Every Woman for Herself by Trisha Ashley

Author:Trisha Ashley [Ashley, Trisha]
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Tags: Romance, General, Fiction
ISBN: 9781847562821
Google: TNtTAgAAQBAJ
Amazon: 1847562825
Publisher: HarperCollins UK
Published: 2014-05-07T23:00:00+00:00

Chapter 17: Surprised

Skint Old Fashion Victim, No. 2

Leopardskin prints and gold accessories complement each other perfectly.

The girls were hanging over the banisters in their pyjamas when I went up to the drawing-room floor.

‘You look like a flower fairy,’ Feeb said. ‘If there are green ones?’ she added doubtfully.

‘You’re very pretty,’ Clo agreed. ‘Mummy said you looked like a little ghoul in those baggy black things you used to wear.’

‘My daddy says she looks like an abandoned nymph,’ Caitlin said. ‘Is that good?’

I thought it was … so long as she didn’t get it wrong, and what he really said was ‘abandoned nympho’.

‘Em’s got a pretty dress too,’ Feeb said. ‘The vicar walked into the door-post when he saw her. Even Anne’s got her best denim shirt and trousers on!’

‘We like to push the boat out at Rhymer Birthday Feasts.’

‘Bran had his tea with us – he ate all the biscuits, but he let me hold Mr Froggy,’ Caitlin said importantly. ‘He says he hasn’t time for birthday dinners, he has to finish his book before anyone else gets in his head and interrupts.’

‘And Walter was there, too,’ Feeb said. ‘We had our own party!’

‘Why has Walter got no eyebrows?’ asked Caitlin.

‘It was the war – Gloria says he was a very sensitive young man and he found it so traumatic that his hair just fell out and never came back,’ I explained. My neck began to ache from tilting back to look up at them, so I was quite relieved when Gloria popped her head out of the drawing room and beckoned.

She was holding a tray of sherry glasses. (That’s how the Birthday Feast always begins – sherry and birthday cake first, then dinner.) ‘Take that glass nearest you,’ she instructed, ‘and go and give it to Em while she’s talking to the vicar.’

‘Right. Will it …?’

‘Just open her eyes to his good qualities.’

‘I can see most of those myself, even from here. And wasn’t it his goodness that was the stumbling block?’

‘Love will find a way,’ she said. ‘Better him than that actor – for either of my little chickens.’

‘I don’t know what you’ve got against Mace. What did you see in the tea leaves, Gloria?’

‘Trouble,’ she said heavily. ‘And that Mace – his first wife drove into a tree and killed herself.’

‘Did she? How awful! But you can’t blame him for that, can you? Poor Mace!’ No wonder the poor man was bad-tempered.

‘Surprise! magazine said she lost control of the car after a row with him,’ Gloria said. ‘After she found out about the other woman.’

I looked at her. ‘But how did she find out about the other woman?’

‘From the Surprise! “Stolen Secrets” column – though they can’t name names.’

‘I wondered what Mace had against women’s magazines, and now I know. Was it true, about this other woman?’

‘There’s no smoke without fire, and that one’s still burning,’ Gloria said cryptically. ‘Look at him!’

I turned; Jessica had cornered him, and he was standing, arms folded, glowering down at her. Tyger, tyger …

Then he caught sight of me, raised one eyebrow and smiled.

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