Page 4 of His Innocent for One Spanish Night

It was, though.

And she felt very lonely with her secret.

Despite being so close to Anna, there were things Emily simply could not reveal, so she gave a tight shrug.

‘I don’t know anything about sherry,’ she admitted. ‘Well, I didn’t. I honestly thought it was an old ladies’ drink. Mum and Nanny always had one at Christmas...’ Emily smiled fondly when she thought back to her childhood. ‘It’s a massive industry over there.’ She gave a shaky laugh.

‘In Jerez?’ Anna checked, pronouncing it as it was spelt and then correcting herself, as Emily had done earlier. ‘Sorry...Hereth!’

Emily laughed. ‘I never thought sherry could be...’ She looked over Willow’s head and mouthed one word.Sexy.

It was Anna who laughed now, perhaps at the thought of sherry being sexy. Or, more likely, at her rather uptight friend who couldn’t even say the word. And not just because they had a four-year-old walking between them.

‘How?’ Anna asked.

‘I don’t know...’ Emily admitted.

She wanted to go to Jerez. She’d read about the rival bodegas, the dancing ponies and flamenco dancers, and it fascinated her.

It had been a lovely day, and all too soon Willow was in her pyjamas and pleading for Emily to read her a story.

‘Of course,’ Emily said, heaving herself up from the sofa.

‘Emily’s got a lot of phone calls to make,’ Anna said, and then added. ‘Youareallowed to say no.’

‘In this case, I don’t want to.’

Willow chose the book—it was a motivational one, telling little girls to dream big.

‘I could be a dragon when I grow up,’ Willow said as she lay back on the pillow. ‘And blow fire...’

‘You’d be a wonderful dragon,’ Emily agreed.

But then Willow shook her head at the idea. ‘I’d melt the ice, though, and then I couldn’t skate.’

‘True.’

‘I think I’ll be a princess and an explorer,’ Willow said, thinking out loud, ‘and maybe I can be a unicorn at the weekends.’

‘That sounds brilliant!’ Emily smiled, and was about to offer another story, but an afternoon of playing in the snow meant Willow was already half asleep.

‘You look pretty when you smile,’ Willow said, ‘though you don’t smile very much.’

‘I know...’ Emily nodded. ‘I think I was born with a serious face.’

That made Willow laugh, but then she had a question. ‘What will you be, Em?’

‘What do you mean, what will I be?’

‘When you grow up?’

A Victorian spinster, Emily thought, though of course she didn’t say that.

‘I’m twenty-six,’ Emily settled for saying. ‘That’s pretty grown up.’

‘Not for unicorns.’

Having wished her goodnight, Emily gently closed the door. She could hear Anna, busy in the kitchen, but instead of heading straight down Emily sat on the stairs, grateful again for a moment of peace amongst friends.

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