The Patrick Melrose Novels by Edward St. Aubyn

The Patrick Melrose Novels by Edward St. Aubyn

Author:Edward St. Aubyn
Language: eng
Format: epub, azw3
Publisher: Picador


6

BRIDGET HAD TOLD HER mother to get a taxi at the station and not to worry because she would pay, but when Virginia Watson-Scott arrived at Cheatley she was too embarrassed to ask and so she paid herself, although seventeen pounds plus a pound for the driver was no small sum.

‘If orchids could write novels,’ Tony Fowles was saying when Virginia was shown into Bridget’s little sitting room, ‘they would write novels like Isabel’s.’

‘Oh, hello, Mummy,’ sighed Bridget, getting up from the sofa where she’d been drinking in Tony’s words. The Valium had helped to muffle the impact of overhearing Sonny’s telephone call, and Bridget was slightly shocked but pleased by her ability to enter into the trance of habit and to be distracted by Tony’s witty conversation. Nevertheless the presence of her mother struck her as an additional and unfair burden.

‘I thought I was so well organized,’ she explained to her mother, ‘but I’ve still got a million and one things to do. Do you know Tony Fowles?’

Tony got up and shook hands. ‘Pleased to meet you,’ he said.

‘It’s nice to be in proper countryside,’ said Virginia, nervous of silence. ‘It’s become so built-up around me.’

‘I know,’ said Tony. ‘I love seeing cows, don’t you? They’re so natural.’

‘Oh yes,’ said Virginia, ‘cows are nice.’

‘My trouble,’ Tony confessed, ‘is that I’m so aesthetic. I want to rush into the field and arrange them. Then I’d have them glued to the spot so they looked perfect from the house.’

‘Poor cows,’ said Virginia, ‘I don’t think they’d like that. Where’s Belinda?’ she asked Bridget.

‘In the nursery, I imagine,’ said Bridget. ‘It’s a bit early, but would you like some tea?’

‘I’d rather see Belinda first,’ Virginia replied, remembering that Bridget had asked her to come at teatime.

‘All right, we’ll go and have tea in the nursery,’ said Bridget. ‘I’m afraid your room is on the nursery floor anyhow – we’re so crowded with Princess Margaret and everything – so I can show you your room at the same time.’

‘Righty-ho,’ said Virginia. It was a phrase Roddy had always used, and it drove Bridget mad.

‘Oh,’ she couldn’t help groaning, ‘please don’t use that expression.’

‘I must have caught it from Roddy!’

‘I know,’ said Bridget. She could picture her father in his blazer and his cavalry twills saying ‘righty-ho’ as he put on his driving gloves. He had always been kind to her, but once she had learned to be embarrassed by him she had never stopped, even after he died.

‘Let’s go up, then,’ sighed Bridget. ‘You’ll come with us, won’t you?’ she pleaded with Tony.

‘Aye-aye,’ said Tony, saluting, ‘or aren’t I allowed to say that?’

Bridget led the way to the nursery. Nanny, who had been in the middle of scolding Belinda for being ‘overexcited’, set off to make tea in the nursery kitchen, muttering, ‘Both parents in one day,’ with a mixture of awe and resentment.

‘Granny!’ said Belinda, who liked her grandmother. ‘I didn’t know you were coming!’

‘Didn’t anyone tell you?’ asked Virginia, too pleased with Belinda to dwell on this oversight.



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