The Liar (17 page)

5

‘YOU WERE HIS
best friend,’ Mrs Trotter said. ‘He talked about you a great deal, how clever and amusing you were. He was very fond of you.’

‘Well, Mrs Trotter,’ said Adrian, ‘I was very fond of him. We all were.’

‘I do hope you and … and the other boy … Cartwright … can come to the funeral.’

She looked just like Pigs when she cried.

That evening the whole House was already in a slightly hysterical state by the time Tickford broke the news officially at House Compline.

‘Some of you, I don’t know … may know,’ he said, ‘… may have heard, I don’t know, that there has been a tragedy here. Paul Trotter took his own life this afternoon. We have no idea why. We don’t know. We just don’t know. We can’t know.’

Fifty pairs of eyes swivelled towards Adrian, wondering. Why had he been sent for first? Why had he been shut up with Tickford and Pigs’s parents for so long?

Cartwright had not yet been spoken to. He knew nothing and his eyes turned towards Adrian too, large and full of awe.

‘I’m afraid he must have been very unhappy,’ continued Tickford, apparently to the ceiling. ‘Very unhappy, I don’t know why. But we shall say a prayer for him and commend his soul to God. Almighty Father …’

Adrian felt a thigh being pressed against his as he knelt to pray. It was Rundell.

‘What?’

‘I saw him,’ whispered Rundell. ‘Yesterday afternoon in the cemetery, he went up and sat next to you!’

‘So what?’

‘Refresh him with your Mercy, cleanse him with your Love …’

‘And then you came down together and he was crying.’

‘That has nothing to do with it.’

‘In the name of your Son who died that all might have eternal life …’

‘Oh, yeah?’

‘Amen.’

*

Tom asked no questions and Adrian couldn’t bring himself to tell him anything.

Biffo had sent a note the next morning. ‘What terribly upsetting news, terribly upsetting. Helen and I were so distressed. I taught Trotter last year; such a delightful boy. I do hope you feel free to come and talk to me about it. If you would like to, of course. Helen and I would be delighted if you could make more of our Friday afternoon visits this term. With every sympathy at this dreadful time. Humphrey Biffen.’

Tom and Adrian were playing cribbage during the afternoon when there was a knock at the door.

‘Avanti!’

It was Cartwright, looking frightened.

‘Can I have a word with you, Healey?’

Tom saw the expression on Cartwright’s face and reached for a book and a pair of sunglasses.

‘I’d better grow.’

‘Thanks, Thompson.’ Cartwright stood looking at the floor and waited for Tom to close the door behind him.

‘Sit down do,’ said Adrian.

‘I’ve just been to see Tickford,’ said Cartwright, either not hearing or not heeding the invitation.

‘Oh, ah?’

‘He said Trotter had some sort of … a kind of crush on me. And that you told him that.’

‘Well, that’s what Trotter told me.’

‘But I didn’t even know him!’

Adrian shrugged.

‘I’m sorry, Cartwright, but you know what this place is like.’

Cartwright sat down in Tom’s chair and stared out of the window.

‘Oh hell’s bells. It’ll be all over the school.’

‘Of course it won’t be,’ said Adrian. ‘Tickford won’t tell anyone. I certainly won’t tell anyone. I mean, I haven’t even told Thompson and I tell him everything.’

‘But Tick says I’ve got to go to the funeral. What will people think of that?’

‘Well …’ said Adrian, thinking fast. ‘I’m going to the funeral too. I’ll put it around that your parents are friends of Trotter’s parents.’

‘I suppose that’ll do,’ said Cartwright, ‘but why did you have to tell Tick in the first place?’

‘It was suicide! He left a note. It said “Healey will explain” or something like that. What else could I do but tell the truth?’

Cartwright looked up at him.

‘Did Pigs, did Trotter say … did he tell you how long he’d had this, this
thing
for me?’

‘Since you came to the school apparently.’

Cartwright dropped his head and stared at the floor. When he looked up again there were tears in his eyes. He looked angry. Angry and to Adrian more beautiful than ever.

‘Why did he tell you?’ he cried. ‘Why couldn’t he have told me? And what did he have to go and kill himself for?’

Adrian felt taken aback by the anger in Cartwright’s voice.

‘Well, I suppose he was scared in case … in case you rejected him or something. I don’t know how these things work.’

‘More scared of me rejecting him than he was of killing himself?’

