A Suitable Vengeance

by Elizabeth George

  'Thank you, m'lady.' Cotter clasped his hands behind him as if in the fear that one might jump out and begin pumping Lady Asherton's arm of its own volition.

  Lady Asherton smiled. It was a duplicate of Tommy's crooked smile. 'It's Dorothy, actually, although for some reason that I've never quite understood, my family and friends have always called me Daze. Which is better than Diz, I suppose, since that suggests dizzy, and I'm afraid I should have to draw the line at something that comes so perilously close to describing my personality.'

  Cotter looked rather dumbfounded at what was clearly an invitation to address the widow of an earl by her Christian name. Nonetheless, after a moment for thought, he nodded sharply and replied, 'Daze it is.'

  'Good,' Lady Asherton responded. 'Lovely. We've a beautiful weekend for a visit, haven't we? It's been a bit hot, of course - today's quite warm, isn't it? - but I expect we'll have a breeze this afternoon. Sidney's already arrived, by the way. And she's brought the most interesting young man with her. Rather dark and melancholy.'

  'Brooke?' St James asked sharply.

  'Yes. Justin Brooke. Do you know him, Simon?'

  'Rather better than he'd like, if the truth be told,' Lady Helen said. 'But he promises to behave himself, don't you, Simon darling? No poison in the porridge. No duelling at dawn. No brawls on the drawing-room floor. Just utter civility for seventy-two hours. What perfect teeth-gritting bliss.'

  ‘I’ll treasure each moment,' St James replied.

  Lady Asherton laughed. 'Of course you will. What house-party could possibly be complete without skeletons swinging out of every cupboard and tempers on the boil? It makes me feel quite a young girl again.' She took Cotter's arm and led the way into the house. 'Let me show you something I'm absurdly proud of, Joseph,' they could hear her saying as she pointed to the elaborate tessellated entry. 'This was put in just after our great fire of 1849 by some local workmen. Now, don't you believe this for an instant, but legend has it the fire .. .' Her voice drifted out of their hearing. In a moment, Cotter's laughter rang out in response.

  At that, the churning in Deborah's stomach lessened. Relief shot through her muscles like a spring releasing tension and told her how nervous she had really been about this first meeting of their parents. It could have been disastrous. It would have been disastrous, had

  Tommy's mother been any other sort of woman save the kind who swept away the diffidence of strangers with a few amiable words.

  She's wonderful. Deborah felt the need to say it aloud to someone, and without thinking she turned to St James.

  All the signs of approval were on his face. The lines round his eyes crinkled more deeply. Briefly, he smiled.

  'Welcome to Howenstow, Deb darling.' Lynley put his arm round her shoulders and led her into the house where a high ceiling and a mosaic floor made the air cool and moist, a refreshing change from the heat outside.

  They found Lady Asherton and Cotter in the great hall to the right of the entry. It was an elongated room, dominated by a fireplace whose chimneypiece of unadorned granite was surmounted by the head of a wild gazelle. Pendant plasterwork decorated the ceiling, and drop-moulded panelling covered the walls. Upon these hung life-sized portraits of the lords and ladies of Asherton, representatives from each generation, who gazed upon their descendants in every kind of pose and every kind of dress.

  Deborah paused before an eighteenth-century portrait of a man in cream breeches and red coat, leaning against a half-broken urn with a riding crop in his hand and a spaniel at his feet. 'Tommy, good heavens. He looks exactly like you.'

  'He's certainly what Tommy would look like if we could only talk him into wearing those delicious trousers,' Lady Helen remarked.

  Deborah felt Lynley's arm tighten round her shoulders. She thought at first it was in response to the laughter that greeted Lady Helen's comment. But she saw that a door had opened at the north end of the hall and a tall young man wearing threadbare blue jeans was padding in his bare feet across the parquet floor. A hollow-cheeked girl followed him. She, too, was shoeless.

  This would be Peter, Deborah decided. Aside from his emaciated appearance, he possessed the same blond hair, the same brown eyes, and the same fine cheekbones, nose and jaw of many of the portraits that lined the walls. Unlike his ancestors on canvas, however, Peter Lynley wore an earring through one pierced ear. It was a swastika dangling from a slender gold chain and it grazed the top of his shoulder.

