Elizabeth George - A Suitable Vengeance

Lady Asherton laughed. 'Of course you will. What house-party could possibly be complete without skeletons swinging out of every cupboard and tempers on the boil? It makes me feel quite a young girl again.' She took Cotter's arm and led the way into the house. 'Let me show you something I'm absurdly proud of, Joseph,' they could hear her saying as she pointed to the elaborate tessellated entry. 'This was put in just after our great fire of 1849 by some local workmen. Now, don't you believe this for an instant, but legend has it the fire…' Her voice drifted out of their hearing. In a moment, Cotter's laughter rang out in response.

At that, the churning in Deborah's stomach lessened. Relief shot through her muscles like a spring releasing tension and told her how nervous she had really been about this first meeting of their parents. It could have been disastrous. It would have been disastrous, had

Tommy's mother been any other sort of woman save the kind who swept away the diffidence of strangers with a few amiable words.

She's wonderful. Deborah felt the need to say it aloud to someone, and without thinking she turned to St James.

All the signs of approval were on his face. The lines round his eyes crinkled more deeply. Briefly, he smiled.

'Welcome to Howenstow, Deb darling.' Lynley put his arm round her shoulders and led her into the house where a high ceiling and a mosaic floor made the air cool and moist, a refreshing change from the heat outside.

They found Lady Asherton and Cotter in the great hall to the right of the entry. It was an elongated room, dominated by a fireplace whose chimneypiece of unadorned granite was surmounted by the head of a wild gazelle. Pendant plasterwork decorated the ceiling, and drop-moulded panelling covered the walls. Upon these hung life-sized portraits of the lords and ladies of Asherton, representatives from each generation, who gazed upon their descendants in every kind of pose and every kind of dress.

Deborah paused before an eighteenth-century portrait of a man in cream breeches and red coat, leaning against a half-broken urn with a riding crop in his hand and a spaniel at his feet. 'Tommy, good heavens. He looks exactly like you.'

'He's certainly what Tommy would look like if we could only talk him into wearing those delicious trousers,' Lady Helen remarked.

Deborah felt Lynley's arm tighten round her shoulders. She thought at first it was in response to the laughter that greeted Lady Helen's comment. But she saw that a door had opened at the north end of the hall and a tall young man wearing threadbare blue jeans was padding in his bare feet across the parquet floor. A hollow-cheeked girl followed him. She, too, was shoeless.

This would be Peter, Deborah decided. Aside from his emaciated appearance, he possessed the same blond hair, the same brown eyes, and the same fine cheekbones, nose and jaw of many of the portraits that lined the walls. Unlike his ancestors on canvas, however, Peter Lynley wore an earring through one pierced ear. It was a swastika dangling from a slender gold chain and it grazed the top of his shoulder.

'Peter. You're not in Oxford?' Lynley asked the question smoothly enough – a demonstration of good breeding before the weekend guests – but Deborah felt the tension in his body.

Peter flashed a smile, shrugged his shoulders and said, 'We came down for some sun only to discover you had the same idea. All we need is Judy here for a sibling reunion, right?'

Fingering the clasp that held earring to earlobe, he nodded at St James and Lady Helen and drew his companion forward. In a gesture that duplicated Lynley's own, he put his arm round her shoulders.

'This is Sasha.' Her arm encircled his waist. Her fingers slid beneath his grimy T-shirt and into his blue jeans. 'Sasha Nifford.' Without waiting for his brother to make a similar introduction, Peter nodded at Deborah. 'And this is your bride-to-be, I take it. You've always had excellent taste in women. But we've seen that demonstrated well enough through the years.'

Lady Asherton came forward. She looked from one son to the other and extended her hand as if she would join them together in some way. 'I was so surprised when Hodge told me Peter and Sasha had arrived. And then I thought what a lovely idea it was to have Peter here for your engagement weekend.'

Lynley replied evenly. 'My thought exactly. Will you show our guests to their rooms, Mother? I'd like a few minutes with Peter. To catch up.'

'We've lunch planned in just an hour. The day's so fine that we thought we'd have it outdoors.'

'Good. In an hour. If you'll see to everyone…' It was far more an order than a request.

Hearing his cool tone, Deborah looked at the others to gauge their reactions, but saw in their faces only a determination to ignore the unmistakable current of hostility that crackled through the air. Lady Helen was examining a silver-framed photograph of the Prince of Wales. St James was admiring the lid of an oriental tea-case. Cotter was standing in a bay window gazing out at the garden.

'Darling,' Lynley was saying to her. 'If you'll excuse me for a bit…'

'Tommy-'

'If you'll excuse me, Deb.'

'It's just this way, my dear.' Lady Asherton touched her lightly.

Deborah didn't want to move.

Lady Helen spoke. 'Tell me you've given me that darling green room overlooking the west courtyard, Daze. You know the one. Above the gun room. I've been longing to spend a night there for years. Sleeping with that thrilling fear that someone might accidentally blast away at the ceiling below with a shotgun.'

She took Lady Asherton's arm. They headed for the door. There was nothing left to do but to follow. Deborah did so. But as she reached the inner hall she looked back at Lynley and his brother. They faced each other warily, squaring off, poised to fight.

And whatever warmth the weekend had earlier promised iced over into nothing at the sight of them and at the sudden recognition of the great gaps in her knowledge of Tommy's relationship with his family.

Lynley closed the music room door and watched Peter walk – with a step that was much too careful and precise – to the window. He sat down on the window-seat, curving his lengthy frame into a comfortable position on the green brocade cushion. The walls in the room were papered in a print of yellow chrysanthemums on a field of green, and that combination of colours in conjunction with the high sunlight of noon served to make Peter look even more haggard than he had in the great hall. Tracing a pattern against a distortion in the glass, he was doing his best to ignore Lynley altogether.

'What are you doing in Cornwall? You're supposed to be in Oxford. We'd made arrangements for a tutor for the summer. We'd agreed you'd stay there.' Lynley knew that his voice was both cold and unfriendly, but he could do nothing to modulate it. The sight of his brother had shaken him. Peter was skeletally thin. His eyes looked yellow. The skin round his nostrils was excoriated and scabbed.

Peter shrugged, looking sullen. 'It's just a visit, for God's sake. I'm not here to stay. I'm going back. All right?'

'What are you doing here? And don't give me that business about the weekend sun because I'm not going to buy it.'

'I don't care what you buy. But just think how fortuitous my arrival is, Tommy. If I hadn't shown up unexpectedly this morning, I'd have missed the festivities altogether. Or was that your intention? Did you want to keep me away? Another nasty family secret kept under wraps so that your little redhead doesn't learn too many of them all at once?'

Lynley strode across the room and whipped his brother out of the window-seat.

'I'll ask you again what you're doing here, Peter.'

Peter shook him off. 'I've chucked it, all right? Is that what you want to hear? I've dropped out. OK?'