‘Me? No, I don’t think so. We made no arrangements to meet – it happened by chance, and he came straight to my room. If he told her he was going to talk to someone, he must have meant someone else.’ She thought about it for a moment, then added: ‘Lots of things seemed to be troubling him. He said how ironic it was that his wife should be losing her grip on the past, while his was coming back to him when he least expected it.’

‘Did you ask him what he meant by that?’

‘No. Again, I thought he was talking about the war. It’s only because of what has happened that I’m wondering about it.’ 191

‘You’ll have to tell Archie all this as soon as he gets here,’ Josephine said.

‘Yes, of course.’ Marlene sat down and lit a cigarette, staring at Barbara Penhaligon through the smoke. ‘You seemed very anxious to know about Reverend Hartley just now,’ she said, as the pause became uncomfortable. ‘Is there something bothering you?’

‘He’s dead. Of course I’m bothered.’

Barbara lit her own cigarette, gesturing with it like a weapon, but the effect wasn’t quite the same without the film star’s cool self-assurance. ‘No other reason?’ Marlene persisted.

‘Like what?’

The actress shrugged. ‘Perhaps you’re wondering if your friend really did go back to the mainland?’

‘Just what are you suggesting?’

She was prevented from answering by Alex Fielding, who was shown in by the butler. ‘Where the hell have you been?’ Lancaster demanded, and the tension that had been building between the two women shifted seamlessly to a different part of the room. ‘We were told that everyone had to gather here immediately, so what’s so special about you?’

Fielding ignored him and went straight over to the fire. His shoes and the turn-ups of his trousers were soaked through, and he was obviously chilled to the bone. As he rubbed the life back into his arms, Josephine noticed the moss stains and cobwebs that had dirtied his mackintosh. ‘I’ve been up that bloody tower,’ he said, when he was finally beginning to get warm. He gestured to the camera that he had dumped on the table as he came in. ‘Penrose wanted me to take some photographs. Believe me, Lancaster, I’d much rather have 192been sipping coffee here with the rest of you. Get off your high horse.’

‘So you’ve seen his body?’ Barbara said. ‘What exactly happened to him? No one will tell us anything.’

Fielding glanced at Josephine, and she wondered if he would have been less discreet if Archie’s friends hadn’t been in the room. ‘I can’t tell you anything either,’ he said. ‘Sorry. Strict orders from on high to keep schtum.’

More coffee arrived, and once again Marlene did the honours. Fielding took a hip flask from the pocket of his coat and poured the last of its contents into his cup. Josephine noticed how badly his hand shook as he drained the coffee in one go and accepted another. Although he had kept his promise to Archie, the ordeal of what he had witnessed – presumably in intimate detail, if the photographs were to be used as evidence – was written all over his ashen, haunted face, and Josephine’s sadness for the Hartleys only deepened.