‘It’s my experience people who won’t tell you about themselves are hiding something,’ Bec said.
‘If Raine won’t talk –’ Tamara said.
‘We find another way.’
‘And if there’s nothing?’
‘There’s always something,’ Bec said.
‘You could be imagining things,’ Tamara said.
‘I could be but I’m not. Listen, I know what it’s like. When my husband and I first met just about everyone was against us. Grandma Bessie would have slit my gizzard if she’d dared. But I never doubted we would win.’
‘How could you have been so sure?’
‘There was a steady look he used to give me. His way of saying I was his. It rang in me like a bell and I knew we weren’t going to let anyone beat us. Grandma Bessie was a tough one but when he looked at me I knew even she would never be able to stop us. “We are one being.” He said that to me once, and so we were. The war messed him up psychologically. In some ways he never got over it, but I never stopped loving him. God, how I loved that man!’
‘You still love him,’ Tamara said.
‘He was my life. I can’t wait to catch up with him, when my time comes, but how will I face him if I let your father throw away everything he fought for? The war memorials we see in every town: they fought for this land. Now it’s our turn.’
‘To fight?’
‘To hold on to what is rightfully ours. Otherwise we are saying their sacrifice was meaningless. I will not do it.’
‘That look you say Grandpa gave you: you’ve seen nothing like that between Dad and Raine?’
‘Not a hint. She’s not in it for him but for what she can get out of him.’
‘And he doesn’t know?’
‘Men are great at fooling themselves and your dad is no exception.’
‘Have you spoken to him about it?’
‘I have not. The one certain way of pushing him into her arms will be if he thinks I’m trying to interfere in his affairs.’
‘They’re our affairs too.’
‘Which is precisely why I intend to go on poking about until I find out something I can hang on her.’
‘Looking for skeletons?’
‘I can hear them jangling from here.’
‘And if she tells him you’re sticking your beak in?’
‘I shall have to practise my innocent look,’ Bec said.
‘I’ve an idea,’ Tamara said. ‘Why don’t I have a go at Jaeger? At her son?’
‘After your run-in with him this morning?’
‘They say women say no when they really mean yes, don’t they?’
‘Is he really such a fool?’
‘I’d say there’s no limit to his stupidity.’
‘Will you be able to get anything out of him?’
‘It’s worth a try. He’s bound to know something, isn’t he? And right now we know nothing at all.’
‘How would you go about it?’
‘Shouldn’t be hard. He’s as cocky as Randy the rooster. The way he looked me over last night and then perving on me this morning?’
‘What?’
‘It would solve all your problems if you fell in love with him.’
‘With Jaeger? Are you out of your mind?’
‘It wouldn’t be the first unsuitable union we’ve had in this family.’
Tamara didn’t go looking for Jaeger but drifted around, making herself conspicuous, and it didn’t take him long to home in on her.
‘Hi!’
Smirking as though he’d said something clever.
‘Sorry about this morning,’ she said.
‘Take more than that to put me off.’
‘I like a man who knows his mind.’
‘That right?’ He looked her over and again Tamara felt his eyes peeling the clothes from her body.
They strolled, Tamara saying little and Jaeger a lot. How he’d outsmarted this opponent and that; how he’d loved and left a whole regiment of women.
‘I never let anyone pin me down,’ he said. ‘I’m too smart for that. It gives me an edge.’
What a show-off. Tamara was delighted. Jaeger was not the sort to resist boasting to someone he thought his inferior.
‘Is your mother going to marry my dad?’ she said.
‘He’s on his last legs anyway, but maybe she will. Act of kindness, you know? Either way it makes no odds.’
‘Why is that?’
‘He controls the trust, right? Mother’s twisting his arm to bring us both into it. Make her a trustee and me a beneficiary.’
‘Will he agree?’
‘What Mother wants, Mother gets. I’m not the only smart one in our family. But you needn’t worry. I’ll make sure there’s always a place for you here. If you want it.’
