Free A Future Arrived by Phillip Rock Page B

trying, and you know it. Whenever they make a recommendation one nation or another raises an objection. They’re meeting again next month. I might go to Geneva and observe the conference. Their problems would make an interesting article, perhaps even a book.”
    â€œThere’s only one problem, dear fellow, and that is which nation will have the courage to be the first to toss its guns into the sea and stand naked to its enemies. Do you remember when Jacob came back from the Balkans after that bugger of an archduke got scuppered at Sarajevo?”
    â€œYes.”
    â€œWell, I’ve never forgotten what he told us … that there was an awesome amount of hate festering beyond our bucolic horizons. It seems to me there still is.” He drained his beer and stood up. “But there’s nothing we can do about that, is there?”
    â€œNot much, I’m afraid.”
    â€œExcept have another pint.” He raised his glass as though brandishing a sword. “Come three-quarters of the world in arms and we shall shock them! If God … and the budget … be willing.”
    T HE DINNER WAS not up to the Countess of Stanmore’s epicurean standards. The half holiday had played havoc with the kitchen staff, the chef and his helpers having raised too many pints to Coatsworth’s memory in the pubs of Abingdon. Still, if the saddle of lamb was a bit overdone and the roast potatoes verged on the raw, no one else appeared to notice or care. Hanna took a sip of wine and looked down the long table at her guests. So many of the people she loved most in the world seated before her. It lacked only the presence of her daughter and grandsons, and Anthony home from the hospital, for her contentment to be complete.
    â€œDid I tell you that Alex is coming over this summer?” she said to Winifred.
    â€œNo. How wonderful.”
    â€œAnd bringing Colin and young John with her. I shall have a nice, noisy house for a change.”
    There was a sudden blare of dance music from the direction of the ballroom. Winifred smiled wryly. “You have a noisy house now.”
    â€œThe girls tuned in the wireless set, bless them.”
    Winifred half rose from her seat. “I’ll tell them to turn down the volume.”
    Hanna waved her back. “No, dear. I enjoy music.”
    â€œJack Hylton’s band by the sound of it,” William said. “‘The Syncopation Hour from Savoy Hill.’”
    Hanna reached out and touched Winifred’s hand. “Remember when Alex used to play her gramophone in the ballroom and taught you all the latest steps?”
    â€œ Tried to teach me, you mean. The Texas Tommy and the Castle Walk. I was hopeless.”
    â€œOnly charmingly out of step,” Fenton remarked. “I quite fell in love with you. Your interpretation of the Bunny Hug was my undoing.”
    The girls were dancing by themselves, whirling across the large room in the spangled light from the chandeliers, dipping and swaying to the throbbing tones emanating from a large super-heterodyne radio receiver on the bandstand. When the adults entered with their coffees and brandies, Jennifer ran to her father and begged him to dance with her while Victoria, unconsciously playing the coquette, led Charles playfully onto the floor as the band swung into a foxtrot.
    The girls were sent to bed at nine thirty—despite the protests of the twins that they be allowed to stay up until ten. Hanna and Winifred retired shortly after that and the men sought the billiard room. It was past midnight when Fenton went to his suite in the south wing of the huge house, strolling down the long, dimly lit corridors smoking a cigar and humming softly to himself. He felt mellow with brandy and the triumph of having, finally, beaten Martin at a game of snooker. He was surprised to find Winifred awake, sitting up in bed in the dark, the window drapes open and moonlight flooding the room. He put out his