Page 72 of Wild About You

‘Are you alright, Tal?’ I said, as Fi started typing. ‘Lucinda must be thrilled. I hope she thanked you for all your hard work.’

Tally looked into her tea mug. ‘No, she didn’t,’ she said quietly. ‘She actually told me she didn’t like the ring. I know I’m responsible for the art collection, including the jewellery, but I can hardly be faulted for that. Jamie asked for that ring. It was his aunt’s. A square emerald, perfectly pretty. He didn’t want to use his mother’s, even though I had it polished and repaired.’

In my peripheral vision I saw Fi look up sharply from her computer screen.

‘I’d assumed I would be helping to arrange the wedding,’ Tally said. ‘But she said she wanted a professional to do it.’

‘Maybe she was a bit overwhelmed,’ I said soothingly. ‘Would you like another cup of tea?’

‘Yes please.’ She pushed her mug towards me. As she refocused on her computer screen, a sad frown settled on her brow.

She was out of the room when Fi returned from her morning meeting with Jamie. ‘Something weird is going on,’ she said. ‘He’s being so low key about it all. He didn’t even want me to put an announcement inThe Times.’

I choked on my coffee. ‘Is that what posh people do?’

‘Mm.’ She sat down at her desk, looking worried. ‘And the ring. I remember Roshni saying about it, ages ago. Jamie’s mother had a diamond ring that was definitely going to be the engagement ring for whoever he marries. He’s deeply attached to it. Why would he change his mind?’

‘Maybe it’s just as Tally said,’ I muttered, highlighting a heading on my document and clicking bold. ‘Either way, it’s none of my business.’ I saw her watching me as I carried on working, but I didn’t care. I’d spent a sleepless night thinking about it. Trying not to remember him touching me. Trying to imagine a world in which he belonged to someone else. My jealousy was so piercing it was as though someone had rammed a stiletto into my heart. It was time for me to grow up, and whatever happened next, it was nothing to do with me.

We didn’t have to worry about Tally’s weirdness for long, because that afternoon, normal service was resumed, and she drifted through the office with a clipboard and earnest expression, saying she was going to supervise the movement of a painting.

‘Could shewearmore perfume?’ groaned Tobias as he came in and put his satchel on his desk, moving very carefully. ‘It’s like she’s in the room. And I’m dead.’

‘That’s a long hangover,’ I said. ‘What did you drink?’

‘Everything,’ he said. ‘Last thing was a whisky mac. I think it was my fifteenth grown-up drink of the night.’

‘Ah, to be young,’ said Fi.

‘And how are you feeling?’ I said to her. ‘Did bubba mind going to the party?’

‘Not at all,’ she said, grinning. ‘I’ve never felt better in my life. Whatever the baby is doing to my hormones, I hope it continues.’ She was looking ridiculously bouncy.

‘Tobias.’ It was Lucinda, and she was sweeping in as though she was still wearing a ballgown. There were no jodhpurs in sight. She was wearing a knee-length cotton tea dress and had her hair in a chignon. She still looked stunning but the whole get-up added approximately ten years to her age, partly because she’d also lost the sunny smile that had previously been a permanent fixture. ‘I’ve been speaking to my mother.’

‘Oh, Clarissa?’ said Tobias, doing a full turn on his desk chair. ‘We chatted at the party. She was marvellous.’

‘Yes, well,’ said Lucinda, looking distinctly peeved, ‘she said you weren’t acting entirely appropriately, I’m sorry to say. Please remember, when you’re in public you are essentially an ambassador for the Stonemore Estate.’

Tobias seemed incapacitated. He put a new chewing gum in his mouth.

‘Lucinda,’ said Fi gently. ‘I line-manage Tobias. Please do leave this with me. There isn’t any need for you to be concerned with staffing matters.’

‘Fiona, I intend to be fully involved,’ said Lucinda. ‘And pleasedodeal with this. There will be other events in future, and I don’t want to have to speak to Jamie about this.’

I saw uncertainty cross Fi’s face and it flipped a switch in me.

‘I think youshouldspeak to him, Lucinda,’ I said.

Lucinda switched her gaze to me. ‘I beg your pardon?’ she said.

‘I think you should speak to him. The truth is, none of us work for you. We work for the Earl of Roxdale. That’s what it says on my employment contract, which means anything we do is precisely nothing to do with you.’

‘Anna, it’s okay,’ I heard Fi murmur, but there was no stopping me now.

‘I suggest you go to Jamie right now and tell him about this conversation. Run it up the flagpole. See what he says. I think it might be quite illuminating for him to know how you’ve been bossing his staff around. Tally hasn’t stopped running after you for the last three months, not that you’ve even bothered to thank her. She’s here to look after the art, not you.’

She looked unimpressed. ‘I think you’ll find Jamie wouldn’t be worried by me taking an interest in the way things are run.’

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