Casting Off by Elizabeth Jane Howard

Author:Elizabeth Jane Howard [Howard, Elizabeth Jane]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Family, Contemporary, Romance, Saga
ISBN: 9780671534295
Google: G7sFAAAACAAJ
Amazon: 0671534297
Goodreads: 723625
Publisher: Chivers P.
Published: 1995-01-01T05:00:00+00:00

PART THREE

One

EDWARD

1946

He sat in what he still thought of as the Brig’s office. He had not changed it at all: it still contained the vast desk, the laurelwood drinks cabinet stocked with beautiful decanters and cut-glass tumblers, the rows of yellowing framed photographs – various members of the firm standing beside vast logs, the earliest lorries, even one of a horse-drawn wagon that had carried timber, of various giant aged trees that had taken the Brig’s fancy at Kew or on some estate or arboretum, or himself mounted upon a variety of horses, and then the ones of the family, particularly two that Edward kept looking at of himself and Hugh in uniform taken just before they had gone to France in 1914. One of the many awful things about that war had been worrying whether Hugh was all right. He remembered that extraordinary meeting, after they had both been in France for months without being in touch at all, when their horses had neighed in recognition as they rode towards one another on that road into Amiens. And then, when he had heard that Hugh had copped it, was in hospital, he’d managed somehow to wangle the time to get there and see the poor old boy. He’d been so shocked at the sight of him – his head and arm bandaged, his face drawn and white and how even when he smiled the haunted expression in his eyes did not change. He’d felt such a surge of love for him that when he knew he had to go and, after all, might not see him again, he’d kissed the old boy. They’d neither of them mentioned then, or ever afterwards, what hell it was out there, but the knowledge that they both knew had been yet another private bond between them.

And now there was this awful rift. Hugh’s disapproval of his leaving Villy and going off with Diana made him angry; there seemed nothing he, Edward, could do about it. He wasn’t just angry, he was deeply hurt. He and Hugh had always stuck together; they had argued sometimes – Hugh was an obstinate old devil – but they had always come to some agreement. They had worked together, had holidays together, spent much time together playing chess and golf and squash. Hugh was, he now thought, probably the person he’d been closest to in his life.

He’d rung him a few minutes ago on the intercom, but they said he’d left, and Edward remembered that there was a party for Miss Pearson. He decided not to go to it. He won’t want me there, he thought miserably. Just as he got up from his desk there was a knock on the door and Teddy appeared. He was so pleased to see him that he suggested a drink. ‘Just a quick one, and then I must be on my way.’

Teddy said that would be fine.

While he was getting the whisky out he thought how extraordinarily like himself as a

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