Page 87 of Meet Me Under the Mistletoe
“I’ll tell Thomas you were sleeping on the job,” Nory teased, through a mouthful of toothpaste foam.
Shelley huffed and climbed out of the bed.
“Let’s leave the countess to her ablutions!” said her mum.
“Laters, princess!” added Shelley.
Nory stuck two fingers up as the two women backed out of the room, curtseying and muttering, “Thank you, milady.”
A waiter passed a piece of paper to Nory as she left the breakfast room.We are go for salad! You may now tell the bride. P.S. I’ll be in the Winter Garden at 11 a.m. if you’d like that tour around the lost garden. Isaac. x
Nory grinned to herself and slipped the note into her pocket. The castle was ringing with the sounds of hammering, radios tuned to different channels in different rooms, and instructions being shouted. It had begun in earnest when the last guest was officially awake, and looked set to continue indefinitely. Peopleran up and down the stairs and darted in and out of rooms as the castle began its transformation from stately home to wedding venue. Nory felt uncomfortable being a guest in the castle while her sister-in-law and her mum worked on the flowers, and was glad of an excuse to slope off for a while later.
Katie and Jeremy had had their dinners sent up to their room last night and didn’t make it down for breakfast either; Jenna was doing her level best not to pout about it. She had returned from the spa yesterday evening a calmer woman. But that serenity had dissipated this morning, with the arrival of Elsa, the PR woman forOK! Magazine, who wanted to “nail down” tomorrow’s run of events, and an accompanying journalist who would be interviewing the bride and groom for the piece. Pippa and Elsa were already locking horns over who had seniority regarding the wedding.
“I’m glad not to be involved in this particular power play,” said Ameerah as Jenna shrieked down the stairs: “I don’t give a fuck who’s in charge as long as someone gets me a goddamn double-shot cappuccino! And where the pissing hell is the sodding spray-tan woman, Pippa? I need time to develop.”
“Maybe I’ll tell her about the salad later,” Nory mused.
“Oh, I’d get it over with now if I were you; this volcano’s only going to get more volatile as the day goes on.”
“I’d forgotten she could be like this.”
“Had you? Lucky you.”
“Are you and Dev coming down to the tree lighting later?”
“I wouldn’t miss it.”
“I hope the school tour is done by then.”
“Christ, whose idea was this particular trip down memory lane?” Ameerah asked.
“Charles and Guy’s. They wanted to relive thegloryyears.Plus, I think it’s a good excuse to get out of this madhouse for a couple of hours.”
“Typical! They were the only ones who found those years glorious. The rest of us were just trying to get through it without PTSD.”
“It wasn’t that bad,” said Nory.
“Not for you! You had a normal loving family to go home to at weekends and holidays.”
“Define ‘normal.’ And anyway, you did all right, you spent most of the holidays at ours.”
“When I wasn’t summoned by my parents to be their trophy daughter, from wherever they had moored the yacht.”
“Oh, you poor dear thing. It must be so tiresome being rich!”
Ameerah laughed and made to elbow her, but Nory sidestepped and she missed. Dev meandered up the corridor, whistling. He smiled when he saw them.
“It’s all starting to get a bit explosive around here,” he said.
“Don’t you mean expletive?” Nory asked, just in time for Jenna’s voice to ring down the hall: “Where the fuck is my fucking tiara?”
Dev winced. “I say we take a walk down to the village, grab a couple of papers, and hole up in the White Hart until the school tour,” he suggested.
“That sounds perfect,” said Ameerah. And again, Nory couldn’t help noticing the way her eyes seemed to come alive when she was around Dev. She hoped her friend wouldn’t wave goodbye to someone she really liked because of a silly pact she’d made with herself when she was a teenager.
“Fancy joining us, Nory?” he asked. “You’re very welcome.”
