Outrageous Fortune

by Lulu Taylor

  Coco stroked his shoulder. ‘You weren’t to blame. It wasn’t your fault. There’s nothing you could have done.’

  He smiled and kissed her, and the pain in his eyes went away.

  Sometimes he asked her to tell him about her life and she spun a pleasant tale of a privileged upper-middle-class existence. She gave her imaginary family a large house in South Kensington; she described her father coming in late with his briefcase, her mother playing the piano while her brother practised his violin, the telly on and supper on the table. The life she’d always yearned for she now gave herself, along with the education she’d missed out on. She conjured up a career: a job waiting for her in London, and her last few months of freedom, travelling about with no ties and no obligations. Part of her knew that this was storing up trouble for the future, but she didn’t care if it gave her what she needed right now: Will, and the hours and days to enjoy him. When an email came from Margaret, asking her when she could expect a report, Coco wrote a short reply fobbing her off and did not open her email account again.

  One night, wrapped in each other’s arms, Will told her the whole story of his campaign against his father. She listened, motionless, almost wanting to put her finger over his lips and stop him as it all came pouring out. She was afraid of knowing because it meant she would have to make a choice at some point. Owning the knowledge was dangerous. But she didn’t stop him. Instead she listened as Will described the family trusts set up by his grandfather and his suspicions that the trustees were puppets of his father, who allowed him to remove great chunks of money for his own purposes – money that was meant to be passed on to future generations.

  ‘I don’t know where this money has gone, but I have an idea. He’s set up some kooky thing called the Dangerfield Foundation and I suspect it’s all being poured in there. I’m going to stop him,’ Will said with determination. His face was stony in the half light that came from the poolside illumination. ‘I’m setting the whole thing in motion: I’ll take him to court if I have to, and Sarah will sue with me. He can’t get away with treating us like we don’t matter. Not any more. Maybe if Daisy had lived, she might have come in with us – that’s why I was looking for her, to see if she knew what was going on – but I doubt it. She never could see that the idol she worshipped had feet of clay.’

  ‘Do you think you can stop him?’ Coco whispered. She felt, suddenly, like a spy. She never had before. Now she felt like a traitor.

  ‘I’m going to bloody well try,’ Will said grimly.

  Coco stared into the darkness, wondering what she would do now. I can’t betray him. I won’t.

  61

  THEY SPENT THE afternoon at the site going through the mine specifications, then Sergei drove them to the small village where the workers were billeted. The houses were not pretty – basic grey concrete structures with low pitched roofs – but they seemed remarkably attractive when the alternative was the freezing countryside.

  Sergei had his own place along the main road, which had just a few shops and an inn. He took them there as night fell and the temperature swooped downwards.

  ‘It’s winter here for seven months of the year,’ he said cheerfully as he led them inside. ‘You get used to it after a while.’

  Sergei’s house was furnished in a sparse style, and everywhere were signs of the constant struggle to keep the cold out. Windows were shuttered and covered in thickly lined curtains and a huge stove dominated the sitting room, bulging out like a beehive from the corner. A small wooden bench ran around it so that it was possible to sit next to the heat within. The chairs and sofas were draped with throws, blankets and furs.

  I’ll never grumble about British cold again, thought Daisy. She tried to imagine a life where battling the weather played such an enormous role. It seemed tremendously hard work. Was it worth the effort? Could anyone really like living here?

  ‘This life is not for everyone,’ Sergei said, seeing her look around. ‘But there is also freedom here, you know. The land belongs to us all. We can wander where we please, and so can the animals.’ He took off his coat and hung it up by the door, then put out his hand for Daisy’s and Darley’s. ‘In the woods, you’ll see moose, elk, bears, even snow leopards. Near the coast, there are Amur tigers.’

  ‘Tigers?’ It sounded so exotic. Daisy handed him her coat and took off her hat. Life here seemed to consist of putting warm clothes on and then taking them off again. Darley looked more unhappy than ever as he unwound his scarf. Daisy wished she could tell him to try and look more cheerful. It was vital to keep Sergei on side.