Adrian nodded.

‘So now I’m going to have to wake up every morning for the rest of my life knowing that I’m responsible for someone’s suicide.’

The tears splashed down his face. Adrian leant forward and held his shoulder.

‘You must never think of it like that, Hugo. You mustn’t!’ he said.

He had never called him Hugo before and he hadn’t touched him since their brief how-do-you-do in the House lavs, which was before Adrian had known he was in love.

‘I’m as responsible as you are, really,’ Adrian said. ‘More responsible, if anything.’

Cartwright stared in surprise.

‘How do you mean?’

‘Well,’ said Adrian, ‘I could have advised Trotter to tell you, couldn’t I? I could have told him not to bottle it up.’

‘But you weren’t to know what was going to happen.’

‘And nor were you, Hugo. Now come on, dry your eyes, or people will really know something is wrong. We’ll go to the funeral and then in a couple of weeks we’ll have forgotten all about it.’

‘Thanks, Healey. I’m sorry to be so …’

‘Adrian. And there’s nothing to be sorry about.’

*

Between that day and the day they travelled up to Harrogate they hadn’t exchanged a word. Adrian had seen him mobbing around with his friends as if nothing had happened. The House did its best to forget the whole embarrassment. Trotter was thought of with the kind of contempt and revulsion young Englishmen of the right type reserve for the sick, the mad, the poor and the old.

The funeral was set for ten in the morning, so Tickford had decided that they should travel up the evening before and spend the night in a hotel. For the whole duration of the journey Cartwright stared out of the window.

He’s beginning to resent Trotter’s posthumous power over him, Adrian thought.

The Tickfords didn’t speak much either. This was a duty they did not relish. Adrian, never a tidy traveller, twice had to ask Ma Tickford, who was driving, to stop the car so that he could be sick.

He couldn’t imagine why he had dropped Cartwright in it the way he had. A kind of revenge he supposed. But revenge for what? And on whom? A revenge on the ghost of Trotter or on the living, breathing Cartwright?

He wasn’t Woody Nightshade, he was Deadly Nightshade. Everybody who had anything to do with him was lethally poisoned.

But they don’t exist, he kept repeating to himself as they rattled up the A1. Other people don’t exist. Trotter isn’t really dead because he was never really alive. It’s all just a clever way of testing me. There’s no one in these cars and lorries driving south. There can’t be that many individual souls. Not souls like mine. There isn’t room. There can’t be.

But suppose Trotter’s ghost watched him? Trotter would know everything by now. Would he forgive him?

From now on, I conform.

*

He should have guessed that Tickford would give him and Cartwright a twin room at the hotel. The bill was being settled by the school, after all.

Their room was at the end of a creaking corridor. Adrian opened the door and bowed Cartwright in.

Manly, unconcerned and businesslike, he told himself. Two healthy English school chums sharing digs. Holmes and Watson, Bunny and Raffles. Nothing else.

‘So, Cartwright old boy – which bed do you fancy?’

‘I don’t mind really. This one’ll do fine.’

‘Okay. Bags the bathroom first, then.’

Like all the English hotels Adrian had ever stayed in, this one was appallingly overheated. He undressed and slipped naked into bed while Cartwright brushed his teeth in the bathroom.

Now then, Healey, he warned himself. You’re to behave. Understand?

He switched out the light above his bed just as Cartwright came out, magnificently clad in sky-blue pyjamas of brushed cotton, swinging a sponge-bag from his wrist.

‘Night then, Cartwright.’

‘Night.’

Adrian closed his eyes. He heard Cartwright shuffle off his slippers and get into bed.

Don’t let him turn his light off. Make him pick up a book. Please, God, please.

He strained his ears and caught the sound of a page turning.

Thank you, God. You’re a treasure.

During the next five minutes Adrian allowed his breathing naturally to deepen into a slow rhythm until any observer would swear that he was fast asleep.

He then began to give the impression of a more troubled rest. He turned and gave a small moan. The eiderdown fell to the floor. He rolled over far to one side, causing the top sheet to come away. A minute later he turned the other way violently, kicking with his foot so that the sheet joined the eiderdown.

He was now naked on the bed, breathing heavily and writhing. Cartwright’s light was still on but the pages had stopped turning.

‘Adrian?’

It had been a light whisper, but Cartwright had definitely spoken.

‘Adrian …’ Adrian mumbled in return, half snoring the word as he turned to face Cartwright, mouth open, eyes closed.