  'Peter. You're not in Oxford?' Lynley asked the question smoothly enough - a demonstration of good breeding before the weekend guests - but Deborah felt the tension in his body.

  Peter flashed a smile, shrugged his shoulders and said, 'We came down for some sun only to discover you had the same idea. All we need is Judy here for a sibling reunion, right?'

  Fingering the clasp that held earring to earlobe, he nodded at St James and Lady Helen and drew his companion forward. In a gesture that duplicated Lynley's own, he put his arm round her shoulders.

  'This is Sasha.' Her arm encircled his waist. Her fingers slid beneath his grimy T-shirt and into his blue jeans. 'Sasha Nifford.' Without waiting for his brother to make a similar introduction, Peter nodded at Deborah. 'And this is your bride-to-be, I take it. You've always had excellent taste in women. But we've seen that demonstrated well enough through the years.'

  Lady Asherton came forward. She looked from one son to the other and extended her hand as if she would join them together in some way. 'I was so surprised when Hodge told me Peter and Sasha had arrived. And then I thought what a lovely idea it was to have Peter here for your engagement weekend.'

  Lynley replied evenly. 'My thought exactly. Will you show our guests to their rooms, Mother? I'd like a few minutes with Peter. To catch up.'

  'We've lunch planned in just an hour. The day's so fine that we thought we'd have it outdoors.'

  'Good. In an hour. If you'll see to everyone . . .' It was far more an order than a request.

  Hearing his cool tone, Deborah looked at the others to gauge their reactions, but saw in their faces only a determination to ignore the unmistakable current of hostility that crackled through the air. Lady Helen was examining a silver-framed photograph of the Prince of Wales. St James was admiring the lid of an oriental tea-case. Cotter was standing in a bay window gazing out at the garden.

  'Darling,' Lynley was saying to her. 'If you'll excuse me for a bit. . .'

  'Tommy—'

  'If you'll excuse me, Deb.'

  'It's just this way, my dear.' Lady Asherton touched her lightly.

  Deborah didn't want to move.

  Lady Helen spoke. 'Tell me you've given me that darling green room overlooking the west courtyard, Daze. You know the one. Above the gun room. I've been longing to spend a night there for years. Sleeping with that thrilling fear that someone might accidentally blast away at the ceiling below with a shotgun.'

  She took Lady Asherton's arm. They headed for the door. There was nothing left to do but to follow. Deborah did so. But as she reached the inner hall she looked back at Lynley and his brother. They faced each other warily, squaring off, poised to fight.

  And whatever warmth the weekend had earlier promised iced over into nothing at the sight of them and at the sudden recognition of the great gaps in her knowledge of Tommy's relationship with his family.

  Lynley closed the music room door and watched Peter walk - with a step that was much too careful and precise - to the window. He sat down on the window-seat, curving his lengthy frame into a comfortable position on the green brocade cushion. The walls in the room were papered in a print of yellow chrysanthemums on a field of green, and that combination of colours in conjunction with the high sunlight of noon served to make Peter look even more haggard than he had in the great hall. Tracing a pattern against a distortion in the glass, he was doing his best to ignore Lynley altogether.

  'What are you doing in Cornwall? You're supposed to be in Oxford. We'd made arrangements for a tutor for the summer. We'd agr
eed you'd stay there.' Lynley knew that his voice was both cold and unfriendly, but he could do nothing to modulate it. The sight of his brother had shaken him. Peter was skeletally thin. His eyes looked yellow. The skin round his nostrils was excoriated and scabbed.

  Peter shrugged, looking sullen. 'It's just a visit, for God's sake. I'm not here to stay. I'm going back. All right?'

  'What are you doing here? And don't give me that business about the weekend sun because I'm not going to buy it.'

  'I don't care what you buy. But just think how fortuitous my arrival is, Tommy. If I hadn't shown up unexpectedly this morning, I'd have missed the festivities altogether. Or was that your intention? Did you want to keep me away? Another nasty family secret kept under wraps so that your little redhead doesn't learn too many of them all at once?'

  Lynley strode across the room and whipped his brother out of the window-seat.

  'I'll ask you again what you're doing here, Peter.'

