Donald had only been nine at the time, a bit early for life decisions. In any event, as an adult he had drifted from job to job in hotels, coming to harbour at length as secretary of a prestigious golf club near Henley-on-Thames, a post which I gathered had proved ultimately satisfactory in social standing, which was very important to his self-esteem.
I didn’t either like or dislike Donald particularly. He was eleven years older than I was. He was there.
‘Everyone insists you stop Malcolm squandering the family money,’ he said, predictably.
‘It’s his money, not the family’s,’ I said.
‘What?’ Donald found the idea ridiculous. ‘What you’ve got to do is explain that he owes it to us to keep the family fortune intact until we inherit it. Unfortunately we know he won’t listen to any of us except you, and now that you appear to have made up your quarrel with him, you are elected to be our spokesman. Joyce thinks we have to convince you first of the need to stop Malcolm, but I told her it was ridiculous. You don’t need convincing, you want to be well off one day just the same as the rest of us, of course you do, it’s only natural.’
I was saved from both soul-searching and untrue disclaimers by the arrival of Helen, Donald’s wife, who had apparently been buying a racecard.
‘We’re not staying,’ Donald said disapprovingly, eyeing it.
She gave him a vague smile. ‘You never know,’ she said.
Beautiful and brainless, Malcolm had said of her, and perhaps he was right. Tall and thin, she moved with natural style and madecheap clothes look expensive: I knew they were cheap because she had a habit of saying where they’d come from and how much she’d paid for them, inviting admiration of her thriftiness. Donald always tried to shut her up.
‘Do tell us where to watch the races from,’ she said.
‘We’re not here for that,’ Donald said.
‘No, dear, we’re here because we need money now that the boys have started at Eton.’
‘No, dear,’ Donald said sharply.
‘But you know we can’t afford …’
‘Do be quiet, dear,’ Donald said.
‘Eton costs a bomb,’ I said mildly, knowing that Donald’s income would hardly stretch to one son there, let alone two. Donald had twin boys, which seemed to run in the family.
‘Of course it does,’ Helen said, ‘but Donald puts such store by it. “My sons are at Eton,” that sort of thing. Gives him standing with the people he deals with in the golf dub.’
‘Helen, dear, do be quiet.’ Donald’s embarrassment showed, but she was undoubtedly right.
‘We thought Donald might have inherited before the boys reached thirteen,’ she said intensely. ‘As he hasn’t, we’re borrowing every penny we can to pay the fees, the same as we borrowed for the prep school and a lot of other things. But we’ve borrowed against Donald’s expectations… so you see it’s essential for us that there really is plenty to inherit, as there are so many people to share it with. We’ll be literally bankrupt if Malcolm throws too much away… and I don’t think Donald could face it.’
I opened my mouth to answer her but no sound came out. I felt as if I’d been thrust into a farce over which I had no control.
Walking purposefully to join us came Serena, Ferdinand and Debs.
Six
‘Stay right here,’ I said to all of them. ‘I have to go into the weighing-room to deal with a technicality. Stay right here until I come out.’
They nodded with various frowns, and I dived into privacy in a desperate search for a sheet of paper and an envelope.
I wrote to Malcolm:
Half the family have turned up here, sent by Joyce. For God’s sake stay where you are, keep out of sight and wait until I come to fetch you.
I stuck the note into the envelope, wrote Malcolm’s name on the outside, and sought out an official who had enough rank to send someone to deliver it.
‘My father is lunching in the Directors’ dining-room,’ I said. ‘And it’s essential that he gets this note immediately.’
The official was obliging. He was going up to the Stewards’ room anyway, he said, and he would take it himself. With gratitude and only a minor lessening of despair — because it would be just like Malcolm to come down contrarily to confront the whole bunch — I went out again into the sunlight and found the five of them still faithfully waiting exactly where I’d left them.