And the Land Lay Still (71 page)

‘Aye, we dae. It’s a great wee place.’

‘We canna,’ Billy said.

‘Aye ye can,’ Charlie said. He’d come round the outside of them and was herding them all in through the door. Short of barging their way out, there was nothing Billy and Barbara could do except enter. The place was crowded, loud and full of smoke and steam. Folk looked round. Some raised their hands or glasses to Charlie. Others, it seemed, turned away.

‘Just the one drink,’ Billy said, ‘then we’re definitely heading.’

‘Well, I’m no gonnae haud ye against your will. I’m no gonnae bite ye, am I? I’m your brither. What are ye drinking, Babs?’

‘My name’s Barbara,’ she said.

His lip started to curl. ‘Pardon me,’ he said. Then, ‘Naw, ye’re right. Stick up for yersel. How else are ye gonnae stay stuck up? That’s a joke, by the way. What are ye drinking?’

‘I’ll have a half-pint of lager.’

‘What aboot Billy?’

‘You’d better ask him.’

‘I thought ye’d ken, ye’ve been thegither lang enough. Ye’re like an auld mairrit couple. Ye’re no mairrit though, are ye?’

‘No.’

‘Good choice. Ye might fancy each other noo, but what aboot five year doon the line? Whae wants tae get lumbered for life wi somebody ye dinna fancy ony mair? Cuts baith ways, that. He might go aff you, but you might go aff him. Then there’s aw the other shite. Bairns and bills and fuck knows what. Listen tae me, I’ll need tae mind my language.’

In the space of a minute, something in Charlie had changed. Billy saw it. It was Barbara’s abruptness: Charlie didn’t like it, and so he was trying to cow her by offending her. But Barbara was not cowed. She watched him evenly.

‘That’s not the point, though, is it?’ she said. And she very deliberately shifted her gaze on to Renée. Billy wondered what on earth she was doing. Was she wanting to catch Renée’s eye in order to bond with her? If so, she was on a hiding to nothing, he thought.

‘Billy, a pint is it?’ Charlie said. ‘Lager or heavy? Your usual, Renée? What’s not the point,
Bar
bara?’ There was a wee load on the way he said her name now, stretching it out to demonstrate he’d got the message.

‘Not getting married,’ Barbara said. ‘It’s not about not making a commitment. It’s about an equal partnership.’

Charlie held his hand up. ‘Haud it there while I get these drinks in. Jim, a pint and a half o lager, pint o heavy, voddy and orange. Noo, what’s that aboot equal partnership? That’s what I was just saying, wasn’t it?’

‘No,’ she said. ‘I’m talking about real equality. I’m talking about not deferring to a bourgeois institution which just reinforces the kind of male chauvinistic behaviour you’re exhibiting.’

Charlie raised his eyebrows at Billy. ‘Jesus Christ,’ he said, ‘where’d ye learn tae speak like that? Up at the
yooni
?’

‘It’s not difficult,’ she said. She looked at Charlie as if he were dripping swamp all over the floor.

‘Wouldna suit me,’ he said. ‘I dinna want tae sound like I’ve swallowed a book every time I open my mooth.’

‘You have to be able to read before that happens,’ she said.

For a second Charlie was speechless. To Billy it was as if Barbara had just poured a pint over his brother, and Charlie couldn’t believe it had happened. Then he mastered himself, tried to regain the upper hand.

‘Hey, Billy, ye’ve got a live one here. Did ye hear that? Course ye did, ye must get it aw the time. How d’ye stand it?’ Back to Barbara. ‘Wee bit o advice, darling. Could get ye intae trouble, that kind o lip. No wi me, I’m faimly. Just wi strangers. Folk that dinna ken how tae take a joke.’

‘It wasn’t a joke,’ Barbara said.

The mask slipped again. ‘Fuck’s sake. Well, mair fucking fool me. I don’t think she likes me, Billy. Renée kens how tae take a joke, don’t ye, doll?’

‘Aye, Charlie,’ Renée said uncertainly.

‘That’s because ye
are
a fucking joke.’

Triggered, Renée gave a short, mirthless giggle. Barbara stared at her, it wasn’t clear to Billy whether with disgust, pity or a mixture of both. Pity was what
he
felt. Because Barbara was scoring points off Charlie, Charlie was having to score some off Renée. Billy knew he’d be next.

The drinks were set up and Charlie broke a five-pound note to pay for them.

‘Plenty mair where that came fae, Billy,’ he said, passing the glasses out. ‘Ye probably have tae watch the pennies, dae ye?’

‘We get by,’ Billy said.

‘Let’s grab thae seats,’ Charlie said, pointing to an empty table.