  Peter shook him off. 'I've chucked it, all right? Is that what you want to hear? I've dropped out. OK?'

  'Have you gone completely mad? Where are you living?'

  ‘I’ve digs of my own in London. And don't worry. I've no intention of asking you for money. I've plenty of my own.' He shouldered his way past Lynley and went to the old Broadwood piano. He fingered its keys in a light, staccato tapping, dissonant and irritating.

  'This is nonsense.' Lynley tried to speak reasonably, but he felt disheartened as he read the meaning behind Peter's words. 'And who is that girl? Where did she come from? How did you meet her? Peter, she's not even clean. She looks like—'

  Peter spun around. 'Shut up about her. She's the best thing that's ever happened in my life and don't you forget it. She's the only decent thing that's happened to me in years.'

  That strained credibility. It also revealed the worst. Lynley crossed the room. 'You're on drugs again. I thought you were clean. I thought we'd straightened you out in that programme last January. But you're back to it. You haven't chucked Oxford at all, have you? They've chucked you. That's it, isn't it? Isn't it, Peter?'

  Peter didn't answer. Lynley grasped his brother's chin with thumb and index finger and turned Peter's head so that it was inches away from his own.

  'What is it now? Are we trying heroin yet? Or are we still wrapped up in our devotion to cocaine? Have you tried mixing them? What about smoking them? Or that religious experience of mainlining the whole mess?'

  Peter said nothing. Lynley pushed him for an answer.

  'You're still after that ultimate high, aren't you? After all, drugs are what life's all about. And what about Sasha? Are you two developing a fine, meaningful relationship? Cocaine must be a great foundation for love. You can really bond to an addict, can't you?'

  Still Peter refused to respond. Lynley pulled his brother to a mirror that hung on a wall behind the harp and shoved him towards it so that he would have to look at his unshaven face. It was pasty. His lips were cracked. His nose was running onto his upper lip.

  'Pretty sight, aren't you?' Lynley demanded. 'What are you telling Mother? That you're not using any longer? That you just have a cold?'

  Released, Peter rubbed his face where his brother's fingers had dug in and bruised the unhealthy flesh. 'You can even talk about Mother,' he whispered. 'You can even talk. God, Tommy, I wish you'd just die.'

  5

  Neither Peter nor Sasha showed up for lunch and, as if an appropriate response to this had been agreed upon in advance, no-one mentioned the fact. Instead, everyone concentrated on passing round platters of prawn salad, cold chicken, asparagus, and artichokes gribiche while completely overlooking the two empty chairs that faced one another at the far end of the table.

  Lynley welcomed his brother's absence. He wanted distractions.

  One presented itself less than five minutes into the meal when Lynley's estate manager came round the south wing of the house and strode directly towards the oak tree. His attention, however, did not seem given to the party gathered beneath it. Instead, his gaze was fixed on the distant stables where a young man jumped nimbly over the drystone wall and came across the park at a jog. The sun wove streaks of colour against him as he passed in and out of the shade of the trees.

  From the table, Sidney St James called out happily, 'What a fine horseman your son is, Air Penellin. He took us out for a ride this morning, but Justin and I could hardly keep him in sight.'

  John Penellin flicked her a cursory nod of acknowledgement, but his dark Celtic features were rigid. Lynley had known Penellin long enough to recognize when he was hard put keeping a tight rein on fury.

  'And Justin generally rides quite well - don't you, darling? But Mark dazzled us both.'

  Brooke said only, 'He's good, all right,' and went back to his chicken. Faint beads of perspiration stood out on his swarthy skin.

  Mark Penellin came under the oak in time to hear the last two comments. 'I've just had lots of practice,' he said generously. 'You both did great.' He ran the back of his hand across his damp forehead. A smudge of dirt discoloured his cheek. He was a softer, lighter version of his father. Penellin's grey-streaked black hair was brown in Mark, his craggy features unscored in Mark's youth. The father was sapped by age and anxiety. The boy looked energetic, healthy, alive. 'Peter's not here?' he asked, looking the length of the table. 'That's odd. He phoned me at the lodge just a bit ago, said I was to come up.'

