Old Sins (3 page)

‘Ah. I see.’

‘I was just saying,’ said Letitia, ‘that I wished Susan would arrive.’

‘So do I. And I really don’t want her to go and live in Wiltshire, with the best people.’

‘Well,’ said Letitia quietly, ‘it will suit her. She is one of the very best. Oh, Susan darling, there you are. I was just saying you were one of the very best people.’

Susan Brookes had hurried into the room; she smiled at Letitia and bent and kissed her cheek. ‘Not by your standards I’m not. I’m surprised at you, Letitia. Letting the side down like that. And me only an honorary member of this family. Sacrilege.’

‘Oh, Susan, don’t be difficult,’ said Roz. ‘And come and sit by Granny Letitia. She’s in a naughty mood. She needs keeping in order. And if I can find C. J. I’ll ask for a drink for you. What would you like?’

‘Tea, please,’ said Susan. ‘I haven’t missed anything
important, have I? And I don’t suppose there’s anything to eat, is there? I’m famished.’

Roz looked at her and smiled again, leant forward and kissed her gently on the cheek. Susan was a tall, thin woman with bright brown hair, heavily flecked with grey; she was not classically good-looking but with a strong humorous face, a clear beautiful skin and startlingly bright blue eyes. She was in her mid sixties now, and in some ways she looked older, as her face tended to gauntness. But she had a style of her own: she was beautifully and very simply dressed in a navy wool suit and cream silk shirt, her only jewellery a pearl necklace and earrings, which no one, with the exception of Letitia, could ever remember seeing her without.

‘Oh Susan,’ said Roz, feeling much better suddenly, restored to something near normality, ‘can any of us think of an occasion when you didn’t feel famished? I’ll get C. J. to find something for you.’

She walked out of the door again; Susan and Letitia looked after her.

‘How is she, do you think?’ asked Susan quietly.

‘I think she’s in a terrible state,’ said Letitia. ‘Eaten up with hatred of Phaedria, who she seems to blame in some way for Julian’s death, desperately unhappy, wretched that she didn’t say goodbye to him – oh, I know it was her own fault –’

‘Poor Roz,’ said Susan. ‘Poor, poor Roz. I’ve known her all her life, and I’ve never felt sorrier for her than I do now. What on earth can we do to help her?’

‘God knows,’ said Letitia with a sigh. ‘God knows. She will persist in making things worse for herself. She always has, of course. And Phaedria too, I feel so sorry for her. She looks dreadful, poor child. So alone. Well, perhaps today will help in some way. Although I can’t imagine how.’

Absolutely on cue, Henry Winterbourne suddenly appeared in the room, followed by Jane with yet more files (I bet they’re just for show, thought Roz) and C. J. bearing a tray and looking like a particularly inept waiter as he hurried round trying to deliver his complex order.

Henry took up his place at the head of the table, his back to the window. ‘Good morning,’ he said. ‘I am extremely sorry to
have kept you waiting. A very tedious call from New York. Do forgive me.’

He opened the top file on the table, took a large envelope out of it and set it firmly in front of him. Everyone slowly, very slowly, as if in a badly directed play, took up new positions. Phaedria got up and sat with her back to the fire at the end of the table, pulling her coat more closely round her. Peveril sat next to her, assuming an oddly protective role. Eliza settled in the chair next to him. Camilla stood up and walked round to take up the chair nearest to Henry. Letitia and Susan stopped talking. Roz took up a challenging position, standing alone by the door, every ounce of her formidable energy focused on Henry’s face.

Henry smiled faintly round the room, catching everyone’s eye in turn with the right amount of sadness and sympathy, bestowing a smile here, a conspiratorial look there. Smooth bastard, thought C. J., finally divesting himself of the tray and moving over to sit next to Susan.

‘Lady Morell, are you all right?’ said Henry suddenly.

Everyone looked at Phaedria; she was resting her head on her hands on the table. She appeared to be about to faint.

‘Phaedria, let me take you outside,’ said C. J.

‘I’ll take her,’ said Eliza, getting up and crossing over to Phaedria, putting her arm around her shoulders. ‘She needs some air.’

‘No, no really I’m all right,’ said Phaedria, ‘I’m sorry, just a bit dizzy, that’s all. Perhaps I could have a glass of water.’

‘I’ll get it,’ said C. J. quickly, grateful for something to do.