‘Let’s stand,’ Barbara said. ‘Otherwise we’ll be here all night.’

‘Suit yersel.’ Charlie produced cigarettes, offered them round. Renée took one. So did Billy. Barbara, even though she usually smoked when she was drinking, refused.

‘Suit yersel,’ Charlie said again, lighting up. ‘What were we saying? Oh aye, ye get by. Well, Billy, that’s no the game for me. Get by? Fuck that. You sound like the auld man. I suppose ye’ve been up there?’

‘Aye.’

‘How’s my mither?’

‘Fine.’

‘Good. How aboot him?’

‘He’s all right.’

‘Shame. Ye see,
Bar
bara, what Billy’s maybe no tellt ye is, me and my faither dinna see eye tae eye. Fact is we dinna get on at all. My faither’s disappointed wi me. But Billy here, he says he’s all right. That’s because Billy’s the golden boy. He’s the one that went tae the
yooni
. He’s the one that’s bettered himsel. That’s how he’s ended up wi a smart bird like you, while I’m stuck wi a thick slag like Renée. Nae offence, doll.’

If Renée took any she didn’t show it. Billy gulped at his pint. He glanced at the bar, and caught sight of their awkward grouping in the big mirror. The grey, anxious-looking one was himself.
Joy of Sex
man without the beard, the joy or the sex. All he wanted to do was drink up and go.

Barbara leaned over towards Renée. ‘You shouldn’t let him treat you like that,’ she said.

Renée sparked up a bit, tossing her lifeless hair. ‘Like what?’ she said. ‘He treats me fine. He’s just haein a laugh, aren’t ye, Charlie?’

‘I treat her like a princess,’ Charlie said.

Barbara reached out her free hand and touched Renée’s cheekbone, just below her left eye. ‘Was he just having a laugh when he did that to you?’ she said. ‘You’ve done a good job with the make-up, but not that good.’

Billy suddenly felt very sick. Renée started back as if she’d been given an electric shock. The hand holding her cigarette flew up to her cheek then away again. ‘Dinna fucking touch me!’ she said, very loudly. Her harsh voice cut through the surrounding noise. ‘Whae the fuck dae ye think ye are, touching me? Ya fucking auld boot.’

Barbara said, quite coolly, ‘Or maybe you walked into a door?’

The last remnant of a smile vanished from Charlie’s face. He stepped away to clunk his glass down on the nearest table and came back and immediately seemed bigger and stronger and more dangerous. He dropped his cigarette on the floor and ground it out with his heel. Renée was still smouldering like a dud firework. And it was as if everybody in the pub had been listening in but pretending not to, and now they could no longer pretend and were shrinking back from the space the four of them occupied, the space where whatever happened next was going to happen.

‘What are you saying?’ Charlie said. He was leaning, towering in over Barbara. Tall as she was, she was still six inches shorter than him. ‘Are you saying I hit my girl? Are you saying I hit Renée? Is that what ye’re fucking saying?’

‘It’s what it looks like,’ Barbara said.

‘Barbara, come on, ye canna say that,’ Billy said.

‘Don’t tell me what I can’t say,’ she said. She didn’t take her eyes off Charlie.

Billy tried to get between them, but Charlie pushed him back.

‘She fucking said it, Billy. She fucking said it and she crossed a fucking line when she did. Ya fucking bitch.’

Billy said, ‘That’s enough, Charlie,’ but Charlie ignored him. If Barbara was frightened she wasn’t showing it.

She said, ‘What are you going to do about it? Are you going to hit me too?’

Maybe there was a moment when that was possible, even likely,
but it was only a moment. Charlie was surrounded by witnesses, not all of them his friends. One of the barmen, a big solid man, had come round the end of the bar but he wasn’t interfering, not yet anyway. Charlie turned away from Barbara, shaking his head, shrugging a victim shrug to the spectators. Then he spoke to Billy, loud and clear so everybody could hear how reasonable he was being.

‘Ye’re lucky ye’re my brither, Billy. By rights you and me should be ootside settling this. I wouldna hit a woman – I
dinna
hit women – but I have tae defend my reputation. Everybody heard what she said. I could have her in court for it but like I said, ye’re my brother. So let’s say I made a mistake inviting ye in here. I buy ye a drink, I try tae be nice tae you and your girlfriend, and then she comes oot wi something like that. Naebody speaks tae me like that. Get her oot o here, and fuck off back tae Glesca, all right?’

‘Come on, Barbara,’ Billy said. He tried to take Barbara’s arm. She flung his hand away. ‘I’m coming, Billy. You don’t need to drag me out.’

