Page 114 of Fire Must Burn

‘It may also interest you to know that Lucinda Kendall is my goddaughter,’ he said. ‘We speak frequently.’

‘Do you?’

‘Yes. In fact, she mentioned receiving a visit from you last week,’ he continued. ‘You and another woman were attempting to locate her brother, Kevin.’

‘Yes,’ she replied. ‘Sadly, it turned out that he died in the war.’

‘Which I would have expected you to know before making your visit,’ he said. ‘Being the keen reporter that you are.’

‘What exactly are you getting at, Lord Cater?’

‘I paid little mind to your visit to Lucinda until you showed up at my home this afternoon,’ he said. ‘You made no mention to her about your employment, which means that you were either there or here under false pretences, perhaps both.’

‘If you care to verify my employment with the BBC—’

‘I do not,’ he said, standing abruptly. ‘What I demand is that you immediately cease prying into my family’s affairs or those of the Pickards. I’ve made some enquiries about you, Mrs Bainbridge. You have a reputation for sticking your nose in places where it doesn’t belong. I won’t have that.’

‘Why did you let your son flee to Spain, Lord Cater?’ she asked. ‘What were you protecting him from here?’

He strode quickly around the desk towards her. She propelled herself from the chair before he could get to her.

‘Stay away from me, or I will call for my colleague,’ she warned him, backing away.

‘He won’t hear you from there,’ said Cater. ‘And if you won’t listen to reason, I think stronger methods are called for.’

He reached for her. She waited for him to get close, then grabbed his right elbow from underneath with her left hand, his wrist with her right hand, and pivoted to her right, forcinghis arm down. He wasn’t expecting any resistance and was caught off guard, his body following his arm downwards.

‘Are you the one who taught him?’ she shouted. ‘To treat women like toys, then discard them when they were broken? Is that another one of your family traditions?’

He tried to straighten, but she applied more pressure to his elbow, the pain forcing him to his knees.

‘Are you insane?’ he gasped.

‘Used to be,’ she hissed into his ear. ‘Now, I’m only angry. Bruce went to Spain to avoid the scandal of what he and Kevin Pickard did to Nancy Spurlock, didn’t he?’

He grunted in distress.

‘Answer me!’ she said.

‘He could have gone anywhere!’ he said. ‘We didn’t care where he went, as long as he stayed away until we hushed everything up here.’

‘Are you still hushing everything up? Is that why Tony Danforth was attacked?’

‘Danforth?’ he asked in confusion. ‘What does he have to do with anything? He’s in China somewhere.’

‘You didn’t know he had returned?’

‘No! I swear it! Dammit, woman, you’re going to break my arm!’

She released him, retreating towards the door.

‘If you want my silence about Bruce, you will stay here until I leave,’ she said. ‘Others know that we’re here, so don’t try anything. It will go badly for you and your precious family reputation if you do.’

With that she left him, still on his knees, clutching his arm in agony.

Sally was waiting for her in the front hall.

‘Shall we go?’ he asked.