Edge Of Temptation

‘Rafe!’ It was John Norman who spoke, his good-natured features drawn into an uncharacteristic frown. ‘You know perfectly well, Penwyth needs the capital.’

Rafe moved his shoulders impatiently. ‘I don’t deny that. But is that sufficient reason to deny a man his livelihood?’

Marland cleared his throat. ‘I understand that without a—shall we say—substantial investment of capital, the estate may have to be sold any way.’

Rafe stiffened now. ‘Where did you hear that?’ He glanced at John Norman again. ‘Was that your opinion, too?’

The president of the Norcroft Mining Company shifted uncomfortably. ‘One doesn’t have to be a fortune-teller to see for oneself, Rafe,’ he demurred. ‘You’ve said yourself…’

‘We’re going through a rough patch, yes.’ Rafe inclined his head. ‘But it’s been rough before. We’ve survived.’

‘An estate like Penwyth is an anachronism,’ declared Marland heavily. ‘Too small to be efficient, too hilly to farm economically. Who would want this land anyway? Fields and fields of rough turf, climbing among acres of second-rate timber. Pretty, maybe—valuable, it’s not.’

Rafe stilled the ready retort that sprang to his lips. Now was not the time to sentimentalise or offer emotive reasons why he wanted Penwyth to stay the same as it had always been. In all honesty, Sir George was probably right: Penwyth was not a viable proposition. It never had been. The house was a rambling mausoleum, badly in need of roofing and repair, and the acres of garden that surrounded it were gradually running to seed. Old Laurence did what he could, but there was a limit to one man’s abilities in that field, and the man was old—too old to handle a garden like the Manor’s, yet not old enough to pension off. And if they did pension him off, who would take it on? The young people left the valley in search of work in Cardiff or Swansea, and he hadn’t the time to handle it himself. Not along with everything else.

How much easier it had been years ago, he reflected bitterly. The rents from the farms had never contributed much towards the upkeep of the Manor, but in those days, the subsequent lords of Penwyth had had independent means. They had had the money to maintain the valley as an oasis of peace and tranquillity in a world being torn by economic collapse and starvation, money derived from sources it was not always polite to question. They had not been crippled by a series of taxes and death duties, supplemented by rising costs and soaring prices, that left Penwyth almost bankrupt and struggling to survive. Now the rents from the farms were a much-needed necessity, though they went only a small way towards the upkeep of the estate, and his father’s lengthy illness had even eaten into Lucy’s allowance.

‘What would you suggest I tell my tenants?’ he asked Marland now. ‘Like me, they were born and brought up in this valley. They don’t know any other life. It takes some swallowing, doesn’t it? Destroying a whole community!’

‘How many farms are involved? Six? Seven?’ Marland sniffed. ‘You can’t seriously consider the needs of half a dozen families more important than the wealth of the nation as a whole.’

‘How dramatic!’ Rafe’s lips twisted. ‘No, Sir George, I’m not that arrogant—or altruistic. I know what granting exploratory rights means, and I’m aware how important such a find might be.’ He shook his head. ‘It just seems ironic that it was Mervyn Powys who brought that axe to me. He had no idea what it would lead to.’

Marland shrugged. ‘The luck of the game, Glyndower. Now, can we discuss primary claims?’

It was after five before they had completed the aerial survey. The helicopter belonging to the Norcroft Mining Company came down on the field below the manor, and levering himself out beneath the lethal blades of its propellers, Rafe felt it was incumbent upon him to offer his guests some refreshment before they returned to their hotel in Llandrindod Wells. Lucy would expect it, he knew, and besides, he would be interested to have her opinion of Sir George Marland. Lucy was quite a shrewd judge of character, and just because he didn’t like the man, it did not mean he was unlikeable. He was not surprised when his offer was accepted. No definite decision had yet been made, and he knew both Marland and Norman would welcome this opportunity to further their mutual ends.

While the pilot stilled the noisy propellers, Rafe walked towards the Land Rover he had left parked earlier in the afternoon. His dog, a golden-haired Labrador named Rufus, awaited him, sitting patiently in the front of the vehicle, only exploding excitedly when he opened the door.

‘Easy, boy, easy,’ he murmured, fondling the golden head affectionately, as the dog displayed its welcome, and then fastening his fingers around its collar as Sir George and his satellite came importantly across the turf to join them.

‘You sit up front, Sir George,’ urged John Norman, politely climbing into the back, and Rafe’s mouth drew down in a wry curve as he allowed Rufus to bound into the back beside the mining company president.

Sir George used his handkerchief to dust the dog hairs from the seat before joining his host in front, and Rafe turned on the ignition with an inward grimace. He wished he could be done with the whole damn business, without the decision which he knew he was going to have to make.

Penwyth dreamed in the late afternoon sunlight. It was a beautiful house, built on the site of an ancient Cistercian monastery, destroyed in the sixteenth century. Stones from the original building had been used to build the manor house, and from time to time, rumours were spread of a shadowy monk being seen in the grounds, or a certain coldness being felt in various parts of the building. Rafe himself had never seen any ghost, or experienced any sense of chilling as he worked in his study, sometimes late into the night, but the Welsh were a superstitious people, and he respected their beliefs.

The house itself was built of mellowed stone, liberally covered with ivy. It was a constant battle trying to keep the creeping tendrils off the windows, but tinged with the russets and reds of autumn, as it was now, the vine gave the building a warm, welcoming appearance. It was approached beneath a Norman arch, set in a high stone wall, that gave on to a cobblestoned courtyard, where Rafe’s mother had cultivated plants that clung as tenaciously as the ivy to the uneven bricks. Here was honeysuckle and clematis, but late in the year, only the lingering scents of their blossoms remained, like a memory of summer.