‘C. J.,’ said Roz from where she was standing, ‘do settle down, you’ve been rushing round with drinks all morning. Jane will fetch Phaedria a glass of water, I’m sure. Jane dear,’ she called through the doorway, at Jane’s back, ‘could you fetch Lady Morell a glass of water, please? The strain of the occasion is proving a little too much for her.’

She watched Phaedria carefully as she took the glass of water, sipped at it half-heartedly, put it down, leant back in her chair, shaking the dark waterfall of hair from her face. Looking at her, Roz did have to admit she looked ill. Her skin was starkly white, rather than its usual creamy pale, and she seemed thinner than ever, shrunk into herself. God, she hated her. So
much, Phaedria had taken from her, so much that should have been hers, and what were they all to learn now, how much more was to go Phaedria’s way, away from her, Julian Morell’s daughter, his only child, his rightful heir? Roz swallowed, fixed her eyes on Henry’s face. She must concentrate. The words she was to hear, had to hear, were what mattered just now, not her thoughts, her emotions. Time for them later.

‘Very well,’ said Henry. ‘Perhaps I could begin. Now as you may appreciate, this is an out of the ordinary occasion. These days, public readings of wills are very unusual. Although, of course, perfectly legal. And it was at Sir Julian’s request that it should be conducted in this way. In the presence of you all. He particularly specified that you should all –’ His gaze fell briefly, unbidden, on Camilla, then shifted hastily again. ‘All be here. There are of course minor beneficiaries, staff and so on, who were not required to attend. So – perhaps the best thing now is just for me to read the will. If any of you have any – comments, or questions, perhaps you could save them to the end.’

Christ, thought Roz, what on earth is the old woman going on about?

She shifted her weight slightly on to the other leg, took a sip of her drink, and fixed her eyes on Henry’s face again.

Henry began to read: ‘I, Julian Morell, of Hanover Terrace, London, N.W.1, Company Director, hereby revoke all previous wills and testamentary dispositions . . .’

It began slowly, with a trickle of small bequests; it was like the start of a party, Roz thought, with only one or two guests arrived, making stiff and stilted conversation. The atmosphere was cold, tense, uncomfortable.

There were five-thousand-pound legacies for minor staff: the housekeeper and the gardener at the house in Sussex, the part-time secretary Julian had employed in Paris for ten years, and elderly Mrs Bagnold who had directed the cleaners of the offices in Dover Street for longer than anyone could remember.

Mrs Bagnold was also bequeathed a set of ‘Victorian watercolours she had once admired, to do exactly what she likes with, she may sell them tomorrow if she wishes, without fear of incurring my displeasure from wherever I may be.’

As Henry read out this part of the will, Phaedria looked up
and caught Letitia’s eye, in a sudden flash of humour. He is still fun, that look said, he is still making life good.

‘To Sarah Brownsmith, my patient and very loyal secretary, I bequeath £10,000, both early Hockneys, and the use of my house on Eleuthera in the Bahamas, for at least one month a year, at a time mutually agreeable to her and my wife. This is in the devout hope that as she lies in the sunshine, she will think kindly of me and forgive me the many years of exasperation and overwork I have inflicted upon her.

‘To the head waiter at the Mirabelle Restaurant, the chief wine waiter at the Connaught Hotel and my good friend Peter Langan, the sum of £5,000 each for the great happiness and gastronomic good fortune they have brought me.

‘To Martin Dodsworth, my trainer, £10,000, my three Stubbs, and my brood mare Prince’s Flora, and to Michael O’Leary, my jockey, £5,000 and a yearling of his choice from my stable. To Tony Price, my groom, the same.

‘To Jane Gould, secretary to my solicitor, Henry Winterbourne, I bequeath my Hispano Suiza because I know how much pleasure it will give her, and a £1,000 a year maintenance allowance with which to care for it.’

Jane, sitting quietly at the back of the room, beamed with pleasure; she and her husband belonged to the MG Club and were staunch followers of the London to Brighton rally, but the possession of such a car was quite beyond the dreams of her own personal avarice. Roz wondered briefly and rather irritably where the rest of the Morell vintage car stable would go; her father had known how much she loved them. It would be very sad if the collection was to be broken up and scattered piecemeal. If this was a taster of the rest of the will, she didn’t like it at all.

‘To my good friend Peveril, Earl of Garrylaig, my Holbein, and the two Rembrandts, which will hang so happily in the gallery at Garrylaig, and my grandfather’s guns, which have always deserved better hands than mine to rest in.’

‘I say, how kind,’ murmured Peveril, flushed with pleasure (more at the contemplation of the guns than the Rembrandts). Eliza smiled at him fondly and patted his hand.

