In fact we had a heavenly evening; all my fears were lulled. Pendle took me to Parkes and we sat in a secluded corner, guzzling champagne and Mediterranean prawns fried in garlic, and gloating over the evening papers. Canfield had been vindicated at great length, with the most sensational headlines.
‘How on earth did you get that diary?’ I asked, holding out my empty glass absently. Pendle filled it.
‘I spent the last fortnight chatting up Fiona’s flatmate.’
‘Is she pretty?’ I said, bristling.
‘No.’ Pendle flipped my nose teasingly with his finger. ‘She’s a cow and absolutely eaten up with jealousy where Fiona’s concerned. She pretended it wasn’t quite cricket to hand over the diary. Actually she was frightened Fiona’d find out she’d nicked it.’
‘When did she finally give it to you?’
‘Lunchtime today.’
I whistled.
‘I did run it a bit close, I admit. That’s why I had to abandon you to Jimmy’s blandishments. You made a conquest there.’
‘Did I? How lovely.’
‘He rang up when I got back to the office, ostensibly to congratulate me, actually to ask us both to dinner next Friday.’
‘Ooh, can we go?’
Pendle was silent for a minute, fidgeting with his lighter. That was odd; I’d never seen him fidget before. Then he took a deep breath.
‘I’m thinking of going home for a few days next week. I was wondering if you’d like to come too.’
For a few seconds I couldn’t believe my ears. I was so overwhelmed I couldn’t speak.
‘I’d adore to,’ I finally squeaked.
Relief seemed to flood over him.
‘It’s a long way. My family live in the Lakes, but it doesn’t take that long up the Preston Motorway. I’d like to leave on Thursday afternoon, and probably come back on Sunday night. Can you get the time off?’
‘I’ve still got some holiday left,’ I said. ‘And I can always blackmail Rodney by threatening to tell Jane terrible things about him.’
‘Good. We’ll try and make it in time for late dinner then.’
‘It’ll be such heaven getting out of London,’ I said.
He smiled rather ruefully. ‘I hope you’ll enjoy it. They’re all rather formidable, particularly my mother.’
I went whooping into the flat, dying to tell Jane all about it and barged into the drawing-room. In the dim light, I could just distinguish two people locked on the sofa.
‘Get out!’ shrieked Jane. She must have picked up someone at the party she’d been to. How crude, I thought loftily, as I made myself a cup of coffee. How much more sensible Pendle and I were conducting our affair. I’d obviously destroyed their mood, for a few minutes later I heard voices, and the front door bang. Jane came into the kitchen looking ruffled.
‘You look jolly smug,’ she said sourly. ‘Has he asked you to marry him?’
‘Not quite,’ I crowed, clutching my happiness to me like a hot water bottle, ‘but he’s asked me to stay with his family next week.’
For a second her face fell. However much one likes one’s flatmate, one can’t bear their love-life to go too well, but Jane is basically a nice person, and she smiled almost immediately.
‘Pru, that’s marvellous! When? For how long? What on earth did he say? Tell me all. He must be serious, to take you home to meet his mother.’
I muttered something about chickens before they’re hatched. But I found it difficult in the next few days to keep my mounting elation in check, and wrote Prudence Mulholland all over my shorthand notebook.
Chapter Four
Jane became very bossy.
‘If Pendle says his mother is formidable, she must be a tartar. She’s bound to go through your things when you and Pendle are striding over the Fells, to see if you’re a slut or not. You’d better buy some new underwear — I counted two safety pins in your bra — and a new nightie, in case Pendle comes stealing down those dark passages after lights out.’
‘You must be joking,’ I said, but I could not suppress a shiver of excitement.
In the end, she did my packing for me.
‘Tissue paper always impresses people,’ she said. ‘And lots of little polythene bags for your sweaters.’ She insisted that I bought a pair of lace-up shoes.
‘But I’ve got a perfectly good pair of boots,’ I wailed.
‘Kinky,’ she added darkly. She lent me a silk dress, but refused to let me take any of my more outrageous clothes.
‘You want to borrow them while I’m away,’ I grumbled. ‘I’ll look such a frump, Pendle won’t recognize me.’ But I managed to sneak in my green culotte dress when she wasn’t looking.
‘Now remember,’ she warned me, ‘lots of housework, clean the bath, don’t wipe your make-up off on the towel and, for God’s sake, don’t smoke in bed. These old houses burn down very easily. You’d better take my knitting too.’
‘But I can’t knit,’ I protested.
‘That doesn’t matter. Just take it out of its bag from time to time and count a few stitches. It gives the right impression.’
‘You seem to know a lot about it,’ I said nastily. ‘Where did it get you?’
‘The mothers adored me,’ she said airily. ‘It was the sons who went off me.’
Pendle picked me up at the office about five. He was wearing a dark grey sweater, which emphasized his pallor.
‘If we don’t hit heavy traffic,’ he said, putting my luggage in the boot, ‘we should be there by nine.’
He was smoking incessantly and seemed very much on edge. We didn’t talk much, then my tummy started rumbling. I hadn’t eaten since breakfast.
‘There’s a slab of chocolate in the back,’ he said. I found it and, as Pendle wasn’t hungry, wolfed the lot and then felt sick.
‘Before we get there,’ I said, licking my fingers, ‘can we sort your family out a bit?’
‘Pretty complicated,’ he said, ‘but I’ll try and explain. My father, as you know, is dead, and I’m the eldest. Then there’s my sister Linn, who has emotional problems and works in Manchester, so she probably won’t be there. Then there’s my younger brother Jack. He’s only twenty-eight but he’s already on his second marriage. He used to be a terrible rake, but he’s running the family firm now and seems to have settled down. With Jack you have to take the smooth with the smooth, but you’ll like him. Everyone does.’ There was a trace of bitterness in his voice.
‘What’s his wife like?’ I asked.
‘Maggie? Very young, very spoilt. I don’t think she’s very nice but, like Jack, you can’t help liking her. They’re staying with my mother until their house is built.’
‘So there’ll be your mother, Maggie and Jack,’ I said, ticking them off on my fingers.
‘And, to confuse you further, there might be Ace.’
‘Who’s he?’
‘My step-brother. My father was married before, but his wife died when Ace was a baby.’
‘Poor little boy. Who brought him up?’