Cressida Maciver and Kay Kafka’s enduring hostility

Cressida Maciver and Kay Kafka’s enduring hostility shapes Cressida’s account of her family’s history: what began as distrust of her father’s new wife hardened into confrontation, separation, and a lasting conviction that Kay concealed a malign purpose. The relationship is presented through Cressida’s retrospective testimony to Peter Pascoe, so its history includes both events she describes and suspicions she cannot establish as fact.

The arrival of Kay Kafka

Cressida says she and her brother, Palinurus Maciver Junior, suspected from the beginning that Kay had married their father, Palinurus Maciver Senior, for reasons of her own. She wonders whether Kay’s connection to Ashur-Proffitt’s interest in acquiring Maciver’s business might have made her useful to people seeking influence over their father, but offers this as speculation rather than demonstrated fact. Her immediate reaction, she recalls, was personal as well as financial: Kay’s presence in the family home felt like an intrusion into the space and possessions associated with Cressida’s late mother.

Kay’s arrival also altered the children’s relationships with their father and younger sister, Helen Dunn. Cressida believed Kay quickly won Helen’s attachment and that Palinurus Senior became devoted to her. Cressida and her brother, by contrast, resisted Kay’s place in the household. Cressida recalls that Kay’s entry brought her and her brother closer for a time, but also helped drive Cressida away: although she and her brother had both initially chosen to attend Weavers, Cressida reconsidered boarding school after Kay joined the household. Palinurus understood why she wanted to leave, and she later remembered that distance as a relief.

A boundary defended on her brother’s behalf

The separation did not end Cressida’s concern about what was happening at home. In her account, Palinurus found Kay’s conduct toward him disturbing, but also felt ashamed and did not initially tell their father. Cressida says she urged him to disclose what had happened; he instead asked her to keep silent, and she respected that request as far as Palinurus Senior was concerned.

Cressida nevertheless confronted Kay directly. She told Kay that she opposed her behavior toward Palinurus and warned that any further approach to him would lead Cressida to expose what she believed Kay had done. This confrontation fixed the terms of their relationship: Cressida became a person prepared to challenge Kay, while the secret that might have brought the conflict into the open remained undisclosed to their father. Cressida describes the ensuing atmosphere as a cold war, with civility maintained when Palinurus Senior was present but little contact otherwise.

Separation, guardianship, and family disputes

Cressida’s account links the hostility to a wider family rupture. After Kay left the household and took Helen with her, Cressida says Palinurus Senior was left alone and distressed. His will appointed Kay as guardian of Helen, then nine years old. Cressida was close to adulthood and Palinurus was already an adult, but Helen’s age meant Kay retained legal authority over her. Cressida says she stayed with her aunt, Lavinia Maciver, to keep out of Kay’s reach; Palinurus considered challenging Kay’s suitability as guardian, but was advised that unsupported accusations could weaken his position.

Kay’s marriage to her employer, Tony Kafka, changed the circumstances of that dispute. Cressida says Tony was willing to adopt Helen, remain in England, and ensure that Helen’s education took place there. Those commitments undercut the objections Palinurus had considered raising. He still suspected that Kay and Tony had been involved before her marriage to Palinurus Senior, and that the connection had continued during it, but Cressida says he had no proof. Helen grew up regarding her older siblings as the antagonists, while Kay avoided an open confrontation with them.

The family home became another point of conflict. Although Palinurus Senior’s will left Moscow House to his three children, Kay, as Helen’s guardian, could exercise authority on Helen’s behalf. When Kay proposed selling the house, Cressida says she might have accepted the sale, partly because the place had become unsettling after their father’s death. Palinurus refused, insisting that it remain in the family until all three siblings could decide as adults without outside interference. After Helen turned eighteen and married Jason Dunn, she still wanted the house sold; Palinurus eventually withdrew his objection, and it was put on the market. The dispute shows that Cressida’s hostility existed within a family structure in which Kay’s legal role and Helen’s wishes could affect decisions shared by the siblings.

Estrangement and an unresolved judgment

As the younger generation’s relations improved, Cressida and Kay did not reconcile. Cressida notes that Helen remained close to Kay and that the siblings’ relations with Helen improved, including through the house sale and Palinurus’s renewed squash games with Jason. Kay kept away from Cressida, and Cressida had the impression that Palinurus still reacted with anger whenever Kay was mentioned. Their distance therefore persisted even as some of the wider family’s conflicts eased.

At the time of her conversation with Peter Pascoe, Cressida and Lavinia had gone to Cothersley to see Sue-Lynn Maciver, then visited Helen in hospital, where Kay had already sent flowers. Kay was not at home when they called, and Cressida remarked that her absence was a relief. Cressida also says she had seen Kay the previous night for the first time in a long while. That encounter revived her old hostility, which she attributes partly to drink and fear about what had happened to her brother, but insists those circumstances did not fully explain her response.

Cressida ends by connecting her distrust of Kay to Palinurus’s death. She is certain Kay is somehow implicated, but admits she cannot explain how or offer definite evidence. The distinction matters: her account documents specific acts of resistance, family disputes, and estrangement, while its strongest accusation remains her conviction. Kay and Cressida’s hostility is thus both a long-running personal conflict and a lens through which Cressida interprets the still-unresolved circumstances surrounding her brother’s death.