1-15

 

15.

My mother legendarily¹ said there were three people in her marriage. But her maths was off.

She left Willy and me out of the equation.

We didn’t understand what was going on with her and Pa, certainly, but we intuited enough,we sensed the presence of the Other Woman, because we suffered the downstream effects. Willylong harbored suspicions about the Other Woman, which confused him, tormented² him, and whenthose suspicions were confirmed he felt tremendous guilt³ for having done nothing, said nothing,sooner.

I was too young, I think, to have suspicions. But I couldn’t help but feel the lack of stability,the lack of warmth and love, in our home.

Now, with Mummy missing, the maths swung hard in Pa’s favor. He was free to see the OtherWoman, openly, as often as he liked. But seeing wasn’t sufficient. Pa wanted to be public about it.

He wanted to be aboveboard. And the first step towards that aim was to bring “the boys” into thefold.

Willy went first. He’d bumped into the Other Woman, once, at the palace, but now he wasformally summoned from Eton for a high-stakes private meeting. At Highgrove, I think. Over tea,I believe. It went well, I gathered from Willy later, though he didn’t go into details. He merelygave me the impression that the Other Woman, Camilla, had made an effort, which he appreciated,and that was all he cared to say.

My turn came next. I told myself: No big deal. Just like getting an injection. Close your eyes,over before you know it.

I have a dim recollection of Camilla being just as calm (or bored) as me. Neither of us muchfretted about the other’s opinion. She wasn’t my mother, and I wasn’t her biggest hurdle⁵. In otherwords, I wasn’t the Heir. This bit with me was mere⁴ formality.

I wonder what we found to talk about. Horses, probably. Camilla loved them, and I knew howto ride. Hard to think of any other subject we might’ve scrounged up.

I recall wondering, right before the tea, if she’d be mean to me. If she’d be like all the wickedstepmothers in storybooks. But she wasn’t. Like Willy, I did feel real gratitude⁶ for that.

At last, with these strained Camilla summits behind us, there was a final conference with Pa.

So, what do you boys think?

We thought he should be happy. Yes, Camilla had played a pivotal role in the unraveling ofour parents’ marriage, and yes, that meant she’d played a role in our mother’s disappearance⁷, butwe understood that she’d been trapped like everyone else in the riptide of events. We didn’t blameher, and in fact we’d gladly forgive her if she could make Pa happy. We could see that, like us, hewasn’t. We recognized the vacant looks, the empty sighs, the frustration⁸ always visible on hisface. We couldn’t be absolutely sure, because Pa didn’t talk about his feelings, but we’d piecedtogether, through the years, a fairly accurate portrait of him, based on little things he’d let slip.

For instance, Pa confessed around this time that he’d been “persecuted” as a boy. Granny andGrandpa, to toughen him up, had shipped him off to Gordonstoun, a boarding school, where hewas horrendously⁹ bullied¹⁰. The most likely victims of Gordonstoun bullies¹¹, he said, were creativetypes, sensitive types, bookish types—in other words, Pa. His finest qualities were bait for thetoughs. I remember him murmuring ominously¹²: I nearly didn’t survive. How had he? Head down,clutching his teddy bear, which he still owned years later. Teddy went everywhere with Pa. It wasa pitiful object, with broken arms and dangly¹³ threads, holes patched up here and there. It looked, Iimagined, like Pa might have after the bullies had finished with him. Teddy expressed eloquently,better than Pa ever could, the essential loneliness of his childhood.

Willy and I agreed that Pa deserved better. Apologies to Teddy, Pa deserved a propercompanion. That was why, when asked, Willy and I promised Pa that we’d welcome Camilla intothe family.

The only thing we asked in return was that he not marry her. You don’t need to remarry, wepleaded. A wedding would cause controversy¹⁴. It would incite¹⁵ the press. It would make the wholecountry, the whole world, talk about Mummy, compare Mummy and Camilla, and nobody wantedthat. Least of all Camilla.

We support you, we said. We endorse¹⁶ Camilla, we said. Just please don’t marry her. Just betogether, Pa.

He didn’t answer.

But she answered. Straightaway. Shortly after our private summits with her, she began to playthe long game, a campaign aimed at marriage and eventually the Crown. (With Pa’s blessing¹⁷, wepresumed.) Stories began to appear everywhere, in all the papers, about her private conversationwith Willy, stories that contained pinpoint¹⁸ accurate details, none of which had come from Willy,of course.

They could only have been leaked by the one other person present.

And the leaking had obviously been abetted¹⁹ by the new spin doctor Camilla had talked Pa intohiring.

