assumed Daddy was guilty.”
“He was.”
She simply looked at me and said nothing.
She’d made her demand. A quixotic trip to Somerset to prove her daddy’s innocence. I suppose I should have seen it in her eyes the first moment she mentioned him. To my mind it was misguided and likely to cause us both unnecessary distress, but I was lumbered. I could see she wouldn’t be argued out of it. The best I could do was get some safeguards into the contract.
I said, “If I agree, it’s between you and me, a private trip.
No press. Right?”
She nodded. “I can handle Digby.”
“No pictures. Nothing.”
“Okay.”
“We go today and come back tonight. We can do it in under two hours.”
“Fine.”
“And whatever the outcome, you’re on your own after this.”
“All right.” She held out her hand. “Is it a deal?”
I said, “When you return the gun.”
She gave a slight smile. “I didn’t take it, Theo. It’s in the box in the filing cabinet where I found it. I put it back there when I went to collect my backpack.”
* TEN *
W e were on the A4, heading west to Somerset. Surprised? By now you must have got me down as a hard-nosed opportunist, so I won’t blame you for assuming I reneged on the deal after Alice made an idiot of me over the gun. Only I didn’t.
I’d like you to believe it was because, after all, I’m a man of integrity. Duke’s daughter had asked me to show her the place where the tragedy was enacted, and I was uniquely fitted to act as guide. It was a small repayment on my debt of gratitude to Duke.
I’d like you to believe all that, but you’re sharp enough to see that she still had me by the short and curlies while Digby Watmore was in attendance. Who wants to feature in News on Sunday?
So I remained out of sight while she went out and talked to him. I’m not sure what was said. It took about ten minutes. The photographer got out to say his piece as well and looked decidedly annoyed. But Alice prevailed. Shaking their heads, the two men got back into the car and drove off.
When she came in, she handed me Digby’s card, which he’d wanted me to have in case I changed my mind about a photograph. She told me that he’d promised to keep in touch, and I took the hint. There was to be no ducking out of the Somerset trip.
I insisted that the rucksack traveled with us, telling Alice that she might wish to spend a few days in Somerset. She was a dream of a girl, terrific in bed, only, please God, not mine again. For peace of mind I was going to have to settle for Val, who went at it like a blanket bath but never mentioned her daddy.
For some while the only sound in the car had been the moan of the windscreen wipers working on a steady but meager drizzle. I can assure you that the weather wasn’t on our minds. I was still stewing over Digby when Alice rather fazed me by saying, “I had no idea he would be so handsome.”
I frowned. I simply couldn’t see it.
After a pause she added, “I mean my daddy.”
“Ah.” My brain did some quick backtracking. She must have found those mug shots of Duke in the books on the trial that I’d tried to hide from her. Sad, wasn’t it, that the first sight she’d ever had of her father had to be a picture like that? I don’t know whether you’d agree, but I found it pathetic, really pathetic, in the old-fashioned meaning of the word. It was the kind of thing that gets to me. More touching, I think, because she was unaware of it herself.
I’d be a right bastard to abandon her.
I’m not a total idiot when it comes to women. I know when I’m being manipulated. For two days I’d been putting up a wall of cynicism, and she kept knocking it down.
She continued unselfconsciously and with a touch of pride. “I mean, it’s not surprising that a girl like Barbara should have found him attractive. I can picture that first meeting between them, the day the two guys drove you back to the farm in the jeep. He must have looked
“He was.”
She simply looked at me and said nothing.
She’d made her demand. A quixotic trip to Somerset to prove her daddy’s innocence. I suppose I should have seen it in her eyes the first moment she mentioned him. To my mind it was misguided and likely to cause us both unnecessary distress, but I was lumbered. I could see she wouldn’t be argued out of it. The best I could do was get some safeguards into the contract.
I said, “If I agree, it’s between you and me, a private trip.
No press. Right?”
She nodded. “I can handle Digby.”
“No pictures. Nothing.”
“Okay.”
“We go today and come back tonight. We can do it in under two hours.”
“Fine.”
“And whatever the outcome, you’re on your own after this.”
“All right.” She held out her hand. “Is it a deal?”
I said, “When you return the gun.”
She gave a slight smile. “I didn’t take it, Theo. It’s in the box in the filing cabinet where I found it. I put it back there when I went to collect my backpack.”
* TEN *
W e were on the A4, heading west to Somerset. Surprised? By now you must have got me down as a hard-nosed opportunist, so I won’t blame you for assuming I reneged on the deal after Alice made an idiot of me over the gun. Only I didn’t.
I’d like you to believe it was because, after all, I’m a man of integrity. Duke’s daughter had asked me to show her the place where the tragedy was enacted, and I was uniquely fitted to act as guide. It was a small repayment on my debt of gratitude to Duke.
I’d like you to believe all that, but you’re sharp enough to see that she still had me by the short and curlies while Digby Watmore was in attendance. Who wants to feature in News on Sunday?
So I remained out of sight while she went out and talked to him. I’m not sure what was said. It took about ten minutes. The photographer got out to say his piece as well and looked decidedly annoyed. But Alice prevailed. Shaking their heads, the two men got back into the car and drove off.
When she came in, she handed me Digby’s card, which he’d wanted me to have in case I changed my mind about a photograph. She told me that he’d promised to keep in touch, and I took the hint. There was to be no ducking out of the Somerset trip.
I insisted that the rucksack traveled with us, telling Alice that she might wish to spend a few days in Somerset. She was a dream of a girl, terrific in bed, only, please God, not mine again. For peace of mind I was going to have to settle for Val, who went at it like a blanket bath but never mentioned her daddy.
For some while the only sound in the car had been the moan of the windscreen wipers working on a steady but meager drizzle. I can assure you that the weather wasn’t on our minds. I was still stewing over Digby when Alice rather fazed me by saying, “I had no idea he would be so handsome.”
I frowned. I simply couldn’t see it.
After a pause she added, “I mean my daddy.”
“Ah.” My brain did some quick backtracking. She must have found those mug shots of Duke in the books on the trial that I’d tried to hide from her. Sad, wasn’t it, that the first sight she’d ever had of her father had to be a picture like that? I don’t know whether you’d agree, but I found it pathetic, really pathetic, in the old-fashioned meaning of the word. It was the kind of thing that gets to me. More touching, I think, because she was unaware of it herself.
I’d be a right bastard to abandon her.
I’m not a total idiot when it comes to women. I know when I’m being manipulated. For two days I’d been putting up a wall of cynicism, and she kept knocking it down.
She continued unselfconsciously and with a touch of pride. “I mean, it’s not surprising that a girl like Barbara should have found him attractive. I can picture that first meeting between them, the day the two guys drove you back to the farm in the jeep. He must have looked
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