Charlie dropped his voice again. A private word with his older brother. ‘Ye fucking should,’ he said. ‘Ye should take her ootside and show her whae the fucking boss is. But ye’ll no, Billy, will ye? Because ye’re feart. Ken whit I think? I think she’s cut your fucking baws aff.’

‘We’re going,’ Billy said. He started for the door. A path cleared before him.

‘You,’ Barbara said, ‘are a psychopath.’

‘You,’ Charlie said, ‘are a pair of ower-educated cunts.’

‘Goodbye, Renée,’ Barbara said.

‘Fuck you,’ Renée said.

From the door, Billy said, ‘Barbara, come on.’

She walked down the cleared path. Folk averted their eyes, from her, from Charlie, as if it were a close call as to whom they found more disturbing. But no one followed Barbara on to the street.

Outside a wind had got up. Heads down, they hurried through blasts of rain to the bus station. After the pub the rain might have felt refreshing, but it was Drumkirk rain, greasy and grey.

On the bus they sat dripping, wiping their faces. For a long time they said nothing.

He said, ‘You didna hold back, did ye?’

She said, ‘Is that a criticism?’

‘No,’ he said. ‘I’m just saying.’

‘I clocked the bruise on her face right away,’ she said. ‘I could have pretended I hadn’t but you know me better than that.’

‘Aye,’ he said. ‘I’m no criticising you. You were right.’

‘That’s not what you said back there. You tried to stop me saying anything.’

‘No,’ he said.

‘You did, Billy. And you tried to get me out before I was ready to go.’

‘I was trying tae protect ye.’

‘Don’t ever do that again, Billy.’

‘I’ll no.’

They fell back into silence. Billy heard Charlie’s words in his head.
Ken whit I think? I think she’s cut your fucking baws aff.
He hated Charlie for saying that. He hated the fact that it looked that way.

‘Don’t think he’s like he is because he had a tough childhood or something,’ he said. ‘We had the same childhood, and it wasna that tough. I made choices, and so did he. He’s chosen tae be the way he is.’

A challenge to the way they thought about everything was in his words.

‘Is that what you think?’

‘Aye,’ he said. ‘Nothing else explains it.’

§

Roderick Braco, QC, now David’s father-in-law, got him alone not long after he and Melissa returned from their honeymoon (two weeks in Spain, tail-end of summer, autumn of the Franco regime). They were at the Braco country retreat in Glenallan for a family weekend get-together before the happy couple settled down to life in London, which was where, for the time being at least, they intended to live. Roderick and Julia had already given them a silver service, a double bed and a promise of help with school fees, as and when required. Now Roderick wanted to offer David something else, something which – as he diplomatically put it – was not in his gift but which he could probably help to push in David’s direction.

‘Namely, David,’ Roderick said, ‘this parliamentary seat. If you want it, that is?’

They were sitting in the library, a cosy, leathery room with a log fire, each of them with a malt whisky in a cut-glass tumbler close at hand. The women were in the kitchen, stacking things in the dishwasher, a labour-saving appliance that had yet to make an appearance at Ochiltree House because, as Lady Patricia pointed out, she still had a human one in the form of Mrs Thomson. Although his parents were only a few miles away, they had not been invited to join the party, and David and Melissa would be heading south by train the next morning without calling on them.

‘Not, I should say,’ Roderick went on, ‘that I am planning to relinquish my position just yet. But in a few years – not at the next election but perhaps at the following one – I shall stand down. There’s a strong possibility of your being nominated to succeed me. As Conservative candidate, I mean – obviously one can’t guarantee election. Nevertheless, this is still a reasonably safe seat. Well, what do you think?’

‘It sounds appealing,’ David said, ‘except that all of my business interests are in London.’

‘Well, yes, but if you’re an MP you’ll be there most of the time anyway. No bad thing, David, to keep a foot in two camps. Here and there, I mean. You never know when you may tire of London. Goodness knows I get pretty fed up with it from time to time.’

‘Actually, I’ve been thinking about making some inroads into the Edinburgh property market.’

‘Excellent. Well, there you are. I can help you with that too. You need to know the right people. Otherwise you’ll get nowhere. It’s that kind of place.’

They talked it through. David, Roderick informed him, was seen as solid, dependable backbench material, and someone with ministerial potential too. The party was changing, and he could be part of that. Roderick approved of what was coming, but he was getting on, he’d have had enough in five or six years.

‘What you’ll have to do,’ Roderick said, ‘is cultivate like mad. Cultivate Scotland. Cultivate the party up here. You need to get your face better known in these parts. Obviously you are not
un
known, as your father’s son. But your father isn’t, if you don’t mind me saying so, your greatest asset. He’s rubbed a lot of people up the wrong way over the years. Of course now he’s no longer
constituency chairman he has no influence over the actual procedure. Whereas I …’