Sue for Mercy - Veronica Heley Page 0,22
I needed it, even if Charles didn’t.
The roots of the trouble lay in the past, in John Brenner’s marriage to a difficult woman who brought him money but no kindness or understanding. Their only child Julian was conceived in a desperate attempt to put some warmth into the marriage. He was born in the same month, and in the same nursing home as Charles, but his mother indoctrinated him from birth with the idea that his parentage entitled him to an easy ride through life. John Brenner was frequently away on business; there were rumours that he kept a mistress, but if this were true, he was discreet about it. Whatever the cause, his wife came to look on him simply as a source of money, and Julian copied her.
It was perhaps unfortunate that Charles was always around to act as foil to Julian, for Charles had been born with a quick brain, a thirst for knowledge and a dogged temperament that earned him every prize he cared to compete for at school, and brought him scholarships as he grew older. Charles was conscious of his ability, but not conceited, for his father and brothers — all men of steady character — banged it into him that though he had been born with a gift, it would do him no good unless he exploited it, and that that meant hard work. Luckily, Charles liked work. Julian didn’t. Even if John Brenner had not had Charles constantly in sight, he must have been disappointed in his only son, for though Julian had been born with some brains, he had no inclination to use them.
When Charles was ten, John Brenner offered to pay his fees to a well-known public school. The offer was refused. Oliver Ashton said that Charles could either pay his own way, or go to the local grammar school as his brothers had done. In due course Charles won a scholarship to the same public school to which Julian had been sent. At that time they tolerated each other. Julian floated around at the bottom of the classes, making the least possible effort to get through school, waiting for the day when he could take up his rightful position in the world as a millionaire’s heir. Charles found competition sharpened his mind and finished school with an armful of trophies to his credit before going on to Oxford on another scholarship.
After school Julian drifted from one thing to another, taking nothing seriously. His father found him jobs; he would keep them for a while and then, growing bored, would take off for the South of France or the Bahamas for an extended holiday before drifting back to Whitestones to ask for more money.
Charles enjoyed himself at Oxford. He revelled in setting himself impossible tasks and then completing them within time limits set by himself. He had one secret which he kept even from his family; every year on his birthday John Brenner wrote to Charles and offered him a job, and every year Charles refused, saying he wished to make his own way in the world. Charles spoke of this to no one, least of all to Julian, and yet when the two met, discomfort ruled. Charles came to the conclusion that Julian had discovered his father’s offers of work, and resented them. He did not blame Julian for resenting them, but he did begin to feel sorry for John Brenner, and after he qualified and began to work for the Merchant Bank, he used to ask the millionaire to dine with him when he was in London. John Brenner always accepted these invitations.
It seemed to me that the two men, the one old and powerful, and the other young but conscious of latent power, recognised each other’s quality and were drawn to each other despite the difference in their ages and Charles’ pride.
When Julian’s mother died, he inherited a lump sum of money and married Bianca, who had as great a talent for spending it as he did himself. They bought a big mock-Tudor house in an expensive suburb of town and Julian played the Stock Market — disastrously. He got into debt. His father bailed him out and, discovering that most of Julian’s money had gone this way and that, suggested his son might try accountancy as a last resort, under Oliver Ashton’s eye. Julian refused. He plunged into some slightly questionable property deal which was to retrieve his financial position, it fell through, and he was