Jimmy flung his hands up, a gesture far more eloquent than any speech. There was a silence.

“Fine,” he said at last. “If you want to know... God, where do I start. With Anna, I suppose. She’s stuck with him. There’s no chance of her obtaining a divorce on the usual grounds because she’s played the fool so notoriously—Jack is only the latest of her boy friends. And Maurice isn’t physically violent. He lands all his blows on one’s nerves, if you see what I mean.”

“They could still separate.”

“But she won’t,” Jimmy said. “She’s tied to him. I don’t understand it. He treats her like dirt and she has her gentlemen friends, but if you say a thing against him she’ll defend him to the hilt. And then there’s the child, George.” Jimmy pushed his hands through his hair. “He’s not Maurice’s, you know.”

“You mean, adopted?” Pat asked.

“No, I mean my sister bedded an American jazz musician,” Jimmy snapped. “George takes after his father. Brown as a berry. But in law he’s Maurice’s, and if Anna left him, Maurice would be entitled to keep the boy.”

“Would he want to, given his views?” Bill asked.

“I expect he would like a helpless child to torment, yes,” Pat said. “My God, Jimmy.”

“Quite. He keeps George from the parents—I told you, didn’t I? They barely see him, their only grandchild. He’d be in line for the earldom if anything happened to me, yet he’s being brought up God knows how.”

“He can inherit through his mother?” Pat asked.

“The earldom is held in fee simple, so it goes to Anna, then George, if I die without issue. Could we not discuss inheritance law now? The point is, Maurice uses the poor scrap as a carrot or stick against the parents, and there’s not a damn thing to be done. And then there’s this cursed business with the firm. Maurice turned up with things for Pa to sign. Fed him a lot of jargon, switched between treating him as a high financier and shouting that the old chap was trying to get him sacked if he asked questions, held the chance of seeing George over his head—oh, he ran rings round the old man. He claims to have lost everything when the firm crashed, though you’ll never persuade me he hasn’t squirrelled a good lot of cash away somewhere, and he’s been living the high life at our expense ever since. And we’re all of us terrified to stand up to him, because God knows what he might do to Father, or Anna, or George. It’s like having a family curse.”

“Why is Haworth doing this?” Bill asked.