Friend of the Family by Tasmina Perry

Author:Tasmina Perry [Perry, Tasmina]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781472208583
Publisher: Headline
Published: 2018-08-09T04:00:00+00:00

Chapter 20

David looked at his watch, carefully concealing the gesture below the table. Ten thirty: God. The night was passing them by. For all his ambivalence about the ball, now that he was here, David was itching to get out there and have fun. Instead he was stuck here eating poached salmon and drinking warm white wine in some terrible parody of a restaurant. ‘Dining’ they called it, selling it as a VIP ticket for the ball, but despite the floral centrepiece and the candelabra, there was no disguising the low-rent wedding vibe. Or the dull conversation.

‘You with us, darling?’

David looked up at Annabel and gave her a weak smile. ‘Sorry, miles away.’

Annabel raised an eyebrow. ‘I can see that, David,’ she said under her breath, then, more loudly: ‘Bruce was just asking about your father’s yacht.’

‘Hardly a yacht,’ said David. ‘One of those wooden things, a Devon yawl, two little sails, or is it three? Very big on the purity of being one with the winds and the tides, my father. He’s always banging on about how boats should be sailed, not moored.’

‘Quite right,’ said Bruce, fiddling with his cufflinks. ‘Will you be at Cowes this year?’

David could already feel himself drifting off, but forced himself to concentrate. He and Annabel had already had one hissed argument by the bar, and he didn’t think he could muster the energy for another, not tonight.

‘Doubt it,’ he said. ‘In fact, I rather hope not. I’m starting at Harvey and Keyne next month, so I’m hoping to be in the thick of it by then.’

‘H and K, huh?’ said Bruce appreciatively. ‘Well, don’t blame you. Imagine you’ll be up with the Tokyo markets and whatnot, hmm?’

‘Yes, that’s the plan.’

David looked over at Annabel and was rewarded with a wide smile. Clearly the correct answer. Daddy would approve. He stole a glance past her shoulder towards the door of the marquee. In the early dark, illuminated by the red and green stage lights, he could see people weaving about, laughing, shouting, shuffling side to side in awkward dance moves.

‘Office is off Cheapside, isn’t it?’ said Camilla, Bruce’s slightly frumpy girlfriend. ‘I’m starting at PNH across the road in September. We should meet for lunch. Have you got somewhere to live in London yet? I hear it’s frightfully expensive in the centre now.’

David was about to reply when Annabel leaned in and squeezed his hand.

‘We have a flat on Cadogan Square. My brother has the ground floor, but he’s in Hong Kong most of the time.’

David looked at her in surprise. This was the first he’d heard of a flat. Or rather, he was aware that Annabel’s father owned half a dozen desirable places dotted about Mayfair, Chelsea and St John’s Wood, but they had never even discussed moving in together, let alone pinpointed a specific place.

‘Lovely,’ said Camilla with undisguised envy. ‘I’d die to be in Chelsea. Bruce and I have been looking at Fulham, haven’t we, darling? Until he gets all that pupillage stuff out of the way.

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