going well in your department?’ Hilary asked.
‘Yes, thank you, sir. We’re doing nicely. The boy from Downlow is ever such a bright lad.’
‘Oh. Good. Good,’ Hilary said, rather hurriedly Troy thought. ‘What about those mince-pies?’
‘Ready for nibbles and wishes immediately after tea, sir, if you please,’ cried Kittiwee, gaily.
‘If they’re on the same level as the other things you’ve been giving us to eat,’ Troy said, ‘they’ll be the mince-pies of the century.’
It was hard to say who was the more delighted by this eulogy, Hilary or his cook.
Vincent came round the west wing wheeling another barrowful of snow. At close quarters he turned out to be a swarthy, thin man with a haggard expression in his eyes. He looked sidelong at Troy, tipped out his load and trundled off again. Kittiwee, explaining that he had only popped out for one second, embraced them all in the very widest of dimpled smiles and retired into the house.
A few minutes later Cuthbert came into the courtyard and boomingly proclaimed that luncheon was served.
II
Cressida Tottenham was blonde and extremely elegant. She was so elegant that her beauty seemed to be a second consideration: a kind of bonus, a gloss. She wore a sable hat. Sable framed her face, hung from her sleeves and topped her boots. When her outer garments were removed she appeared to be gloved rather than clad in the very ultimate of expensive simplicity.
Her eyes and her mouth slanted and she carried her head a little on one side. She was very composed and not loquacious. When she did talk she said: ‘you know’ with every second breath. She was not by any means the kind of subject that Troy liked to paint. This might turn out to be awkward: Hilary kept looking inquisitively at her as if to ask what she thought of Cressida.
To Mr Bert Smith, Troy took an instant fancy. He was a little man with an impertinent face, a bright eye and a strong out of date cockney habit of speech. He was smartly dressed in an aggressive countrified way. Troy judged him to be about seventy years old and in excellent health.
The encounter between the new arrivals and the Forresters was interesting. Colonel Forrester greeted Miss Tottenham with timid admiration calling her ‘Cressy-dear’.
Troy thought she detected a gently avuncular air, tempered perhaps by anxiety. The colonel’s meeting with Mr Smith was cordial to a degree. He shook hands with abandon. ‘How are you? How are you, my dear fellow?’ he repeatedly asked and with each enquiry broke into delighted laughter.
‘How’s the colonel, anyway?’ Mr Smith responded. ‘You’re looking lovely, I’ll say that for you. Fair caution, you are and no error. What’s all this they’re givin’ us abaht you dressing yourself up like Good King Thingummy? Wiv whiskers! Whiskers!’ Mr Smith turned upon Mrs Forrester and suddenly bellowed: ‘Blimey, ’e must be joking. At ’is age ! Whiskers!’
‘It’s my husband who’s deaf, Smith,’ Mrs Forrester pointed out, ‘not me. You’ve made that mistake before, you know.’
‘What am I thinking of,’ said Mr Smith, winking at Troy and slapping Colonel Forrester on the back. ‘Slip of the tongue, as the butcher said when he dropped it accidental in the tripe.’
‘Uncle Bert,’ Hilary said to Troy, ‘is a comedian manqué. He speaks nicely when he chooses. This is his “aren’t I a caution, I’m a cockney” act. He’s turning it on for Uncle Flea’s benefit. You always bring him out, Uncle Flea, don’t you?’
Miss Tottenham caught Troy’s eyes and slightly cast up her own.
‘Really?’ asked the enchanted colonel. ‘Do I really, though?’
Mr Smith quietened down after this exchange and they all went in to tea which had been set out in the dining-room and had none of the cosiness of Troy’s and Hilary’s tête-à-têtes by the boudoir fire. Indeed an air of constraint hung over the party which Cressida’s refusal to act as chatelaine did nothing to relieve.
‘You’re not asking me to do the pouring-out bit, darling, for God’s sake,’ Cressida said. ‘It’d, you know, frankly bore the pants off me. I’ve got, you know, a kind of thing against it. Not my scene. You know.’
Mrs Forrester stared fixedly at Cressida for some moments and then said: ‘Perhaps, Hilary, you would like me to perform.’
‘Darling Auntie, please do. It will be like old times, won’t it? When Uncle Bert used to come to Eaton Square after you’d made it up over my upbringing.’
‘That’s the ticket,’ Mr Smith agreed. ‘No hard feelings. Live and let live. That’s the story, missus, isn’t it?’
‘You’re a decent fellow in your own way, Smith,’ Mrs Forrester conceded. ‘We’ve learnt to understand each other, I dare say. What sort of tea do you like, Mrs Alleyn?’
Troy thought: I am among people who say what they think when they think it. Like children. This is a most unusual circumstance and might lead to anything.
She excepted Mr Smith from her blanket appraisal. Mr Smith, she considered, is a tricky little old man and what he really thinks about the company he keeps is nobody’s business but his.
‘How’s all the villains, ’Illy?’ he asked putting his head on one side and jauntily quizzing his muffin. ‘Still keepin’ their noses clean?’
‘Certainly, Uncle Bert, but do choose your words. I wouldn’t for the world Cuthbert or Mervyn heard you talking like that. One of them might walk in at any moment.’
‘Oh dear,’ said Mr Smith, unmoved.
‘That yawning void over the fireplace,’ Cressida said. ‘Is that where you meant? You know, about my picture?’
‘Yes, my darling,’ Hilary responded. ‘As a matter of fact –’ he looked anxiously at Troy ’ – I’ve already ventured a tentative probe.’
Troy was saved the awkwardness of a reply by Cressida who said, ‘I’d rather it was the drawing-room. Not all mixed in with the soup and, you know, your far from groovy ancestors.’ She glanced discontentedly at a Lely, two Raeburns and a Winterhalter. ‘You know,’ she said.
Hilary turned rather pink: ‘We’ll have to see,’ he said.
Mervyn came in with the cook’s compliments and the mince-pies were ready when they were.
‘What is he on about?’ Cressida asked fretfully. ‘On top of tea? And anyway I abhor mincemeat.’
‘Darling I know. So, privately, do I. But it appears to be an authentic old custom. On taking one’s first bite,’ Hilary explained, ‘one makes a wish. The ceremony is held, by tradition, in the kitchen. One need only take a token nibble. It will give him so much pleasure.’
‘Are there still cats in the kitchen?’ Cressida asked. ‘There’s my thing about cats, remember.’
‘Mervyn,’ Hilary said, ‘ask Kittiwee to put Slyboots and Smartypants out, will you? He’ll understand.’
‘He’d better. I’m allergic,’ Cressida told Troy. ‘Cats send me. But totally. I’ve only got to catch the eye of a cat and I’m a psychotic wreck.’ She enlarged upon her theme. It would be tedious to record how many times she said Troy knew.
‘I should be pleased,’ Mrs Forrester said loudly, ‘to renew my acquaintance with Slyboots and Smartypants.’
‘Rather you than me,’ Cressida retorted, addressing herself to Mrs Forrester for the first time but not looking at her.
‘I so far agree with you, Hilary,’ said Mrs Forrester, ‘in your views on your staff as