Cool Repentance by Antonia Fraser Read Free Book Online

as he unlocked the front doors. Jemima could see the empty interior of the foyer through the transparent cinnamon-coloured glass.
    'I want you to see it this way,’ Nat continued. 'Our little modern masterpiece. Featured in the Architectural Review twice. All built with Cartwright money when the dry rot made the old theatre a public hazard. She must have had the idea; and then she never saw it finished.'
    They crossed the foyer. Jemima did not like empty theatres. She found something creepy about them; even the locked box office, also made of cinammon glass, did not please her. She made a mental note not to allow the architectural properties of the Watchtower to dominate her programme: this was to tell the story of the Festival, not a little modern masterpiece. Even so she had to admit that the stage and surrounding seats - on four of the five sides - were so well constructed as to give the interior of the theatre an appeal in its own right. All the same, all Guthrie Carlyle's shots would show people, lots of people, or would if Jemima had anything to do with it ...
    Nat Fitzwilliam fumbled for another switch and flooded the theatre with more light.
    'Can't you just imagine it?' he said gloatingly. For a moment Jemima actually thought he was referring to the television programme she would make, they would make together. But Nat was once more in the grip of his vision.
    'Christabel Herrick makes her come-back, directed by Nat Fitzwilliam. Oh, I know she'll do it for me,' he added quickly and joyously, to quell Jemima's objections. 'You see, I was a great friend of Barry's.'
    'Barry?' queried Jemima.
    'Barry! Barry Blagge! The infamous or famous boyfriend, depending on your point of view. Me for the latter, of course. Barry Blagge! Better known as Iron Boy! Don't you remember: "Coo-ool Repentance"?' He crooned the words as though clutching a mike.
    'Iron Boy!' exclaimed Cherry, coming through the doors behind them. 'And that was my favourite of them all, that and "Daring Darling". I told you, Jem. Listen, very quickly, while the old boy parks his car, do you know what he told me on the way here? The solitary remark he made as a matter of fact. That couple, serving that Buckingham Palace of a lunch. Can you believe it? They're his parents - Iron Boy's parents. 1 Cherry's eyes were now as round as mill-stones.
    'She runs off a la Lady Chatterley, well, that sort of thing, with the handsome stable lad. That's all he was - Iron Boy was - in those days. And his old parents are still there working at the Manor. They just keep on working. And they're still there when she returns . .. Talk about Cool Repentance. Under all that quietness and graciousness, they must absolutely loathe her.
    'What a weird set-up,' pronounced Cherry, with much satisfaction, adding with that talent for stating the obvious which never deserted her even in moments of greatest crisis: 'I mean, it would never happen in London.'

5
    'I'll be Safe'
    During May a great many things happened both in London (Megalithic House) and Larminster (the Watchtower Theatre) to advance the planning of Jemima Shore's Festival programme. Most of these things happened more or less on schedule. Even the things which did not happen on schedule, like Guthrie Carlyle and his cameraman Spike Thompson going to the wrong restaurant in Larminster when they were on a reccy - not the one in the Good Food Guide - did not in the end impede the development of the programme overmuch. It was an error incidentally for which they most unfairly blamed Cherry: but Cherry was quick to point out that she had booked them into absolutely the right restaurant in the first place; it was pure male chauvinism which had led them to prefer Christopher's Diner (unlisted) to Flora's Kitchen (highly recommended) once on the spot in Larminster.
    One of the unscheduled things which was felt to be a hindrance was the constant presence of Nat Fitzwilliam in London. As Director of the Festival being put together in