Ursula's Secret (16 page)

Whatever she’s done, though, I should pity her. It’s me Cameron loves. Me. She must make do with the brother, the older, duller, diligent brother. Oh, Gregory’s nice enough, but he’s not like my Cameron. Perhaps she thought marrying him would keep Cameron close, or at least allow her to control him, to make his life miserable. A woman scorned. Oh Helen, and I thought you were my friend! But I will rise above it. Show compassion and dignity, just as Cameron says I should. Say nothing and make my love proud of me.

Cameron, Cameron, my life, my love! You’re so right! None of that matters. The past is past and all I care about is that soon we’ll be together again. We’ll hide ourselves away, eat dinners somewhere quiet under the stars, walk hand in hand through parks and streets, pick our way through the market or watch the world go by from the sanctuary of our hotel room balcony. Can this really be happening? I can’t believe it. But I knew, I did. Deep down, despite everything, I knew he had to love me. How could he not when I love him so much?

Oh I don’t know what to do with myself! I won’t sleep, that’s for sure. But I won’t need to. I feel as if this strange energy will carry me through anything, keep me buoyant and awake, alive, day after day after day, until Friday when the car comes to take me to him and we’ll be together again. He loves me!

The phone at the side of the bed rang, and Lexy reached for it as her eyes raced down to the bottom of the page.

“Yes?”

“Miss Shaw, it’s Barney. Dr Campbell said to let you know he’s waiting outside.”

“Oh!” Lexy glanced at the clock, then relaxed. Still only five to three. “Thank you, Barney. Tell him I’m on my way down, would you?”

“Very good, Miss Shaw.”

* * *

As Lexy turned away after dropping her key into the box on the concierge’s desk, she glanced into the bar and stopped short. Richard Chakanaya was still in there, sitting at a booth talking to someone she couldn’t see. As she watched, he looked up and stared at her before letting that slight smile hover over his lips again, and nodding his head in her direction. To see who had caught his attention, his companion twisted his head round the side of the booth, and Lexy was shocked to recognise the florid features. Hugh Pendleton.

Ignoring the hand he raised, she hurried across the lobby, wondering what on earth those two could have in common, but before she could reach any kind of hypothesis, a car horn tooted and Robert drew up. Barney appeared from behind her and opened the passenger door.

“Hello,” Lexy said, sliding into her seat. “You’re early.” The door had barely closed before Robert was pulling away.

“Sorry,” he said, “bit of a rush. I’ve been called back to the clinic so need to drop you and leave you with Gran, I’m afraid.”

“I could have got a taxi. You didn’t have—”

“I know. But there wasn’t really time. And anyway, gives us a few minutes to talk.”

“About?”

“Gran. She’s very frail, you see, and I don’t want her upset, any more than she already has been, that is. She and Ursula were very close and—”

“You hope I’ll be a little more tactful with her than I was with you.”

“I wasn’t going to say that.”

“No. But it’s what you meant.” Less than a minute and he’d riled her already.

“No it isn’t. I was simply going to say they were very close and she might be able to help you with your quest. I’m sure she’ll want to, but you have to understand she’s weak, so don’t push her. She’ll tell you what she can, but it probably won’t be everything you want to know, so please don’t expect her to have all the answers.”

Lexy knew she deserved the warning. He was clearly very fond of the old woman and she’d done nothing so far to suggest to him she would be considerate and gentle. Tactless and pushy was more the impression she’d have given him.

“Thank you,” she said. “I’ll keep it in mind. I won’t push, I promise.”

“Good.”

She watched out the window as Robert guided the car through the chaotic traffic of central Blantyre. The streets were heaving with cars and people and animals and bicycles. Her mind drifted back to Richard Chakanaya and Hugh Pendleton. An unlikely pairing to say the least. Perhaps she needed to be a little more cautious than she normally was.

“Robert, why did you want to find out if I knew Richard Chakanaya or not?”

Robert hesitated before answering, as if unsure how to proceed.

“He’s not a celebrity, is he?”

“No. Not exactly.” Robert smiled briefly. “Although he is notorious. He has a reputation for being a bit of a ‘fixer’, for being able to make things happen that wouldn’t otherwise, in ways it’s best not to investigate too thoroughly. It’s made him, and his clients, a lot of money over the years.”

“Well, is there really anything wrong with that? Making a lot of money?”

