Page 21 of Christmas off Script
‘Do youneeda bed that size?’ Ella’s face suddenly flushed as she imagined Leo in it with a woman. ‘Sorry, that’s inappropriate. Silly.’ Casting her eyes down, she moved towards the door.
‘I need a big bed because of my sleep disorder.’
There was a thump behind her and she turned to see Leo sprawled in the middle of his bed, rumpling the bedcovers with his arms and legs as if making a snow angel.
‘I also sleep jog.’ He turned on his side, attempting to pump his limbs as if sprinting.
By now the pillows were on the floor, the duvet was twisted around his legs, and the sheets were around his lower arm.
Ella couldn’t help but belly-laugh at how ridiculous he looked.
‘I’m going to trademark “bedercise”,’ he continued, out of breath. ‘Then become an influencer, like Summer. It’s amazing what people will spend money on if you’re as fexy and fandsome as me.’
‘Don’t you want dinner?’
‘Definitely!’ He rolled to the edge of the bed. ‘I’m starv—fuuuck!’ he cried as he failed to disentangle himself from the bedcovers and fell to the floor with a painfully-loud thud.
Ella went to help him, her cheeks hurting from laughing so much. ‘You are such a loon sometimes.’
He grinned at her, his face red and his hair even more dishevelled than earlier. ‘But I cheered you up, didn’t I?’
‘Yes, you did.’ Reaching forward, she smoothed his hair back into place. ‘Now come on, let’s eat.’
5
‘Do you know who’s going to be at dinner?’ Ella asked as she and Leo made their way down the main staircase, his ancestors peering at them from their gilt-framed portraits.
‘Probably just Dad, Mammy, and Willow. Maybe Connor? You can see why Dad’s freaking out. Especially when Henry and Libby, and Estelle and James, have yet to give him any grandchildren.’
Ella smiled. Arthur Foxbrooke may have been a committed naturist who ran infamous sex parties and had two wives, but he loved his family and wanted them around at all times.
The first time Ella had stayed at Foxbrooke Manor, her tummy had been so tied up in knots she’d been unable to eat or speak. Now she was closer to Leo and his siblings than she was to her half-sisters and had got over most of her feelings of social inferiority.
However, when she entered the ornate dining room, the mahogany table lit by candlelight, she froze.
‘Gram-Gram!’ Leo cried. ‘What a delightful surprise!’
Ella’s breath stuttered at the sight of Arthur Foxbrooke’s mother, the Dowager Duchess of Somerset, sitting on her son’s right. Wearing what looked like a vintage Chanel evening dress, and jewellery that screamed ‘you could never afford this, peasant’, Gram-Gram’s spine was straighter than a poker, and her gimlet gaze was harder than diamonds.
Currently, it was fixed on her youngest grandson. ‘Don’t you know the meaning of “dressing for dinner”?’ she asked caustically as Leo bounded towards her like a golden retriever who didn’t know the meaning of fear.
‘I do!’ He gave her a loud kiss on her cheek. ‘And that’s why I’m not naked. You’re looking splendid tonight, Gram-Gram. How’s things?’
‘I mean,denim?’ she continued. ‘And that ridiculous footwear? Do you think you’reAmerican?’
Willow, Connor, and Dervla were already on their feet, creating a protective wall of love and affection between Gram-Gram and Ella, as she gazed in panic at her own jeans and Converse trainers.
‘Ignore her,’ Willow whispered, pulling Ella in for a tight hug. ‘She’s only on her first sherry.’
Dervla put her arms around the two of them. ‘I’m so glad you’re here.’
Leo was now speaking in a terrible American accent to his grandmother. ‘I sure do, Gramma!’
‘Oh, leave him alone, Mater,’ Arthur grumbled to his mother. ‘Don’t scare him away. He’s practically the only one left.’
Connor gave Ella’s arm a squeeze, his expression full of sympathy and understanding.
Ella swallowed her emotion as she realised Leo must have told them about Oliver.
