The whisky bottle was nearly empty.
Danby was sitting on his bed with his face in his hands. Adelaide was sitting on the floor with her back against the chest of drawers. Her face was swollen up and her eyes practically closed with crying. Her mouth, through which she was breathing heavily, hung open. Every now and then she shuddered and another two large tears came out of the slits of her eyes. She was wearing a blouse over her petticoat but no skirt.
The window curtains were half drawn. It was nine o’clock on the following evening and already dark outside. It was raining violently, abandonedly. A strong gusty wind was driving the rain almost horizontally, bringing it in sharp pattering flurries up against the window, like the crack of handfuls of small pebbles hurled against the glass.
A distant voice was calling. “Danby!”
Danby groaned and rubbed his face deeper into his hands.
”Danby!”
Danby got up and without looking at Adelaide stepped over her outstretched legs and began to go up the stairs. He felt stiff and aching and bruised all over.
”DANBY!”
Danby pushed open the door of Bruno’s room and looked in, frowning against the light and peering at Bruno from underneath his hand. The lamp illuminated the comfortless untidy-bed which had been twisted and turned in all day.
”Danby, what’s the matter?”
”Nothing’s the matter. What do you want?”
”Why are you looking at me like that?”
”Like what?”
”As if you can’t see me properly.”
”I’m drunk. What do you want?”
”Where’s Nigel?”
”I don’t know.”
”He hasn’t been here all day. And he wasn’t here last night.”
”It doesn’t matter. Go to sleep, Bruno.”
”It’s too early to go to sleep. And I haven’t had any tea. I called and called and nobody came.”
”I’ll make you some tea.”
”Danby, don’t go away, please, shut the door. You will forgive Nigel, won’t you, you won’t be cross with him?”
”I expect Nigel’s cleared off.”
”Nigel? He can’t have done. He can’t have left me-“ Bruno’s voice quavered upwards. He was lying low down in his rumpled bed, only the big head and one clawlike hand visible above the bedclothes. Danby frowned at him over the hump of the foot cage. He seemed to be a long way off.
”I’ll get the tea now. Want anything with it?”
”Don’t go, Danby. The rain is so awful and the wind. I thought I heard somebody screaming downstairs a little while ago.”
”I expect you did.”
”What was it?”
”Adelaide screaming with laughter. Want any toast or anything? I’ll bring up the Evening Standard.”
”What’s that girl’s name?”
”What’s what girl’s name?”
”That girl who comes. I mean Miles’s-“
”Lisa.”
”She didn’t come today.”
”Oh forget that girl, Bruno.”
”What do you mean, forget her?”
”It doesn’t matter anymore.”
”What do you mean it doesn’t matter anymore? What has the doctor been telling you, has he rung you up?”
”No, of course not.”
”He’s told you I’m done for and you’ve sacked Nigel and told the girl not co come-“
”Oh stop it, Bruno, the doctor hasn’t said anything.”
”Of course it doesn’t matter anymore if I’m going to be dead-“
”Bruno, shut up. You’re raving. I’ll get you some tea.”
”I don’t want any tea.”
”Well, go to sleep then. I’ll turn the light out.”
”I can’t sleep with that noise, with the wind rattling the window. Is it rain or hail?”
”Rain. It just sounds like hail.”
”Danby, don’t go away. Sit with the old man for a little bit.
I’ve been alone all day. You just threw that tray at me at lunchtime.”
”Sorry.”
”Sit beside me, please, Danby, please.”
”I can’t. I’m drunk.”
”Please-“
”Do you want the light on or off?”
With difficulty Danby focused his eyes upon the head lolling on the pillow, the bearded chin dug deep into the sheets, the shrunken form which scarcely lifted the blankets to reveal its presence, the brown gaunt hand pawing a little in supplication.
”Will you make my bed, Danby? Do my pillows anyway.”
Danby strode across the room, punched the pillows perfunctorily and went back to the door. “Do you want the light on or off?”
”Danby, I’m frightened, don’t go.”
Danby saw that tears were beginning to run down Bruno’s face, finding their way across the reddened creases and bulges underneath his eyes.
”Oh go to sleep Bruno, will you.” Danby switched the light off and closed the door. He stopped at the top of the stairs to listen but there was no more sound from the old man’s room. He went down the further flight of stairs and reached his own room. Adelaide had not moved.
Danby reached for the bottle and poured the rest of the whisky into his glass. He sat down heavily. “Better go to bed, Adelaide.” The rain hurtled across the window in a series of cracks like bursts of machine-gun fire. The wind howled, rose to a scream, then howled again.
”I love you, I love you, I love you.”
”Oh stop it, Adelaide, there’s a good girl.”
”Did you ever think of marrying me, did you ever think of it for a single second?”
