The Sapphire Child (The Raj Hotel #2) - Janet MacLeod Trotter Page 0,41

perhaps this could wait—’

‘I’ll decide that.’ Lydia gave her a hostile look and Stella sat back down.

Andrew perched beside his mother and began biting a fingernail.

Lydia put a hand on his knee. ‘I’m distressed to say this,’ she began, her tone dramatic, ‘but your father was court-martialled in Mesopotamia for some cowardly act. He should have been shot, but his good friend Harold Guthrie intervened on his behalf and his sentence was commuted on grounds of . . . of . . . mental instability.’

Andrew looked like he had been slapped across the face. He gasped in shock. ‘No! I don’t believe it!’

Lydia withdrew her hand. ‘I knew you wouldn’t. I shouldn’t have said anything . . . You’re too young to cope with the truth.’

Tears welled in his eyes.

‘That’s why your father left the regiment – he didn’t choose to; he was forced out. That’s the only reason he doesn’t want to talk about it.’

Abruptly, Andrew’s shoulders sagged as he struggled not to cry. Stella rose to go to him, but Lydia put an arm around her son and patted his hair.

Andrew’s voice wobbled. ‘Th-that’s what G-Gotley said . . . that Dad was a coward. I thought he was lying.’

‘My darling boy,’ Lydia said in dismay. ‘Is that why you got expelled? For defending your father?’

Andrew nodded. ‘Gotley was hateful.’

‘But what he said was true,’ Lydia said brutally.

Stella looked on in distress. Lydia was the hateful one for denigrating Tom in his son’s eyes.

She spoke up. ‘Even if Mr Lomax was court-martialled, it doesn’t mean he wasn’t a hero. Think of all the years of war he went through – all he had to endure – and he was a brave Rifleman on the North West Frontier for years before that. It’s not true that he was a coward.’

Andrew looked up, hope flickering across his face.

‘You always did stick up for Tom, didn’t you, Stella?’ Lydia said in a cold voice. ‘Such misplaced loyalty. We were all taken in by him. I would never have married him if I’d known the truth about his character. I was duped into marriage and promised a glamorous life in India – but that all turned out to be make-believe too.’

Unable to stand this twisting of the truth, Stella blurted out, ‘You just weren’t suited to India! That wasn’t Mr Lomax’s fault.’

‘Don’t be impertinent,’ Lydia snapped. ‘You were a little girl and had no idea what was going on at the Raj.’

Stella seethed at her condescending tone. ‘I could see you were both unhappy – until baby Andrew came along. Mr Lomax adored Andrew from the moment he was born and would have done anything for you both. You could have had a good life in India but you chose not to.’

‘How dare you!’ Lydia went puce with anger. ‘You jumped-up little half-half! You had no idea what I had to put up with – a cheating husband and a best friend, the saintly Esmie, who stabbed me in the back.’

‘That’s a lie!’ Stella glared back. ‘Esmie saved your life.’

Lydia stood up unsteadily and stabbed a finger at her. ‘She ruined my life! Pretending to be loyal to me when all the time she was plotting to take my husband away from me.’

‘That’s not true,’ said Stella, furious. ‘Don’t say such things in front of Andrew.’

‘Why shouldn’t he know?’ she said shrilly. ‘That woman has usurped my place – I’m his mother, not her.’

Andrew sat open-mouthed, stunned by their arguing.

Lydia looked at him, wild-eyed. ‘For years I’ve put up with Esmie posturing as your mother,’ she said. ‘But not any more. I want you to live with me. It would break my heart for you to go away again. You must stay!’

Andrew’s expression was riven. Stella wanted to shout out that it was Lydia who was the cheating partner in his parents’ marriage and that it was his mother who had rejected him and left Tom to bring him up. But he had suffered enough being subjected to Lydia’s vile outpouring.

Swaying, Lydia held out her arms to her son. He hesitated. Lydia let out a sob. ‘I can’t bear it if you leave me . . .’

In alarm, Andrew stood up and hugged her. ‘Please don’t cry again, Mamma.’

Lydia wept into his shoulder and pawed at his hair. Stella looked on, appalled.

‘Don’t desert me,’ Lydia wailed. ‘Stay with me . . . and Mummy . . . and then your father might come back . . . We can be a family