Chapter 3
Alison
Molly Campbell swept into the dining room and removed her daughter's books from the table.
'Your father's guests will be arriving soon.'
'More of daddy's boring friends,' Alison moaned. 'I suppose they work at the hospital with him.'
Molly picked up a duster. 'Dr Duncan-Brown is an important person in the medical association and he's got something to do with Tom's university.'
'I know I won't like them,' Alison pulled a face.
'Now you listen to me, young lady,' Molly wagged a finger. 'I want you to be on your best behaviour. We'll have none of that silly sulking we had last time.'
'Stop treating me like a child.' Alison threw her books into a draw. 'I'm eighteen. You should have noticed that I've grown up.'
'Almost eighteen,' Molly corrected.
'It's not fair.' Alison pouted. 'Just because I'm small, people think I'm not grown up. Some boys at the dance said I looked thirteen.'
Her daughter's outburst struck a sympathetic cord.
'Och, lassie,’ Molly placed a comforting hand on Alison’s shoulder. ‘Don't fret. I was small too but that didn't stop me marrying your father and he's over six foot.'
'I should have taken after daddy's side of the family,' Alison moaned. 'The boy's don't want to go out with me. I'll never get married. It's not fair.'
***
Molly showed Tom into the dining room and introduced him to the Duncan-Browns. She felt more than a little apprehensive. Tom had a genius for offending people and Theo Duncan-Brown was easily offended. He and his wife, Patricia, had spent the afternoon, huddled under an umbrella, watching Tom and Colin conduct experiments. Patricia had enjoyed it. Theo said he had waisted valuable time and wouldn’t have gone if his wife had not insisted.
Patricia was one of Tom’s many admirers. She claimed to have watched all his TV-shows and clung onto his hand when they were introduced.
‘I’ve so wanted to meet you in the flesh.’ She gazed into his eyes. ‘Your views on the old religions are so exciting. I’ve been dying to ask you about them.’
Molly saw the expression of deep disapproval on Theo’s sallow face and tried to separate the pair … but without success. Patricia plonked herself down beside Tom at the dining table and bombarded him with questions. Tom reacted predictably, expounding his latest views on mother gods and father gods and how one displaced the other.
A certain kind of female found Tom irresistible and Patricia was clearly one of them. She hung on his every word, eyes fluttering, fingers caressing the stem of her wineglass in a way Molly found disquieting.
The first course was soup. Alison cleared away the dishes and returned with plates of salmon and asparagus. Tom produced more bottles of wine and filled the ladies’ glasses. Theo insisted on water and Colin followed his example. Tom refilled his own glass and sat down.
Molly hoped he would turn his mind to eating and stop talking. It worked for a while but he was soon chattering between chunks of salmon and gulps of wine. The conversation turned from religion to sex-and-religion and then switched to the seemingly innocent subject of transport technology.
'The Celts were particularly skilled in the manufacture of carts,' Tom announced. 'Our word for car comes from their word for a wheeled vehicle via Latin.’
‘That’s so intriguing,’ Patricia downed the contents of her glass.
‘They even dropped their word feles for cat in favour of the Celtic cattus,’ Tom continued.
Molly watched as Tom refilled Patricia’s glass then glanced at Theo Duncan-Brown who looked like he was about to explode. To her relief, Alison brought the exchange to a close.
'That reminds me … there was a cat in the kitchen.'
'A cat?' Molly asked.
'Yes. It had a sort of tin hat and was trying to get at the salmon.'
Theo Duncan-Brown looked up from his plate.
'You should have told your mother about this.'
He gave Alison a disapproving stare.
'We cannot eat fish contaminated by cat.'
He pushed his plate into the middle of the table.
Alison pushed it back.
'I stopped it before it got to the fish.'
Theo turned to Colin.
'Speaking of cats ...'
'Yes,' Colin said nervously.
'We were up at Tom's latest dig. I think that's the word these people use. Tom had a cat in a basket. I saw it clearly. I'm sure I'm not mistaken.'
Tom rose without a word and left the room. Alison followed. They went into the kitchen and shut the door. Paw marks testified to a cat's recent presence. Tom wiped them off and looked around.
