Page 131 of One More Christmas at the Castle
‘What on earth are you doing, Xan?’ I demanded, turning to face him.
He looked frowningly at me for a moment and ran his fingers through his dark hair, before saying, ‘I just wanted to talk to you and this is the first chance I’ve had to shake off that bloody woman all day. She’s like a human limpet!’
‘Can you possibly mean the beautiful and charming Sophie?’ I said sardonically, then realizing I was holding the large tray like a shield, lowered it.
Xan removed it from my hands and tossed it on to the nearest pasting table.
‘Yes, Sophie! I just had to dive into the Garden Hall cloakroom to shake her off. Even she couldn’t follow me in there. She’s been driving me mad!’
‘Going by your expression when she arrived, I think she’s already driven you senseless – talk aboutLove Awakened! Or reawakened, I suppose,’ I added sarcastically and he flushed.
‘I’m so sorry, Dido, I don’t know what came over me. When I first saw her, I suddenly felt exactly how I did when I was nineteen and thought I was in love with her.’
‘Yes, so I saw. And she’s just as pretty as she ever was. She hasn’t changed in the least.’
‘No, she hasn’t, and I think she was probably always shallow, silly and self-obsessed, only I didn’t see that at the time.’
I began to feel my heart starting to thaw out a little round the edges.
‘How didyoufeel when you first saw me again that day when you arrived here?’ he suddenly demanded, slightly defensively.
‘Well, I wasn’t immediately re-smitten with a mega adolescent crush on you,’ I said tartly. ‘In fact, to be truthful, I just felt stunned, embarrassed and horrified.’
‘Horrified?’
‘In case you recognized me. I just prayed you wouldn’t … and of course, I had a guilty conscience about that letter you asked me to give to Sophie. And whatever she says, Ididsee her that day.’
‘Then why does she insist she didn’t see anyone at all?’ he said, frowning.
‘I’ve no idea, but I clearly remember seeing her coming out of the side door of the house … and, as I said to Henry, she looked a bit odd.’
‘Odd? What kind of odd?’
I shrugged. ‘I don’t know, it was just an impression. Maybe she was disappointed she hadn’t found you there.’
‘Well, none of it matters now, anyway. In fact, now I’m really glad you never gave her the letter! She might have taken me up on my suggestion she come out to Greece and by then, I’d found another girl.’
‘I don’t want to know about all your past conquests,’ I saidcoldly. ‘Now, I’d better go, or Mrs Powys will wonder what’s happened to her coffee.’
‘She’s probably wondering whereI’vegot to, as well.’
Behind us, the handle of the door to the passage suddenly rattled, and we froze. Then he drew me away to the far side of the room.
‘I bet that’s Sophie,’ he whispered, then took me by the shoulders and looked very searchingly at me, with those wonderful, lilac-grey eyes.
‘Dido, I was just momentarily dazzled by seeing Sophie again, but in less than ten minutes I was not only entirely cured, but that high-pitched tinkling laugh of hers had started to drive me mad.’
‘It has the same effect on me,’ I agreed.
His hands left my shoulders and slid round my waist, pulling me closer.
‘Dido, you know you’re the only girl for me … even if you do look rather terrifying with your hair like that. You should have been wearing a breastplate, not using that tray as a shield.’
‘Henry calls this my Warrior Princess look.’
‘He’s right.’
I looked up at him, serious again. ‘Xan, that was a bit of a stunner for Mrs Powys about the legitimacy thing, wasn’t it?’
