There was no time to dwell upon what it would mean -how it would feel – to have Deborah nearly three hundred miles away from the home she'd known all her life. For champagne glasses had been distributed, and Mr Sweeney was enthusiastically seizing the moment. He got to his feet, eager to be the first to embrace such welcome news. Only the Second Coming could have given him more pleasure.
'Then, I must say…' Clumsily he reached for his glass. 'Do let me toast you both. To have you with us again, to have you home, to have you…'He relinquished the attempt to find an appropriate sentiment and merely raised his glass and burbled, 'Simply wonderful,' before he sat down.
Other congratulations followed, and with them were voiced the inevitable questions about engagement and wedding and future life. The meal could have disintegrated at that point into one large display of bonhomie, but Peter Lynley put an end to the promise of that happening.
He stood, holding his champagne glass at arm's length towards his brother. He waved it unevenly. Only the shape of the glass prevented the wine from sloshing out. 'Then, a toast,' he said, drawing out the last word. He leaned one hand on Sasha's shoulder for support. She glanced furtively at Lynley and then said something in a low voice which Peter disregarded. 'To the perfect brother,' he announced. 'Who has managed somehow after searching the world over – not to mention doing a fair degree of sampling the goods as he went. Right, Tommy? – to find the perfect woman with whom he can now have the perfect life. What a damned lucky fellow Lord Asherton is.' He gulped his drink noisily and fell back into his chair.
That cuts it, St James thought. He looked to see how Lynley would handle the matter, but his eyes came to rest upon Deborah instead. Face pinched, she ducked her head. No matter that her humiliation was both unwarranted and unnecessary considering its source, the fact of it alone provided a spur. St James pushed his own chair back and rose awkwardly.
'The issue of perfection is always open to debate,' he said. 'I'm not eloquent enough to argue it here. I drink instead to Tommy – oldest of my friends – and to Deborah – dearest companion of my exile. My own life has been richer indeed for having had both of you part of it.'
A swell of general approbation followed his words, on the heel of which the Plymouth MP lifted his glass and managed to turn his own toast into a speech cataloguing his accomplishments and his steadfast, if highly unlikely, belief in the reincarnation of the Cornish mining industry, a topic upon which Lady Augusta waxed wildly enthusiastic for several more minutes. At the end of this time, it seemed clear that, whatever damage Peter Lynley had attempted to do, the company seemed intent upon ignoring him altogether – a determination fortified by
Lady Asherton, who announced with a resolute air of good cheer that coffee, port, and all the postprandial et ceteras would be in the drawing room.
Unlike the dining room with its silver candelabra and unobtrusive wall sconces, the drawing room was brightly lit by its two chandeliers. Here, a serving table had been laid with a coffee service and another with brandy, balloon glasses, liqueurs. With his own coffee in hand, St James made his way to a Hepplewhite settee which was centrally located in the room. He sat and placed his coffee on the side-table. He didn't really want it, couldn't think why he had taken one in the first place.
'My dear' – Lady Augusta had buttonholed Deborah by the grand piano – 'I want to hear about every change you've got planned for Howenstow.'
'Change?' Deborah asked her blankly.
'The nurseries need to be updated like mad. You'll know that already.'
'Actually, I haven't had a chance to think much about it.'
'I know you have this charming little hobby of photography – Daze told me all about it last week – but I'm glad to say you don't look at all the type of woman who's going to put off having children in favour of a career.' As if seeking affirmation for her statement, she stepped back and looked Deborah over, like a breeder assessing the potential of a mare.
'I'm a professional photographer,' Deborah told her, stressing the adjective politely.
Lady Augusta waved that off like a fly. 'You won't let that get in the way of the children.'
Dr Trenarrow, passing by, came to Deborah's rescue. 'Times have changed, Augusta. We no longer live in an age where merit is determined by one's ability to reproduce. And thank God for that. Think of the limitless possibilities presented in eschewing procreation. No more thinning of familial gene pools. A future without bleeders. No Saint Vitus' dance.'
'Oh, rubbish, you scientists,' was Lady Augusta's riposte, but she was abashed enough to seek another conversational prey and headed in the direction of John Penellin who was standing by the doorway to the Elizabethan gallery, brandy in hand.
St James watched her close in on the estate manager, her fluttering scarf and ample posterior making her resemble nothing so much as the stern of a ship under sail. He heard her call out, 'Those mines, Mr Penellin,' before he turned away to find Deborah had come to join him.
'Please don't get up.' She sat beside him. She was taking neither coffee nor liqueur.
'You've survived.' He smiled. 'Even with the silver. Not a single mistake, as far as I could tell.'
'Everyone's been more than kind,' she said. 'Well, nearly everyone. Peter was…' She looked round the room as if in search of Lynley's brother, and she sighed, perhaps feeling relief that he and Sasha had left the party altogether. 'Did I look petrified when I first came downstairs? I must have. Everyone was treating me like porcelain before dinner.'
'Not at all.' St James reached for his coffee, but merely turned the cup aimlessly in its saucer. He wondered why Deborah had joined him like this. Her place was with Lynley who, along with Justin Brooke and Sidney, was steeped in conversation with the Plymouth MP. He heard their laughter, heard Brooke say, 'Too right,' heard one of them comment on the Labour Party. Sidney said something about the Prime Minister's hair. There was another burst of laughter.
Next to him, Deborah stirred, but didn't speak. It was unlikely that she had joined him for the sake of companionship or a quick post-mortem of the evening's events. Yet this reticence was out of character as well. He looked up from his contemplation of her engagement ring – a heavy emerald set off with diamonds – and found her studying him with an intensity that brought the heat to his face. This sudden loss of his habitual detachment was as disconcerting as was her unnatural diffidence. We're a fine pair, he thought.
'Why did you call me that, Simon? In the dining room?'
So much for diffidence. 'It seemed the right thing. After all, it's the truth. You were there through everything, both you and your father.'
'I see.' Her hand lay next to his. He had noticed this before but had chosen to ignore it, making a deliberate effort not to move away from her like a man afraid of the potential for contact. His fingers were relaxed. He willed them to be so. And although a single movement, wearing the guise of inadvertence, would have been sufficient to cover her hand with his own he took care to maintain between them an appropriately discreet and utterly hypocritical four inches of beautifully upholstered Hepplewhite.
The gesture, when it came, was hers. She touched his hand lightly, an innocent contact that broke through his barriers. The movement meant nothing; it promised even less. He knew that quite well. But despite this his fingers caught hers and held.
'I do want to know why you said it,' she repeated.
There was no point. It could only lead nowhere. Or, worse, it could lead to an unbridled bout of suffering he'd prefer not to face.