  He showed them to their rooms and Darley went to lie down for a while, saying he was tired. Daisy treated herself to a hot bath to get some heat back into her bones. When she emerged, dressed in warm trousers and two cashmere jumpers, she felt a little better.

  Sergei was at the stove in the kitchen, preparing supper: elk casserole with garlicky flat bread. Daisy guessed that vegetarians did not have a particularly easy time of it around here. He looked round with a welcoming smile as she came in. When he wanted to be friendly, his face was quite charming, the blue eyes soft and kindly. But she had already seen the other side: when he set his face so that the strong chin seemed to jut even further outwards, and his eyes turned hard. She sensed he was a quick-tempered man, and wanted to make sure that neither she nor Darley did anything to antagonise him.

  ‘Did you enjoy your bath?’ he asked. ‘The fire here supplies plenty of hot water, so take as many you like.’

  ‘Thanks,’ she said, coming to see what he was stirring. ‘That smells great.’

  ‘Just basic. But all food tastes good here … except maybe some of it.’ He laughed. ‘We have some influences that can produce very odd dishes: Chinese meets Mongol meets Russian. Very strange. Where is Darley?’

  ‘Still resting, I think.’ She went over to the table and sat down.

  ‘There is vodka if you want a drink,’ Sergei said, indicating a carved dresser with a shelf of glass tumblers.

  ‘No, thanks, maybe later.’ Daisy began to trace the pattern on the floral oilcloth with one finger. ‘Sergei, the company you mentioned – Korsilkoff. How serious a threat are they?’

  His face darkened. ‘They are scoundrels. They’ve threatened me. Attempted to sabotage the mine. Spread rumours. I have to screen every worker to make sure he is not a spy.’ He turned to look at her. ‘That’s why I need to get more investment, you see? Until the mine is finished, the deal with the Chinese signed and production has started, I am very vulnerable.’

  ‘I see.’ Daisy tried not to show her worry but the truth was she felt out of her depth here. She and Darley were miles away from home, with no one aware of where they were. She had blithely supposed that her BlackBerry would always be at her disposal, but she hadn’t picked up a signal since they’d left Komsomolsk.

  Sergei came over to the table and sat down opposite her. ‘You know,’ he said, ‘it’s not often that a young woman like you comes to a place like this. There aren’t many of you in the mining business.’ He smiled. ‘I’m going to have to be careful. I can’t have you distracting the men too much. They’re there to work, after all.’

  She smiled back, though she didn’t much like the implication. ‘I’m sure they’ll cope,’ she said lightly. ‘Besides, we’re going home tomorrow.’

  ‘Oh, yes.’ Sergei nodded. ‘Home tomorrow.’

  Darley emerged blearily from his room in time for the supper of elk and bread. Daisy thought it was very good, though Darley’s appetite did not seem to be up to much.

  Sergei entertained them with stories of life in the village: the extremes of weather, the adventures he’d undertaken in the frozen countryside, his hunting exploits. He had grown up in the city, he said, then moved to the US with his parents when he was a young boy. He and his brother had returned from the States with his father, a geologist who had taken up a position in a state mining company. When the Soviet regime began to weaken and crumble, his father had bough
t some land, instinctively sure that it was rich in iron ore but without the means to test his theory. Sergei had made his career in the hotel business, and he and his brother had inherited the mine in due course. Now his father had been proved right.

  ‘So my hotel business can look after itself for a little while,’ he said jovially, ‘while I become a very rich mine owner, you see?’

  With dinner over, he brought out the vodka and started pouring it for them, proposing toast after toast.

  ‘To my blessed father, of beloved memory!’ he cried, lifting his little glass to chink it against Daisy’s and then Darley’s.