‘Adrian, are you all right?’

‘No one left in the valley,’ said Adrian, flinging out a hand.

He heard Cartwright’s bed creak.

Here we go, he thought to himself, here we bloody well go!

Cartwright’s feet padded across the room.

He’s next to me, I can sense it!

‘I’ll eat them later … later,’ he moaned. He heard the rustle of a sheet and felt the eiderdown being pulled on top of him.

He can’t just be going to tuck me up! He can’t be. I’ve got a stiffy like a milk-bottle. Is he flesh and blood or what? Oh well, here goes. Nothing ventured, nothing gained.

He arched his body and thrashed his legs up and down.

‘Lucy?’ he called, quite loudly this time.

Where he got the name Lucy from, he had no idea.

‘Lucy?’

He swept out an arm and found Cartwright’s shoulder.

‘Lucy, is that you?’

The eiderdown was slowly pulled away from him again. Suddenly he felt a warm hand between his thighs.

‘Yes,’ he said, ‘yes.’

Then soft hair brushing against his chest and a tongue licking his stomach.

Hugo, he sighed to himself. Hugo! and out loud, ‘Oh Lucy –
Lucy!
’

*

He was awoken by the sound of a lavatory flushing. The eiderdown was on top of him and the sun was shining through a gap in the curtains.

‘Oh God. What have I done?’

Cartwright came out of the bathroom.

‘Morning,’ he said brightly.

‘Hi,’ mumbled Adrian, ‘what the hell time is it?’

‘Seven thirty. Sleep all right?’

‘Jesus, like a log. And you?’

‘Not too badly. You talked a lot.’

‘Oh sorry,’ said Adrian. ‘I do that sometimes. I hope it didn’t keep you awake.’

‘You kept saying Lucy. Who’s Lucy?’

‘Really?’ Adrian frowned. ‘Well, I used to have a dog called Lucy …’

‘Oh, right,’ said Cartwright. ‘I wondered.’

‘Works every time,’ Adrian said to himself, turning over and going back to sleep.

It was a small funeral. A small funeral for a small life. Trotter’s parents were pleased to see Adrian again and were polite to Cartwright, but they couldn’t entirely disguise their distaste for him. His beauty, pale in a dark suit, was an affront to the memory of their pudgy and ordinary son.

After the ceremony they drove to the Trotters’ farmhouse five miles outside Harrogate. One of Pigs Trotter’s sisters gave Adrian a photograph of himself. It showed him lying on his stomach watching a cricket match. Adrian tried hard but couldn’t remember Pigs Trotter taking it. No one commented on the fact that Trotter kept no photographs of Cartwright.

Mr Trotter asked Adrian if he would come and stay in the summer holidays.

‘You ever sheared sheep before?’

‘No, sir.’

‘You’ll enjoy it.’

Tickford took the wheel for the homeward journey. Adrian was allowed in the front next to him. They didn’t want to risk him being sick again.

‘A sorry business,’ said Tickford.

‘Yes, sir.’

Tickford gestured over his shoulder towards Cartwright, who was leaning against Ma Tickford and snoring gently.

‘I hope you haven’t told anyone,’ he said.

‘No, sir.’

‘You must get on with the term now, Adrian. It has not started well. That disgusting magazine and now this … all in the first week. There’s a bad spirit abroad, I wonder if I can look to you to help combat it?’

‘Well, sir …’

‘This may be just the jolt you need to start taking yourself seriously at last. Boys like you have a profound influence. Whether it is used for good or evil can make the difference between a happy and an unhappy school.’

‘Yes, sir.’

Tickford patted Adrian’s knee.

‘I have a feeling that I can rely on you,’ he said.

‘You can, sir,’ said Adrian. ‘I promise.’

*

It was four o’clock when they got back. Adrian returned to his study to find it empty. Tom was obviously having tea somewhere else.

He couldn’t be bothered to track him down, so he made toast on his own and started on some overdue Latin prep. If he was going to turn over a new leaf then there was no time like the present. Then he would write back to Biffo. Attend all his Friday afternoons. Read more. Think more.

He had hardly begun before there came a knock at the door.

‘Come in!’

It was Bennett-Jones.

‘Really, R.B.-J. Flattered as I am by your fawning attentions I must ask you to find another playmate. I am a busy man. Virgil calls to me from across the centuries.’