Rogue in Porcelain (15 page)

‘Not particularly, but I'm meeting another two tomorrow. So far, I've only seen the present directors, and the James Curzons.'

‘Are they someone's parents?'

‘Sam's, yes. They were very helpful; it's the older ones who are most likely to remember previous generations.'

Julia was still flicking through the album. ‘Isn't there some talk about a startling new invention?'

‘That's right. It's all very hush-hush.'

‘And this article you're doing will be part of the anniversary publicity?'

Her mother again, no doubt. ‘I suppose it will,' Rona agreed. ‘Well, you've seen just about everything, so how about that drink?'

‘How's the job going?' she asked, as they returned to the sitting room.

‘Slowly, but that's only to be expected. The firm I'm working for is hoping to run a series of management training courses here, and my job is to interest people in advance and find out how many would be likely to attend. I've been round several of the banks and businesses, and met with a fair bit of interest.'

‘Will it mean making a return visit?'

‘Almost definitely. A pity I shan't be able to stay with your mother next time!'

‘And as you saw, we've only one bedroom, so we can't help.'

‘I wouldn't dream of asking, even if you could. You've done more than enough already.'

At ten to eight, they set off on the five-minute walk to the restaurant.

‘Dino's in Dean's Crescent?' Julia queried, as they turned the corner. ‘Is that a coincidence?'

Rona laughed. ‘My sister swears his real name's Fred Smith, but that's not quite fair. He's Italian all right, though I dare say “Dino” is stretching it a bit. No matter, he's a love, and his restaurant's my home from home.'

As always, Dino welcomed them effusively, leading them to Rona's usual corner table.

‘This is a friend of mine, Ms Teale,' Rona told him. ‘I've been singing your praises, so she's expecting great things.'

‘
Signorina.
' Dino bowed in Julia's direction. ‘I shall attend to you myself.'

It was a pleasant, relaxing evening. Julia kept Rona amused with her fund of stories about the people she had met and the places she'd been.

‘You make me feel very provincial,' Rona complained humorously. ‘Though I've been to a lot of different countries on holiday, I've never lived anywhere but here.'

‘“East, west, home's best.” Isn't that what they say?'

‘No doubt, but I do seem to see a lot of it, especially with working from there.'

The meal over, they strolled back through the mild spring dusk, Gus trotting at their heels. Julia had found a parking place not far from the house, and they stopped when they reached her car.

‘Are you sure you won't let me make a contribution to the meal?' Rona asked again, but Julia shook her head emphatically.

‘Positively not.'

‘Then thank you very much; it was just what I needed. We must do it again, going Dutch next time.'

‘I'll look forward to it. I'll give you a call in a day or two, to let you know when I'm leaving.'

Rona stood watching as Julia started the car and drove off with a wave of her hand. A glance at her watch showed it to be almost eleven – time for Max's phone call.

Gus had sat down during their conversation, and she gave a little tug on his lead. ‘Come on, boy,' she said. ‘Let's go home.'

Just before ten the next morning, Rona set off for her meeting with Hester Curzon. The photograph albums were in the boot, and she was hoping Hester could identify some of the unnamed people in them.

As luck would have it, when Rona had phoned to make the appointment, it had been Hester's daughter Jacqueline who'd answered, and, having arranged to see Hester at ten thirty on Tuesday, Rona had asked if her daughter would also be willing to be interviewed.

‘I live and work in Woodbourne,' Jacqueline had told her, on her return to the phone. ‘As you probably know, that's a twenty-minute drive from Chilswood. If you can get there by, say, twelve thirty, and don't mind interviewing me over lunch, I could see you then.'

It was arranged that Rona would park her car in the town centre multi-storey, and walk to Jacqueline's office. Killing two birds with one stone, Rona had thought with satisfaction.

Hester Curzon lived in a bungalow in a secluded close on the side of town farthest from the industrial site for which it was known. She opened the door herself, and Rona's first impression was of the grace with which she held herself. She was wearing a caramel-coloured suede skirt and black cashmere sweater, with black stockings and high-heeled shoes, all of which were a foil for her creamy skin and the pale gold of her hair.