  Then: ‘To the many millions I am going to make! You must help me plan how to spend it! Perhaps I’ll buy a football team and a castle, huh?’ Clink.

  ‘To your health – may you live for ever and see your children’s children’s children!’

  Daisy was only sipping a little of the vodka each time, but she was still lightheaded. She could see that Darley was rather drunk, swigging back the little shot glasses as though he didn’t realise what the cumulative effect would be.

  At last, she felt she could interrupt Sergei’s exuberance. She stood up. ‘I must go to bed now. Darley, I think you should turn in too.’

  ‘I’m not tired,’ he slurred. ‘I slept this afternoon.’

  ‘Still,’ she said firmly, pulling him up by the arm, ‘I think you should.’

  Once she’d deposited him in his room, she retired to her own. Sergei ought to have been out cold with the amount of vodka he’d put away, but she heard him go out to the sitting room and later some murmured Russian that indicated he was on the telephone.

  She climbed under the covers in her bed and lay awake late, thinking of the many people who’d been exiled to Siberia and never returned.

  I’m out of my depth here. And while Sergei seems very charming, he has an air of menace, as though he can turn in an instant into someone very frightening indeed. She moved her head to find a more comfortable place on the pillow. At least I’m going home tomorrow.

  London had never seemed so far away.

  62

  THERE WAS ANOTHER party planned for the following night – they happened every few days or so. Will allowed it because he liked seeing the house filled with people, and because he wanted to let his workforce and their friends let off steam every now and then. They spent so much of their lives in front of screens, simulating emotions. He wanted to make sure that they also remembered how to live.

  And it didn’t hurt to have a reputation as the best boss in town.

  Coco had gone to bed early, partly in preparation for a late one the following night, and partly because she had a headache. The sun had been strong that day and she’d spent too long lying out on the sun lounger, turning her skin an even deeper shade of gold.

  Will and Xander stayed up together, eating dinner and then watching a ball game on TV with a stack of beers, even though both of them were hazy on the rules of baseball.

  ‘I just think of it as really skilled-up rounders,’ Xander said cheerfully as they lay spread out on a sofa each, a pile of cushions propped behind their heads.

  Will laughed.

  ‘Hey, mate, you got any whisky?’ Xander asked.

  ‘Sure.’ Will indicated a large Indian cabinet inlaid with mother-of-pearl. Xander got up, trotted over and helped himself to a bottle of Jack Daniel’s.

  ‘Gotta be Tennessee,’ he sang lightly as he poured himself a large measure and returned to his place.

  ‘Where did you go last night?’ Will asked, looking over briefly at his friend. Xander was looking more stubbly and sunken-cheeked than ever, and he felt a pang of guilt that he was so wrapped up in Coco now. He’d hardly given his friend any attention, and it couldn’t be great sitting around like a gooseberry when a loved-up couple were all over each other. Xander had taken to heading out on his own or with some of the people he’d met at Will’s parties to discover the night scene in downtown Hollywood.

  ‘I went to Joseph’s on Ivar and Yucca,’ Xander said idly. ‘I hooked up with some girls.’

  ‘The place where all the celebs keep getting into trouble?’ Will asked, frowning. He was not a great clubber himself and only heard about these cool nightspots.

  ‘The very same. I had a great night. Got totally off my tits. American girls are very generous with their drugs, I must say.’

  ‘Just don’t get caught, Xander, OK?’ Will said warningly. ‘It’s better not to fool around with that stuff at all. You’ll forfeit any right to come back here if you’re busted.’

  ‘I know that.’ Xander made a sad face. ‘It’s so mean.’

