The Valley of Bones - Anthony Powell [63]
She went rather pink.
‘Priscilla’s made a hit,’ said Umfraville.
I asked Flavia whether she ever saw her mother’s former secretary, Miss Weedon, who had married my parents’ old acquaintance, General Conyers.
‘Oh, Tuffy,’ she said. ‘She used to be my governess, you know. Yes, I visited her only the other day. It is all going very well. The General read aloud to us an article he had written about heightened bi-sexuality in relation to early religiosity. He is now much more interested in psychoanalysis than in his ’cello playing.’
‘What does he think about the war?’
‘He believed a German offensive would start any moment then, probably in several places at once.’
‘In fact this Norwegian and Danish business was the beginning.’
‘I suppose so.’
‘It doesn’t sound as if things are going too well,’ Umfraville said, ‘I think we’ve taken some knocks.’
Priscilla returned.
‘It was about the brooch,’ she said. ‘Mr Stevens can’t do it himself, as one of the stones has come out, but he has arranged for someone he knows to mend it. He just wanted to warn me that he wouldn’t have it for me when he came to pick up Nick in the car.’
‘I said he was a very polite young man,’ remarked Frederica, giving her sister rather a cold look.
The rest of the weekend passed with the appalling rapidity of wartime leave, melting away so quickly that one seemed scarcely to have arrived before it was time to go. Dinner was a trifle gloomy on that account, conversation fragmentary, for the most part about the news that evening.
‘I wonder whether this heavy bombing is a prelude to a move in France,’ said Robert. ‘What do you think, Dicky?’
‘That will be the next thing.’
Towards the end of the meal, the telephone bell sounded.
‘Do answer it, Nick,’ said Frederica. ‘You’re nearest the door.’
She spoke from the kitchen, where she was making coffee. The telephone was installed in a lobby off the hall. I went out to it. A man’s voice asked if he were speaking to Frederica’s number.
‘Yes.’
‘Is Lance-Corporal Tolland there?’
‘Who is speaking?’
He named some army unit. As I returned to the dining-room, a knocking came from the front door. I told Robert he was wanted on the telephone.
‘Shall I answer the door, Frederica?’
‘It’s probably the vicar about a light showing,’ she said. ‘He’s an air-raid warden and frightfully fussy. Bring him in, if it is. He might like a cup of coffee.’
However, a tall naval officer was on the step when I opened the door. He had just driven up in a car.
‘This is Lady Frederica Budd’s house?’
‘Yes.’
‘I must apologize for calling at this hour of the night, but I believe my step-daughter, Mrs Wisebite, is staying here.’
‘She is.’
‘There are some rather urgent business matters to talk over with her. I heard she was here for a day or two, and thought Lady Frederica would not mind if I dropped in for a moment. I am stationed in the neighbourhood – at her brother, Lord Warminster’s house, as a matter of fact.’
‘Come in. You’re Commander Foxe, aren’t you. I’m Nicholas Jenkins. We’ve met once or twice in the past.’
‘Good God, of course we have,’ said Buster. ‘This is your sister-in-law’s house?’
‘Yes.’
‘You were a friend of Charles’s, weren’t you. This is splendid.’
Commander Foxe did not sound as if he thought finding me at Frederica’s was as splendid as all that, even though he seemed relieved that his arrival would be cushioned by an introduction. Another sponsor would certainly be preferable, since any old friend of Stringham’s was bound to have heard many stories to his own discredit. However, Buster, although he had that chronic air some men possess of appearing to consider all other men potential rivals, put a reasonably good face on it. For my own part, I suddenly thought of what Dicky Umfraville had told me. He would hardly welcome this arrival. There was nothing to be done about that. I took Buster along to the sitting-room, where the rest of the party were now sitting. Buster had evidently planned a fairly dramatic entry.
‘I really must apologize, Lady Frederica—’ he began to say, as he came through the door.