‘How could you? How bloody could you!’ The girl bursts in and pushes past Kester into the hallway, turning to scowl furiously at him.
‘Do come in…’ Kester says sarcastically, standing with his hand still on the edge of the front door. He raises his eyebrows at Helen when she appears from the kitchen. ‘My sister, Imogen’ he introduces laconically.
‘How could you be part of that awful story about Mummy?’ she spits, her chin jutting forward.
‘Oh, give over, Imogen!’ Kester snaps in return. He gestures towards Helen with an upturned hand. ‘This is my wife, Helen’
‘Yes, I know’ she dismisses with the briefest of glances. ‘How could you spread all those lies?’ she continues to rant.
‘You know they’re not lies’ he sighs weary disagreement.
‘You and Daddy… are traitors!’ To Kester’s amused astonishment, Imogen stamps her foot.
‘Traitors? Okay…fine..is that it…is that all you’ve come to say?’ he opens the door wider as indication she should leave.
‘You have ruined Mummy’s life!’
‘Good’
‘Good?’
‘Yes. She ruined mine …she ruined Dad’s….she’s ruined so many people’s lives, I’ve lost count’
‘And you have ruined mine! I am so angry with you’ Imogen shouts.
‘Mmm….’ Kester gives a cynical smile. ‘So angry with me, it’s taken you this long to get here’
‘I have commitments!’ Imogen retaliates hotly.
‘Of course you have. So many commitments that you haven’t visited your grandmother in the last five years, now that is busy’ he mocks.
Imogen’s chin lifts further as she justifies her actions. ‘Mummy said it wasn’t necessary’
‘Not necessary?’ he chokes with humourless laughter.
‘That’s right’ she insists with a conceited sneer ‘It was very important not to let people down’
‘You really are up yourself. You know that?’ Kester shakes his head ‘Let people down? The last I heard, you were playing understudy to the third tree from the left in some suburban rep’s Midsummer Night’s Dream. Not exactly Hollywood, was it?’
‘That’s all you know! There were some very influential people in that audience!’
‘Oh, get real, Immie..’
‘My name is Imogen!’
‘Well, Im-o-gen’ Kester enunciates with slow emphasis ‘Hate me or not, every word of these articles is true and the sooner you realise that the better because without your dear mother to blackmail these ‘starring parts’ out of people for you, there aren’t going to be any’
‘Daddy has influence!’ she flares.
‘Yes…I daresay he does but since you treat him like dirt, I don’t suppose he’s going to be that keen on putting a word in for you. There’s always been one condition to his helping anyone get their foot on the ladder and that is that they could act. You can’t. Sorry to have to break that to you but I’ve seen more talent in a corpse’
‘When have you ever watched a performance of mine?’
‘I’m watching one now’ Kester scoffs. ‘You don’t care what’s happening to mother any more than I do…All you care about is what’s going to happen to you. You are self-opinionated, self-interested....’
‘And you’re not?’
‘Not quite the same deal, is it?’ he says mildly ‘I’ve never needed my mother to bolster my ego. I’ve never needed her at all which is just as well. You are going to have to learn to stand on your own two feet and work for a living’
‘I do work!’
‘Of course you do but I meant real work, not swanning around imagining yourself to be something you’re not’
‘You are detestable!’ Imogen’s face darkens with rage.
‘That’s right, detestable but honest. This is where I differ from our dear mother. Forget all she’s ever told you. Read the articles and read them properly. It’ll be you against everyone mentioned in them. Believe what you like’ Kester stands back, taking the door wider still.
‘It’s libel!’ She refuses to move, standing her ground and continuing to argue.
‘I think not. Even dear Ruth hasn’t slapped us with that allegation. Doesn’t that tell you something?’ he asks with a weary rub at his forehead. ‘Go home, Im-o-gen’
‘Home? Where am I supposed to live now? You have ruined everything!’
‘I’m not in prison. I’m not the one who’s let you down’
‘Without Mummy we can’t afford to stay there!’
