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‘No, of course not,’ Dee protested.
‘I’m glad. “No, of course not,” indeed,’ Hugo agreed. ‘He tells me that the committee are due to meet soon to discuss their plans for the next twelve months. As his legal representative I shall, of course, attend the meeting on his behalf.’
Dee gulped.
‘But you can’t.’
‘Why not?’ Hugo challenged her coolly.
‘Well, you might not be here. You must have business to attend to...’
‘I shan’t be going away—at least not in the foreseeable future. As I was just confirming to Peter’s bank manager on the phone, I am free to work wherever I choose, and, since Peter needs to have someone close at hand to keep an eye on him right now, it makes sense for me to move in here with him.’
Dee felt cold all over, and tired, very tired. It appalled her that she, whom everyone considered to be so strong, could feel like this.
‘You don’t understand; Peter doesn’t understand,’ she started to protest.
‘On the contrary, I think you’ll find that I understand very well,’ Hugo contradicted her flatly. ‘Your father might have set up and funded his charity originally, Dee, but it is not your plaything. You do not have sole control over it; you and your boyfriend cannot simply—’
‘Ward is not my boyfriend,’ Dee was stung into replying, her face flushing with resentment at the way Hugo was talking to her.
‘No? Well, whatever his relationship with you, Peter is very concerned about the influence he seems to have over you.’
‘Peter is old-fashioned, set in his ways. He is wonderful, and I love him dearly, but he can be very stubborn, very blinkered.’
‘He’s only one member of a committee of seven people, Dee, and if he is the only one who does not share your point of view then I cannot understand why you should be concerned...’
Dee closed her eyes.
The fact of the matter was that Peter was not the only one likely to express doubts about what she wanted to do.
‘Look, I’ve got an appointment in half an hour,’ Hugo told her as he glanced at his watch.
As he spoke he was holding the door open for her, as though she were some candidate for a job and he had just finished interviewing her, Dee reflected angrily. She contemplated telling him that she was not going until she had spoken to Peter, and then acknowledged that there was little point in putting herself in an even more vulnerable position than she already was.
Head held high, she marched towards the open door.
‘I shall see you on Monday,’ Hugo told her cordially as she stalked past him. ‘I understand that the committee meeting is set for eleven a.m.?’
‘Yes, it is,’ Dee agreed distantly, trying not to grind her teeth with vexation as he escorted her to the front door. How could Peter have done this to her? Put her in this position?
She could feel her fury and her frustration causing a tight ball of emotion deep inside her chest. As she passed him Hugo touched her briefly on her bare arm. Immediately Dee drew back from him, as though he had branded her.
‘Dee, Peter is only acting out of concern—for you and for your father. He looks upon his role on the committee as an almost sacred trust, and he—’
‘And you think that I don’t?’ Dee almost spat at him, her eyes burning with the intensity of what she was feeling as her gaze locked with his.
‘Dee, your father set up this charity for a specific purpose, and I feel—’
‘I don’t care what you feel.’ Dee cut across him furiously. ‘You know nothing about my father, what he wanted, what he believed. You despised him because he was wealthy and you resented him because he was my father and I loved him.’
Dee stopped, unable to go on, her voice choked with emotion.
‘You’re being unfair,’ Hugo told her sharply. ‘I certainly never despised your father.’
‘You said that in your view it was impossible for someone with my father’s business interests and love of making money to be truly altruistic.’
‘You’re taking things out of context,’ Hugo said curtly. ‘What I actually said was that it was impossible for anyone to be as saintly as you insisted your father was. You put him up on a pedestal, Dee, and I—’
