Book description
There have been Grayles at Hartleap since Canute. They know this and
are proud of the fact. Now they stand round the bed of the very last of
their nannies, who is quietly slipping away. Ada Stephens-known as Nanny
Grayle, and well into her nineties-is saying farewell. In the strange
clarity which comes with the last remission, she looks at the saddened
faces about her and surprises them all. She says that the most adored of
her charges, Rufus, is 'tainted' and that his father, the revered war
hero 'Beau' Grayle, was 'wicked'. None of them is going to get anything
in her will - she has left everything to her nephew, Robert. Thus begins
the final demolition of a once-proud house. Slowly, from Sunday to
Thursday, as they attend to the many small duties that follow death, the
unravelling begins. The family must face the fact that their way of
life, and the glory which was Hartleap, will slide into Nanny's grave
with her. As the terrible truth becomes known, desperately they try to
close ranks... There have been Grayles at Hartleap since Canute. They
know this and are proud of the fact. Now they stand round the bed of the
very last of their nannies, who is quietly slipping away. Ada
Stephens-known as Nanny Grayle, and well into her nineties-is saying
farewell. In the strange clarity which comes with the last remission,
she looks at the saddened faces about her and surprises them all. She
says that the most adored of her charges, Rufus, is 'tainted' and that
his father, the revered war hero 'Beau' Grayle, was 'wicked'. None of
them is going to get anything in her will - she has left everything to
her nephew, Robert. Thus begins the final demolition of a once-proud
house. Slowly, from Sunday to Thursday, as they attend to the many small
duties that follow death, the unravelling begins. The family must face
the fact that their way of life, and the glory which was Hartleap, will
slide into Nanny's grave with her. As the terrible truth becomes known,
desperately they try to close ranks...
