Page 93 of Wild About You

My sleepy mind ground its gears. I put my hand to my chest. ‘Shit. Not?’

‘Darren.’

I put my hand to my mouth. I wanted to weep at the sheer monumentality of it. Jamie, arriving home, exhausted and run through the emotional mill, to find—

‘They weren’t…?’

‘I’m not sure, but it must have been bad – the engagement’s off.’

A kind of squawk escaped me.

‘Anna! Are you alright? You sound like you’re having a coronary.’

‘I’m fine, I’m fine. How’s Jamie?’

‘I don’t know. Haven’t seen him. I got half the story from Callum and the rest from Tally.’

I suddenly remembered the message Jamie had left with Tally. ‘Was Tally there yesterday?’

‘What? Oh, yeah. But she was avoiding Lucinda like the plague. I think she suspected what was happening.’

I sat very still. Good old Tally. She hadn’t given Lucinda the message that Jamie was coming home. It was against her code not to do something Jamie had asked her to do; it must have been hard for her.

‘And where’s Darren the Dreadful?’

‘Who knows? He’s had the good sense to feck off somewhere.’

‘God almighty.’ I could feel the beginnings of a headache. I told Tobias I would be there in 45 minutes. As I rifled through my wardrobe looking for something to wear, I messaged Roshni.

ANNAI didn’t know the half of it.

ROSHNIWe’re on our way.

The estate office was quieter than I thought it would be. Tobias was the only one there, drumming away at his keyboard with an intense look on his face as though he was programming code for MI5.

‘Emails,’ he said. ‘I’m cancelling some of the wedding stuff. The amount of crap she ordered, it’ll take a week at least. Tally’s gone home with a migraine.’ Beside him was Tally’s thick ring binder entitled WEDDING – EARL. At the sight of it, my stomach lurched.

‘Where is Lucinda?’

‘Gone home. She came to groom her horses earlier and Pat threw an egg sandwich at her. She was on her lunch break and said it was the only thing she had to hand.’

‘Bloody hell. Bit extreme. So word’s got around then?’

‘I might have been responsible for that. I set up a WhatsApp group with the staff and volunteers whilst you and Fi were away.’

‘For gossiping purposes?’ I raised my eyebrows.

‘No! But they needed to know. Look, I didn’t share any details.’ He waved his phone at me. I took it and looked at the message he’d sent.

FYI Lucinda has betrayed the earl and will no longer be lady of the manor. Please feel free to punish her as you see fit.

I gave it back to him. ‘Don’t demonise her, Tobias.’

‘She demonised herself!’

‘True, but she’s going to be devastated.’

‘She’s not. That’s the weird thing. She didn’t even really seem that bothered.’

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