Read Online Lettice & Victoria by Susanna Johnston - Free Book Online Page B

fantastic?’
    Archie was wondering if Victoria was safely back at home. He planned to ring her after dinner.
    Harold’s energy had dribbled away and he could barely lift his food to his mouth. When dinner was over he thanked Lettice , congratulated Roland and ran away.
    Archie saw his lanky figure as he scrambled into a taxi. Dismissing the idea of trying to follow him, he decided that he would definitely ring Victoria. After all he would see Harold the next day when they dined in college hall.
    Back at the flat, Victoria’s mood was unsatisfactory. Her dislike of Lettice was uncomfortable. She wished that she missed Edgar. She had fallen asleep and had been dreaming again. Her baby, a boy, had blue eyes and grey curls. The telephone rang.
    ‘I wanted to be sure that you got home all right.’
    ‘How was dinner at the Ritz?’
    ‘Very nice. It would have been a great deal nicer if you had been present.’
    ‘Who did you sit next to?’
    ‘Your sister-in-law. Very sweet. She talks about Freud and Jung.’
    ‘Come and tell me about it.’
    ‘Very well.’
    He appeared on her doorstep almost instantly. He drank whisky and talked entertainingly of his rage at the abolition of capital punishment, dislike of facial hair, terror of men who wore earrings and his loathing of dogs which, he declared, ought to be muzzled at both ends. But he was tired and didn’t stay as long as Victoria would have wished. His lunatic attitude was compelling and spellbinding. His jokes and his rages; his bigoted views and flirtatious manners lifted Victoria’s spirits. She had never heard anything like it and compared him, neither favourably nor the opposite, with Laurence and his gentle liberal ways.
    In days to follow she was uneasy. She was fearful of having been impertinent, notwithstanding the fact that he had telephoned her, in asking Archie to visit her after the Ritz dinner party. She wished that he didn’t occupy such a distinguished position. Perhaps, when he retired, she would be allowed to visit him once a week.
    Another Italian stamp and Mungo’s exasperating handwriting on the hall floor at breakfast time. She was pleased though to hear from Laurence.
    Less so when she discovered that the letter had not been dictated but came from Mungo Craddock himself.
    ‘Dear Victoria. One writes to put you in the picture. Laurence is fading fast, poor old dear. He doesn’t leave his bedroom and Aldo (do you recall the male nurse?) is on permanent standby.’
    Did she recall the male nurse? Barely – and Laurence’s routine had constituted her life for a while.
    ‘Fear not! He wants for nothing. One reads aloud to him during his periods of consciousness; mostly from one’s own works. One’s style delights him. One has moved into the sitting room which, you may remember, is next to his bedroom. This way one can be on tap around the clock. Don’t put yourself to the inconvenience of writing. He remembers nothing. Elena has let him down badly. One never took to her, truth be told. Her eyes are odd. One noticed them on one’s first arrival at the villa. Do you recollect the occasion?’
    A pitiful note came from Elena by the same post. It was not easy to decipher but told that she was powerless. The
buffo
had taken over. He flattered the cook and shunned her, Elena, mocking poor Dante and his gifts for the
padrone
; treasures from the shore. Sea horses and shells.
    Bernadini had been summoned and it was rumoured that the
buffo
was involved with the redrafting of a will. She, Elena, had never expected anything but what did the
signorina
imagine ? Perhaps the right to live with Dante in one of the outlying buildings. She had worked there since she was thirteen – and now she was thirty and ready to settle. Another thing. The
padrone
had been calling out for the
signorina
. Had the
buffo
told her this?

Chapter 9
    U nsold paintings stacked in the hall reminded Lettice of her promise to Belinda. It was a week since the exhibition and