The Women of Primrose Square by Claudia Carroll

Author:Claudia Carroll
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Publisher: Bonnier Publishing Fiction

Violet

She spotted him almost the minute he came into the room.

Back then, it was hard to miss Andy McKim. He was tall and pale and so terribly good-looking. He also looked slightly out of place; all of the other gentlemen, Jayne’s husband Tom included, were wearing suits. Neat, respectful, sober jackets with ties. It was that sort of party – make no mistake, this was strictly a formal occasion, heightened by the presence of bow-tied waiters who were hovering around discreetly topping up champagne glasses, while a small army of caterers served canapés to guests from heavy silver platters. All of Freddie Hardcastle’s friends and business associates had turned out in force for such a fancy ‘do’; there was even a chief justice present.

If Violet was being truthful, it was all a tad intimidating too.

In the middle of all this, Andy drifted in looking like a beatnik, dressed head to toe in black, with a slightly scruffy turtle-neck jumper and black leather boots with Cuban heels that were all the rage, smoking a cigarette. Every eye in the room seemed to gravitate his way – Violet’s included. Two thoughts struck her. How much this stranger resembled Richard Burton, and how utterly out of his depth he looked.

Suddenly, she found herself looking at her own party from an outsider’s point of view. How stiff it all must have seemed, with her playing piano concertos and with half the guest list on the wrong side of fifty.

This is not a fun scene, she thought. Even she had to admit that not a single guest seemed to be enjoying themselves. She’d even overheard two of her close friends from school planning to slip away to a nightclub in town when the coast was clear.

Violet would dearly love to have slipped off with them to dance and have fun – exactly the memorable birthday celebration she wanted. But she knew it was out of the question. Her father expected her to be hostess for the night, so if that meant playing Mendelssohn concertos and making small talk with boring judges and lawyers and politicians, then that was the price she had to pay.

Jayne had arrived with Andy, of course, as well as her husband Tom, and the minute they arrived, Jayne bounced over to do the introductions. Jayne, it had to be said, was looking pretty wonderful herself in a copy of a scarlet red minidress that Twiggy had once worn, which she’d run up on her Singer sewing machine. Jayne was creative about saving money like that and was a dab hand at replicating outfits she’d seen in fashion magazines with her own needle and thread. So unlike Violet, who just bought everything from Switzer’s and charged it to her father’s account without a second thought.

Ordinarily, Violet couldn’t help feeling just a little smug beside Jayne, knowing how much more expensive and shop-bought her own wardrobe was compared with her friend. Not tonight though; on this of all nights, even Violet grudgingly had

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