I got the sack later that evening.
That is, with Grover, Sukey, Benedict and Johpson to look after, the afternoon passed in an orderly frenzy, and the only other people I saw were Comer, come to inquire after the invalid and Hugo, who had taken a liking to Johnson and outfitted him, while he was still officially semi-conscious, in a green quilted kimono with a copper rheumatism bracelet.
Almost immediately after, making a brilliant recovery, Johnson pointed out that he had his own dressing gown, but Hugo insisted and went off, busily, to search in the kitchen for calves-foot jelly. Johnson said, ‘Well?’
On his nose, the bifocals or their substitutes rested glinting once more. I said, ‘I shall sue you. I swear it. For a full nurse’s uniform, and my hospital bills, if I come down with pleurisy.’
‘Well,’ Johnson said. ‘I wondered why Beverley wanted us out of the way. Did you find out?’
I must admit, I gaped before I remembered how cross I was. I remembered something else. I said, ‘Good lord. What day is it?’
‘Tuesday,’ said Johnson. He looked, sitting up in Hugo’s caftan, once more like a lush from a quilting bee. He added, ‘Who was she with? Simon Booker-Readman?’
‘Yes,’ I said. I didn’t add where.
‘I thought so,’ said Johnson. ‘Remember how Comer came bursting in one evening? He thought they were together then. He had certainly supplied himself somehow with a key. But he still isn’t quite sure, I fancy . . .
I said, ‘Why were you run down? Was that an accident?’
‘I’m not sure,’ Johnson said. ‘Someone may be tired of seeing me hang about Benedict, except that I have been rather carefully refraining from hanging about Benedict. Or perhaps it had nothing to do with Benedict at all. Perhaps someone wanted an excuse to send Comer or his friends back to the house to discover exactly what you did discover. Except that if that was it, they were unlucky. Neither you nor I is going to make Simon’s visit public . . . What did they say to you?’
‘Nothing, yet,’ I thought. ‘I wonder if Rosamund knows. Was that why she was so upset . . .’
‘ . . . when you told her about the broken ikon in Bunty’s loo? Yes, of course. If it was a copy Simon was hoping to pass off as the real thing, and if it got itself broken during a visit by Simon to the Eisenkopp house, then it explains both why Simon had to pretend he had lost it, and why Rosamund was so furious. We don’t know why it was broken, but we can speculate. Perhaps Simon told Beverley he was going to defraud her loving Comer as well as cuckold him, and Beverley didn’t think it was funny and smashed up the copy. I can imagine that possessions mean a lot to that well-pleated lady. But why put the pieces in Bunty’s loo?’
‘On Bunty’s day off,’ I said. ‘It was Beverley’s bad luck that Bunty came back and promptly jammed a nappy down after it . . . Where are you staying in Venice?’
‘In luxury,’ said Johnson with satisfaction. He was worse than Hugo. ‘The Warr Beckenstaff Corporation have chartered a cruising ship for the party. We fly to Venice to board her. Hugo is going to row us all out.’
Hugo came in as he spoke, bearing a vase of arum lilies, which he placed with a flourish at Johnson’s bedside. A steaming trolley made its appearance. Napkins were unfolded. Hugo bent over the flowers, and selecting a stem, presented a branch of lilies to me.
‘We are staying, dear heart, on board the Glycera, and do not tell me you don’t know of her. She is chartered for every extravagant party afloat. You will find her half the summer off Monte Carlo and the rest of the time in the Aegean. A seagoing millionaires’ pleasure club. It’s a great pity, Joanna, that you are not to be with us.’
‘With Benedict, Sukey and Grover?’ I said.
‘I should create a robot nursemaid to look after them. By the way, do you know, darling, that your employer has arrived? One at least of the Booker-Readmans has returned from Florida. Rosamund remains to attend the latest charity fash-thrash in Palm Beach, and Simon has flown up to persuade my dear Comer to allow you to stay here next week. Will you like that?’
‘Nothing better. When did Mr Booker-Readman arrive?’ I asked. I avoided Johnson’s glittering glass.
‘Just five minutes since. In a taxi from Logan. You like the soup I arrange?’ said Hugo to Johnson.
‘It tastes,’ said Johnson, ‘as if they’ve boiled your poncho in it. Why did you get me into this mess anyway? Anyone could have rowed you across.’
‘Ah,’ said Hugo. ‘But I was going to tip you into the bay and row myself across to spend the morning sailing with Nurse Joanna. As it was, we both did better. Have you any idea, darling, what you looked like? From Nantucket to Newport, the boys were out with their binoculars. The legs! The waist! What the apron-bib has been concealing from us! The . . .’
‘The children,’ I said, ‘will be yelling for tea. Excuse me.’
In fact, the children were asleep, and Simon Booker-Readman was waiting in the empty day nursery.
He still looked like Apollo, but with an acid tinge under his tan; and he was jingling the coins in one pocket. He said, ‘Please sit down. I hope you won’t mind if I shut the door for a moment.’
It sounded like the moment Charlotte had always been hoping for, but I knew it wasn’t. I shook my head and sat down at a desk chair while he picked at a toy on a shelf. There was a tinkling burst of mechanical music and he put it down as if stung. He said, ‘I am not prepared to say a great deal about what has happened. I’m sure you feel it is none of your business anyway. But you must understand that it makes the whole situation quite impossible for Mrs Eisenkopp as well as myself however much we know . . . I am sure . . . we may count on your discretion. You are, after all, one of us. I understand that perfectly.’
I said, ‘You mean you think because my father is a knight and a professor, I shan’t tell Mr Eisenkopp what is happening under his roof?’
I was sorry after I had said it. He had education, he had social ease, he had style. But for all his looks, he didn’t possess the brain of Comer Eisenkopp, or his father. He did have intuition, however, and it pulled him out of that one. He said, ‘I am quite sure, for Grover and Sukey and Benedict’s sake, that you won’t tell him. But I don’t expect you to stay on here or in New York knowing what has happened, even though it has only happened once, and will, naturally, never happen again. You are fond of Benedict?’
‘He’ll do,’ I said. ‘He won’t give you much trouble now, if you can keep him to his routine.’
‘Yes.’ He bent to pick up a fire engine and straightened, his face rather flushed. ‘Well, I shouldn’t expect you to work the usual notice: I fancy you’d like to be gone by the end of the week. We’ll take the child ourselves to Ingmar’s party. It would mean your concocting some story about a recall to London, or being offered a glamorous post . . . I should leave it to you. But in consideration of the upset, and the lack of notice and your discretion and . . . of course . . . your care of Benedict, I should like you to accept this from . . . from us both.’
None of your hundred dollars for preserving Sukey. This was a cheque for ten thousand dollars. Signed, of course, by Beverley Eisenkopp.
I told him to make it out for one month’s salary instead, and gave it back to him. He tried to argue, but was cut short by the sugar-sweet call of the dulcimer. I made no demur about accepting my dismissal: the Department had been explicit. Agree with everything.
I went where I was led. But I recognized at the same time that one of Johnson’s theories was correct. Someone had arranged this morning’s collision with this very issue in mind.
He was only wrong in one thing. He had said it had nothing to do with Benedict.
But of course, it had. It had resulted in my dismissal. And now, without me, without Donovan, Benedict was going to Mrs Warr Beckenstaff’s party in Europe, alone with his parents. And, of course, with Comer and Beverley Eisenkopp, and their Design Director, Hugo Panadek.