Page 1 of Dancing with a Ghost

Chapter One

Toby

Wherethehellwerethose papers? The Cartwrights were due any minute and all the notes I’d made for their upcoming wedding were nowhere to be seen. Honestly, I’d lose my head some days if it wasn’t screwed on, and days like today, when an important client was coming in, I did not need this!

They were with me at breakfast. I’d sat at my desk making some last-minute notes on flower colours, but where they’d disappeared to after that, I did not know.

I’d have to call my assistant, Milton, to see if he’d had them, but he rarely touched my notes, knowing how fastidious I was about my work.

Yes, I knew I should have used the iPad, but I just wasn’t tech savvy, preferring a fountain pen and good quality writing paper to the ‘cloud’ or whatever OneDrive was. With paper, I could touch and feel it. Call me old-fashioned, but it was what I preferred.

I stood abruptly; the chair scraping noisily on the stone floor. I had fifteen minutes before they arrived and if I didn’t find them soon, Mother would be furious.

“No, no, this can’t be happening,” I muttered under my breath. “Today of all days. Mother will kill me.”

I walked around the desk, grabbing a pile of papers from the top of the filing cabinet. Did I put them on here? I could have sworn they were in my portfolio case, but that was on my desk, empty. Not even my notepad was in there, which was strange.

I continued to mutter, sorting through page after page of handwritten notes, not finding what I was looking for. I really should find a better system.

Hearing the door open, I turned quickly, seeing no one there.

“Milton? Is that you?” I turned back to my searching, waiting for a response. Getting none, I called out again. “Milton, have you seen the notes for the Cartwright wedding? I can’t find the fucking things anywhere. I had them this morning.”

Still no answer. What the hell was he doing?

“If you’ve seen them, Milton. I need them now.” I said, my temper rising, losing my patience both with him and myself. Mother would be going on at me again ‘use the technology, darling. It’s really not that hard to do’. I was sick of hearing it.

A sudden gust of wind blew the papers right out of my hand and onto the floor.

“And shut the damn door!”

I whirled around, almost losing my balance, not seeing him anywhere in the room. That was odd. Who’d opened the door? And now I thought about it. Where had the draft come from? There were no windows open, and we were right at the end of the east wing. Nowhere near any external doors.

A faint smell of vanilla and tobacco filled the air. I’d been smelling it a lot lately and wondered where it was coming from. It made me think of sweet things and cakes and I was a fan of the cakes. My waistline was proof of that.

Bending to pick up the papers that had blown on the floor, I spied a flutter of green just beneath the side table by the window. Were those my notes? I crawled toward the table, fishing them out from underneath. Yes, these were they, but how in God’s name had they got there?

I sat back on my heels, clutching the papers to my chest. Thank goodness for that. I kissed them for good luck and stood up, walking back to my desk before sitting in my leather swivel chair.

“I’ll just tuck these back in here.” I said, talking to myself. “Mother will never know.”

“Never know what, darling?” She would choose that moment to walk in.

“Nothing, Mother. Nothing at all.” I smiled sweetly at her, hoping she didn’t push further.

“Do you have everything? Jeremy will be here soon with the pretty young thing he intends to marry. Perhaps one bridesmaid will be single? I want you there all day in your capacity as Event Planner. Try to make an impression, Toby. We really need the business.”

And there it was. She’d tried to marry me off to a bridesmaid at the last four weddings we’d hosted here, and every time I’d told her I wasn’t interested. I know I should probably tell her I was gay, but I’d hidden it for this long. I wasn’t about to rock the boat now, not after the scandal surrounding my sister Georgie.

It was a scandal by their standards, but by everyone else’s, it was just an affair. Okay, so it wasn’tjustan affair. My sister had fallen for and eventually married a minor member of Parliament. Admittedly, he was still married when they met, but for the past four years, he and my sister had been happily married, and now baby number two was on the way.

So, all my parents’ hopes and dreams were on me. They wanted me to marry into a good Cheshire family. Good breeding stock, as they would have called it many years ago.

I didn’t want to upset them, but while I was happy to marry into an excellent family, neither of us was going to be ‘good breeding stock’. Well, not in the way they were thinking, anyway.

“Come along, Toby. We don’t want to keep them waiting.” She swept out of the room with her usual flair, leaving me to trail behind her, hurrying to keep up. The woman set a brutal pace, and all that wearing four-inch heels.

She was immaculately dressed every day, even on weekends, always wearing a suit, her sleek black hair cut into a short bob. I knew she got up at the crack of dawn each morning to ensure her makeup was on point. My dad, on the other hand, worked in the gardens, wearing jeans and wellies every day. They were the complete opposite, chalk and cheese.

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