

‘And to the Count to survive as Gertrude’s slave. I find it all curiously disgusting. So Anne didn’t try, she ran away. But how do you know all this? She can’t have told you?’

‘
Good heavens
no!’ said Manfred.

‘The sharp eye of love?’

‘I was present when the Count came to Ebury Street soon after Gertrude got back from the north. He was shuddering with emotion. Anne was patently annoyed.’

‘That could have been for the other reason.’

‘I considered that. She may have felt possessive about Gertrude. But when I began to watch there were plenty of other signs. The way she looked at him and -’

‘Yet it remains a supposition?’

‘No, I was very sure. I had the final proof on that Polish Pope evening. The Count and Gertrude were suddenly like young lovers. Anne saw what had happened. She had a look of death in her face.’

‘She always had that look, she looked like a ghost, transparent. But when did you begin to love the cold pale creature?’

‘She impressed me very much on that first occasion when we met her at Ebury Street just after she arrived. She seemed to be something amazing, she had an authority which touched me directly. That was love. Only I didn’t realize it at once.’

‘She still smelt of the convent. But you soon realized?’

‘Yes ... it gradually ... became ... an obsession ...’

‘Oh dear. Oh dear, oh dear. But you said nothing and she didn’t guess? I mean how did you get to know her at all, or did you?’

‘I talked to her quite a lot
dans le cercle.
’

‘But, heavens, were you ever alone with her?’

‘Yes, once.’

‘When, where?’

Manfred shook his head.

‘Did anything happen?’

‘No.’

‘You fool!’

‘It was all so amazing,’ said Manfred. ‘I became a different person, I lived in a different world where everything was huge and bright, but all my ordinary judgements left me. It was as if my mind was drained clean and I had a new mind, beautiful and clear but unfamiliar and hard to manage. All the dull old usual reactions were gone. I didn’t know how to proceed. I felt alienated and awkward and I was so afraid of making a mistake. I was terrified of giving her any shock or hurt and then seeing her draw back. It was wonderful at first that she took me for granted as someone she could easily talk to. I hoped for some miracle of communication, some moment - It was all so precious, so -’

‘So unlike the mediocre scene you usually put up with.’

‘When I was driving her and Gertrude to Cumbria - it became extreme -’

‘Oh
God
! I didn’t come because I thought Anne was chaperoning Gertrude!’

‘It was the other way round. I had Anne sitting next to me part of the way. I nearly went mad.’

‘Your shoulders touched. I can’t bear it!’

‘I hoped she might take some notice. We talked quite a lot, and watching a man drive can interest a girl.’

‘I fell in love with you when you were driving. But then I’ve loved you since the world began, since the big bang or whatever Gerald now thinks was the first thing.’

‘Come Veronica, you’ve loved others.’

‘Bagatelles.’

‘You loved Guy once.’

‘I don’t remember.’

‘I wanted Anne to drive the car. I had a bet with myself that if she drove the car everything would come out right. I knew that as soon as I saw her driving the car I would be uncontrollably in love and perhaps inspired -’

‘But she didn’t?’

‘No.’

‘Nor coming back?’

‘No. But I was in a different mood then.’

‘Less in love?’

‘More in love, but more patient. I was making plans.’

‘You didn’t secretly go to see her in Cumbria - ?’

‘No, no, I didn’t want to intrude on her when she was obsessed with looking after Gertrude. And I felt - not that she was fragile, I think she’s the strongest thing I’ve ever met - but that she was new and strange and a bit lost. She was so much from elsewhere. I thought I had plenty of time, and I thought I was the only one who could
see
her, like you said, about her being invisible. I wasn’t aware of any special danger, except of course the final one of her simply not wanting me, and this was somehow still, I can’t quite express it, all wrapped up in the wonderful totality of her. I just didn’t want to put a foot wrong. And, all the time, she was away in the north, I was so happy, just thinking of her safe up there in that place beside the sea -’

‘Yes. I can recall your happiness. I thought it had another source.’

‘Then when she got back -’

‘You realized you had a rival. But if you had declared yourself she would have succumbed, how could she not.’