  Will felt a sudden stab of irritation. He’d moved on and left those party days behind him. It seemed strange that here was Xander, still as up for getting out of his skull as ever. Was he ever going to grow up and settle down? Will had a sudden vision of Coco, lying upstairs in bed. He pictured her, naked under the sheets, her back turned to the window so that the light fell on her shoulder blades and caught her hair spread on the pillow. He felt a stirring in his groin as he imagined slipping under the sheet beside her, reaching out for her incredibly soft breasts, letting one sit heavy in the palm of his hand as the nipple hardened in response to his touch. He saw the curve of her hip under the white covering and the small breath of warmth that would sigh out from under the sheet as he lifted it to reveal her belly and the mound below. Shit, he thought. He’d never felt desire like this. The more he had her, the more he wanted – it was the reverse of most of his relationships.

  ‘But you know the latest thing, don’t you?’ Xander smiled over at his friend, oblivious to the images passing through his mind. ‘To reduce chances of being busted.’

  ‘No.’

  ‘Mate, if you’re really upscale … you order in.’

  As if on cue, the buzzer in the hall went.

  ‘Who’s that?’ asked Will, surprised.

  ‘You’ll see,’ Xander said, getting up and going out to the hall to answer it. Will watched him go then sprang to his feet and followed.

  ‘Who’s that?’ he demanded.

  ‘A friend. Or two.’ Xander grinned again. A moment later, there was the roar of a car coming up the driveway and halting in front of the house. There was the sound of laughing and then a banging on the front door. Xander went and opened it. ‘Hello, ladies.’

  On the doorstep were two California blondes with big breasts, probably fake, bursting out of their low-cut tops and long tanned legs emerging from mini-skirts. They had billowing dyed blonde hair and heavy make-up, their lids weighted down by false eyelashes. Giggling and squealing, they greeted Xander with eager kisses and great excitement.

  ‘Xander …’ said Will with a sigh. These were not the kind of people he usually invited in. The kids he partied with were pretty normal, not plastic wannabe starlets who never would be.

  ‘Ah, come on, we’re just going to do a little partying,’ Xander said, slipping his arm round the waists of both girls. They pouted at Will and fluttered their eyelashes.

  ‘You gonna join us?’ breathed one, giving his body an appreciative look.

  ‘I don’t think so. Go out to the pool if you want to,’ he said, and returned to the sitting room. He heard them go out the back and soon was aware of muffled shrieks and gales of laughter. He knew what they’d be doing – drinking his booze, doing some drugs probably. He tried to lose himself in the ball-game for a while and then switched over to a late-night movie, but somehow he couldn’t shut out the sounds that drifted in from the terrace. He thought about going to bed but didn’t want to leave Xander in sole charge. For fuck’s sake, he thought, we’re having a party tomorrow night. Xander could have invited those bimbos then.

  After an hour or so, he could take no more, jumped to his feet and headed out to the poolside. Xander and one of the girls were cosied up on a lounger, kissing, her bikini top now on the floor. Drink and drug detritus were spread out across the table and Will hated seeing it. Most
of the time at his parties, people were discreet if they were going to indulge. They didn’t disrespect his house by openly flouting the law there. The other girl was swimming in the pool singing to herself.

  ‘OK, that’s enough!’ Will said roughly. ‘Time to go home, ladies.’

  The girl and Xander pulled apart, surprised, and she said, ‘Oooh! We’re just getting started!’ She gazed provocatively at Will and said, ‘You’re cute.’

  ‘Sorry. Party’s over for tonight.’

  The girl in the pool swam slowly to the side and started to climb out.

  ‘Hey, come on, Will,’ protested Xander. His pupils were wildly dilated and he was working his jaw.

  ‘I mean it. That’s it. Come back tomorrow.’ The girls didn’t put up much of a fight but Xander seemed furious. Within a few minutes, Will had rounded up the girls, their clothes and shoes, phoned for a cab and, when it came, herded them out of the front door.

  Xander stood inside the hall as Will shut the front door, his expression mulish and his mouth set sulkily. ‘I think that was pretty bloody crap, if you don’t mind my saying.’ He was slurring slightly. ‘Why’s everybody allowed a good time except me? Huh?’

  ‘We’re partying tomorrow,’ Will said shortly.