The Stranger's Child - Alan Hollinghurst [96]
“Aah …!” said Sarah, who sounded nicer today. Wilfrid hated what Nanny said about his mother.
“Well, my day off, dear, I don’t have to deal with them!”
“Robbie says they were playing at sardines,” said Sarah.
“Sardines! Silly buggers, more likely …,” said Nanny, and the two women cackled and seemed to go away down the corridor. “I suppose you heard the music …,” Nanny was saying, as the door at the top of the stairs thumped shut. Well, they’d all heard the music, Wilfrid thought. His mother had been dancing with Uncle Revel in the hall, and he had the scene still bright in his head. Now he wanted to sleep; but in his heart and mind there was a muddled stirring of protest, at the abuse and disrespect to his mother but also at the restless and broken night she had given him. He was exhausted by dreams.
Almost at once, various things happened, perfectly normal but none the less oddly upsetting in their way of keeping on happening. Very early a message came up that Mr. Stokes was leaving and her ladyship wanted the children down. Corinna was already practising the piano, and the maid brought Wilfrid down by himself. He felt lonely and reluctant, and frowned a good deal so as not to give way. In the hall the pianola still stood, with its keyboard closed, at an angle to the wall. He loved the pianola, and once or twice his father had worked the pedals for him and let him run his hands up and down over the dancing keys, while Corinna looked on in disdain. But today it seemed only a jangling reminder of the night before, a toy that others had played on without him. He wished intensely they would take it away. He went out to examine the Daimler. Even Robbie’s wink, as he brought out the luggage for Uncle Sebby, was displeasing and lacking in respect. Why did he always have to wink at him? “And how are you, Master Wilfrid?” said Robbie.
“Well, I’m very overwrought,” said Wilfrid.
Robbie pondered this for a minute, with a tiny smile. “Overwrought, you say? Now, why would that be?” He handed the bags to Sebby’s chauffeur, and Wilfrid came round to see them stowed in the boot. The great interest of the boot, with its unusual door and trench-like black interior, struggled feebly with his mood of discontent.
“Well, I had a bad night, if you must know,” said Wilfrid.
“Ah,” said Robbie, and nodded sympathetically, but still with an unsettling hint of amusement. “Kept you awake with their dancing, did they?” At which Wilfrid could only look up at him and nod back.
Granny V came down to see Sebby off, and they talked interminably for two or three minutes while Wilfrid wandered round the Daimler, looking at the lamps and at his own reflection looming and folding in the dark grey bodywork. Then Sebby came over and shook his hand, and unexpectedly gave him a large coin before getting into the car, which took off up the drive in a sudden cloud of blue oil-smoke. Wilfrid smiled at the departing car, and at his grandmother, who was watching him keenly for the proper reactions, though in fact he felt bothered and slightly indignant. “Goodness!” said Granny V, in a gloating but critical voice, “a crown!” He put it in his trouser pocket but he felt it was Wilkes who should have been given it.
Then almost at once the trap was brought round, to take Corinna and both her grandmothers to church in Littlemore. Lady Valance herself would drive the mile and a half each way, and Corinna was bleating a promise extracted earlier, that she would be allowed to take the reins for some of the time. The pony could be heard through the open front door twitching