"Divide and rule… fog of war… propaganda is a powerful-weapon…"
If he understood anything at the end of his cold vigil on that Dorset cliffside, it was that James would not have pressed so hard to find his granddaughter if there had been the remotest chance that he had fathered her. He didn't fear a DNA test for himself, he feared it for Nancy…
…and had done since the calls began…
…better she hate him for rejecting her a second time than drag her into a dirty war over allegations of incest…
…particularly if he knew who her father really was…
Message from Mark
I've picked a side. James is a good guy. If he's told you different he's lying.
18
Wolfie marveled at how clever Fox was as he watched him pretend to Bella that he didn't know anyone had been in the camp. But Wolfie knew he knew. He knew it in the way Fox smiled when Bella told him everything was cooclass="underline" Ivo had taken the chainsaw gang back to work and she and Zadie were about to relieve the guards on the rope. "Oh, and a reporter came," she added lightly. "I explained about adverse possession and she left."
He knew it in the way Fox praised her. "Well done."
Bella looked relieved. "We'll get on then," she said, nodding to Zadie.
Fox blocked her way. "I'll need you to make a phone call later," he told her. "I'll give you a shout when I'm ready."
She was too trusting, thought Wolfie, as her natural bullishness returned with the baldly stated order. "Sod that," she said crossly. "I'm not your fucking secretary. Why can't you do it yourself?"
"I need the address of someone in the area, and I don't think a man will be able to get it. A woman might, though."
"Whose address?"
"No one you know." He held Bella's gaze. "A woman. Goes by the name of Captain Nancy Smith of the Royal Engineers. It'll take one call to her parents to find out where she's staying. You wouldn't have a problem with that, would you, Bella?"
She gave an indifferent shrug, but Wolfie wished she hadn't dropped her gaze. It made her look guilty. "What d'ya want with an army tart, Fox? Ain't you got enough excitement here?"
His lips spread in a slow smile. "Are you offering?"
A flash of something Wolfie didn't understand passed between them, before Bella took a step to the side and walked past him. "You're too deep for me, Fox," she said. "I wouldn't have a clue what I was signing on for if I took you to bed."
Mark found the Colonel in the library, sitting behind his desk. He seemed absorbed in what he was doing, and didn't hear the younger man come in. "Have you called her?" Mark asked urgently, leaning his hands on the wooden surface and nodding toward the phone.
Alarmed, the old man pushed his chair away from the desk, scrabbling his feet on the parquet floor in an attempt to gain some purchase. His face was gray and drawn, and he looked frightened.
"I'm sorry," said Mark, backing away himself and holding up his hands in surrender. "I just wanted to know if you'd phoned Nancy."
James ran his tongue nervously across his lips but it was several seconds before he found his voice. "You gave me a shock. I thought you were-" He broke off abruptly.
"Who? Leo?"
James waved the questions away with a tired hand. "I've written you an official letter-" he nodded to a page on the desk-"asking for a final account and a return of all documents relating to my affairs. I'll settle as promptly as I can, Mark, and afterward you can be assured that your connection with this family is at an end. I have expressed my gratitude-warmly meant-for everything you've done for Ailsa and myself, and all I ask is that you continue to respect my confidence-" there was a painful pause-"particularly where Nancy's concerned."
"I would never betray your confidence."
"Thank you." He signed the letter in a shaking hand and made an attempt to fold it into an envelope. "I'm sorry it had to end this way. I've much appreciated your kindness over the last two years." He abandoned the envelope and offered the letter to Mark. "I do understand how difficult this whole wretched business has been for you. I fear we've both missed Ailsa. She had a way of seeing things in their true light that, sadly, you and I seem unable to do."
Mark wouldn't take the letter. Instead he dropped into a leather armchair beside the desk. "This isn't to stop you sacking me, James-I'm a bloody useless lawyer so I think you probably should-but I'd like to apologize unreservedly for everything I said. There are no excuses for what I've been thinking except that you hit me with those tapes without warning or explanation. En masse they have a powerful effect-particularly as I know that some of the facts are true. The hardest thing to deal with has been Nancy herself. She could be your daughter. Her looks, her mannerisms, her personality-everything… it's like talking to a female version of you." He shook his head. "She's even got your eyes-brown-Elizabeth's are blue. I know there's a rule about that-Mendel's law, I think-that says she can't have a blue-eyed father, but that's no grounds for assuming the nearest brown-eyed man was responsible. What I'm trying to say is that I've let you down. This is the second time I've listened to unpalatable facts delivered by telephone and on both occasions I've believed them." He paused. "I should have been more professional."
James examined him closely for a moment before putting the letter on the desk and clasping his hands on top of it. "Leo always accused Ailsa of thinking the worst," he mused pensively, as if a memory had been triggered. "She said she wouldn't need to if just once or twice the worst hadn't happened. By the end she had such an abhorrence of self- fulfilling prophecies that she refused to comment on anything… which is why this-" he made an all-encompassing gesture to include the terrace and the stack of tapes-"has come as such a shock. She was obviously keeping something from me, but I've no idea what it was… possibly these terrible allegations. The only thing that comforts me in the cold hours of the night is that she wouldn't have believed them."
"No," agreed Mark. "She knew you too well."
The old man gave a faint smile. "I presume Leo's behind it… and I presume it's about money-but in that case why doesn't he say what he wants? I've agonized over it, Mark, and I can't understand what this endless repetition of lies is supposed to achieve. Is it blackmail? Does he believe what he's saying?"
The younger man gave a doubtful shrug. "If he does, then it's Elizabeth who's persuaded him." He reflected for a moment. "Don't you think it more likely Leo's fed the idea to her and she's busy repeating it as fact? She's very suggestible, particularly if it means she can blame someone else for her problems. A false memory of abuse would be right up her street."
"Yes," said James with a small sigh-of relief?-"which is why Mrs. Bartlett is so convinced. She mentions several times that she's met Elizabeth."
Mark nodded.
"But if Leo knows it to be untrue, then he also knows that I merely have to produce Nancy to discredit what he and Elizabeth are saying. So why attempt to ruin my reputation like this?" Mark propped his chin in his hands. He didn't know any better than James, but at least he'd started to think laterally. "Isn't the whole point of the exercise that Nancy doesn't exist for Leo or Elizabeth? They don't even know what name she was given. She's just a question mark on an adoption form more than twenty years ago-and as long as she remains a question mark, they can accuse you of anything they like. If it's any help, I spent the last hour working backward from effect to cause. Maybe you should do the same. Ask yourself what the result of these phone calls has been and then decide if that's the result that was intended. It might give you an idea of what he's after."