Page 128 of Love ad Lib
‘I thought that last one went rather well.’
‘Did you even see the bill to clean up the mess?’ Estelle yelled. ‘But that’s the tip of the fucking iceberg. I’ve just had an emergency meeting with our lawyer because we’re being sued.’
‘What on earth for?’ Vivienne asked.
‘At the last party there was an accident in the “lube room”. A water blaster filled with peach flavoured lube got wedged up someone’s arse.’
Arthur chortled. ‘That was a bit of fun. He was absolutely fine.’
‘Well, he’s changed his mind and is taking us to court. But that’s not the biggest problem. A week before the event,someonecancelled our insurance policy saying, and I quote, “I’m not paying that bally much. It’s health and safety gone mad”.’ Estelle eyeballed their father. ‘Ring any bells, Dad?’
Arthur looked at the ground, scuffing the gravel with his sandals. ‘It’ll all blow over.’
‘Will it? When did you last look at the bank accounts? I told you we shouldn’t spend all this money on our birthday weekend. We can’t afford it.’
‘Honey.’ Vivienne inched towards Estelle as if approaching an enraged tiger. ‘We’ve still got my money.’
‘No, Mom, we don’t. It all went on the remodelling of Henry’s bedroom.’
‘It can’t have. It doesn’t cost that much to do up a couple of rooms.’
Estelle threw her hands in the air. ‘Yes, it does. That bloody bed alone cost eighty thousand pounds!’
Henry heard Libby gasp behind him. He hadn’t realised she’d walked over. If his family had seemed eccentric before, now they were also flash gits with more money than sense.
‘And that didn’t include the ten grand for the mattress,’ his sister continued. ‘Six grand on bedding and nearly a hundred-fucking-grand on the bathroom! Mom, go look at the accounts. There’s almost nothing left.’
Dervla started crying and Vivienne went to her side, drawing her close.
‘We’ll be okay,’ she murmured. ‘I promise.’
The fight seemed to leave Estelle and she sagged like a deflating balloon.
‘I can’t run the livery and the estate on my own,’ she said. ‘I’m working over a hundred hours a week and it’s breaking me. This weekend was the first time I haven’t worked a sixteen-hour day in nearly nine months. I can’t do it anymore, and I can’t work with you, Dad. It’s impossible.’
‘What about Henry?’ Arthur asked. ‘Now he’s met Libby, he can finally come home.’
Out of the corner of his eye, Henry saw Libby stiffen.
He opened his mouth to speak but Estelle got there first, puffing back up.
‘Seriously? Do you think Libby wants to leave her dream job in publishing and her entire fucking life in London for this shit show?’ She shook her head. ‘And leave Henry out of this. I’m not going to force him to do what he doesn’t want to. I understand why he’s made the decisions he has. Let him lead his own life.’
He felt a huge rush of love for his twin with an even bigger swell of guilt following behind. He had no idea things had got this bad. Would his family really lose the Manor?
‘Estelle,’ he began.
She turned to him. He could see the sadness in her eyes and the dark circles under them.
‘Henry, just go. Take Libby back to London. She doesn’t need to see any more of the Foxbrooke family circus. We can speak in the next couple of days.’
He nodded and looked at Libby. Her face was white.
Fuck.
26
Henry was silent all the way to Stonehenge and Libby didn’t know what to say. She’d gone from the absolute high of the impromptu living history tour to the shock of seeing behind the upper-class curtains at Foxbrooke Manor.
