Emily had stumbled to the chair, and sunk down into it, head in her arms, her body heaving, her sobs wretched. Leah regarded her without pity, and stalked towards her.
‘Why do I tell you all this?’ she said. ‘I’ll tell you why-because I’m all he has, and he’s all I have-because even though he killed my sister, even though he’s a wasted drunk, even though he hasn’t done a day’s work in years, even though he’s behaving disreputably every night in Stockholm-he’s still my charge, and I’m his guardian. He’s my responsibility and I’ve devoted my last three years to him, and I’ll devote the rest of my life if I have to, because it’s what my sister would want, and I loved her in life, and I love her in death. When he marries, it’ll be to me, if I’ll have him, and I’ll do it for my sister. But I’m not letting him-not now when he’s accomplished something, and even though he’ll never accomplish another thing-I’m not letting him throw himself away on some foreign Nazi chippy.’
She bent over Emily, shouting into her ear. ‘Do you hear me? If it is over my dead body-you are not going to get him!’
Slowly, Emily turned in the chair, hair tangled, eyes dulled, cheeks tear-blotched, gasping for breath, and then at last, she choked out her words.
‘I don’t want him-or anyone-no one… Please leave me alone-please-please-’
Leah Decker straightened to full height. She could leave now, and she left.
When Andrew Craig, dressed for the evening, buoyant with anticipation, arrived at the door of the Stratman suite, it was a few minutes after seven o’clock. He rapped, waiting to hear Emily’s quick step, but instead the door opened immediately, and there was Max Stratman buttoning his thick overcoat with his free hand.
‘Ach, Mr. Craig-’
There was neither cordiality nor hostility in Stratman’s demeanour, only sadness, as if he had aged too much overnight. He did not invite Craig inside, which Craig thought was surprising, but Craig wrote this off as an oversight due to self-absorption.
Craig crossed the threshold. Stratman avoided his eyes and stuffed his woollen scarf inside his coat.
‘I should have telephoned you,’ he muttered. ‘Emily asked me to telephone you. She cannot go to dinner.’
‘Why not? What’s the matter?’
‘Since I have come back, she is lying on her bed in the dark room. She says she has a headache and wants to rest. I do not like the way she looks, but she has no fever.’
Perplexed, Craig scratched his forehead. ‘I wonder what-May I see her?’
‘She will not see you. What has happened, Mr. Craig? Did you two quarrel?’
‘Of course not. I haven’t seen her all day.’
Stratman lifted his shoulders and then dropped them, as if to surrender the mystery as unsolved. ‘Then I give up. She will not have a doctor, and I do not think she needs one. She will not even have me around. “Go out and have dinner, Uncle Max. I want to be by myself.” So I go out to dinner and let her be by herself.’
‘Well, I’d like to know what’s the matter,’ said Craig. ‘I’m going in to see her anyway.’
‘Officially, no admittance. But if unofficially someone goes to her, what can I do? I look the other way. Have success, Mr. Craig, but do not aggravate her.’
‘Why should I? Of course not. You can trust me.’
He waited until Max Stratman had gone, and then he tried to imagine what had gone wrong, and could think of nothing. He went into the sitting-room, sailed his hat towards the sofa, yanked off his overcoat and dropped it on a chair, and opened the bedroom door.
He had expected it to be entirely dark inside, but it was not. The lamp beside the bed, which gave off a poor jaundiced-looking light, made visible only a portion of the bed and only a shoulder and arm that belonged to Emily. She was in the shadow of the light, and when Craig advanced to the foot of the bed, he could see that she had propped up a pillow and was settled back against it. She was fully clothed, except for her shoes, and her arms were folded across her bosom and her legs crossed before her. She seemed to be staring straight ahead of her, at some fixed point on the wall, and her eyes did not shift to Craig when he came into her field of vision. In no way did she acknowledge him.
He studied her delicate face, and it had the appearance of fragile chinaware accidentally broken and recently repaired.
‘Emily-’ he said.
She neither looked at him nor spoke to him.
‘-your uncle said you weren’t well and couldn’t come to dinner.’
‘I heard,’ she said listlessly, and still did not acknowledge him.
‘He said you wouldn’t even see me. If you’re not sick, it makes no sense. Has something happened?’
There was a movement of her head, and she acknowledged his concern at last. ‘I’m too tired to talk to you. Some other year, maybe. I’d prefer to be alone.’
He did not like the hurt flatness of her voice. ‘I’m not leaving you alone, Emily, until I find out what’s wrong.’
She did not reply, but turned her face from him, towards the wall, and at once he knew that it was serious. He came softly around the bed. He sat on the corner of the bed.
‘What is it, Emily? Is it something I’ve done-or not done? What? I’m completely mystified.’
‘Go away.’
‘Emily, what’s got into you?’
‘If you must know-’ she said. She turned her face towards him. ‘-I’ll tell you, and then I want you to go.’ She paused, and then she spoke. ‘Your sister-in-law was here this afternoon.’
He did not hide his confusion. ‘Lee-here?’
‘She came, and she had her picador sport, and she went. She said you and I were having an affair, and I was after you, and as proxy for your victimized wife, she would not permit it. She said you and I should not see each other again, and her arguments convinced me. That is all. My reserves are gone. I haven’t the strength to go into it with you. It’s too ugly, and I want you to go now.’
He was taken unawares by this event, but he was not astounded. The logic of Leah, the predictability of this, he should have anticipated from the night that she had made Emily her enemy. Still, how far had she gone? What had she been capable of saying? He tried to visualize the scene that had transpired, and he shuddered. Leah and Emily: the cat and the canary.
‘Emily, I’m sick at heart that you were subjected to this. But in all fairness, to both of us, I must know what Lee said to you.’
‘What does it matter? It means nothing now.’
‘Perhaps to you, but it means everything to me. I want to know.’
‘I don’t feel I should tell you.’
‘Emily, for God’s sake, this is no time for nice little games-sparing your tender feelings or my own. I’m as upset as you are, and I want the truth. I must have it.’
‘Very well, if you must. But I remind you, I don’t care. I don’t want a contest, no dispute, no more emotions. I just want to pay the price you are exacting to be rid of you.’ She seemed to steel herself, half turning towards him on her pillow. ‘Your sister-in-law was in my room when I came in. She had just had lunch with Märta Norberg-’
Craig nodded vigorously. He had been afraid of that lunch, and the detonation. One lunch, and two women scorned, and the inevitable fallout that maimed all at the periphery.
‘-and Norberg had given her an earful about you,’ said Emily. ‘First off, you were supposed to have seen Märta Norberg at her place last night. True or false? Oh, I don’t give a damn-’
‘True,’ said Craig. ‘I saw her.’
‘You were drunk and tried to seduce la Norberg.’
‘False and false again. I was sober as I am now. I did not lay a hand on Her Majesty. Do you want the truth?’
‘Don’t bother.’
‘She tried to seduce me-it’ll sound incredible-as part of a deal to make me write my next book to her specifications. I refused. Now she’s being vindictive.’ He paused. ‘Is that all of it, Emily?’