Lady of Hay: An enduring classic – gripping, atmospheric and utterly compelling. Barbara Erskine

a light on in the kitchen, he had quietly pushed open the door. The room had been empty, the draining board piled high with clean, rinsed dishes, the sink spotless, the lids on all the jars, and the bread in the bin, when he had looked, new and crusty.

      ‘What are you doing here?’ Jo had appeared behind him silently, wearing a white bathrobe.

      He had slammed down the lid of the bread bin. ‘Jo, I had to talk to you –’

      ‘No, Nick, there is nothing to talk about.’ She had not smiled.

      Staring at her he had realised suddenly that he wanted to take her in his arms. ‘Oh Jo, love. I’m sorry –’

      ‘So am I, Nick. Very. Is it true what Judy said? Am I likely to go off my head?’

      ‘That’s not what she said, Jo.’

      ‘Is that what Sam said?’

      ‘No, and you know it isn’t. All he said was that you should be very careful.’ He had kept his voice deliberately light.

      ‘How come Judy knows so much about it? Did you discuss it with her?’

      ‘Of course I didn’t. She listened to a private phone call. She had no business to. And she didn’t hear very much, I promise. She made a lot of it up.’

      ‘But you had no business to make that call, Nick.’ Suddenly she had been blazing angry with him. ‘Christ! I wish you would keep out of my affairs. I don’t want you to meddle. I don’t want your brother to meddle! I don’t want anything to do with either of the Franklyns ever again. Now, get out!’

      ‘No, Jo. Not till I know you’re all right.’

      ‘I’m all right. Now, get out.’ Her voice had been shaking. ‘Get out, get out, get out!’

      ‘Jo, for God’s sake be quiet.’ Nick had backed away from her as her voice rose. ‘I’m going. But please promise me something –’

       ‘Get out!’

      He had gone.

      Nick took a couple of gulps from his glass and topped it up again before going back into the studio.

      Pete Leveson was standing next to Judy, staring at the canvas.

      Nick groaned as Pete raised a hand. ‘I thought I’d find you here. Has anyone told you yet that you are five kinds of shit?’

      Nick handed him one of the glasses. ‘You can’t call me anything I haven’t called myself already,’ he said dryly.

      Judy whirled round. ‘All right, you guys. Stop being so bloody patronising. I’m the one who said it all, I’m the one who told her, not Nick. If you’ve come here to reproach anyone, it should be me, not him.’ She put her hands on her hips defiantly.

      Pete gave a small grin. ‘Right. It was you.’

      ‘Was Jo very upset later?’ she was unable to resist asking after a moment.

      ‘A little. Of course she was. She didn’t believe anything you said, but you chose a pretty public place to make some very provocative statements.’

      ‘No one heard them –’

      ‘Judy.’ Pete gave her a withering look. ‘You were heard by virtually every person in that party, including Nigel Dempster. I’ve been on the phone to him, but unfortunately he feels it was too juicy a titbit to miss his column. After all, he’s got a job to do much like mine when you think about it. “Well-known columnist accused of being a nutter by blonde painter at Heacham party …” How could he resist a story like that? And he was there in person! It’ll be in Friday’s Mail.’

      ‘Hell!’ Nick hit his forehead with the flat of his hand. ‘They’ll crucify Jo. She’s trodden on too many toes in her time.’

      ‘She’ll be OK,’ Judy broke in. ‘She’s tough.’

      ‘She’s not half as tough as she makes out,’ Nick replied slowly. ‘Underneath she’s very vulnerable.’

      Judy looked away. ‘And I’m not, I suppose?’

      ‘We are not talking about you, Judy. It is not your sanity that is going to be questioned in the press.’

      ‘She can always sue them.’

      ‘If she sues anyone, it would be you. For defamation or slander. And it would serve you right.’

      Judy blanched. Without a word she took the glass out of Nick’s hand and walked with it to the far end of the studio where she stood looking out of the window to the bare earth and washing lines of the garden below.

      Pete frowned. ‘Just how much truth is there in any of this story?’ he asked in a low voice.

      ‘None at all. Judy misunderstood completely.’ Nick compressed his lips angrily. ‘Squash the story if you can, Pete. It’s all rubbish anyway, but if it wasn’t –’ he paused fractionally, ‘– if it wasn’t, think how much damage it could do.’

      Pete nodded. ‘I had a reason for asking. You are sure that hypnosis can’t hurt her in any way?’

      ‘Of course not.’ Nick gave an uncomfortable little laugh. Then he looked at him sharply. ‘Why do you ask?’

      ‘No reason. No reason at all …’

      Pete drove straight to Cornwall Gardens from Judy’s studio. It was nearly seven and almost certainly Jo would be at home. He scowled, thinking of the news he must break: probably the lead story in next morning’s Mail Diary. He leaned his forehead against the steering wheel for a moment as he paused at the lights in Brompton Road. If Nick preferred that red-haired cow to Jo it was he who needed his head examining. And soon.

      He backed the car into a parking space in three fluid movements and climbed out, stretched his long legs for a moment, then sprinted across the road.

      There was no answer. He tried again, louder, but still the flat was silent. Cursing quietly to himself he felt in his pocket for a pen and, tearing a page from the back of his diary, he scribbled a note and put it through her door.

      ‘Come on, Jo. There’s something wrong, isn’t there?’

      Tim put a double Scotch on the table in front of her and sat himself down in the chair facing her.

      Jo summoned up a tired smile. ‘I’m exhausted, Tim, that’s all. This’ll put me right.’ She picked up her glass. ‘Thanks for arranging everything this evening.’

      ‘But Walton worried you, didn’t he, and not just because you thought he was a fake?’

      She shook her head slowly. ‘He wasn’t a fake. At least, I don’t think so. A telepath perhaps – I don’t know –’ She was silent for a minute. ‘Yes, he did worry me, Tim. The stupid thing is I don’t know why. But it’s something deep inside me. Something I can’t put my finger on, floating at the edge of my mind. Every minute I think I’m going to remember what it is, but I can’t quite catch it.’ She took a sip from her glass and grinned suddenly, her face animated. ‘Makes me sound pretty neurotic, doesn’t it? No Tim, I’m OK. I think I’ve been letting Nick get to me more than I realise, with his fearsome warnings. He’s a bit paranoid about hypnosis. He told me once that he has this fear of losing consciousness – even on the edge of ordinary sleep. I think he thinks hypnosis is the same – like an anaesthetic.’

      ‘And it is true he’s been on to his trick-cyclist brother about you?’ Tim asked gently after a pause.

      She drew a ring on the table with her finger in some spilled beer. ‘I could kill Judy.’ She looked up at him again and gave a rueful grimace. ‘I wouldn’t be surprised if what she said was true. Nick told me he’d been in touch with Sam.’

      ‘You knew Sam well of course.’

      She nodded. ‘He became a friend after