Page 87 of The Gathering Storm (Morland Dynasty #36)

‘Thank you, sir,’ Basil murmured. He was surprised the editor had ever spoken about him to anyone, though he was not surprised he knew the Deputy Military Secretary. The Editor seemed to know everyone.

‘Seems to think you did rather well in Spain,’ Jenner went on. ‘I read the articles. Jolly good! Damned shame about young Zennor, though. I knew his mother before she married – distant cousin of mine.’

It confirmed in Basil a belief that all the important people in Britain were related to one another: it was, in fact, how the trick was worked.

‘I expect you and he were close, thrown together in difficult circumstances,’ Jenner went on.

Basil thought again, painfully, of Bob Zennor’s wasteful, pointless death. He tried not to think about him too often. He shut his lips tight.

Jenner and Culbeath exchanged a glance, and Basil somehow gleaned that his reaction had not been held against him – the contrary, in fact.

‘Look here,’ Jenner said, lowering his voice a little, ‘when the balloon goes up, we’re going to need men like you.’

Basil was surprised at such directness. ‘You think there will be a war?’ he said. ‘What about “peace for our time”?’

‘Don’t be taken in by that,’ Culbeath said. ‘Delaying tactic. We’ll have to deal with the Germans sooner or later, but the PM has to hold them off until we’re ready, got all our pieces on the chessboard and so on.’

‘ Are we ready?’ Basil asked. He was flattered that these senior people were talking so frankly to him – but nervous too. He suspected something was about to be asked of him. You didn’t get that sort of voluntary exposition for nothing.

‘Working on it,’ said Jenner. ‘Next year, or 1940 at the latest. And when it comes, it’s not going to be like the last war. We’ll have to employ different tactics. We’re going to need men who can think on their feet.’

‘Irregulars,’ Culbeath said, nodding.

‘Of course,’ Jenner said, with an air of placating jealous gods, ‘there’s nothing wrong with the regimental system. Backbone of the army.’

‘But we’ve already discussed recruiting … shall we say special services ?’ said Culbeath, with emphasis. ‘Men of ingenuity, who can operate outside the conventional.’

‘I see,’ Basil said. He didn’t, but he had an odd feeling he was going to.

‘Just keep it in mind,’ Jenner said, patting his arm. ‘When the time comes … Comstock knows all about it. He’ll keep you in the picture. This is all hush-hush, by the by. You won’t mention this little conversation to anyone.’

‘Of course not, sir.’ Basil felt he was being rolled up. He tried a last-minute protest. ‘I was never in OTC, you know. Didn’t go to university.’

‘We know,’ said Culbeath.

‘What I mean is, I have no military background.’

‘All the better,’ said Jenner.

‘Irregulars,’ Culbeath said again. ‘Like you were in Spain.’ One of the other guests was approaching, and he ended the topic.

‘We’ll talk some more at a later date. Enough of this now.

Tell me, your father was a fighter pilot in the war, wasn’t he?

Quite a hero. Air ace, taken prisoner twice, decorated at the highest level. VC, wasn’t he?’

‘A lot to live up to,’ Jenner said.

They both gave Basil a pointed look that went on a little too long to be comfortable.

The approaching guest was one of the financial people, and the conversation turned to the stock exchange, about which Basil had nothing to say.

He eased his way backwards out of the group and drifted away to find another more congenial. He felt as if he’d been scoured.

Polly and Lennie had been walking in the rose garden, where Polly had been trying to find enough late blooms to decorate the table; Lennie helped by singing ‘The Last Rose Of Summer’ in his surprisingly fine tenor.

The dogs had come with them, never ones to miss the opportunity of going out, but no-one else had followed. It was a space of precious privacy.

The flowers cut, they sat down on a bench. The dogs came and sat before them, looking willing, and then, seeing that talking was the order of the day, settled down to wait in the hope of better things to come.

The subject was their future together – one still so new to Polly that she could not tire of it – and the immediate topic what Lennie would do after they were married. He was talking about radio.

‘The market in the States is so mature there really aren’t the opportunities any more to make big profits.

Television could still take off. Once they’ve sorted out the technical stuff, it could be the next big thing over there.

But the radio market here is wide open. Demand for radio sets is growing, and I can replicate my manufacturing operation here, with the added advantage that, as far as I can see, no-one else is doing much about it yet.

I can get in first and clean up. A Manning’s radio in every home! ’

‘I like the sound of that.’

‘And I’ve got an idea for a combination radio-gramophone apparatus.

English homes are so small, compared with American, that something compact that covers both functions ought to be a winner.

With some kind of storage cupboard built in, to hold the gramophone records.

All in a nice walnut veneer case – a handsome piece of furniture in its own right. ’

‘Go on,’ she said. ‘What else?’

‘Once I’ve got my feet under the table, I shall be in the right place to exploit the television market too, as soon as they get the broadcasting properly up and running.

Though I’m not sure letting the government control the whole thing is the right way to go about things.

Licensing it all through the General Post Office!

I can’t tell you how quaint that feels – like hitching radio to the Pony Express! ’

‘It’s a different country over here,’ Polly said. ‘We do things differently.’

‘You can say that again. It really stifles innovation when you remove competition and pass everything through a government department. It doesn’t look as if I’ll ever have my own television channel, the way I have a radio channel back there – my good old W2XKX.’

