The Line of Beauty - Alan Hollinghurst [64]
Penny seemed to be puzzling this over, but in fact she was listening to what Badger was suggesting in her other ear: her sudden blush and giggle showed Nick that this was one of Badger's little sexual challenges to him—it was almost a way of calling him a fag.
Toby was listening to Greta Timms, but leaning past her to keep an eye on Sophie, who was being drily examined by Morden Lipscomb. "No," said Sophie reluctantly, "I've only been in one sort of major film."
"And what of the stage?" said Lipscomb, with an odd mixture of persistence and indifference.
"Well, I am about to be in something. It's . . . I'm afraid it's going to be rather a trendy production . . . it's Lady Windermere's Fan."
Jenny Groom started asking something about Catherine, was she as mad as they said, and Nick's hesitations as he answered only half allowed him to hear the truth that Lipscomb dragged out of Sophie, that she wasn't playing Lady Windermere herself, but "Oh, just a minor part. . . No! Not too much to learn . . . Oh no, not her, that's a wonderful part . . . Anyway it will probably all be ruined by the director . . . " and that in fact she'd been cast as Lady Agatha, a role which famously contained nothing but the two words "Yes, mamma." Nick thought this was very funny, and then felt almost sorry for her.
Rachel said, "My dear, what fun, we shall all come to your first night," apparently sincerely, so that a further alliance, of efficient, almost impersonal solidarity, was seen to be in place between the mother and her possible daughter-in-law.
Lady Partridge, jealous of Lipscomb's attention, went off on the unobvious tangent of her hip replacement. "Oh, I had it at the Dorset . . . Well, yes, I always go there, I find them marvellous . . . charming girls . . . The nurses, yes . . . One or two of the doctors are coloured, but there's absolutely no need to have anything to do with them . . . Not that I'm much of a one for hospital!" she reassured him. "My late husband was there a good deal."
"Ah . . . " said Lipscomb, measuring the distance to a condolence.
She lifted her glass, with a worldly sigh. "Well, I've outlived two husbands, and that's probably enough," she said, as if still leaving a tiny loophole for further proposals. She looked at Lipscomb, perhaps wondering if he had said something, and went on, "Actually they were both called Jack! They couldn't have been more different, as it happens . . . chalk and cheese . . . I don't think they'd have got on for a moment—had they ever met!" Nick thought she might almost have been on the phone, hearing answers and questions from far away. "Jack Fedden, of course, Gerald's father, a funny sort of man, in a way . . . He was in the law, very much a law man . . . very, very handsome . . . and Jack Partridge, Sir Jack, of course . . . No, not a law man . . . Not at all. . . He was a practical man, a builder, he built some of the new motorways, as you may know . . . Yes, some of the Ms. . . the M, um . . . He did marvellous work . . ."
At the head of the table Gerald was perceptibly distracted by his mother's talk. Nick knew that Jack Partridge had gone bust not long after getting his knighthood, in one of the funny reversals of these recent years; it was a subject which might seem to tarnish his stepson by association. Gerald made a firm intervention and said, "So, Morden, I was absolutely gripped by your paper on SDL"
"Ah . . . " said Lipscomb, with a smile that showed he wasn't so easily flattered. "I wasn't sure that you'd agree with my conclusions."
"Oh, absolutely," said Gerald, with a surprising mocking smile which confirmed to Nick that he hadn't read beyond those first few pages. "How could one not!"
"Well . . . you'd be surprised," said Lipscomb.
"Is this the telephones?" said Lady Partridge.
"It's missile defence, Ma," said Gerald loudly.
"You know, Gran, Star Wars," said Toby.
"You're thinking of STD, Judy," said Badger.
"Ah," said Lady Partridge, and chuckled, not in embarrassment but at the attention she'd won for herself.