“You might not think so, but if some of the rumours are to be believed, it’s not always within the bounds of … acceptable practice, let’s say.”

“He seems respectable enough.”

“Oh yes, he certainly
seems
to be. He works hard to
seem
to be the very picture of propriety. But believe me, he isn’t. Steer clear, would be my advice.”

“You sound as if you have reason to say that. Do you know him?” Perhaps this would be her way in to Richard Chakanaya after all, to finding out who he was acting for when he arranged the payments to Ursula.

“I know him. I wish I didn’t. But Blantyre’s a small place.”

Lexy decided to bide her time. She’d work out how to engineer an introduction later. For now, she needed to get Robert on side. Make a friend of him and ignore the fact he irritated the hell out of her.

“So,” she said, breezily changing the subject, “tell me a bit about yourself. I don’t really know much about you, or your gran, except that you used to write to Ursula and your gran was her friend. And, of course, she was my mother’s godmother.”

“Not much to tell, really. What do you want to know?” This was going to be hard work.

“What about your family, your parents? Are they in Blantyre?”

“No. Australia.”

“Brothers? Sisters?” she persevered.

“No.”

“Well, Ursula then. How well did you know her? What was she like when she was younger?”

That seemed safer ground, and by the time they’d reached the hospital Lexy had learnt that Robert had lodged with Ursula when he’d been studying in Edinburgh, had still visited her once or twice a year if he could manage it, and that Evie and Ursula were thick as thieves. They’d come out to Africa together and been part of the same close-knit circle of friends, as Lexy already knew. And all of which made her even more certain Evie would be able to help her trace Ursula’s son.

In return, Lexy had volunteered some of her own background, but none of it seemed to be news to him. He even knew of her father; he admired his work and hoped to do his own bit to further the research the esteemed Philip Shaw had begun. She wanted to know more, but they’d arrived.

‘Right,” he said as he pulled up to the hospital entrance. “Easier if I drop you off here. Ask at reception, they’ll direct you up to Gran.”

As Lexy waved to the disappearing car, she felt she’d made a reasonable start in getting Robert on her side. Now she just had to be sure she didn’t upset his gran.

“Mrs Campbell?”

Lexy pushed the door open and hesitated, not wanting to venture further into the room until she was sure the elderly woman sitting upright in the narrow hospital bed was ready to see her.

“Yes?” An immaculately coiffed head turned and surveyed her. “My dear. Do come in.”

The voice was crisp and clear, strong even, and quite at odds with the frailty of the body that housed it. Or the strength of the warning Robert had issued.

‘I’m Lexy—”

“I know dear. Alexis Shaw. I’ve been expecting you. Robert said he’d bring you. Where is my grandson?”

“He said there was an emergency at the clinic …” It felt awkward making Robert’s excuses for him.

“Isn’t there always? Well, no matter. I’d much rather have you all to myself anyway, if truth be known. Now come in and sit down, here, on this side of the bed, where I can see you properly. And draw over that curtain there if the sun’s in your eyes. I was so very sorry to hear about dear Ursula.”

“Yes. I’m sorry. It would have been unexpected news for you.”

“My dear, at my age, such news is never, sadly, completely unexpected. We are all in the waiting room, so to speak. Just look at me.”

“I … you look well … well … no, I don’t mean
well
 … or you wouldn’t be in hospital. Obviously, but …”
Oh, shut up, Lexy.
Great start.

“Quite.” Evie laughed. “Oh, don’t worry, my dear. I’m sure I’ll last the afternoon. Dear Ursula, though. I thought she’d outlive us all, such a will of iron she developed in her later years. I thought Death himself would cower and bow to her authority. A fall, Robert said?” Lexy nodded. “Go on, my dear. Tell me all. I’m not about to faint or fade before your eyes, I assure you. I’m quite up to hearing the worst.”

So Lexy told her about her brief visit to Edinburgh, the little she knew of Ursula’s demise. Mrs Campbell, Evie, as she quickly became, listened attentively, prodding her with a question now and then, finally asking about Lexy’s own mother, clearly upset to learn that Izzie too was dead. Once again Lexy had broken bad news badly. She had forgotten Robert hadn’t known that so couldn’t have forewarned his grandmother.

