“I don’t know,” Kate teased. “I’ve always been fond of the ecological motif of ‘Slug Soup.’ And let’s not forget ‘Chafe Me, Baby,’ and—”
“That’ll be quite enough out of the pair of you,” Nanny Cole scolded. “Hallard may have written tripe, but you, Grayson, wrote the putrid music.”
“I did,” Grayson admitted sheepishly.
“But you’re a talented musician,” Emma exclaimed. “How could you bring yourself to—”
“Create such cacophony? I was following Hallard’s script. Everything about Lex had to be off-putting, to keep people at bay. And there Nanny Cole came into her own.”
Nanny Cole eyed him suspiciously, then turned to Derek and Emma. “I designed Lex’s costumes and makeup,” she said. “I created his bloody-awful image. Had to turn Grayson into a raving lunatic. Not as much of a stretch as he’d like to think.”
“Nanny’s costumes were brilliant,” Grayson said. “She has the soul of a poet and it embarrasses her terribly. Hence the bluff exterior.”
“I’ll buff your posterior if you don’t stop,” Nanny Cole growled, and Derek flinched as she grabbed him by the wrist. “Keep still,” she ordered as she held the sleeve of the nearly finished sweater up to Derek’s arm. “Good Lord,” she muttered, dropping the arm. “Built like a bloody great ape.”
Grayson snorted. “Nanny shaved my head and painted it red for the cover of the first album. I promise you, not even Grandmother would’ve recognized me once Nanny had finished with her paint pots. I scarcely recognized myself.”
“Surely you made some personal appearances,” Derek said, rubbing his wrist.
“Very few,” said Kate. “Lex refused to attend ceremonies of any kind and he was never seen in public without his makeup. It was perfectly in keeping with the character we’d established.”
“The press posed some danger,” Grayson went on, “but Hallard solved that as well. Whenever they showed up, Lex would scratch himself rudely and spout all those words one mustn’t say on the telly, at decibel levels impossible for microphones to miss. And we had Newland here, to look after security.”
Newland nodded but, unlike the rest of the staff, made no effort to explain his role. An uneasy silence enveloped the room, and everyone turned to Kate gratefully when she broke it.
“And then there were the videos,” she said.
“A godsend.” Grayson clapped Derek on the shoulder. “Remember the chaps I ran around with in Oxford?”
Derek nodded.
“One of them is a well-known rock singer now. I won’t mention his name, as he’s made an assiduous effort to deny his bourgeois past, but he’s the one who put me on to rock videos. That’s how we were able to get in at the right time.”
Kate’s eyes were dancing. “Lex Rex became the first pop star to take full advantage of the video boom. And we filmed them right here, in Gash’s studio.”
Gash twiddled his thumbs. “Jury-rigged from start to finish. Had no idea what I was doing, but that didn’t bother His Grace. Had no capital, neither, so I had to make do. Cleared out one of the subcellars, soundproofed it as best I could. Bought secondhand stage lights and cheap video equipment and off we went.”
Emma rolled her eyes, recalling the praise Richard had heaped on Lex Rex’s “rough-edged authenticity.” She wondered what he would say if she told him that the qualities he most admired were due solely to inexperience, ineptitude, and a tight budget.
The duke flopped into his chair and crossed his legs. “As it turned out, we had eight years in which to plan the whole thing, down to the smallest detail. I was twenty years old when my father died.”
“Grayson came down from university to follow in his father’s reclusive footsteps and disappear from public view,” Kate went on.
“When I reappeared, I did so as Lex Rex,” said the duke. “After eight years of intensive study, I was able to give rock-music fans exactly what they wanted. Then, of course, I gave them more of the same.”
“Look at any best-seller list,” Hallard murmured thoughtfully, “and you’ll know where that idea came from.”
“But...” Emma scratched her head. “But what about the Series Ten?”
“The what?” said Hallard.
“Hallard simply uses the computers,” the duke put in. “We leave the rest to Crowley.”
“Crowley?” Derek and Emma chorused.