Rafe brought the Land Rover to a halt to one side of the ivy-hung porch, and warning Rufus to remain where he was, invited his guests into the house. Sir George was mellowing, too, beneath the undoubted influence of historic architecture, his admiring gaze moving along the mullioned panes that flanked the porch at either side, and John Norman, who had seen it all before, exchanged an encouraging glance with their host.

William Morgan appeared as Rafe entered the hall, his elderly features expressing polite interest in the two men who were following his employer. The old man had been butler at the Manor for more than forty years, since the days when the Glyndowers had employed a housekeeper, too, and not relied on the mistress of the house to perform such menial duties. He was a luxury they could ill afford, Rafe had acknowledged many times, but like Percy Laurence, Morgan was too old to cast adrift.

‘Will you be wanting tea, sir?’ he enquired now, relieving Rafe of his jacket. ‘I believe Mrs Glyndower is in the library. Master Thomas is with her.’

For a moment Rafe forgot the presence of his guests, forgot the unpleasantness of the decision he was going to have to make, and felt only a sense of crushing disappointment.

‘Tom?’ he echoed. ‘Thomas is here?’

‘Yes, sir.’

‘Damn!’

Rafe felt his jaw clenching angrily, and then was reminded of his position once more as Sir George remarked: ‘Capital house you’ve got here, Glyndower. This panelling—magnificent! Seventeenth century, isn’t it? Beautiful.’

‘It’s early eighteenth, actually,’ replied Rafe absently, his mind still buzzing with the implications of his son’s arrival. Then, forcing a politeness he was far from feeling, he added: ‘Part of the foundations date back to the sixteenth century, and there are stone racks in the cellars, which we think were used for storing wine by the monks who used to live in the monastery that originally stood on this site.’

‘Is that so? Fascinating, fascinating …’

Sir George was clearly disarmed by his surroundings, and while he and John Norman shed their sheepskin jackets, Rafe had a swift exchange of words with the butler.

‘When did he arrive?’ he demanded in an undertone, and Morgan wasted no time in pretending he did not know who his employer was talking about.

‘Just after you left, sir,’ he exclaimed, rather reluctantly Rafe felt. Morgan had a soft spot for the youngest member of the household. ‘I—er—I understand he came up from Cardiff by train.’

‘Hitched a ride, you mean,’ muttered Rafe dourly. ‘God Almighty, this is all I need! I don’t suppose his mother was pleased.’

Morgan’s mouth turned down at the corners. ‘No, sir.’

‘I thought not,’ Rafe thrust impatient fingers through the thickness of his hair. Dark, like his Celtic ancestors, it was now streaked with grey, no small contribution coming from the problems Thomas always created.

The opening of the library door brought his silent speculations to a halt. Lucy stood on the threshold, smiling warmly at John Norman, whom she knew, before awaiting her husband’s introduction to Sir George. Not very tall, and slender, with the smallest hands and feet he had ever seen on a woman, Lucy epitomised anyone’s ideal of a well-bred and attractive wife. But, after twelve years of marriage, Rafe now understood why size should never be equated with weakness. Lucy was strong, and determined, and at times she could display the ruthlessness of purpose her father had exhibited in the boardrooms of the Redvers grocery chain. As when dealing with their son, for example …

With the introduction over, Rafe suggested they continued their conversation in the library, and ignoring Lucy’s silent signals to adjourn to his study, he entered the room to find Thomas curled up mutinously on the window seat. His eyes widened hopefully when he saw his father, and then dropped again when he saw he was not alone, and Rafe had no opportunity to speak to him before John Norman saw him, too.

‘Hello, Tom,’ he greeted the boy smilingly, and Thomas was forced to vacate his window seat and come and shake hands with his father’s guests.

‘Hello, sir,’ he acknowledged politely, casting an appealing glance towards his father, and then shook hands with Sir George as he followed the others into the room.

‘This is your son, Glyndower?’ Marland exclaimed, taking a seat on the worn velvet sofa beside the fire, and holding out his hands to the blaze. ‘A fine boy. Isn’t he at school?’

‘He was.’ Lucy spoke, coming into the room after ordering tea, and urging Sir George to remain seated as he attempted to rise. ‘Unfortunately, Thomas doesn’t like work, and this afternoon he arrived home—unannounced.’

‘What my wife means is—this is the third time Tom has run away from his school,’ Rafe put in flatly. ‘Isn’t that right, Tom? You have made yourself absent without leave, haven’t you?’

Tom drew himself up to his full height of some four feet eight inches. At ten years of age, he was quite a tall boy, but so thin Rafe felt he could have snapped him in two.

‘Yes, Father,’ he answered now, making no excuses for his behaviour, and Sir George let out his breath in a puffing sound of disapproval.

‘Won’t do, young man, won’t do,’ he declared, as Lucy came to join him on the couch. ‘We all need to learn, as much as we possibly can these days. And accept discipline. That’s what keeps the wheels of industry turning.’

Tom made no reply, looking to his father for some sign that he at least understood why he had come home, but his mother was still in command.

‘Go along and see your grandfather, Thomas,’ she directed, as Morgan came in with a tray of tea. ‘Talk to him for half an hour. I shall speak to you later.’

Tom’s hesitation was minute, and although Rafe was tempted to countermand the order, he didn’t. But talking to old Lord Penwyth could be a trying business. His father had lapses of memory, a symptom of the disease that had stricken him down five years before, and he was poor company for a small boy.

Still, Tom went obediently out of the room, and Rafe moved to the drinks cabinet. He guessed his guests would prefer something stronger than tea to ward off the chills of the late September afternoon, and he ignored Lucy’s tightening lips when both Marland and Norman accepted Scotch.