Ultimate Prizes Part IV

Neville hastens to the village where Jardine is living in retirement, and finds that Lyle Ashworth, formerly companion to Jardines' wife, is staying with them. He has never much liked Lyle or Charles, thinking him much too academic and cerebral. However, he finds that he is attracted to Lyle, in spite of his dislike. She tells him that she can't believe that her husband, who is a prisoner of war, is still alive. Neville is horrified at how ill Alex is, he can see that he is dying, and he's even more shocked when Alex asks him to look after Charley and Michael, Lyles' two young sons. Alex explains that Lyle is his illegitmate daughter, (not true as we discover in other books but a fiction that Alex puts out to explain things to Neville). He says he had a fling before he was ordained and kept in touch with Lyle, and he and his wife were very upset when she decided to get married. He tells Neville that he is worried about the boys if Charles does not come home from the war. Alex says that when Neville agrees to look out for the children, he feels that his last wish has been granted and they will be all right. He further adds however, that he experienced terrible trauma in his own family as a boy. His father was a religious maniac, who tried to keep his family in isolation, but when Alex was a young man and starting out his clerical career, Ingrid, Alex's step mother went to keep house for her stepson.. and while she was away, the old man committed incest with his daughter and drove her insane.. Ingrid went back to him to stop him abusing the other sister. Neville can hardly believe this horror story, and wonders if Alex's cancer has affected him mentally... but he realises eventually that his friend is telling the truth. He has to go back home, but Lyle tells him that Alex can't live much longer and that he wants Neville to conduct his funeral. He agrees.... but is shaken by the revelations of how awful Jardine's life has been and how it does not chime with his own theology.