Kingdom of Shadows (74 page)

For a moment she went on clinging to him. His kiss had made her go weak at the knees, and she was appalled to find how badly she wanted him. She pushed him away gently. She wasn’t going to trade favours. If that was what he thought, he could think again. ‘You know it won’t work, Rex,’ she said sadly. ‘We’re both married.’

‘Does that matter so much?’ He reached for her again. ‘Neither of them would ever know –’

‘No, Rex.’ She spoke sharply. ‘I’m not going to bed with you to try and persuade you to withdraw your deal. That’s what you thought, didn’t you? Well, you’re wrong! I’m not like that.’

‘I know that.’ He shrugged. ‘Come on, Emma. The two things aren’t related. We want each other –’

‘Maybe we do.’ Her voice was very quiet. ‘But I am not going to bed with you, Rex. You’d better go.’

‘Emma –’

‘You’d better go, Rex. I’m sorry. You’ve got the wrong idea about me.’

‘That’s not true, honey. You’re special. Very special. What I decide to do about Duncairn has nothing to do with us – I’ll think about that, OK, but that’s all I’ll promise.’ He paused. She was asking a great deal of him. A very great deal. ‘I think you’re wrong about your brother,’ he said slowly. ‘For what it’s worth I think he’s a weak character. He hasn’t got the courage to kill anyone.’ He thought for a minute and then he nodded. He was right in his assessment of Paul, he was certain of it. ‘He’s a bully, that’s for sure, but he would never hurt Clare. He hasn’t got the guts.’

25

When Paul got back to London on Wednesday he found a message from Rex waiting for him. He scowled. He was no closer to obtaining Clare’s signature than before. He had hoped she would give in; hoped the threat of being locked up would make her change her mind, make her obey him, but it hadn’t. It had made her silent and sulky and more determined than ever to thwart him. The trouble was that Archie, pressurised by Antonia, hadn’t backed him up as much as he wanted. They had insisted she be allowed the run of the house during the day; they had treated her as normal, and he suspected they would relent as soon as he was back in London. By now they had probably released her altogether. Geoffrey and David had let him down too. They had not agreed to sign his document. They had both told him that Clare should see a psychiatrist first, and now John Stanford had refused to go north, saying that if Clare was ill she should see her parents’ doctor.

Archie had been the only one on his side. Archie seemed ready to believe anything of Clare, but Antonia had been a different matter. He had underestimated her. She was touchy and suspicious enough for him to have to proceed very carefully indeed.

He picked up the phone. Sarah Collins was his trump card. He had told them he would send her north to help look after Clare. She would make a good jailer. He smiled grimly. She would enjoy supervising the new régime he and Archie had devised.

Clare must not be allowed to dream. She must be watched at every moment of the day and night. The pressure had to be maintained. Archie saw the sense in that. He had disapproved of locking her up alone; that left her vulnerable. Instead she must be protected from the ghosts which haunted her. Paul patted his breast pocket to make sure that the document was still there. She was used to being alone – she had once told him that she had to be alone some of the time every day or she would go mad. She would find the strain of being watched all the time intolerable. Wasn’t that one of the things she had always had nightmares about? Eyes. Eyes watching her. Well, she was about to find out what it was really like to be watched all the time. To free herself of the eyes she would in the end do anything, even sign away Duncairn. The only problem was, did he have the time to wait?

He met Rex at the Ritz. Rex looked Paul up and down with new interest. There was a slight family likeness to Emma – the dark colouring, the square shoulders, the determined chin – but where she was slim and pretty, he was tall and muscular, or had been before the slight flabbiness and the relaxed skin at the throat and below the eyes had betrayed him. They stood eyeing each other.

‘So. Do you have your wife’s authority?’ Rex said quietly.

Paul took a sip from his brandy. ‘I’ll have it by next week.’

‘No use.’ Rex shook his head. ‘I’m not waiting any longer. If you can’t get her witnessed signature by’ – he glanced at his watch – ‘by this time tomorrow, the deal is off.’

‘What do you mean, off?’ Paul had gone white.

‘I’m going back to the States, Mr Royland. All my affairs in this country have been settled except for this one. There is no more time.’

