Una walked in through the door as Lois opened it and Jelly walked out. Una looked after Jelly, not without admiration, and moved to undo Brian Moss’s bonds.
‘I can’t thank you enough,’ said Brian Moss, reestablishing his circulation, re-arranging his clothing. ‘My secretary has had some kind of fugue. A crise. Perhaps we should postpone this meeting?’
‘On no account,’ said Una. She still had Brian Moss’s tie in her hand. She smoothed it out and tied it for him, pulling up the knot just a little savagely around his neck. The tie was yellow, with a pink and red pattern but did little to give the impression he hoped to achieve – that of a wild man falsely imprisoned in a grey suit.
‘I think it would be better if we did,’ said Brian Moss. ‘This has been a most upsetting incident,’ but Una was persistent.
She had been thinking the matter over, she said. She would take over Lodestar House for eighteen months, and use it at her discretion. After which she would give it to her daughter Sara, before the leasehold expired. Sara and Tully would have ample time to make the fortune they felt they deserved.
‘That’s very generous of you,’ said Brian Moss. Lois had brought him a cup of tea.
‘Poor little bitch Sara,’ said Una. ‘She always worried that it was her fault I left home. She was right to worry; I couldn’t stand her – nobody could. She shouldn’t have been born, and it showed. No charm; my stepfather’s child. Wendy’s second husband. These family relationships get too complicated to bear. I was only sixteen when she was born. I got her into a nursery as soon as I could, but the holidays never seemed to end, so I left her to my mother.’
Brian Moss could see Jelly packing up her desk in the outer office. She was slamming and stamping about. He tried to concentrate on what Una Musgrave was saying. ‘Do feel free to confide in me,’ he said, falsely. ‘Solicitors have good shoulders to cry upon. So – you were a victim of child abuse? A dreadful but these days, alas, an all too familiar tale.’
Una snorted. ‘I was an abusing child,’ she said. ‘He didn’t stand a chance. I’d gone right off my mother at the time, I seem to remember. I didn’t want Sara growing up to do to me what I’d done to her. A customer who was a shrink told me I was right to leave the child. If I’d stayed, she’d only have repeated my pattern.’
Brian Moss could see Lois as she bent over to help Jelly with the lower drawers. Perhaps he could persuade her to stay. It was only by comparison to Jelly that Lois appeared plain. Plain girls, in any case, were more stable, less neurotic, than the pretty ones.
‘No one’s drama,’ said Una Musgrave, ‘I can see, is of any real consequence to anyone else. You’re not even listening. As it happens, Lodestar House turning up in my life again is a fine example of the synchronicity which has accompanied my path through life. Ever read Jung?’
‘No,’ said Brian Moss.
‘If you don’t think a little more about me and a little less about your dick,’ said Una Musgrave, ‘I won’t pay you for this session.’
Brian Moss paid attention.
‘A house with many rooms is a wonderful thing,’ said Una. ‘In the house of our dreams each room represents a different aspect of the self. Did you know that?’
‘I don’t dream much,’ said Brian Moss, ‘nowadays. I’m far too tired. I have two children under five.’
On her way out of Brian Moss’s office, Una stopped in her booted stride at Jelly White’s desk.
‘If ever you want a job,’ she said, ‘get in touch with me. You’re just the type I like.’
‘What type is that?’ asked Jelly.
‘Demure and devious,’ said Una, ‘and not what you seem. Mind you, what woman is? I see you as someone with a past that you roll up as you go, so you hardly remember what happened yesterday, let alone last night.’
‘It can be a problem,’ said Jelly, ‘and getting worse.’
‘It’s always darkest before dawn. Your lipstick’s smudged,’ said Una, taking out a little frilled cotton handkerchief from her pocket and dabbing at the corner of Jelly’s mouth. ‘But it’s a useful little mouth, I can tell.’