Page 63 of Meet Me Under the Mistletoe
“Keep an eye on him,” Camille said as she turned to leave. “He’s not as tough as he makes out.”
The butler, having brought the car round to the front of the castle, loaded her luggage into the boot, and Camille drove away. Nory, Jenna, Ameerah, and Pippa stood and waved on the stone steps until she was out of sight.
“Do you think she’ll be all right?” Nory asked.
“She’s close with her mum,” Jenna replied. “She mentioned it when we were chatting last night.”
“Good. She’s going to need some support.”
“You don’t think it’s an omen, do you?” Jenna was biting the corner of her mouth.
Nory put her arm around her friend. “Of course it isn’t. Your wedding will be perfect. You’re not embarking on a whirlwind marriage; you and Charles are meant to be.”
Jenna laid her head on Nory’s shoulder. “Thanks, Nory.”
The friends turned back into the house and closed the door on the bitter morning. Nory couldn’t help feeling grateful that she hadn’t had to come clean about her fling with Guy. Luckily, he’d dug his own hole and she hadn’t needed to join him in it.
Eighteen
With the others occupied with wedding planning and consolation, Nory and Ameerah drove down to Hartmead to visit Nory’s parents. Dev had an online meeting with his agent and was then standing in as Charles’s “stunt double,” since he was on Guy duty, while Pippa, Jenna, and Christopher, the celebrity wedding photographer, decided where best to have the photographs taken on Saturday.
“Doesn’t Dev mind being left behind?” Nory asked as they drove slowly along the narrow winding roads, which were caked on either side with frozen earth and frosted vegetation.
“Does the model mind being left with a professional photographer, you mean?” Ameerah smiled, honking the horn to get two magpies to leave their roadkill in the middle of the lane so that they could pass. “He’s friends with Christopher. I think Dev was looking forward to being in the thick of the arrangements.”
“What are you going to do about him?”
“What do you mean?”
“Now that you’ve broken your own cardinal rule and fallen for the no-strings-attached guy?”
“I keep telling you, I haven’t fallen for him, Nory. Relationships are not for me. We just get on really well. I enjoy Dev’s company, he makes me feel happy, like chocolate in human form.”
“That sounds like a relationship.”
“Well, it isn’t. It’s convenient, that’s all. And when I’m old, I can look back on photos of the wedding and know that the hottest guy in the room was with me.”
“I suppose it’s good to have goals.”
“He got on well with Isaac.”
“Yeah, I noticed that too. It’s not like they have anything in common.”
“You don’t know that. Maybe Isaac is a secret fashionista.” Ameerah grinned.
“Or Dev’s a closet horticulturalist.”
“He could be, for all I know; he keeps surprising me. Last night he was talking with Pippa about playing bridge! I mean really, does Dev look the type who plays bridge?”
Nory shrugged. “Who knows. I’ve given up trying to fathom people. Who would have expected Isaac to have connections to Serena De-Veer, one of my most favorite artists of all time ever? Although, I seem to be a lot more excited about it than he is.”
“Maybe he’s not that into botanical art? Or maybe he was just trying to play it down?”
“I don’t know why. If my family had worked for a famous artist, I’d be telling everyone!”
“Not everyone’s a super-book-nerd like you, though, babe.”
“Granted. But even so. I mean, he’s got an original painting on his sitting room wall for heaven’s sake.”