‘There’s no sign of it.’
‘Perhaps it went back to the lab, Alison suggested.
‘You could be right,’ Tom nodded.
‘I know where daddy keeps the key.’
Alison climbed on a chair, grabbed a key from a shelf and jumped down. Tom followed her into the garden. Colin's laboratory was in a converted stable. It was where he did experiments that were too risqué for the research hospital where he worked. Alison unlocked the door and they went inside.
A scene of devastation greeted them. A window was broken and surgical implements littered the floor. The wicker basket lay in a corner. There was a hole in one side and a strong smell of cat.
'It gnawed its way out,' Alison whispered.
Tom looked around. It was scarcely believable that such a small creature could cause so much damage. He picked up the basket as if expecting to find something inside. All he found were bits of straw and chewed-up electrical cable.
Alison interrupted his thoughts.
'It's the cat Dr Duncan-Brown was talking about?'
Tom nodded.
'I shouldn't have said anything about it?'
Tom shook his head.
'He's rancid.' Alison prodded Tom's chest. 'You should have seen the looks he gave you when you were priming up his wife.'
'I wasn't priming her up.'
'Yes you were.'
Tom decided that little Alison Campbell had suddenly grown up. He tapped her arm. 'We'd better get back. Play it cool ... don't say anything about the cat.'
Alison wheeled in a trolley with plates of desert. Tom followed with port and brandy. Patricia looked up longingly as he filled her glass.
'Tom. Do tell us about your latest project.'
Theo gave his wife another look of extreme disapproval.
'It's about the mother goddess ... isn't it?'
Tom returned to his seat and launched forth on his standard lecture about the goddess and how she was the personification of all things female. He said her followers saw her everywhere.'
Molly had heard it all before and wasn't impressed.
'Tom. Wasn't there a male god?'
'There certainly was,' Tom slurred his words.
'What happened to him?'
'He came and went.'
'Aye, Tom. He came at the start of each season, had his way with the young women and was put to death at harvest time.'
'That is roughly correct,' Tom agreed.
Molly cast a dark eye on him.
'I fail to understand your fascination with those times.'
Tom downed his glass and an alcoholic haze enveloped him. 'You have to understand, Molly, that much of what you accept in the Christian religion comes from those older times.' He did his best to concentrate. 'The early church went out of its way to absorb what was best in the old religions. The mother goddess was reborn as Mary. Jesus is the god who had to die.'
'That is simply not true.'
Theo Duncan-Brown rose to his feet.
'I have heard enough of your ridiculous nonsense to last a lifetime.'
He strode across the room and reached for his wife. Molly ran after them as Patricia was marched to the door. Tom sank back and reached for the brandy.
***
He was slipping into a contented sleep when Colin strode into the room.
'You've really done it this time.'
'Done what?'
Tom scratched himself.
'You tried to seduce his wife then you made offensive remarks about the Virgin Mary and the Early Church.
'I did nothing of the sort.'
'That's not how it seemed.'
'Things often aren't as they seem.'
'You said that at your court marshal ... Major Carter.'
Mention of his past caused Tom to sit up. Colin was a colonel in the medical corps of the same regiment. He supplied character references when he was hauled before the court.
'I was cleared,' Tom protested.
'They found it convenient to conclude that you had not taken a shortcut across a neutral country in order to attack the enemy in the rear, Tom. That way they avoided a major diplomatic incident.’
'I received a glowing testimonial.'
'Aye, Tom. Your commanding officer said you were a fine soldier but he wrote it after you had handed in your resignation.'
'What's this got to do with that snotty-nosed squirt, Theo Duncan-Brown?'
'The snotty-nosed squirt is chairman of the medical association's ethics committee. I invited him to dinner because his wife wanted to meet you. He knows about the cat. That could spell disaster.'
'But, we don't need the cat.' Tom yawned. 'While you were stuffing yourselves with Molly's cakes, I got thinking. You could wire me up with that gear you use to measure brainwaves. If I can sense those lines with divining rods then something must be happening in my head.'
'Are you totally mad?' Colin exploded. 'I've just told you that Duncan-Brown is chairman of the ethics committee. This whole stupid business could spell disaster for both of us.'