  'To join us for lunch, no doubt,' Lady Asherton said. 'How very good of Peter. We were in such a rush this morning that I didn't think to phone you myself. I'm so sorry, Mark. Sometimes I think my mind is splintering away altogether. Do join us. Mark. John. Please.' She indicated the places that had been intended for Sasha and Peter.

  It was obvious that John Penellin did not intend to brush off what was bothering him by sitting down to lunch with his employers and their weekend guests. This was a workday for him, like any other. And he had not come out of the house in order to signal his displeasure at being excluded from a luncheon to which he had no desire to be invited in the first place. Plainly, he had come to intercept his son.

  Fast childhood friends, Mark and Peter were of an age. They had spent long years in each other's company, sharing games and toys and adventures along the Cornish coast. They had played together, swum together, sailed together, grown up together. Only their schooling had been different, with Peter attending Eton as had every male in the family before him and Mark attending a day school in Nanrunnel and from there a secondary school in Penzance. But the separation of their schooldays had not been enough to divide them. They had maintained their old friendship over time and distance.

  But obviously not any longer, if Penellin could prevent it. Lynley felt the regret of a loss even before John Penellin spoke. Yet it was only reasonable to expect the man to protect his only son, seeking any way possible to keep him from becoming influenced by the changes that had come over Peter.

  'Nancy's wanting you at the lodge,' Penellin said to Mark. 'You've no need of Peter at the moment.' 'But he phoned and—'

  'I've no interest in who phoned. Get back to the lodge.'

  'Surely a quick lunch, John—' Lady Asherton began.

  'Thank you, my lady. We've no need of it.' He looked at his son, black eyes unreadable in an inflexible mask. But his arms - bared because he wore the sleeves of his work-shirt rolled up - showed veins like cords. 'Come with me, boy.' And then to Lynley, with a nod to the other, 'Sorry.'

  John Penellin turned on his heel and walked back towards the house. After casting a look round the table -part supplication and part apology - his son followed him. They left behind that sort of uneasy reserve in which members of a party must decide whether to discuss what has just occurred or to ignore it altogether. They held true to their previously unspoken agreement to overlook anything which held the promise of blighting a weekend of bliss. Lady Helen led the way.

  'Have you any idea,' she said as she speared a fat prawn, 'what a compliment it is to be
enthroned - there's simply no other word for it, Deborah - in Great-Grandmamma Asherton's bedroom for your engagement weekend? Considering the manner in which everyone's tiptoed reverentially by it when I've been here in the past, I've always got the distinct impression they've been saving that room for the Queen, should she ever pop in for a visit.'

  'That's the room with the terrifying bed,' Sidney put in. 'Draperies and gewgaws. Ghoulies and banshees carved right into the headboard like a Grinling Gibbons nightmare. This must be the test of true love, Deb.'

  'Like the princess and the pea,' Lady Helen said. 'Did you ever have to sleep there, Daze?'

  'Great-Grandmamma was alive when I first came here for a visit. So instead of sleeping in the bed one had to spend several hours sitting next to it, reading from the Bible. She was quite a devotee of some of the more lurid passages in the Old Testament, as I recall. Extensive explorations into Sodom and Gomorrah. Sexual misbehaviour. Lust and salacity. She wasn't very interested in how God punished the sinners, however. "Leave 'em to the Lord," she'd say and wave a hand at me. "Get on with it, girl.'"

  'Did you get on with it?' Sidney asked.

  'Of course. I was only sixteen. I don't think I'd ever read anything so delicious in my life.' She laughed engagingly. 'I count the Bible as largely responsible for the sinful life—' Her eyes suddenly dropped. Her quick smile faded, then reappeared in a determined fashion. 'Do you remember your great-grandmother, Tommy?'

  Lynley was concentrating on his wineglass, on his inability to define colour in a liquid that existed somewhere between green and amber. He made no reply.

  Deborah's hand touched his, a contact so fleeting it might not have happened at all. 'When I saw that bed, I wondered how gauche it would be if I slept on the floor,' she said.

  'One does somehow expect the entire affair to come creeping to life directly after nightfall,' Lady Helen said. 'But I long to sleep there anyway. I always have. Why have I never been allowed to spend the night in that terrifying bed?'