‘I see you've brought the albums back,' she said. ‘There was no hurry, you know.'

‘Actually, I was hoping you could supply some missing names.'

‘Wasn't I as meticulous as I should have been? I'll do my best to rectify it.'

She led Rona into a bright, sun-filled sitting room, where two cups and saucers in Curzon china awaited them on a trolley, together with a jug of cream and a dish of shortbread.

‘If you'd care to sit down,' Hester said, ‘I'll bring through the coffee.'

Always alert to her surroundings, Rona took the chance of a quick glance round the room. On the mantelpiece stood a photograph of a middle-aged man bearing a faint resemblance to Edward, and on a side table were two matched wedding groups, one of Edward himself with his bride, the other of a fair-haired girl and a man in naval uniform. Jacqueline, no doubt. There was no record of Finlay's wedding, presumably because the marriage had been dissolved.

Hester returned with a silver coffee pot and seated herself next to the trolley. ‘You've met my sons, I believe.'

‘Yes, we all had lunch together.'

‘They couldn't tell me if you're the Rona Parish who writes biographies,' Hester continued.

‘I am, yes.'

‘Then why waste time on magazines?'

Nonplussed by the question, Rona hesitated, and Hester quickly apologized. ‘Forgive me, that was unpardonably rude. I enjoy your pieces in
Chiltern Life
, but – if you'll forgive me – anyone could do those. It takes real talent to delve into people's lives as deeply as you do in your biographies. You make your subjects really come alive.'

‘Thank you.'

‘So why have you deserted them?'

‘I've not made any conscious decision, but they take a very long time, and the last one I started had to be abandoned, for reasons beyond my control. It was a lot of work done for nothing. Actually,' she added frankly, ‘I think that's why I enjoy doing this series so much. Because I concentrate on the families rather than the firms, they end up being mini biographies.'

Hester nodded as she poured the coffee. ‘But I shouldn't be quizzing you; you're the one with the questions. Shall we start with those albums? Take them over to the table in the window, where we can see them better. I'll bring your coffee.'

Rona had put markers between the leaves where clarification was needed, and for the next few minutes Hester went through them, in some cases adding a name under a photograph, at others puzzling unsuccessfully to remember who someone was.

‘I'm not a great deal of help, am I?' she asked ruefully.

‘Don't worry, it was only for interest. I enjoyed looking through them because they brought to life several names I've read about, but apart from one or two, I'm not intending to use them.' She looked up at the other woman. ‘Finlay did say there'd be no problem about reproducing them?'

‘None at all, use any you need.'

‘The ones I'd like are all in the earliest album, so I can leave the others with you, and perhaps hold on to this one a little longer?'

‘Of course.'

‘It's very kind of you to let me see them.'

‘That was my son's doing rather than mine. I'd forgotten about them, and it was he who went up in the loft and dug them out. Now, let's sit down again, have another cup of coffee, and you can begin asking your questions.'

They returned to their seats, and Rona's cup was duly replenished.

‘Would you mind if I used my recorder?' she asked. ‘It's hard to remember exactly what's said.'

‘Of course; please do.'

She set it on the table beside her. ‘Really, as I said, it's the family I'm interested in. How did they all strike you, when you first joined it? You must have realized you were marrying into a dynasty.'

‘Oh, I did, and it was quite an ordeal, I can tell you, meeting them all for the first time. Fortunately, they were very welcoming, and I fitted in with no problem.'

‘So you got on well with your parents-in-law?'

‘Yes, though they were considerably older than my own parents. My husband was the youngest of three, and his elder sister was ten when he was born.'

‘What were they like?' Rona asked curiously.

‘Very Victorian, bless them. Florence was small and stout and ruled the family with a rod of iron. Spencer used to bluster a lot but had a heart of gold. He doted on his grandchildren, though Finlay was only three when he died.'

