Page 93 of Meet Me Under the Mistletoe
Jenna turned around, and Nory stood up to look. “It could do with a bit more of a scrub,” she said.
“I— I’m just going to— I need to, um, I have to go,” said Charles, and he pulled the bathroom door shut behind him.
“I think we frightened him off,” said Pippa.
“He wouldn’t have lasted five minutes in the girls’ dormitory,” Jenna mused.
“Though it wasn’t for the want of trying,” Pippa quipped.
“Do you think it’s weird that we’ve all slept with my husband-to-be?” Jenna asked.
Nory stopped to consider this, mid–cleavage scrub. They’d not spoken about it in their adult lives, the closeness they had shared as young adults, which had ultimately translated to bed-hopping.
“Maybe to an outsider,” said Nory. “But we were always together; our friendship was pretty intense. And anyway, it’s not like we were all sleeping with the same person at the same time;it just happened that from the age of fifteen to nineteen we all kind of took it in turns to be boyfriend-girlfriend.”
“Some of us were girlfriend-girlfriend,” added Pippa.
“I wonder if any of them were boyfriend-boyfriend?” Nory mused.
“Oh, one hundred percent.”
“The only one of us who didn’t sleep with Charles back then was me!” Jenna laughed.
“You were mostly with Tristan,” said Nory.
“Except when you were with Guy,” Pippa reminded her, and they all made retching noises.
“Jeremy was always sweet,” said Nory.
“Still is,” agreed Pippa. “They all are, really.” And then, quite out of character for Pip, she added: “Tristan would be so happy for you and Charles.”
“He would, wouldn’t he?” Jenna smiled.
“He knew Charles was in love with you, even back then. He told me once. He said he felt kind of bad that they both loved you but that Charles could only stand and watch.”
“He’s not standing on the sidelines anymore.” Nory smiled at Jenna, whose eyes were glassy from more than just the lemon-juice fumes.
“He’d also be rather pleased to see you and the gardener’s kid have finally laid your weapons down,” said Pippa knowingly.
“I’ve been thinking about that,” Jenna chimed in. “There’s a meal going spare tomorrow. I had hoped Camille might have changed her mind and come back, but...”
“Can you blame her?” asked Pippa.
“So, anyway,” Jenna continued, “I wondered if you’d like to bring Isaac as your date to the wedding.”
“I’d love to. Thanks, Jenna, that’s really lovely of you.”
“It’s the least I can do since you’ve spent the last hour trying to de-tangerine my crevices.”
“What are friends for?” Nory smiled.
They showered Jenna down, then smothered her all over with coconut oil and left her spread-eagled on a layer of towels on the bed with a book and a glass of red. Nory had set an alarm for an hour, after which Jenna was to transfer herself to a hot bath for a good long soak. This was the last stage in Project De-luminous Jenna’s Skin.
“Better to miss the tour than look like one of the Muppets in a wedding gown tomorrow,” Jenna had giggled. A member of the staff had laid a roaring fire in the hearth, and by the time they left, Nory was rather jealous of Jenna’s afternoon ahead.
Twenty-seven
The idea had been to walk across the castle grounds to get to Braddon-Hartmead, but it was bitterly cold. In the end, the party split itself between Ameerah’s Mini Countryman and Jeremy’s old Range Rover.