The party had begun now; the room was humming with tension and nervous energy.

‘To my first wife, Eliza, Countess of Garrylaig, in appreciation for the gift of my daughter Rosamund, and for several interesting and entertaining years –’ Henry at this point cleared his throat, reached for a glass of water and paused a moment ‘– I bequeath my collections of Lalique glass and Chiparus figures, and my apartment in Sutton Place, New York, all of which I know will give her immense pleasure and be put to excellent use.’

‘That’s true,’ said Eliza.

There was a brief silence.

‘To Camilla North, in recognition of many years of tolerance, companionship and wisdom, I bequeath the following: my apartment in Sydney, my hunter, Rose Red, and my collection of Sydney Nolans, as a memento of the expertise and pleasure she gave me in the course of their collection.’

That’s a lot, thought Roz, illogically pleased. A lot for a mistress. Even a long-standing one. That’s a smack in the eye for Phaedria. Without even realizing she was doing it she smiled at Camilla; Letitia reflected it was the first time she had probably ever voluntarily done such a thing, and shuddered mildly at what she could only assume was the reason.

Camilla’s beautiful face was expressionless; she sat with her eyes fixed on Henry, her hands clasped loosely in her lap. No one was to know that she was concentrating with some fervour on her relaxation therapy, and that if she gave up for one moment, stopped breathing deeply, chanting her mantra silently to herself, she would be in grave danger of bursting into tears, hysterical laughter or both.

‘To my very dear friend Susan Brookes, who has worked with me for so many years on this company, and without whom I would not be where I am today, I bequeath my house in Nice, and the sum of £5 million free of tax.’

Good God, thought Roz. He isn’t leaving anyone else that sort of money. What on earth has he done that for?

Then she saw Susan looking at her: flushed, her eyes suspiciously bright. Watched her as she unmistakably winked at her and realized why: to give Susan pleasure to be sure, but also to burden her, discomfort her in her passionate, between-the-wars socialism, leave her wondering what on earth to do with it. They had been such good friends, such affectionately
life-long opponents, Susan and her father, and she was the one person he had never quite been able to get the better of. Until now.

Oh well, thought Roz. No doubt the Labour Party and Mother Teresa will be benefiting considerably from that. She was wrong.

‘This bequest is for the sole benefit of Mrs Brookes, and is not to be passed on to anyone with the exception of Mrs Brookes’ two daughters; should the house in Nice be sold, the monies realized should pass to her daughters also.’

Oh God, thought Roz. Oh God, he was a clever awkward bastard. She looked at Susan and smiled, winked back. She felt briefly better.

‘To my son-in-law Christopher John Emerson, I bequeath my two Monets, my collection of Cartier cufflinks, all the shares in my property company in the Caribbean, my hotels in the Seychelles, and the Bahamas, neither of which would have been so successfully built without his commercial and visual skills, and the 1950 Rolls Corniche which he has always so admired. Plus the entire contents of my wine cellar, in recognition of the knowledge and appreciation he will bring to it. I expect it to be added to with wines which will grace and indeed improve it.’

Suddenly, Roz felt, her father was back with them, in the room, charming, witty, civilized; she saw him looking at her, smiling, trying to win her over, make her do what he wanted, she could hear his voice, see his graceful, deceptively relaxed figure, feel herself being pulled into the wilful web he spun around everyone who was close to him. She swallowed hard, blinked away the rising tears; tried to concentrate on the present.

Phaedria was sitting very upright now, her dark eyes fixed on Henry’s face; she had taken off her coat at last. She was wearing a dress of brilliant peacock blue, as bright, brighter than Letitia’s red suit, but what on Letitia looked defiant, courageous, on Phaedria seemed odd, shocking, inappropriate.

And now it was Letitia’s turn: ‘To my mother, my best and dearest friend, I bequeath £3 million free of tax from my Guernsey bank account, the whole of which may be spent at Harrods should she so wish, my hotel in Paris, in recognition of
her great love for the city, and my entire collection of historic cars, with the exception of the Hispano Suiza and the Rolls Corniche already mentioned, knowing how much she will love and enjoy them. And what an adornment she will be on the occasions she drives any of them, which I trust will be frequently. Should she wish to dispose of them for any reason, I would only request that a Motor Museum should be established in my name and the entire collection should be placed within it. Also, my first edition prints of
Jungle Book
, and an oil painting of Edward Prince of Wales by Sir James Holbrooke, in acknowledgement of the important part she played in his life.’