Images of blood filled Tamara’s mind.
‘As long as I hang around, anyway,’ Jaeger said.
‘What else would you do?’ she asked him.
‘I’ll bet you have,’ Tamara said. ‘You’re a thinker. I’ve always respected that in a man.’
He smirked.
‘You’ve got a degree,’ he told her, making it sound an offence. ‘Doesn’t mean you’re bright in practical things.’
‘You are right,’ said Tamara humbly.
‘If you were you’d have seen the opportunities for yourself.’
‘Which is why I’m hoping to learn from you, if you’ll give me the chance.’
Now there was more smirk than man.
‘What plans have you got, anyway?’ Tamara said.
‘That’s for me to know and you to wonder about,’ Jaeger said, flashing bold eyes.
She saw he wasn’t going to spill the beans immediately; he liked to think of himself as the smart one, teasing her with thoughts of his brilliance, but Tamara knew he was too vain to keep his lips buttoned for long.
It took a week, by easy stages. Softly, softly, catchee Jaeger…
When she saw he was ready she made it clear she was giving up this nonsense of asking, asking and getting nowhere.
‘I don’t think you’ve got plans at all.’
That did it.
He spelt them out, gloating, watching her face.
‘Won’t happen until your old man pops off, of course. But what do you think of those ideas, eh?’
Tamara thought she’d like to smash Jaeger’s teeth down his throat. What she said was different.
‘A golf course? How wonderful!’
‘And maybe a wind farm.’
‘Wouldn’t you need to get state government approval for that?’
‘Shouldn’t be a problem. We know people.’
Lord Jaeger, master of the universe.
‘And what would you do afterwards?’
‘After I started getting the trust income? I reckon I’d take off. No way I’m gunna waste my life on a mob of sheep. With the bright lights calling? I’d be crazy.’
‘Take off where?’
‘I might go back to Switzerland. Good place, Switzerland, as long as you’ve got money.’
‘Go back, you say? You’ve been there before?’
‘I was born there. In a chateau overlooking a lake.’
‘Your father must have been rich.’
‘Rich and influential.’
‘Is that right?’
Tamara collared Bec as soon as she could get away.
‘The cheese factory,’ she said.
‘What about it?’
‘What’s the name of the production manager?’
‘Ernst Gerber.’
‘From Switzerland?’
‘From Bern, yes. Why do you ask?’
Tamara explained.
When Bec had taken in what Tamara had told her she went into her private office and made a phone call.
‘Mr Gerber…’ Bec would have preferred to call him Ernst but Ernst Gerber’s European soul had always craved formality. ‘How is everything with you?’
‘Everything is fine, Mrs Penrose. I think we may be looking at a substantial increase in our production in the coming year.’
‘I look forward to that,’ Bec said. ‘Now: there is something you may be able to help me with. Does the name Lardner mean anything to you?’
‘It is a name not uncommon in Switzerland,’ Gerber said.
‘They are said to be rich and influential. A Zurich family.’
‘There is a Zurich family of that name. I do not know them personally but they have a considerable reputation. I understand they own factories in many places in Europe. Could they be the people you mean?’
‘Sounds like they might be,’ Bec said.
Bec spoke to Mr Gardiner of Elphinstone and Partners, the solicitors who had represented Derwent after Maurice Miller died towards the end of World War II. They were a big firm with correspondents in New York and London. Also in Zurich. She explained what she wanted.
‘I’ll get on to it right away,’ Mr Gardiner said.
Bec put down the phone and went to look for her granddaughter.
‘I think we may be making progress,’ she said.
‘That’s a relief,’ Tamara said. ‘On more than one front, too.’
‘Oh?’
‘Hopefully it means I won’t have to play games with Jaeger much longer.’
Bec looked. ‘Games?’
‘Nothing like that,’ Tamara said. ‘Even pretending is bad enough.
Can you imagine what it would be like in reality?’
‘Yuck,’ Bec said.
‘You’ve got it.’