The sky was darkening and they were passing Biggin Hill now, the airfield on their left, following the same route they had taken to Aunt Edie’s, weeks ago when life was straightforward. It seemed as though Howard might drive all night if she let him.
“Is there anything I can do that might help? Anything at all?” she asked, conscious that her intervention so far in the Tilbury marriage hardly recommended her for the role.
“She’ll need money,” Howard replied. “I wouldn’t like to think of her struggling or dependent on . . . someone else.”
“Only you would think like that.”
“I wonder if you would go and see her, give her some cash and check that she is all right. I know she won’t want to face me. I don’t even have an address for her.”
“Of course. If you think she’ll see me.”
“She’ll have to see someone. Margaret comes back on Saturday. She needs to be told.”
“Poor Margaret,” Jean burst out. “This is desperate.”
Howard pulled over to the side of the road. In the pool of light from a streetlamp his face looked pale and waxy. He flipped open the glove compartment and took out a stiff white envelope addressed, with touching formality, in his neat handwriting, to Mrs. H. Tilbury. He passed it to Jean.
“It’s just twenty pounds. Of course there’s more if she needs it. I didn’t put in a letter. I started one, but . . .”
“I’ll go tomorrow morning,” Jean promised.
“What about work?”
“You and Gretchen are my work.”
* * *
Chimneys can be kept reasonably clear of soot if potato parings mixed with a little salt are burned in the grate at least once a week. This will form a glaze inside the chimney and prevent it from becoming clogged.
* * *
23
“Where are we with this Virgin Mother story? It seems to have been dragging on for months.” Roy Drake shifted, wincing in his swivel chair as Jean explained the unwelcome developments in the Tilbury story. He had pulled his back over the weekend digging in his allotment and pain was adding to his displeasure.
“None of the tests so far have proved the involvement of a father. They’ve done the skin grafts—now they’re just waiting to see if they take.”
“You’d think these doctors could work a bit faster. If they treated their patients in this leisurely fashion they’d surely all be dead.”
“I didn’t realize it would all be so time-consuming.”
“It was supposed to be an Advent miracle story. It’s nearly November and we’re still nowhere.”
He tossed her his cigarettes and they sat for a moment recuperating in silence as the first hit of nicotine worked its magic.
“Things have got a little more complicated. Mrs. Tilbury’s . . . left home.”
Roy’s eyebrows shot up. “Found herself another fellow?”
“Oh no,” said Jean, relieved that on this point she had not been required to lie.
Although she looked up to Roy and admired him more than anyone she had ever worked with, still she could not bring herself to expose the details of Gretchen’s defection to his sharp, journalistic eye. Unlike her, he had no feelings of loyalty to the family and might think this development fair game. To her mind it would be unthinkable if the real story of Margaret’s mysterious origins was eclipsed by a sensational sex scandal. It would be awful for Gretchen, of course, but her sympathies now lay firmly with Howard and Margaret. It was them she had to protect at all costs.
“It just makes it awkward to get hold of her at the moment, but I’m sure it’s only temporary.”
“Do you think it’s the pressure of all these investigations?”
“I’m sure it hasn’t helped. It’s on my conscience.”
“You can’t blame yourself for the way things have gone. She came to us. And every marriage has its fault lines.”
“I suppose so. But she hid it so well. It makes me wonder what else she’s been hiding.”
The paradox was that while Gretchen’s sexuality made it more likely that she had never had relations with a man until Howard, her dishonesty made her a less credible witness.
“I see. You think she might have been hoodwinking us all along?”
The phone on his desk rang and he silenced it with a twitch of the receiver.
“I only know that I feel a bit less confident in Gretchen personally, and yet test after test has vindicated her.” She gave him an apologetic smile.