 

1 legendarily   

传奇性地，传奇似地

参考例句：

2 tormented   

饱受折磨的

参考例句：

• The knowledge of his guilt tormented him. 知道了自己的罪责使他非常痛苦。
• He had lain awake all night, tormented by jealousy. 他彻夜未眠，深受嫉妒的折磨。

3 guilt   

n.犯罪；内疚；过失，罪责

参考例句：

• She tried to cover up her guilt by lying.她企图用谎言掩饰自己的罪行。
• Don't lay a guilt trip on your child about schoolwork.别因为功课责备孩子而使他觉得很内疚。

4 mere   

adj.纯粹的；仅仅，只不过

参考例句：

• That is a mere repetition of what you said before.那不过是重复了你以前讲的话。
• It's a mere waste of time waiting any longer.再等下去纯粹是浪费时间。

5 hurdle   

n.跳栏，栏架；障碍，困难；vi.进行跨栏赛

参考例句：

• The weather will be the biggest hurdle so I have to be ready.天气将会是最大的障碍，所以我必须要作好准备。
• She clocked 11.6 seconds for the 80 metre hurdle.八十米跳栏赛跑她跑了十一秒六。

6 gratitude   

adj.感激，感谢

参考例句：

• I have expressed the depth of my gratitude to him.我向他表示了深切的谢意。
• She could not help her tears of gratitude rolling down her face.她感激的泪珠禁不住沿着面颊流了下来。

7 disappearance   

n.消失，消散，失踪

参考例句：

• He was hard put to it to explain her disappearance.他难以说明她为什么不见了。
• Her disappearance gave rise to the wildest rumours.她失踪一事引起了各种流言蜚语。

8 frustration   

n.挫折，失败，失效，落空

参考例句：

• He had to fight back tears of frustration.他不得不强忍住失意的泪水。
• He beat his hands on the steering wheel in frustration.他沮丧地用手打了几下方向盘。

9 horrendously   

参考例句：

• Speedy they may be, but chipped ID cards are horrendously insecure. 芯片身份证也许便捷，但却极不安全。 来自互联网

10 bullied   

adj.被欺负了v.恐吓，威逼( bully的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• My son is being bullied at school. 我儿子在学校里受欺负。
• The boy bullied the small girl into giving him all her money. 那男孩威逼那个小女孩把所有的钱都给他。 来自《简明英汉词典》

11 bullies   

n.欺凌弱小者, 开球 vt.恐吓, 威胁, 欺负

参考例句：

• Standing up to bullies takes plenty of backbone. 勇敢地对付暴徒需有大无畏精神。
• Bullies can make your life hell. 恃强欺弱者能让你的日子像活地狱。

12 ominously   

adv.恶兆地，不吉利地；预示地

参考例句：

• The wheels scooped up stones which hammered ominously under the car. 车轮搅起的石块，在车身下发出不吉祥的锤击声。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Mammy shook her head ominously. 嬷嬷不祥地摇着头。 来自飘（部分）

13 dangly   

悬摆的，摆晃的

参考例句：

14 controversy   

n.争论，辩论，争吵

参考例句：

• That is a fact beyond controversy.那是一个无可争论的事实。
• We ran the risk of becoming the butt of every controversy.我们要冒使自己在所有的纷争中都成为众矢之的的风险。

15 incite   

v.引起，激动，煽动

参考例句：

• I wanted to point out he was a very good speaker, and could incite a crowd.我想说明他曾是一个非常出色的演讲家，非常会调动群众的情绪。
• Just a few words will incite him into action.他只需几句话一将，就会干。

16 endorse   

vt.(支票、汇票等)背书，背署；批注；同意

参考例句：

• No one is foolish enough to endorse it.没有哪个人会傻得赞成它。
• I fully endorse your opinions on this subject.我完全拥护你对此课题的主张。

17 blessing   

n.祈神赐福；祷告；祝福，祝愿

参考例句：

• The blessing was said in Hebrew.祷告用了希伯来语。
• A double blessing has descended upon the house.双喜临门。

18 pinpoint   

vt.准确地确定；用针标出…的精确位置

参考例句：

• It is difficult to pinpoint when water problems of the modern age began.很难准确地指出，现代用水的问题是什么时候出现的。
• I could pinpoint his precise location on a map.我能在地图上指明他的准确位置。

19 abetted   

v.教唆（犯罪）( abet的过去式和过去分词 )；煽动；怂恿；支持

参考例句：

• He was abetted in the deception by his wife. 他行骗是受了妻子的怂恿。
• They aided and abetted in getting the police to catch the thief. 他们协助警察抓住了小偷。 来自《简明英汉词典》