The Legacy (21 page)

‘He did say he'd been involved with compensating relatives of Jews murdered on their way to Sweden.'

Helstrom nodded. ‘Then there's not much more I can tell you, but perhaps you can enlighten me.' He leaned towards her. ‘I find it strange that Rolf should engage in practice without informing us.' He was waiting for an answer. ‘I hope it doesn't mean he's decided to move to England.'

Christina stood up. ‘I'm sure it doesn't. He misses Sweden; he's said so. I think he was attracted to my lawsuit because it's so different from anything he'd have to deal with at home. My husband left his property to our daughter and cut out his two sons, and one of them is trying to overturn the will.'

He looked surprised, even a little disapproving. ‘No, we wouldn't have such a problem here or anywhere in Europe, Mrs Farrington. However, I hope you find a solution without going to court; family quarrels are best settled within the family. I'm sure Rolf will find the experience interesting, and, of course, he'll do his best for you, but you haven't told me why you've come to see me?'

Harry was on his feet too. ‘We've lost track of him and my cousin needs to contact him urgently. We thought he might have come home for a quick visit.' His smile was broad and disingenuous. ‘Gave me an excuse to see your beautiful country too. Thank you so much for your time. Christa?' He took her arm, guiding her towards the door. The lawyer gave him a look of quiet dislike; he had been outmanoeuvred.

In the street outside, Harry said, ‘Why didn't you tell him Wallberg was working with Harvey & Stone?'

‘Because it was obvious they knew nothing about it,' she answered. ‘I didn't want to make trouble for him. Anyway we found out what we wanted to know: he told the truth.'

‘Yes, but he lied to his firm. I wonder why?'

They crossed the street. Christina didn't answer. She'd protected Rolf instinctively and she wasn't sure she'd done the right thing. Why had he lied about taking a job in London?

‘Maybe the old boy was right,' Harry mused. ‘Maybe he does mean to settle in England and stay with Harvey & Stone … or set up his own practice. I'm just guessing, but it may be as simple as that.' He hailed a passing taxi-cab.

‘I don't know,' she answered. ‘I left a message for him to call from New York, and he hasn't called back. Harry, I'm going to phone James. I can't go up to Lindy and Papa without knowing what's happened.'

Harry considered for a moment. ‘Why don't you let me do it? It's about time the brothers Grimm knew you had a member of the family on your side. He'll run with the news to cousin Alan.'

As the cab drew up at the hotel she turned to him. ‘Alan will flip,' she said. ‘I don't want him attacking you.'

He laughed. ‘I do. I can't wait. Let's start with that stalwart James.'

‘What's the matter with you, Rolf?' She had stripped off her clothes and stood provocatively in front of him. She reached out a hand to undress him, but he held it still. ‘What's wrong?' she repeated.

‘Nothing,' he said. ‘I don't feel like sex; put your clothes on. I don't fuck to order, you should know that by now.'

‘Well,' she pushed a long strand of blond hair over her bare shoulder, ‘this is a first time. You have a problem suddenly?' There was anger in her eyes.

‘If I do', he said, ‘it's my problem, not yours. This is your way of celebrating, but it's not the way I feel.'

She began dressing briskly, without any attempt to arouse him. ‘How the hell do you feel then?' She pulled the expensive dress on and fastened it behind her neck.

Rolf said, ‘Drained, wiped out. It's been a long assignment, and I've had the euphoria; this is the let down. It happens; you should understand.'

She shrugged. ‘I do. Trouble is, when I'm on a high I stay on it; I didn't guess you were so sensitive.' She came up and put her hands on his shoulders. Unexpectedly she was kind. ‘Just so long as I haven't lost my charms,' she murmured.

‘You haven't,' he said, ‘be sure of that. I'm sorry. Next time … it'll be good.'

She turned away from him; she fastened a gold choker and slipped on a matching bracelet. ‘There won't be a next time,' she said. ‘You won't be seeing me again; not for a while anyway. Not till you come out.' She smiled at him.
‘The Iceman Cometh.
Wasn't that a play?'

He nodded, ‘Eugene O'Neill. It was great theatre.'