It was a calculated risk. When he set off for the Ritz this morning he still hadn’t decided what to do about Duncairn. He wanted it. He wanted it as he had never wanted anything before; yet in back of his mind lurked the fear that Emma might be right – that this man might indeed be capable of murder. Was he prepared to put Clare’s life at risk for Duncairn’s sake? He eyed Paul again.

‘There has to be more time. You can’t back out now, man!’ Paul grabbed his arm. ‘Look, give me two more days. My wife is in Scotland. I’ll fly up and get her signature –’

‘How?’ Rex narrowed his eyes for a moment. He could feel Paul’s desperation now; feel the unbalanced power of the man’s sudden panic. No wonder Emma was frightened for her sister-in-law.

As so often recently, Rex wondered what Clare was really like; this stubborn, passionate lady who was prepared to defy Sigma and all its money and sacrifice her own husband for a castle. His castle. He would like to meet her one day, even if she was in the end the reason why he would never own the place himself. ‘Your wife has made it very clear, it seems to me, that she doesn’t want to sell Duncairn, and never will,’ he went on. ‘You have had weeks to persuade her. I don’t think you’re going to manage it in another twenty-four hours.’ He glanced down at his Rolex again. ‘I think you ought to admit defeat.’ He smiled. ‘I told you I had certain information which I would divulge if you didn’t manage to get the contracts drawn up for me –’ He paused. Paul’s gaze was on his face, a rabbit before a weasel, paralysed with fear. Rex felt a quick rush of triumph. ‘At present,’ he paused again, for maximum effect, ‘I have decided to sit on that information. No doubt it will all come out anyway when you fail to pay up your debts on settlement day.’ He put his glass down on a table near by. ‘But for your wife’s sake, I shall say nothing. She has, it seems to me, enough to bear, being married to a shit like you.’

Back in his office Paul was seething. He poured his third glass of whisky and began pacing up and down the carpet. It was Clare’s fault! If she hadn’t prevaricated and fought him and lied! If she had given him some loyalty as a wife should! The bitch! The cold, stupid, mad bitch! He drained his glass, then he rang his solicitor. ‘Ken, I’m coming back to you about the papers over my wife’s committal when the doctors and others have seen her again. But now I want you to make a statement to the press refuting the garbage Forbes talked about the family on Monday.’ He was breathing heavily through his nose. ‘Tell him Clare Royland is not selling Duncairn. There has never been any question of it. And tell them Forbes is an ignorant troublemaker. Clare confirms that the site has absolutely no interest whatsoever ecologically, or archaeologically. It’s just a cold barren cliff and a third-rate hotel with nothing to offer visitors but an east wind straight from Siberia, and what is more no one, repeat, no one, has made an offer to buy the place. Got that? Oh, for God’s sake, Ken, word it any way you like, but get Forbes off my back!’ He slammed down the phone, then he went back to the whisky bottle for the fourth time. He had been summoned to appear before Sir Duncan and the members of the full board in half an hour.

Geoffrey was very thoughtful after his return from seeing the bishop. He sat down opposite his wife in the comfortable shabby sitting room of the rectory and leaning forward took her hand.

‘I told him everything – including your doubts.’ He smiled. ‘And the fact that you think she is making it all up. We discussed her for a long time, and we prayed together. He is rather of the opinion that we are right to be afraid for her.’ He paused. ‘Chloe dear, he has left it to me to decide what to do. I am going to celebrate a Eucharist for her and I am going to talk to the bishop’s special committee about her, but he has given me permission to conduct a ceremony of exorcism myself if I feel that that is the only thing to do that could possibly help her.’

Chloe stared at him. ‘An exorcism? You’re not serious! Geoffrey, for God’s sake –!’

‘Yes, my darling, for God’s sake.’ He looked very grave. ‘Please believe me, I do know what I’m talking about. I wouldn’t enter into this lightly – and I may never do it. I shall have to talk to her and to everyone around her again and again before I decide, but I have the bishop’s approval to go ahead if I feel that it is the only course which will help her.’ He stood up, frowning. ‘Believe me, I have thought about this hard, Chloe. It is not something I want to do. It is not something I am qualified to do.’

‘Then don’t do it. For God’s sake don’t do it, Geoff. Why even consider it?’

