White Mischief by James Fox Page A

terrified houseboy all through the property, swearing to kill him. When Gloria, his mistress, and later his wife, told the servant who brought the tea to take the remainder of the chocolate cake for himself, Soames said, “You’re not going to give the cake to those baboons, are you?”
    One morning when there was nothing better to entertain his guests, Soames suggested target practice. No one needed reminding that there was a war on. Broughton was all in favour: it was essential, he felt, that Diana should learn how to defend herself with a revolver. A target was set up. Broughton, Diana and Soames, watched by other members of the house party, shot fifty or sixty rounds into the undergrowth. Diana usually hit the target, but most of Broughton’s shots went wide.
    Broughton and Diana returned to Nairobi around November 25th. Broughton left again almost immediately to visit the farm in which he had an interest, on Lake Naivasha. He was away for the Caledonian Ball at the Muthaiga Club on November 30th. That was the night that Joss Erroll and Diana met for the first time.
    Diana had been upstairs in her room writing letters before dinner. As she came down the staircase she saw three men sitting on the sofa, all laughing, one of them dressed in a kilt. When their eyes met, as she recalled later, “I had the extraordinary feeling, if you can understand it, that I was suddenly from that moment the most important thing in his life.” Erroll asked her to dine with him. She asked how many people would be there. Sheknew it would be impossible for them to meet alone without showing her own feelings. She had, after all, been married for less than one month. Erroll, on the other hand, was free. His marriages were in the past, and his current affair with Mrs. Wirewater was conducted now by correspondence between Nairobi and Cape Town, where she had gone to install her children in school.
    When they did find themselves alone for the first time, and even before the first embrace, before, as Diana described it, “there had been anything in any shape or form,” let alone a declaration of love on either side, Erroll said to her, “Well, who’s going to tell Jock? You or I?” It was in fact almost six weeks before Erroll and Broughton met to discuss the topic. In the meantime, Diana had fallen in love for the first time in her life.
    When Broughton returned to Nairobi two days later, he and Diana settled in to what appeared to be a rhythm of lunches and dinners at the Muthaiga Club, of croquet games, bridge, backgammon and tea parties. Erroll was now constantly in the Club. The military headquarters, where he worked, was near by, and his house only a few hundred yards away. Broughton, who had known him slightly from previous visits, struck up a friendship with him. By the beginning of December, Broughton and Diana rarely had a meal without sharing their table with Erroll. Even when Diana had other plans, Broughton and Erroll usually lunched together. *
    What did Broughton think of Erroll? He described him as an “out and outer,” but also “one of the most amusing men I have ever met,” and above all Broughton wanted to be amused. He was also flattered by the attentionsof a younger man—it revived his self-image as one of the most glamorous officers in the Irish Guards.
    “If you can make a great friend in two months,” he said in court, “then Joss Erroll I should describe as a great friend.” These were happy meals. Broughton could dazzle his new friend with his stories of the Liverpool Cup. the London seasons, the peculiar cases he had heard as Chairman of the Nantwich Bench, the affairs of his closest friends, and sample, in return, Erroll’s caustic wit and flashes of unashamed self-revelation.
    Meanwhile, Diana had acquired two constant companions—her old friend Hugh Dickinson and a new one. Major Richard (Dickie) Pembroke, who had arrived in the course of duty. In fact, Pembroke had fallen in love with the wife of a