‘Only he didn't, this time.' She laughed. ‘Let's go down and eat; if you haven't lost your appetite …'

She did the ordering in the restaurant and toasted him with champagne. ‘You've done a great job. I'm criticized for not thanking people enough, so I'm making up for it now. We'll never forget what you've done. You may even have a street named after you.'

Rolf didn't answer. It was over; the dead would rest in peace. ‘You'll be going home?' she asked him.

‘No, not yet.'

‘What's keeping you here?' She put the question lightly, but already she had guessed the answer.

‘I want to see this Farrington case through,' he told her. He made it sound casual, but she wasn't deceived. ‘Because of the woman? How can you help her now?'

‘I don't know, but I've got to try. She trusted me.'

‘Ah.' She sipped her champagne. ‘You can't live without a cause? Take my advice; she's got good lawyers, let them fight for her. You go home.'

Rolf Wallberg looked at her. There was something in the pale eyes she recognized and had long since suppressed in herself.

‘I would', he said, ‘if I knew where home was.'

When he took the call James didn't recognize the voice or the name at first. ‘Harry? Harry who?'

‘Harry Spannier, your cousin. Remember me? I was the one Alan used to try and push around at children's parties.'

‘Oh, yes, of course. How are you? Where are you? I thought you lived in South Africa.'

James had a vague recollection of a boy who'd responded to Alan's bullying by kicking him hard on the shins, but beyond that, he hadn't thought of him or heard of him for years.

‘Not any more,' Harry answered. ‘I'm home, in England. I'm taking on the agricultural business and the farm. Actually I'm with Christa at the moment.' James stiffened.

‘What are you doing with her?' There was an edge to his voice when Harry answered.

‘Proving that not all the Farrington relations are utter shits. I hear Alan's taking her to court over the will.'

‘Yes.' James was very guarded now. Harry Spannier … What the hell business was it of his … Wait till Alan found out he was taking sides … ‘Yes, that's right. I'm not taking any part in it,' he added.

‘But her lawyer's been to see you?'

That took James by surprise. Then he felt angry at the reminder. ‘He certainly has,' he retorted, ‘and you can tell her from me he behaved like a bloody thug. He threatened me, physically.'

‘Good Lord,' Harry pretended to be shocked. ‘Really? Offered a punch-up? That's not very legal. What have you done, James? Pinched something? Like an old manuscript? You were always pinching things, I remember …'

James shouted, ‘You bastard! Alan'll sort you out!'

‘Tell him I'm a big boy now,' Harry reminded him. ‘I can do more than kick shins.'

He turned to Christina. ‘He's hung up,' he said. ‘But the noble Swede's been to see him and got pretty rough; threatened the miserable bugger. Didn't sound as if he was acting in the best traditions of Harvey & Stone … Maybe they do things differently in Sweden.' He was watching her closely. ‘He took a risk, behaving like that. Did you know he was going to handle James that way?'

‘No,' Christina answered, ‘of course I didn't. But the manuscript?'

‘I'd say he gave it back,' Harry said. ‘So all we have to do is contact Wallberg, or wait for him to contact you.'

But there was no word from Rolf. He hadn't been in touch with the London office, there was a recorded message on his answerphone in his flat, and the New York hotel said he had checked out two days before … Silence. After another day of waiting, Harry suggested that they drive up to see her father and collect Belinda.

‘Christina,' her father said gently, ‘Christina, what's the matter? You can tell me. We never had secrets.'

She smiled up at him. They were alone; Belinda had gone into the village with Harry for supplies, and the stove was lit against a growing autumn chill. The simple room, with its plain functional furnishings, was the same as she remembered from holidays spent there so many years ago; nothing had changed. Life was easy, centring on sailing and fishing, long walks by the seashore, evenings spent talking, going to bed early, getting up with the dawn. Nothing had changed, except her. Even her father seemed immune from age.

He was the same kindly shrewd mentor of his children, convinced that a simple honest philosophy of life provided all solutions.

‘You haven't been yourself since you came up here,' he said. ‘Is it this lawsuit?'

Christina sighed. ‘Yes, of course it is.'