Kester flicks apologetic eyes at Helen, knowing that his temper is about to get the better of him ‘That’s bollocks and you know it. That house is bought and paid for’
‘But the bills….the staff!’
‘For God’s sake she only got a couple of months and she’ll probably be out next week! And do you think I don’t talk to my father? I know he still covers the bills…though why the hell he should, I don’t know…and as for the staff, if they won’t wait for their money, you’ll have to try doing things for yourself, won’t you?’
‘Daddy covers the bills?’ Imogen looks momentarily confused.
‘And makes your mother a generous allowance but I don’t suppose you know about that either. Ask her next time you visit. Our mother is a liar a cheat and a fraud. That’s been proved time and time again! There’s no future for her now..’
‘Yes, you’ve seen to that!’
‘And there’s no future for you either if you insist on being associated with her’
‘How can I not be associated with her!’
‘She won’t stay in this country now. Even she must feel shame after this. Every door is closed here, there’s nowhere for her to go’
‘And that is exactly what you wanted!’
‘Makes no odds to me at all what she does’ Kester sniffs as he shrugs ‘I’m merely stating the facts. She’s not going to get all she wants from the divorce either, no question about that, even her own lawyers acknowledge that she put nothing into the relationship, financially or otherwise. She’ll get the houses…and keep the jewellery and that’ll be about it’
‘Divorce?’ Imogen echoes, her expression one of uncertainty. ‘But Mummy said that once he’d had his little fling, he’d come back’
‘No, Immie. Dad’s pushing it through as fast as he can. Him and Lynn would’ve liked to have got married before the baby was born but…’
‘Baby?’
‘For God’s sake! Where have you been?’ Kester shouts, throwing his hands in the air and turning to look at Helen with a mixture of exasperation and disbelief.
‘Mummy said…’
‘Forget what Mummy said!’ he growls sternly ‘Lynn’s here…did you know that?’
‘No…Daddy said he was visiting Granny….but I thought that was just him…’
‘They live together! They are having a baby. They are married in everything but name. I can’t believe you didn’t know! Have you actually met Lynn?’
‘No…but if she’s with Granny…Ellis will be meeting her’ Imogen mutters in a chastised undertone.
‘Ellis is here?’
‘He came to see Granny…and you of course…but he wouldn’t come in here with me because…he knew what I was going to say’
‘And he doesn’t agree with you?’
‘No’
‘There’s hope for him yet’ Kester mutters an aside to a so far silent Helen. ‘So, you’ve not seen Harriet?’ he questions.
‘No…not yet…’ Imogen regains some of her previous confidence ‘I’m pretty mad at her too and Ellis said…’
‘Whatever he said’ Kester waves her words away. ‘I don’t want you spouting any of your vitriolic crap to her and that’s final! Dad’s not here right now but you start any of your nonsense with Harriet and I’ll see to it you’re out of here. Get it?’
‘I’m not going in there where she is! She broke up their marriage! She’s a wh….’
‘Let’s get one thing straight, shall we?’ he interrupts tersely ‘Nobody broke up their marriage it was a sham from the start. You haven’t read those articles at all, have you?’
‘Mummy said…..’
‘I don’t give a damn what ‘Mummy’ said!’ he reiterates in a voice that booms around the hallway. ‘Lynn is here as part of the family. MY family. If you can’t take that then it’s just too bad. You want to see your grandmother, and God knows it’s about time you did, then Lynn will be there too. I’m not asking her to hide away to suit you or anyone else! I’m going across there now, you can sit in your car’
‘I’ll sit here’ Imogen says airily, waving a theatrically languid hand towards the sitting room ‘Helen can make me a cup of tea’
‘I don’t think so, somehow. Do you?’ Helen turns her by her shoulders and propels her out of the door.
‘You assaulted me!’ Imogen squeaks in protest.
‘I don’t think the same rules apply to trespassers, do they, darling?’ Helen asks.
‘I don’t think they do’ Kester grins as he pulls the door closed and the lock clicks.
Tawny House, Manor Road
The Annexe
Chapter Twenty-one
