Page 43 of An Unholy Affair
Eveline’s gaze flicked to his, and he turned with a jolt back to the dishes, his heart hammering.Love?He wasn’t going to go there.
‘Oh, don’t blush, you big ninny,’ said Estelle. ‘It’s only Jack. Anyway, as soon as we’re done here, I’m going to ring Finn and get him to come and look at your boiler. And I won’t hear another word about it. Okay?’
Silence.
‘Excellent’, Estelle continued. ‘Now, I came here to have a bitch and whine with my bestie, but now Jack’s here. I can kill two birds with one stone.’
Huh?He turned and raised an eyebrow.
‘I need your help,’ Estelle said to him.
‘Myhelp? Doing what?’
‘How long do you have to keep putting those eye drops in for your mum?’
‘Another two to four weeks? Why?’
‘Well, that’ll take us up to the Manor’s Winter Ball. I wanted to ask if you could take over the organisation of it.’
‘Me?’
‘Yeah, I’m up to my ears in this funding application for the music and arts festival I’m trying to put on next summer. There’s a big events company interested in footing the bill, but they need so much information before they commit. I can’t deal with thatandfinish organising the Ball.’
‘What about Henry?’
‘He’s snowed under with the über boring shit of estate admin and stopping Dad from fucking everything up again. Plus, he’s not exactly Mr Party-Pants.’
‘And Iam?’
‘Duh, doofus! It’s your actualjob. I take it you’re not doing much party planning at the moment for the Côte d’Azur elite?’
Jack shook his head, ice-cold panic running through his veins.
Estelle held up her hands. ‘Well then, win-win. You get to help your best friend out and have something to do other than being at the beck and call of “Victorian Mum”.’
‘Estelle,’ Eveline said. ‘Patricia’s just lost her husband.’
Estelle pulled a face. ‘Soz, Jack.’
How could he get out of this? He didn’t have the first clue how to organise a party. Could he ask Cyrille?
‘I’d love to,’ he began. ‘But I need a quiet space to work and I won’t get that at Mum’s.’
‘You can work here,’ said Eveline, quickly. ‘There are plenty of rooms in the rectory that never get used. And I have wi-fi.’
He stared at her, his brain stuttering to a halt.
‘There we go,’ said Estelle. ‘Problem solved. And Brucie-bonus, you can keep an eye on all the uninvited freeloaders who barge in here without knocking.’
‘Estelle!’ Eveline cried.
‘Oh, come on. It’s fucking rude, and you know it.’
Jack stared at the dark circles under Eveline’s eyes, the sling around her arm. He thought about everything the rectory needed doing to it. Simple jobs that just required someone with time or money to get them done. But could he be around Eveline and resist the magnetic pull between them?
He ignored his own question. ‘Okay.’
Eveline’s cheeks pinked and her mouth opened.