‘Because it may come to the point where someone has to. Normally the bishop would appoint one of the diocesan exorcists, someone from her own diocese, but as she is my sister-in-law, and as, so far as I know, she is not a churchgoer, at Dedham or at Airdlie, and never has been, he has agreed that maybe psychologically it would be better for me, someone she knows, and I think trusts, to conduct the service –’

‘You are playing straight into Paul’s hands!’ Chloe stood up, furious. ‘Oh, Geoffrey, how can you be such a fool! There is nothing wrong with Clare!’

He smiled. ‘Please, my dear. This is something you must let me be the judge of. If Clare is possessed by a spirit from the past we have to drive it out of her before it takes her over completely.’

‘She is making it all up, Geoff –’

‘I don’t think so.’ He shook his head. ‘I am well aware that Paul is trying to use the situation to his own advantage. I do know my own brother, but that does not lessen the fact of Clare’s real danger. She needs our help, Chloe. Yours and mine. You must support me, my dear. She will need a woman to be with her through this. One she trusts and who understands.’

Chloe bit her lip. She sat down again slowly. ‘I can’t believe all this is happening. It is like something from a horror movie. What happens in an exorcism? What do you have to do?’

‘I pray with her, and order the spirits to leave.’

‘And it’s as simple as that? Supposing she doesn’t agree?’

‘She will, my dear. I’m sure she will when she realises all I want is to help her.’

‘And when are you going to do all this?’

He shook his head. ‘I’m going to discuss it once more with Paul. I know he wants me to see her again, and if necessary sign this paper giving him power of attorney while she is ill. She is certainly not capable of making rational decisions at the moment. No –’ he held up his hand. ‘I know what you’re going to say. I shan’t sign anything which will harm Clare, or allow Paul to misuse her assets in any way. I’m not stupid. I shall see Clare either when she returns south, or if necessary I shall go up to Perthshire. I would like it to be as soon as possible, but the moment must be right.’

That evening when Geoffrey was attending a meeting of the vestry committee Chloe rang Emma. ‘He wants to exorcise her, Em! Bell, book and candle! Seriously. What are we going to do?’

‘He’s an idiot!’ Emma sounded preoccupied. ‘He won’t get near her. Clare will tell him to get lost.’

‘Paul is back in London,’ Chloe went on. ‘Geoffrey rang him this evening. He was in a foul mood apparently, and he said there was no point in Geoff going near her at the moment. He told him to stop interfering! That’s a bit rich, considering he came to us in the first place.’

‘Paul is probably desperate,’ Emma said slowly. ‘I think Rex Cummin has withdrawn his offer to buy Duncairn.’

‘Oh God!’ Chloe said. ‘Does that mean Paul will go bankrupt?’

‘I think it might.’ Emma’s voice was tight with misery. ‘And if it does, it will all be my fault. But I did it for Clare’s sake.’

Archie was out with the dogs when Clare walked into his study, her mother trailing unhappily behind her. Antonia was bored with being told to watch her daughter day and night. She loved Clare and she wanted to help her, but Clare’s rebellious bad temper was more than she could bear. Besides, she was a little afraid. Now that Paul had gone they were all breathing more easily, but still the threat of what Clare had got herself mixed up in remained. There had been no signs of anything frightening that she could see, but even so the doors were still locked, and the keys in Archie’s pocket.

‘Who are you ringing, dear?’ she asked nervously as Clare sat down at her father’s desk and picked up the phone. ‘I don’t think you ought to –’

‘I’m ringing Neil Forbes.’ Clare began to dial. She had found the number of Earthwatch in the directory after she saw Paul’s statement in the paper her father had hidden in the boot room.

She drummed her fingers on the desk. If Paul had issued a public statement two days ago that they were not selling Duncairn, why was she still a prisoner? She would take that one up with Archie when he came in.

Neil was about to go out to lunch. ‘Why, Mrs Royland! Surprise, surprise!’ His voice was acid. ‘I didn’t expect to hear from you again after your solicitor’s oh-so-public vilification of me and my organisation.’

Kenneth Beaumont’s carefully phrased answers to Neil’s original attack had lost none of Paul’s venom for all that the libellous content had been removed.

‘They are not my solicitors, Mr Forbes,’ Clare said desperately. ‘They are my husband’s. I did not say any of that. None of it. I know Duncairn is special. I know it is ecologically very sensitive. I know the castle is a historic monument. I love Duncairn. I would never say any of those things.’

‘Then why allow statements like that to be put out in your name?’