It was Harry who insisted that they stay with her father for a few days before flying back to England. ‘Come on, stop worrying; there's nothing you can do. The noble Swede'll surface. The break'll do you good.' But it hadn't. She was restless, hoping for the old magic of the place to work, knowing it wasn't going to, that she had moved even further away from her past life than she imagined.

‘Christina, why don't you stop all this?' her father asked. ‘That house and the money aren't worth all the bitterness and fighting. What happiness will Belinda have in the end, even if you win? And you … what will your future be—living there among strangers. Without Richard you don't belong at RussMore.'

She looked at him. ‘That's the trouble, I do. It's become part of me. It's Belinda's home and England is her country. I know you'd like me to give it up and come back to Sweden, but I can't.'

‘Are you convincing yourself or me?' he said. ‘There's something I've never asked you, I couldn't while your husband was alive. Were you truly happy? Really happy?'

‘Yes,' she answered, ‘I was very happy with him.'

‘He was so much older,' the gentle voice persisted. While they talked, he had slipped an arm around her, just as if she were a little girl again. ‘He was so different from anyone you'd ever known: sophisticated, rich, living in another world, and his children hated you. It can't have been easy; there must have been times when you had doubts … regrets?'

‘Doubts, yes,' Christina admitted, ‘about whether I was going to make up to him for all he'd suffered, all that misery … but he said I did. He said I was the only person in the world who'd made him happy when he thought his life was over—and I gave him Belinda. You only stayed with us once or twice, so you never really saw them together; it was lovely the way they related to each other. And I was never jealous, if that's what you're thinking, because he always put me first. As for Alan—it wasn't so much hating me as hating anyone who made his father happy; he was the one Alan hated. James only wanted to be loved, but Richard couldn't … Papa, not all families are like ours. Maybe we're just dull, maybe we don't feel things so intensely.'

‘For that', he said, ‘I'm thankful … I'd rather my children were happy and dull than like the Farringtons. Belinda has already learned to hate. She's talked to me about her half-brother … I was shocked. Is that how you want her to grow up?' The encircling arm had been withdrawn; Christina had hurt him.

She said quickly, ‘Darling Papa, I'm so sorry … I didn't mean to criticize. I just felt you were being judgemental and that's not like you. God, how I wish it had been different! I'm having to fight, when all I want is to rebuild my life.' She looked at him and he recognized the stubbornness inherited from her mother. ‘I won't run away. Richard relied on me to look after RussMore and Belinda, and I'm not going to opt out, so please try and understand, and don't let's talk about it. Please?'

‘All right. I'm sorry too; I didn't mean to doubt your motives, I just needed to be sure you had thought it through. I like the cousin.' Better than the dead husband, he thought privately. ‘It's good he's there to support you. Belinda likes him.'

‘He encourages her,' Christina answered. ‘He's as mischievous as she is, but he's no fool and he's a good friend.'

‘More than a friend,' her father said. ‘I think he wants more than friendship.'

She shook her head. ‘No, you couldn't be more wrong. We are just that—friends. They'll be back soon, and Papa, I hate to cut our time short, but I must go to England. I'd like to leave tomorrow. Do you mind?'

He smiled at her. ‘No, of course not. I shall miss you. Come again soon, Christa, and bring my granddaughter; I have Sven's children but Belinda is special. Give me a kiss. You'll always be my girl, you know that.'

As they embraced Christina's eyes filled with tears. They drove down to Stockholm the next morning and caught the midday flight to Heathrow. On the plane Harry went through the pantomime of holding Belinda's hand through the take-off and landing. ‘Since your Mother won't …' and they both giggled at the joke.
He wants more than friendship.
Her father's words came to Christina and she dismissed them. Harry posed no threat; he teased and flirted without serious intent. When he looked at her, or touched her, there was no fierce fusion, no charge of sexuality. He wasn't Rolf Wallberg. ‘Thank God,' she murmured to herself.

‘Good morning, Mr Wallberg.' Rolf's secretary looked up with a smile as he came in. ‘There are a number of messages for you; most are from Mrs Farrington. Shall I bring them in?'