Bad Brides by Rebecca Chance

Author:Rebecca Chance [Chance, Rebecca]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
ISBN: 9781471101731
Publisher: Simon & Schuster UK
Published: 2014-03-27T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter Fourteen

There was no way Brianna Jade was ready to greet Princess Sophie and her small entourage of friends when she arrived. But mercifully for Brianna Jade, Tamra had already decided that lining up everyone to meet the princess would look over-needy and self-conscious. Instead, she and Lady Margaret were sitting by the fire in the Great Hall, drinking cocktails and listening to the pianist play a witty medley of the latest R&B hits arranged into easy-listening lounge music versions when Sophie, her friends Lady Araminta Farquhar-Featherstonehaugh – known as Minty – and Dominic de Rohan, Edmund’s best man, swept in, followed by Sophie’s two protection officers. The new arrivals promptly stopped dead and oohed and aahed at the amazing transformation Tamra had effected at Stanclere. The candles flickered in their silver branches, their golden light reflected in the huge mirror over the fireplace, and in others carefully positioned around the walls, even managing to pick out interesting details in the enormous and rather boring tapestry of a hunt that hung opposite the fireplace. Behind Tamra and Lady Margaret, as they rose to their feet, the fire itself crackled in welcome, and the pianist, on strict instructions, only rose for a second in protocol before reseating himself and continuing to play the lounge arrangement of Rihanna’s ‘Umbrella’.

‘You should totally come and redecorate Buck House!’ Sophie said to Tamra, kissing her on either cheek. ‘My God, it looks simply fabulous! What does old Ed think of it?’

‘Old Ed? Good Lord, Sophie, he’s only thirty-four,’ Lady Margaret said indulgently to her adorably pretty goddaughter.

‘He always seems so much older to me!’ Sophie, in her mid-twenties, said irrepressibly. ‘Awfully mature. Oh, hi, Ed!’

‘Hi, Soph,’ Edmund said, grinning at her as he came lightly down the stairs. ‘I left my cane down here – do let me know if you happen to see it, or my false teeth. I’m getting so senile, I took them out and can’t remember for the life of me where I put them.’

A maid appeared carrying a silver tray of frosted whisky sours and lemon drops: Sophie, Minty and Dominic took off their coats, handed them to a waiting footman – a real one, not a protection officer in disguise – and fell on the drinks with gusto.

‘God, this is bliss!’ Sophie said, toasting Tamra. ‘I can see you’re going to spoil us rotten. We obviously need way more Americans coming over here and smartening us up! Honestly, if I weren’t so keen on Chloe I’d be telling Hugo to divorce her pronto and snap up Brianna Jade instead.’

This was clearly so kindly meant that even Lady Margaret, who knew perfectly well how vile Sophie had been to her sister-in-law before the wedding, smiled at Sophie as Edmund greeted Dominic, an old schoolfriend of his, with a hearty man-hug and a slap on the back.

‘Congrats,’ Dom muttered to his host, his eyes never leaving Tamra’s glossy golden figure. ‘My God, I can’t wait to start charming your ma-in-law into bed.

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