Page 62 of Fire Must Burn

‘As the momentary master of the house, I am taking the master suite,’ said Kevin.

‘Your father would have your hide if he found out,’ said Tony.

‘Which is exactly why I’m doing it,’ said Kevin. ‘Get yourselves settled. It’s just us chickens, so no need to dress for dinner tonight. We’ll rendezvous in the dining room in twenty minutes.’

‘Kevin, I’m still standing here,’ called Sauce from the other wing.

He looked at her, then back at the two of them with a wolfish grin.

‘Make it thirty,’ he said, then he scurried towards her.

‘I think gratitude is about to be expressed,’ commented Tony.

‘He has put us in adjacent rooms,’ observed Sparks. ‘Far from the madding crowd.’

‘He has,’ said Tony.

‘A girl might suspect a plan behind that,’ she said, glancing at him coyly.

‘A plan? By moi?’ he replied innocently.

‘Hmm. Go unpack, then let’s take a quick stroll about the grounds while there’s still some daylight. I want to see how the other one-half of one per cent lives before I return to my campaign of social revolution.’

‘Doesn’t this opulent adventure contradict that?’

‘It’s research, dear boy, nothing but research.’

‘I am at your service, comrade.’

‘Let me get this straight,’ interrupted Gwen. ‘This was a weekend of what sounds like typical young upper-crust debauchery at a country estate with you and Tony in adjacent rooms.’

‘Yes,’ said Iris.

‘And you ended up sleeping in the same bed together?’

‘Yes again.’

‘That same night?’

‘Still yes.’

‘Yet, and again I don’t require details, you didn’t consider yourselves lovers?’

‘No,’ said Iris. ‘The devil is in those details, but they willremain in the dark. What mattered is that’s where we ended up late that night, after dinner, after dancing to the gramophone for hours, after much, much champagne and risqué badinage and drunken flirtation, after we all retired to our respective wings. And Tony and I were fast asleep in sister Lucinda’s bed when we snapped awake to the sound of Sauce screaming.’

Sparks sat bolt upright immediately, then shoved Tony a few times until he groaned groggily.

‘What the hell is going on?’ he said.

‘It’s Sauce,’ said Sparks, jumping out of bed and grabbing her dressing gown.

She picked his off the floor and tossed it to him.

‘Should we, I don’t know, arm ourselves or something?’ he asked as he threw it on.

‘No time,’ she said, tying her dressing gown and quickly stepping into her slippers. ‘Come on.’

There were no lights on in the hall, but the moonlight came down through the skylight into the void separating the wings from each other. The last echoes of the screams faded as Iris ran towards the landing.