Road to Berry Edge, The Read Free Page B

only to dust,’ Alice said.

Two
    â€˜I can’t spare you,’ Vincent Shaw said.
    Harry glanced across to where Rob was standing by the fire. He didn’t blame him for standing there, the night was bitterly cold and a harsh wind blew across the Nottinghamshire countryside. The house was well protected by many acres of woodland but tonight it seemed that the wind howled under the doors. His father, he knew, would not be talked into letting him go to Durham with Rob, and he had already decided that he was going, so he tried to be tactful.
    â€˜You have to,’ he said, ‘you can’t let him go back there among the barbarian hordes alone.’
    â€˜I see no reason why either of you should go,’ Vincent said, looking to where his son-in-law stood, turned slightly away, towards the fire. They had had several arguments before now about this and Rob gave no indication that he was listening.
    They were in the library, a wood-panelled room which Vincent was very fond of, Harry knew, not because he ever did any work in there nor because he ever read any of the books, simply because he had always wanted a large library. It was one of the many reasons he had wanted to buy this house five years earlier. The original part was a twelfth century abbey, the gardens were huge, the drive was long and lined with lime trees, the rooms were bigand wide and many. It was the most magnificent house that he had ever seen.
    â€˜You’d love it if you were ill and we ignored you,’ Harry said, ‘the man is his father.’
    â€˜What has his father done for him these past ten years, that’s what I’d like to know? Bugger all, I’ve had to do it.’ When this produced no reaction from Rob, Vincent added, ‘We all come to death and failure in the end. What are you going to do, save him?’ Still nothing happened. ‘Are you taking part in this conversation, Robert, or are you merely providing decoration for the otherwise boring room? And where did you get that suit?’
    Rob turned, finally looked up, his eyes just a fraction darker than the grey suit that he wore. He regarded Vincent’s yellow checked clothes with slight amusement.
    â€˜I went to a tailor,’ he said.
    â€˜Your clothes must cost you a bloody fortune,’ Vincent said.
    â€˜It’s more than could be said of you,’ Harry put in.
    â€˜London,’ Vincent said, ‘all the way to bloody Savile Row for clothes.’
    â€˜Why go all that way when you could go to the corner shop like Father does?’ Harry said, and won a grin from Rob.
    â€˜You’re not going to Durham, either of you,’ Vincent said. ‘I can’t manage without you.’
    â€˜I’ll go alone, then you’ll have Harry,’ Rob said.
    â€˜You call that help?’
    â€˜Vince—’ Harry protested.
    â€˜And don’t call me “Vince”, you arrogant young bastard, I’m your father. I’ll flay you to within an inch of your life.’
    â€˜I wish I had ten shillings for every time you’ve said that to me over the past fifteen years,’ Harry said. ‘You’re not really going to let him go alone?’
    â€˜A lot of use you’d be up there in the wilds,’ his father said, and left the room.
    Harry sighed.
    â€˜You could have told him you wanted me to go with you.’
    â€˜I don’t.’
    â€˜If you don’t, you know, you’ll only wish you had.’
    â€˜When I do I’ll let you know.’
    â€˜Did you tell my mother?’
    â€˜She went off to see about packing my thick underwear. If the world was to end tomorrow it would be her first concern.’
    â€˜There you are,’ Ida Shaw announced as she came in. His mother, Harry reflected, was in a way as odd as his father. He was tall and thin and wore brightly coloured clothes and long flowing coats, and she was short and fat and rather untidy. She did a lot of