”I don’t know. Do stop it, will you, I’ve had enough.”
”You knew it couldn’t last. You just amused yourself with me. You just took me on till something better turned up, something serious, something in your own class.”
”Class has nothing to do with it.”
”Hasn’t it? Then why do you feel you can treat me like dirt, walk out just the way you walked in?”
”You were glad enough when I walked in.”
”That’s a bloody rotten thing to say.”
”Okay. Agreed. Now let’s stop talking.”
”You never thought our thing was real.”
”Yes I did, Adelaide. I just didn’t know this would happen, I didn’t think.”
”You didn’t think! Of course you didn’t think! You just took what you wanted.”
”If it’s any satisfaction to you I know I’m an absolute bastard.”
”Well, I hope you’ll be happy with her, after destroying me and taking all my life away from me.”
”I’ve already told you she isn’t interested in me, she’s got somebody else, she doesn’t want me, she’s told me to clear out.”
”I don’t believe a word of it. You’re saying this to put me off. And tomorrow you’ll give me the sack.”
”Don’t be silly, Adelaide. Don’t start all that again.”
”I’m not being silly. I’m a servant. I’m your servant. Have you forgotten? I’m youraid employee.”
”You’ve said all this before.”
”And I was glad to be your servant, glad.”
”Oh go to bed, for Christ’s sake.”
”To think how I worshipped you! You’ll never know how I worshipped you.”
”Well, more fool you.”
”You took my love, you were glad enough to have it, and now you just call me a fool!”
”I’m sorry, I didn’t mean-“
”Anyway, I told her. I told her.”
”What on earth are you talking about?”
”I told that stuck-up bitch about you and me. You didn’t know that, did you? I told her we were lovers. I told her we’d been lovers for years. I told her to bloody well keep off.”
”Oh Christ.” Danby got up. He stood hunched, staring at the empty whisky bottle. “When was that?”
”Last week.”
”What did she say?”
”She pretended not to care.”
”Adelaide, I’m sorry you did that.”
”I’m glad you’re sorry.”
”Not that she could think any worse of me-Well, she could-Anyway it doesn’t matter.”
”You just kept mum about little me, didn’t you? Thought you could tidy me away, sweep me under the carpet-“
”Oh never mind, never mind. It doesn’t matter. Nothing matters.”
”I loved you so much-“
”Don’t start crying again, I can’t stand it.”
”I loved you so much and I was so happy-so happy-“
Adelaide choked in sobs.
”Go to bed-or else I’m going out-“
”I’ll kill myself. I can’t go on existing now. I’ll kill myself-“
Danby made for the door.
Suddenly there was a different sound at the window. The rattling spatter of the rain had been resolved into a steadier and more insistent tapping. Danby stood rigid. Adelaide stopped crying. The tapping came again, louder, purposive, menacing against the wailing background of the wind. Adelaide and Danby stared at each other and then at the window. Between the half-drawn curtains the space was blank, quartered with reflections. Danby strode across and dragged back the curtain, leaning forward and peering. A hand was clearly visible, pressed against the glass from without. Adelaide screamed. Danby could now see a bulky figure standing directly opposite to him in the darkness outside. The next moment there was a sound of shattering glass and Danby leapt back as the fragments of the glass pane came showering after him into the room.
Danby spun round, jumped over Adelaide’s legs, and ran up the stairs two at a time. He threw open the front door. Through the swaying curtain of the driven rain he saw a hurrying figure just reaching the corner of the road and disappearing. Danby stood for a moment on the verge of the rain, with the wet wind blowing into his face and his heart beating hard. Then as he began to close the door he saw that he was standing upon an envelope. He picked it up and went slowly back down the stairs.
Adelaide had risen. She stood clutching her blouse against her throat. The cold air was blowing in through the big jagged hole in the window pane. “Who was it?”
”I don’t know. Whoever it was he probably left this note. It’s addressed to me.” Danby ripped it open. It read as follows.
I know about your life with Adelaide. She was mine but I discard her as trash. You may keep her. Just tell the hell-bitch to stay out of my way if she wants to keep her looks. You I shall punish in my own fashion. I challenge you to a duel. The weapons will be pistols. You may select the place. If you refuse this challenge I will brand you as a coward, I will publish your degrading liaison with your servant, I will persecute you at your home and at your place of work in every way that I can devise, until I have made your life a misery. If you accept the challenge I will do my best either to kill you or to maim you.
Will Boase
Danby read this curious missive with raised eyebrows. Then he handed it to Adelaide.
Adelaide looked at it. It fell from her hands to the floor. She crushed her fingers into her mouth to stifle the issuing cry. Then her voice came bubbling forth. “I’ve lost him, I’ve lost him, I’ve lost him, the only man who ever really loved me!”