‘What’s new, then?’ Mattie enquired, as she led Brutus out.
‘What’s new,’ said Ruby, ‘is that, unless we all take care, that black boy the other lot adopted is going to scoop the pool.’
‘Oh, yes? How come, then?’
‘Mrs Leyden has taken a fancy to him.’
‘She took a fancy to me once. Wanted me to go in for show jumping or eventing or something of that. “My neck’s my own,” I said. “I’ll break it my way, not yours”.’
‘This wretched boy is playing up to her.’
‘Not to worry. She’ll see through him in time if that’s what he’s up to.’
‘She hasn’t seen through me yet.’
‘That’s different. She’s got ambitions for you and I reckon they’re the same as you got for yourself.’
At this point Fiona turned up at the stables. Mattie, who was facing that way, had seen her leave the house. But for her breeches and boots, Fiona would have walked well, but in her riding clothes she needed to be in the saddle before she became graceful once more, thought Mattie.
‘Hullo,’ Fiona said, coming up to the other two. ‘Oh, I see Ruby is taking Brutus. What do I get, Mattie?’
‘Emperor. You’re longer in the leg than Ruby.’
‘I’d rather have Clytie.’
‘I had her out yesterday. Emperor needs a run. You’ll find him frisky. Don’t let him gallop you over the edge of the cliff.’
‘That’ll be the day.’ Fiona mounted and soon put the good-looking horse to a canter over the downland turf. The June morning was fresh and cool at that early hour, but there was a mist over the sea which gave promise of heat to come.
There was half a mile of level ground before the cliff-top dipped between the two headlands. The canter changed to a gallop, but as they approached the downward slope Fiona pulled up. The horse tossed his head and snorted, but otherwise stood steadily enough while his rider looked southward at the sea.
Far beyond her, the headland called Scar Point, craggy, dark and forbidding, stretched out its long neck towards a single rocky island. Around this the sea creamed and snarled. When, letting the reins fall slack, Fiona turned sideways in the saddle to look back, the great bulk of St Oleg’s Head stood guard over one of the many tiny coves by which the surf-thundering waters encroached, as far as the rock-coast would allow them, upon the turf-clothed land.
On the cliff-top clumps of gorse hid rabbit burrows.
Rabbit droppings and those of the downland sheep were everywhere. A solitary Scots pine, either an invader or the last sentinel left behind by an army of trees long gone, was growing almost on the edge of the cliff. The wide, unbroken sky was too nebulous and pale to be called blue and, so early in the morning, there was no distinction to be drawn between it and the misty sea, for the vague horizon could not be defined. A herring gull swooped, dipped and glided, and then took powerful wing towards the tiny harbour where the fishing boats came in.
There was the regular rhythmic drumming from the hoofs of a cantering horse and then Ruby reined in beside Fiona and said: ‘I want to talk to you.’
‘This is neither the time nor the place. I’m out for a ride, not an argument.’
‘You know how difficult it is to hold private conversations up at the house. Madame calls it ‘whispering in corners’. I suppose being so rich makes her suspicious when two of her hangers-on start getting together and going into a huddle.’
‘You may be a hanger-on; in fact I think you are one. I happen to work for what I get.’
Ruby was not prepared to take umbrage. ‘Look, I know you don’t like me very much,’ she said.
‘Sometimes, and this is one of them, I don’t like you at all. I suppose you want to talk about last night,’ said Fiona, regretfully resigned to abandoning her contemplation of cliffs, island, sea and sky.
‘Well, you and I are in the same boat, you know,’ said Ruby placatingly.
‘I am rather particular about my shipmates.’
‘Until the boat begins to founder. People are glad enough of them then, if only as companions in distress, which I reckon we are.’
‘I don’t envisage any distress.’
‘Then there’s something wrong with your eyesight. Madame talked nothing but family last night and has obviously taken a fancy to that black boy, into the bargain.’
‘Well, he is family, I suppose. It’s a legal adoption and he counts as Bluebell’s son.’
‘The little beast was sucking up to Madame the whole evening.’
‘No, I don’t believe it was that. I think they simply got on well together. I was watching them.’
‘You know how easily she’s flattered.’
‘I have no doubt you do.’
‘You won’t gain anything by quarrelling with me. We’ve got to get together and protect our interests.’
‘Look, Ruby, I am not quarrelling, neither am I a gold-digger. This question of gain is as unimportant to me as it seems to be obsessive with you.’
‘You’ll find it important enough when Headlands is sold up and whichever one of them has been left the property slings us out on our ear. Wake up! We’ve got to do something about it,’ said Ruby.
At the house itself another colloquy had taken place the night before.
‘So we are all on probation, mother,’ said Maria. ‘Do you think that’s quite fair?’
‘I fail to understand you. Am I being taken to task?’
‘No, of course not. I meant only that you may have raised false hopes in several breasts.’
‘Why false hopes?’
‘Well, you will hardly intend to divide up your property equally. In fact, you as good as said that you would not.’
‘As good as saying is not precisely saying.’
‘That is what I consider unfair. It was a time to say everything or to say nothing. You spoke of my marriage when the others had left, and referred obliquely to Garnet and Blue, my children. You spoke of Garnet’s bachelorhood and mentioned your obligation to maintain Fiona and Ruby. Then you insulted Rupert by your very unkind remarks about his father—as though it is Rupert’s fault that he was born out of wedlock—and finished up by claiming in the most derogatory way that I was completely dependent upon you.’
‘Well, so you are,’ said Romula. ‘I no longer hold it against you that you made a foolish marriage, but the fact remains that you did and, as a result, are left penniless on my hands.’
‘I work hard enough here for my keep and so does Fiona. How would you like it if we both walked out on you?’
‘I should not like that at all. Fortunately for all three of us, there is npt the slightest chance of it.’
‘I would not be too sure of that if I were you. Everybody has a breaking point and I have nearly reached mine.’
‘Don’t talk so foolishly. Where could you go if you left me?’
‘To my son and daughter, of course.’
‘You would impose yourself upon Blue and Parsifal? I think they would scarcely thank you for that. They can hardly make ends meet as it is. Parsifal begs from me, as you must be aware.’
‘Garnet is there, too, and I believe his books assure him of more than a competence. He is my son, not Parsifal.’
‘Oh, well, if being here does not satisfy you, you must do as you please, but don’t think you can return here later on.’
‘That is a threat, is it?’
‘Yes, it is,’ said Romula with spirit. ‘If you dare to walk out of my house for no better reason than that I do not disclose to you the terms of my Will, you need never enter it again, whether I am alive or dead.’
‘I said nothing about the terms of your Will with reference to myself. I was speaking of the general confusion and discontentment you have caused by saying so much and yet so little to us all. It was ignoble of you and very embarrassing for your family.’