‘He remembers playing with his watch and chain,' Rona said.

‘Really? Imagine that!'

‘And your husband's sisters? Were you close to them?'

‘Not really. Mary, the elder one, seemed very old-fashioned to me. She'd been born in nineteen-ten, had never married, and still lived at home. She'd only have been in her forties when we met, but seemed years older.'

‘And the other sister?'

‘Janet never married either, but as she was only a year older than JS, I could relate to her more easily.'

‘Did she also live with her parents?'

‘No, she was headmistress of a boarding school and had her own flat.' Hester smilingly raised her eyebrows. ‘We've strayed quite a way from the firm, haven't we?'

Rona flushed. ‘I'm sorry if I'm being intrusive; it's my insatiable curiosity about people, and what makes them tick.'

‘You're not intrusive at all. Believe me, I should tell you if you were. You warned me it's the family that interests you, so please continue.'

Rona hesitated, but, at Hester's encouraging nod, asked tentatively, ‘I wondered about your father-in-law's brother; what was he like?'

‘Frederick? He was very artistic, and a lot of his patterns are still in use. His particular flair skipped a generation, but Samuel has inherited it. Aunt Charlotte, his wife, was an accomplished pianist, so we shared a love of music. I was very fond of her.'

‘You were an opera singer, weren't you? Did you keep it up after you married?'

Hester shook her head. ‘It would have been too disruptive to family life. I'd no regrets, though; I'd enjoyed my career, but it was time to move on, and in any case I soon became pregnant.'

‘How did you meet your husband?'

The older woman's eyes went to the photo above the fireplace. ‘Through mutual friends. He always said it was love at first sight, but it wasn't for me. JS wasn't what you'd call musical, but he attended almost every concert I gave, and always sent a bouquet of red roses backstage, even if he couldn't be there. Eventually he wore me down, and since I was genuinely fond of him, I accepted him. But it was a year or so before I fell in love.'

‘And once you were married, you were accepted into the dynasty?'

Hester considered. ‘To be honest, I always felt on the fringes. The factory was the centre of my husband's life, but I wasn't encouraged to take an active interest in it. My role, along with the other wives, was to be a showcase, decorating my home with Curzon figurines and dining off their china.'

Rona nodded. ‘That's how it struck me. I told them so, over lunch, and they were quite indignant. They said no women had shown an interest in joining the firm.'

‘I doubt if they were asked. Our principal duty, of course, was to provide sons. As I mentioned, my husband had two sisters but was the only boy, whereas there were two on the other side of the family. Though he got on well enough with both Charles and James, he always felt the odds were against him. That's why he was so delighted when we'd two sons of our own.'

‘I hear there's a shortage of boys in the next generation.'

‘That's true; so far, my grandson Harry is the only one. Finlay and his wife divorced, which was a great disappointment. We were very fond of Virginia.'

She stopped, looking across at Rona. ‘You know, ever since you arrived, I've been trying to think who you remind me of, and of course, that's the answer – Virginia. Not that you
look
particularly like her, though there is a resemblance; it's more that you have the same mannerisms.'

Suddenly uncomfortable, Rona cast around for a change of subject. ‘Has there ever been any – scandal in the family?' she ventured.

Hester laughed. ‘I'm not sure you'd call it scandal, but old George was a bit of a rake in his time, running up extensive gambling debts, with an eye for a pretty woman, and so on. He got into one or two scrapes, I believe, which earned him a nickname – the Rogue in Porcelain.'

Rona smiled. ‘George Meredith.'

Hester's eyebrows went up. ‘Well done, my dear! Not many people nowadays recognize the quotation.'

‘
The Egoist
was one of our set books at uni.'

‘Well, our own George would have been about thirty when it came out, and at the height of his escapades, so, although it wasn't the interpretation Meredith intended, the name seemed apt. Unfortunately, it stuck with him for the rest of his life.'

‘Thanks for that; it'll add a little colour.' Rona looked round the room, her eyes resting on the china ornaments on display.