“She was such a delight, your mother. Ursula adored her, as did we all. I am so very, very sorry, my dear. What a dreadful shock for you. So much to deal with on your own. I understand now why Robert said you had questions about your family, their time here. I can’t promise I’ll have the answers, but I did know them both, your mother and dear Philip, and I’ll help you if I can.”

“Thank you, Evie. I do have questions about my parents and their time here, but I also …” Lexy took a deep breath. “I also want to find Ursula’s son. I’m sure he’s still here in Malawi.”

“My dear girl, whatever do you mean? Ursula didn’t have a son. She was quite the career woman, no time for family, except your mother, of course. And once she had Izzie with her she had no need for anyone else, she used to say. A son? Nonsense.”

“No, Evie, it’s not. I know she had a son. He was making regular payments to her through solicitors here in Malawi. Through an intermediary, Richard Chakanaya. For some reason this son seems to want to be anonymous, but he’s the closest thing to an uncle, to family, I’ve got now, and I’m sure if he realised that, he’d want me to find him.”

Evie was silent, turned her head away to stare at the window, even though the curtains were drawn. The sun had moved on, though, and the curtains no longer glowed with light as they shielded the room from the searing rays.

“You could open those now, if you would, Lexy dear.”

The day flooded in, and Lexy remained where she was, letting the warmth wash over her, looking out over the hospital car park below, her back to the woman in the bed.

“Evie, I don’t know why Ursula and her son weren’t together, why she never mentioned him or why there was no trace of him in her flat. There’s nothing, you see. No record. Nothing. But I can guess, I think. She never married. And I understand that years ago, that mattered. But really it doesn’t now and I’m not judging anyone. I just want to find family, if I can, or near family. I just want to belong somewhere. I have no one else left.”

There was a long silence and Lexy had all but given up hope of an answer. Of a clue, a hint, anything from the old woman that would help her find Ursula’s son.

“What if you find something you don’t like, my dear?
Be careful what you wish for,
Ursula would say.”

“Yes, she would,” Lexy agreed, as a surge of nostalgia flooded her thoughts, “and my mother would have done too.”

“Poor child,” Evie whispered, her voice rich with compassion. “You must miss them so much.”

All Lexy could do was nod as she struggled to brush aside the sadness, stop it derailing her.

“He was an absolute cad, you know. A real bounder, as we used to say.”

Evie’s voice sounded distant, far away in the past, and Lexy froze in case any movement or sound would break the spell her memories seemed to have cast over the old woman.

“We met on the boat coming out to Africa, you know, all of us. That’s where it began. And he never loved her, I’m sure of that. Just played with her. Broke her heart. Then came back and broke it all over again. And then, as if he hadn’t done enough damage already, he married Helen. Tried to break her too, but she was not the innocent dear Ursula had been. But even she, in the end …”

“Cameron,” Lexy whispered.

Evie leant back against her pillow and turned her head to the window, the light like a stage lamp illuminating the strain on her features.

“Yes. Cameron. The only person I’ve ever truly wished dead. Now, at long last, he is.”

Lexy had been evicted from Evie’s room by an officious doctor, resplendent in his starched white coat, trailing a posse of acolytes behind him. She shouldn’t have been surprised that Evie had agreed to her illness serving as a case study for the next generation of Malawi’s doctors, but much as she admired the older woman’s altruism, she’d been annoyed at the interruption. After a frustrating half-hour in the hospital canteen nursing a cup of tea she didn’t want, trying to imagine what Cameron could possibly have done to induce such clear loathing on the part of a woman Lexy could tell was by nature magnanimous and forgiving, she was informed by one of the acolytes that she could return.

Evie’s eyes were closed, but she seemed to sense Lexy’s presence and smiled her greeting. Encouraged, Lexy pulled her chair closer to the bed and took the frail hand in her own firm one. She waited. Evie sighed, turned her head away towards the window, eyes still shut, and then began to speak.

“Evie, darling? Be an absolute dear and help me with this, would you?”

Helen’s elegantly manicured hand held the two ends of the necklace behind her, unable quite to make the connection. Evie could hear the undertone of exasperation in Helen’s voice and was, as always, only too pleased to be asked to do this small task for her. Helen was like an exotic bird to Evie’s starling, and Evie was constantly amazed that she was her dearest, closest friend. “Don’t judge a book by its cover,” Ursula would have said, and how very true. All three of them had been able to see beneath each’s exterior to the person within and to find they were kindred spirits at their core.