Harriet took a deep breath. ‘I overheard your conversation with Simon on the telephone. I want to see Cory at once.’
Not a flicker of an eyelid did Noel betray her surprise. ‘My dear, he’s not here. He went out half-an-hour ago. I don’t know when he’ll be back. I think we’d better have a little chat together. Simon, angel, would you excuse us a minute?’
Shepherding Harriet into the drawing room, she shut the door behind them.
Harriet sat down on the sofa. Her knees wouldn’t stop trembling. Noel started pouring herself a drink.
‘How can I make you understand,’ she began, ‘that I really love Cory? I admit I behaved badly in the past. But now it’s different. I know he’s the only person for me, and I’ll do anything to get him back.’
‘Like bringing your latest lover up here to lure me away and offering him the bait of a big film part?’
Noel banged the whisky bottle down on the metal tray.
‘Oh, God!’ she shouted. ‘Grow up! I know you’re nuts about Cory, but he doesn’t give a damn about your stupid passion. I tried to let you out easily by getting Simon up here. He’s ambitious as hell, that boy. He needed a bit of incentive. But if you honestly think I’m intending to have a prolonged affair with him and give him the lead in my next film, you need your head examined!’
She spoke as though Simon was a nasty mark on a new dress that the dry cleaners would have no trouble removing.
Harriet ran a dry tongue over her lips. ‘I know Cory loves you, but he also likes me here looking after the children.’
‘Darling,’ Noel’s eyes were huge now and strangely gentle. ‘I did want to let you down easily. I admit I was the tiniest bit jealous of you. The children are wild about you, and so was Kit; and even Cory, who’s notoriously hard to please, regarded you with something close to approval. But I got a letter from him this morning, which really convinced me I’ve got nothing to worry about.’
She opened her bag and took out a sheet of thick azure writing-paper and handed it to Harriet. The black, almost illegible writing was unmistakable.
‘Oh, darling,’ she read. ‘I’m totally destroyed. Ever since you left yesterday, I know that it’s impossible for me to live without you any longer. I give in. Please, please come back, on any terms. I don’t care. The thought that you could feel jealous of that zombie who looks after the children would be ludicrous, if it weren’t tragic that something so trivial could keep us apart. I’ve got no complaints about her work, but she’ll leave tomorrow if it means your coming back any sooner.’
If you walk into a torture chamber and ask to be tortured, Harriet reflected, you can’t complain of the pain. Very carefully she folded Cory’s letter and put it on the table, and sat still for a minute.
‘And you’d like me to go now?’ she said numbly.
Noel nodded. ‘I think it would be better in every way. There’s no need to say goodbye to the children. It’ll only upset them. They need a mother and, from now on, I shall stay at home and look after them.’
‘May I leave a letter for Cory telling him I’m going?’
‘Of course you may,’ said Noel kindly.
Before Harriet left, Noel gave her a cheque for £100. ‘We wouldn’t want you to starve.’
Harriet wished she were in a position to refuse.
Chapter Twenty-four
Harriet sat watching the smouldering log fire. She had been home with her parents a week now, and all was forgiven. But the peace and resignation she craved had not come. If it hadn’t been for William, she would never have had the strength to go on living. What’s going to happen to me? she thought in panic. I can’t lump a broken heart around for the rest of my life.
None of the loose ends seemed to tie up either. Why had Cory come to her bedroom that last evening and tried to persuade her not to go off with Simon? Why hadn’t he been home when she and Simon had returned later? One would have thought he’d be so delirious to have Noel back he’d never have left her side.
But as the days passed, it became increasingly obvious that she couldn’t go on without news of him, until she knew that he and the children were all right. And what about Sevenoaks? She had put a PS on her letter asking Cory to look after him till she found a job where she could keep him. But how long would it be before Noel persuaded Cory that Sevenoaks was too much of a nuisance? But how could she find out how things were going? If she rang Mrs Bottomley Noel might easily answer the telephone. Then she remembered Kit. Of course. He would certainly have news of Cory. The number was permanently engaged when she rang. He must have taken the telephone off the hook.
‘I’m going up to London,’ she said to her mother, as she went into the kitchen. ‘I’ll take William with me.’
Upstairs she glared at her worn reflection in the mirror. ‘I’m almost beyond redemption,’ she sighed sadly. But she brushed her hair until it shone, put on the grey dress Cory had given her, and tried, without much success, to paint the circles out from under her eyes.
Kit’s studio was in Islington. There was no answer when Harriet rang the bell. He must be out, she thought despairingly. It was nearly half past four and the milk hadn’t been taken in. She rang again. Still no answer. Heavy-hearted, she started down the steps when the door opened and Kit, a golden giant, dishevelled and naked to the waist, stood blinking down at her. Then he gave a bellow of rage like an apoplectic colonel, which sent her even further down the steps.
‘Harriet!’ he shouted. ‘Where the bloody hell do you think you’re going?’
He bounded down the stairs, grabbed her by the scruff of the neck and pulled her inside the house. Then slammed the door and leant his huge shoulders against it.
‘You little bitch!’ he swore at her. ‘After all your cant about loyalty. God, you make me sick!’
‘W-what’s the m-matter?’ she faltered.
William had started to howl. Harriet herself was close to tears, when a ravishingly pretty coloured girl wandered out of a bedroom, wearing a scanty orange towel.
‘What is all this noise, Keet?’ she said yawning.
‘Tangie, darling,’ said Kit, taking the howling child from Harriet and handing him to her. ‘Take this sweet little baby away and keep him quiet for a minute or two.’
The coloured girl’s eyes flashed.
‘Oh, no,’ said Kit hastily, ‘he’s not mine, scout’s honour! Nothing to do with me. Nor is she either, thank God. She’s got herself mixed up with my unfortunate brother, Cory.’
William looked dubiously up at the sleek black face, but he stopped crying.
‘Give him back to me,’ protested Harriet.
‘Shut up!’ snarled Kit and, propelling her into the nearest room, shut the door behind them.
‘Well?’ he said, towering above her like some avenging angel. ‘What made you do it? Swanning off with lover boy without a word of explanation.’
‘It wasn’t like that!’ protested Harriet.
‘Go on then,’ said Kit coldly. ‘Amaze me.’
‘I didn’t go off with Simon, and I left a letter for Cory with Noel.’
‘The great postmistress,’ said Kit acidly. ‘You’re even more stupid than I thought.’
He got up and poured himself a drink. ‘I suppose you’d better tell me the whole story.’
When she had finished, he said, ‘Noel seems to have overreached herself this time. I told you never to believe a word she says. She must have torn your letter up and told Cory you’d done a bunk with Simon. He’s still divorcing her. The case comes up next week.’
‘It is?’ Harriet whispered incredulously. ‘But what about that letter from Cory Noel showed me, begging her to come back?’