‘It’s so much easier in America to get a new business off the ground. Are you afraid you won’t be able to get anywhere over here?’ she added anxiously.

‘Don’t worry,’ he said. ‘I’m a pretty warm man. I can promise you I’ll always have enough to support you in the style to which you’ve become accustomed.’

‘I’ve heard you’re a millionaire.’

‘Who told you that?’

‘Ethel. She read it in one of her magazines, when you were going out with that film star.’

‘It’s a vulgar phrase, but I suppose it’s true. Will you feel all right about marrying a millionaire?’

‘When?’ she asked bluntly.

‘Whenever you like. You choose the when and the how. But I will have to go back to the States for a while.’ Polly’s face fell, and he reached out for her hand and took it back into his own lap.

‘Don’t look like that! It will only be for a few weeks, while I settle my businesses and see to some financial and personal matters. ’

‘Personal matters?’

‘I haven’t got secret mistresses and a dozen love children, if that’s what you’re thinking.’

‘I wasn’t, but now I am. Why wouldn’t you? You’re a millionaire, and a very handsome man, now I look at you properly.’

‘I am, and always was, a one-man dog, pretty Polly. But there’s Rose – I have to make sure she’s happily settled. And my staff. They’ve been with me for years, especially Wilma and Beanie, and they’re very loyal. I’d like to bring them with me—’

‘Well, do,’ Polly invited.

‘—but I don’t suppose they’d come. And if they don’t want to, I’ll have to make sure they’re all right.

Then there’ll be the matter of transferring funds.

That’s bound to be complicated. Fortunately, in this age of wonders and electronic communication, I’ll be able to oversee my businesses from here, but it will have to be set up that way, and the right managers put in place. So you see.’

‘I see. How long will all that take?’

He hesitated. He wanted to be reassuring, but there was nothing to be gained by underestimating and later having to let her down. ‘Three months ought to do it.’

‘Three months!’

He closed the other hand as well over her captive one. ‘You trust me, don’t you? You don’t think I’d go over there and not come back?’

‘No, I don’t think that. But it’s such a long time to be without you. And anything could happen.’

‘Darling, anything could happen anywhere. The world is not a safe place – never was.’

She looked at him, and believed he was thinking about his Beth, killed when a car shot out of a side turning as they were passing and smashed into theirs.

A horrible random accident. And she thought of the young son of one of her tenants who had been playing on top of a haystack, fell off and landed on a pitchfork, which went through his heart.

‘No, the world is not a safe place,’ she said.

‘That’s why you have to be with the people you love. ’

‘We will be together. I’ll see to this business, and come back, and we’ll never have to be apart again. I’ll be with you so much you’ll get sick of me.’

She didn’t smile. ‘What if this war comes?’

‘If it comes, we’ll deal with it together.’ They were silent a moment. Then he said, ‘Do you want to get married right away? Before I go?’

‘When are you thinking of going?’

‘In a few days. I hate to leave you, but the sooner I go, the sooner I’ll be back.’

‘How could we get married in a few days?’

‘Special licence. Register office.’

‘I should make sure of you, you mean, before you escape.’

He saw she was joking – at least partly. ‘Will that make you feel safer?’

‘No. Anyway, I want to be married in the chapel, properly, with everyone in floods of tears, and a wedding feast, and a Mrs Starling cake the size of a cartwheel, and oceans of champagne. I’m the Mistress of Morland Place.

I want our wedding to be remembered for decades.

’ She met his eyes. ‘So it will have to wait until you come back.’

He lifted her hand and kissed it. ‘That gives you three months to arrange it all. Will that be enough?’

Tears came suddenly. He took her into his arms and she cried into his collar. The dogs stood up, waving their tails anxiously, and Fand tried licking Polly’s hand, the only bare skin he could reach, in case that helped.

It was over quite quickly, and Polly pushed herself upright again. ‘Sorry about that. I’m not usually a spouter. Have you got a handkerchief?’ Fand pushed in again and licked her face. ‘ Voilà, service! ’ she laughed, pushing the dog away. ‘When you come back, then.’

‘When I come back. The whole shebang. No half-measures.’

‘And we’ll tell everyone before you go that we’re engaged.’

‘As soon as you like.’

‘But you still can’t be seen going in and out of my room. We’ll have to keep that part secret.’

‘From?’

‘Well, Ethel would be shocked. And Alec might be upset. And the servants—’

‘My dear love, in my admittedly limited experience of servants, they always know everything. I’ll bet you dollars to doughnuts they’re already discussing in the servants’ hall how soon we’ll come clean.’

The next day he drove Polly into York and left her at Makepeace’s to conduct some business, saying he would stroll around and come back for her.

And on the drive back to Morland Place, when they had left the road and turned onto the track, he stopped the car under a tree, switched off the engine, and produced a jeweller’s box, which proved to contain a very handsome engagement ring: a large sapphire surrounded by diamonds.

‘A sapphire to match your eyes – not that it comes close. Yours are more cornflower, but it was the best I could do. Polly Morland, will you marry me?’

‘Lennox Manning, I will,’ she said. He slipped the ring onto her finger, where it felt heavy and strange, but nice, and then they kissed. A blackbird was singing in the tree above them the whole time – she always remembered that.

That evening, they announced the engagement to everyone, and Barlow came back with the champagne at the right temperature suspiciously quickly, which tended to confirm Lennie’s thesis, that the servants always did know everything.