Page 98 of The House of Hopes and Dreams
‘Yes I do, don’t I?’ he said shortly, disengaging himself. ‘So, where are you impulsively going to be staying tonight?’
‘But … I assumed you’d be able to fit little me in somewhere in this vast pile of yours? Preferably not in the Grimm’s fairy tale bit, though.’
‘We don’t use the Elizabethan wing. And I’m afraid I’ve got a full house all weekend – no beds, unless you can persuade Nelson or Nick to share?’
Actually, since Jorge and Sukes shacked up together, and I didn’t think anyone else was staying tonight, there probablywasa spare room, and lack of bedrooms hadn’t ever stopped Carey inviting people before: some mornings you’d fall over bodies in sleeping bags in practically every room.
‘I know you’re just saying that because you don’t want me to stay, but I really didn’t think I’d hurt you so badly that you couldn’t bear to have me under the same roof!’
‘Look, he doesn’t want you here because we’re filming a series for ITV, right?’ Sukes told her. ‘We don’t want any BBC moles trying to find out what’s happening.’
‘You mean … you’ve already signed a contract with ITV?’ Daisy exclaimed.
‘No, but we’re definitely going to,’ Carey told her.
She looked crestfallen, but then rallied. ‘Right … but you did tell me that the new series was different, just about you living and working here at Mossby, and it’s on such a huge scale! So there’s no reason why you couldn’t do both series, is there?’
Fang, who had been sniffing in the shrubbery, made a belated appearance just then and, spotting his former mistress, greeted her with the return of his old aggression, so that I had to grab hold of his collar. He probably thought she was going to snatch him away.
‘That’s never Tiny!’ she gasped. ‘He’s turned into a monster!’
‘We call him Fang and we’ve been feeding him a bit more than miniature portions of pedigree mush,’ Carey said.
‘And … he seems to be wearing boots.’
‘They’re a fashion statement, Daisy,’ I said shortly. ‘You know all about those.’
Daisy looked as if she was about to do battle, but Carey sighed in a resigned kind of way, took my elbow and urged me forward.
‘We can’t stand out here in this freezing wind for ever; we’d better go in.’
Daisy took this as an invitation and followed us. Then, a couple of minutes later, when it became obvious that no one was bringing in her case, she went back out to fetch it herself, along with a carrier bag that clinked.
The bag contained a peace offering intended to pour liquid balm over any slight awkwardness her arrival might have caused: a bottle of super expensive spiced rum and another of some rarefied whisky that Carey drank on high days and holidays … if someone else was paying.
Of course, the crew broke into the rum with cries of loud joy even before the takeaway we’d ordered arrived, and a bit of a thaw soon set in.
Sukes offered to bunk up with Jorge, which she was doing anyway, so Daisy could have her room for the night.
‘But only tonight,’ qualified Carey. ‘You’d better look trains up for tomorrow.’
‘Of course, darling,’ she said, and added that if she was staying, she’d love to go and freshen up.
I took her up in the lift, since it was evident that she couldn’t carry the case, only trundle it. God knows how long a stay she’d intended making!
I pointed out the bathroom opposite, next to my room. Then she asked casually where everyone else was sleeping and said she supposed Carey had the best bedroom. So I told her he did indeed have the biggest one, the last on the right …
When she reappeared, she’d changed into a jumpsuit that was tight round her scraggy butt and baggy above, where she didn’t have much in the way of boob. But I have to admit black did set off her Nordic,almost other-worldly fairness, with her lint-coloured hair and glacier-blue eyes. I’d forgotten how breathtakingly pretty she was.
I’d forgotten how amusing she could be, too –andindiscreet. By the time we’d relaxed in the sitting room with the takeaway and the bottles, she’d shared several very funny stories about how Seamus made increasingly bizarre demands during filming. ‘Having a certain brand of Nepalese herbal tea, brewed in his own glass teapot, constantly on tap, was only the start of it.’
‘Weren’t you living with him, though?’ asked Nick bluntly. ‘You must have already known all his little ways.’
‘Oh, not really. I mean, I needed somewhere to stay and he totally got the wrong idea,’ she lied quickly. ‘I had to move out again almost right away.’
I looked at Carey once or twice, to see how he was taking all this, but his expression remained withdrawn and non-committal, so I’d no idea how he was feeling. But her lights were certainly all turned on for him, and they made quite a blaze.
Of course, it was inevitable that at some point the party was mentioned and she said wistfully that she’d love to stay for it.
