A Finer End

even more intently than usual?
    As they started on the first course, David Sanborne addressed Andrew: Any new projects on the archaeological front since I saw you last?’
    ‘There are always projects — it’s the funding for them that’s scarce.’ Andrew’s smile was acid. ‘It’s not newsworthy, is it, digging for shards of sixth-century pottery? But then you have chappies calling themselves Pendragon and digging up the High Street for treasure with a bulldozer, and that makes the front Page.’
    Suzanne chuckled. ‘That did cause a bit of a stir in the town council. Mr Pendragon would probably rate as a genuine English eccentric.’
    ‘I can testify to that.’ Bram Allen smiled. ‘It happened right in front of my gallery, so I had a ringside seat. Right out of King Arthur, he was, with flowing white hair and a star-covered robe. Had to be forcibly removed, poor chap, and the police impounded the bulldozer.’
    ‘Certifiable, if you ask me,’ Andrew said too loudly. ‘All these mumbo-jumbo followers are loony, spouting off about dreams and visions.’
    Fiona Allen went very still, and into the awkward silence Winnie said, ‘The Biblical prophets might take exception to that view, wouldn’t you say, Suzanne?’
    The conversation moved on as they progressed through poached salmon with dill sauce and new potatoes, but there was a distinct feeling of unease at the table.
    After the salad, Winnie served a lemon roulade that she readily admitted was shop-bought. ‘I don’t have the patience for puddings,’ she said. ‘They’re too fiddly — all that measuring and sifting.’
    ‘Why bother when you can buy things like this?’ Fiona took the last bite of her portion with a contented sigh. ‘Mind you, I’ll expect this the next time I come for lunch.’
    ‘Not too soon, I hope,’ her husband said. ‘Or my gallery walls will be bare. Fiona’s been doing more lunching than painting lately.’
    ‘Painter’s block, would you call it?’ asked David Sanborne with interest.
    ‘Something like that,’ Fiona replied tersely, casting an injured glance at Bram.
    ‘Coffee, anyone?’ Winnie said brightly, and received a relieved-sounding chorus of affirmatives.
    ‘I’ll help, shall I?’ Andrew offered as they rose to return to the drawing room.
    ‘Jack and I can manage,’ Winnie shot back, and the look Andrew gave Jack could have drawn blood.
    Returning to the drawing room after he had helped Winnie clear the table, Jack made an effort to ignore Andrew. He slipped Handel’s ‘Dixit Dominus’ in the CD player, and as the conversation flowed around him, he thought of what he and Simon had discussed. Was it possible that they were right in thinking it was the Abbey’s lost chant Edmund wanted them to find?
    Winnie’s recent warning about Simon crossed his mind, but he dismissed it easily enough. Surely Winnie had been mistaken — perhaps overly zealous in defence of her dead friend. And if not — if Simon had done such an unscrupulous thing, Jack could not believe it was more than an isolated incident that Simon had later regretted.
    Hoping for a moment alone with Winnie, he went back into the kitchen. She stood at the worktop, her back to him, stacking cups and saucers on a tray. He placed his hands on her shoulders and bent to kiss her exposed shoulder just above the neckline of her dress. She relaxed against him, and he wrapped his arms round her.
    But before he could speak he felt a prickling at the back of his neck, and a small current of air. Turning, he saw Andrew Catesby standing in the doorway, watching them.
    ‘Oh, good, Andrew — you can carry the coffee,’ said Winnie, as if nothing were amiss, but Jack had seen the venom in her brother’s eyes.
    With a forced smile, she handed Jack the cheese tray, and as he left the kitchen he heard Andrew say, ‘Not very fitting behaviour for a priest, fawning all over him like a common tart.’
    Winnie snapped something in reply that Jack couldn’t quite make out. He’d turned back, determined to intervene, when Winnie came out of the kitchen, cheeks flaming.
    ‘Winnie—’
    ‘Later. We’d better serve the guests.’
    They returned to the drawing room, and when Andrew had joined them, David Sanborne said, ‘Nice choice, the Handel. I believe that’s what the Somerfield choir is doing at Christmas this year — am I right, dear?’ He glanced at his wife.
    ‘Our Nigel’s hanging on to his soprano part by a hair, I’m afraid.