‘All set?’

She shrugged her shoulders.

‘I hope so. He’s as nervous as a cat.’

His eyebrows rose.

‘Well, I suppose we shall all be glad when it’s over. Are you going to be there?’

‘Not to start with. That’s what I’ve come to talk to you about. I’ve told him to ring for me if there are any awkward questions. It mayn’t be necessary, but if the Admiral gets too pressing, it’s easy for either of you to suggest having me in. The line will be that I’m straightening up after Mr. Davies, who was a bit past his work and had left things rather in a muddle.’

Brett laughed,

‘That’s a bright one!’

‘Yes – I thought so. But Mr. Eversley doesn’t like it.’

‘He wouldn’t.’

‘So it’s not to be brought in unless it’s necessary. Of course there wouldn’t be any harm in your saying that the old man had been getting pretty doddery and had left things in a bit of a mess. Mr. Eversley would show that he was vexed and stick up for Mr. Davies, and that would make the right sort of impression. We’d get across with the idea that it was Davies who had muddled things up. But Mr. Eversley being put out about it would take off any appearance of our wanting to put it on the old man, if you see what I mean.’

Brett looked at her with a curious expression in his dark eyes.

‘Oh, yes, I see what you mean! Clever – aren’t you?’ He laughed. ‘I think I shall always take care to stay your side of the fence!’

She gave him a perfunctory smile.

‘There’s really nothing to be nervous about. As far as this interview goes, everything will be quite all right – I’ve told Mr. Eversley so. The trouble is, it doesn’t go all the way. Nobody is safe until you’ve married her.’

He pushed back his chair and stood up, his hands in his pockets, a smile on his face.

‘You tell me that?’

‘Of course I do! It’s the truth.’

‘You want me to marry Katharine?’

‘My dear Brett, talk sense! You’ve got to marry her.’

‘And suppose she won’t?’

‘You’ve got to make her change her mind. You’ve always fancied yourself with women. I seem to remember your telling me that you could make any woman fall for you. Well, now you’ve got to marry Katharine Eversley or go to prison – that’s the plain English of it. Turn on some of that charm you’re so proud of and see what you can do with it. Because if she marries anybody else, the fat will be in the fire, and I shan’t be able to pull it out for you. I can bluff the Admiral, but I couldn’t bluff a firm of solicitors, and I’m not going to try. If Katharine Eversley marries, her husband will want to know what has happened to her trust funds, and you won’t be able to satisfy him. I haven’t said all this to Mr. Eversley because there isn’t anything he can do about it and it’s no good frightening him. But I’m saying it to you, and you’d better get busy. That’s all, Brett.’

Chapter Nine

The lunch went off well. In his relief at having come more than creditably through a much dreaded interview, Cyril Eversley relaxed to play the courteous, gentle-mannered host. In doing so he was not so much playing a part as throwing one off. It was the role of man of business which he found perennially jading and ungrateful. As the scholarly dilettante he was at his ease. Admiral Holden, who had never thought much of him, was surprised to find him such an agreeable host.

The Admiral was feeling pleased with himself – pleased to be up and about again; pleased to be asserting himself with the Eversleys who had certainly considered him as good as dead and buried (he’d show them!); pleased to be visiting his old haunts and saying what a damned filthy place London was, and very much pleased to see Katharine. When she came into the hall of the club in her blue dress and fur coat, and put her hands in his and kissed him, his weatherbeaten face turned quite scarlet with pleasure and he thought to himself, ‘She’s a lovely woman – and be damned to all the rest of them – they can’t hold a candle to her.’ He squeezed her hands very tight, and she said,

‘Darling Bunny, you look as if you’d just come back from a voyage round the world.’

‘Bed on the verandah,’ he said gruffly – ‘fair or foul – wet, wind, or snow – or I shouldn’t be here today.’

After that everything went with a bang. She had called him Bunny ever since she was three years old. It gave him extraordinary pleasure. She had a loving heart, God bless her, and she looked young and happy, and he had gone into her affairs for her. If he had come out of his verandah bed in the nick of time to dance at her wedding, nobody would be better pleased than he. Only he wasn’t sure that he would have chosen that fellow Brett – no, he wasn’t sure about that. Cyril Eversley seemed to think they had made it up between them, or that they were going to, but that it was all very hush-hush at the moment. He couldn’t see why it should be. He thought he would have a word or two with Katharine and find out. Hang it all, she liked the fellow, or she didn’t like him. She was old enough to know her own mind. He could find out tactfully. He hoped he could be tactful when he chose. Thoughts like these came and went as he partook vigorously of lobster and partridge and finished up with a couple of ices and some Stilton cheese.

Brett Eversley, making himself charming to Katharine, was aware of scrutiny. Admiral Holden’s small bright blue eyes appeared to be sizing him up. He laid himself out to entertain, and succeeded. But when Katharine rose to go the Admiral rose too.

‘We’ll have a taxi, my dear,’ he said easily. ‘I’m going your way.’

‘Darling Bunny, how do you know which way I’m going?’

‘Well, which way are you going?’

‘Back to my job.’

Brett laughed and said, ‘He crashes in where we’ve been afraid to tread! Go on, sir – ask her what she’s doing, and where she’s been hiding herself away!’

Katharine was smiling.

‘Oh, I’m not telling anyone. It’s fun for me, because I can keep you all guessing – and it’s even more fun for you, because you can invent all sorts of scandalous explanations. They won’t any of them be true, but that only makes them more intriguing.’

Brett took her hand and held it just a little longer than he need have done.

‘You won’t tell me where you’re living?’

‘It would spoil the stories. It’s all too, too respectable.’

Cyril said, ‘Have you really got a job? There surely isn’t any need?’

She laughed.

‘I have an urge to work. Doesn’t that prove my respectability? I must rush! Thank you for a lovely lunch.’

At the taxi door she said,

‘I’ll be dropped at the Marble Arch tube.’

Admiral Holden spoke to the driver, and got in after her. Except that he did not move quite as lightly as he had done, he seemed to be perfectly restored. As they drove away, he beamed at her and said,

‘Well, I’ve got everything settled up, and you won’t have any more trouble. If those dividends of yours don’t come in on the nail, you’ve got to let me know. Not much of a hand at business, Cyril Eversley. Struck me that secretary of his knew more about everything than he did. Good-looking woman. They had her in, and she had it all at her fingers’ ends. It seems the old clerk – what’s his name, Davies – was a bit past his work at the end and things got muddled up. I shouldn’t have heard anything about it from Cyril – it was Brett let the cat out of the bag. Cyril was all for hushing it up and saying how long Davies had worked for them, but reading between the lines, I should say he’d left everything at sixes and sevens, and for all we know he may have been feathering his nest for years – ’

Katharine interrupted him with distress in voice and manner.

‘Oh, no – he wouldn’t!’

‘That’s what Cyril Eversley said. But it happens, you know. Old trusted servant of the firm – everything left to him – too much left to him. Then he dies suddenly, and the whole thing comes out.’